B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

The B-2 Spirit is the world's only stealth bomber, with an extraordinary shape driven by its mission, and a price tag which makes it literally worth its weight in gold.

The B-2 might look futuristic, but the basic design isn't new at all, the same manufacturer Northrop did two very similar designs just after World War Two, the propeller-driven XB-35 and the jet-driven YB-49.   With no vertical tail it looks completely other-worldly, but the B-2 actually flies much like any other more conventional aircraft.   This one is called "The Spirit of New York", and is based at Edwards Air Force Base rather than atWhiteman AFB in Missouri, which is the only operational base for them in the United States.   You can see that they've put the Edwards "ED" tail code on the landing gear door, since there's no tail to put it on!   What's less obvious is that the lettering on the undercarriage doors was done incorrectly and so the letters lean the opposite way to all other B-2s.

Each B-2 costs somewhere between $2.2 and $2.4 billion apiece, making it by far the most expensive plane in the world.   This price tag is primarily due to the small number built, only 21 rather than the 132 which were originally requested.   The empty plane weighs 158,000 pounds, and with gold currently at about $1000 an ounce, this makes each plane worth the same weight of gold.

Flying wings like the B-2 are very efficient aerodynamically, with much less drag than ordinary aircraft.   This gives the plane greater range, but it also makes it reluctant to come down, so the crews land the plane with a distinct downward trajectory, much like naval aviators flying onto aircraft carriers.   There's no drag chute, so to reduce the landing run the two rudders on each wing are deflected in opposite directions to act as air brakes.   In this photograph you can see this, and also the covers which open up to allow air to flow into auxiliary inlets for the jet engine, a necessity when the plane is moving slowly during takeoff or landing.

Sukhoi Su-27SMK "Flanker" (World Fighter Aircraft Collection)

The Sukhoi Su-27 is one Russian response to the F-15 Eagle, which was itself an American response to the MiG-25 "Foxbat".

All Russian military aircraft were assigned a reporting name by the western military alliance NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and fighters were given names starting with the letter "F".   In the case of the Su-27, the reporting name was "Flanker".

Like the F-15, the Flanker has twin tails and two engines, but that's about where the external similarities end.   The Eagle is square and boxy, but the Flanker is curved and as elegant as a greyhound.   It's therefore very appropriate that it's the aircraft used by Russia's premier jet display team, the Russian Knights.

Sukhoi have developed many models of the Su-27, this one is an Su-27SMK which was displaying at the 2005 MAKS airshow at Zhukovsky airfield outside Moscow.

F-15 ACTIVE Test Plane (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

The F-15 ACTIVE is a modified version of the first F-15 Eagle fighter which was ever delivered.   It's on loan to NASA from the USAF for use as a testbed for advanced aircraft technologies like canards and vectored thrust.

It was hoped that these features would result in aircraft which could take off in shorter distances and therefore operate from air bases in Europe or elsewhere which had been damaged by enemy action.   The new technologies were certainly successfully, allowing the F-15 ACTIVE and its earlier incarnation the F-15 S/MTD to take off at speeds as low as 42 mph, and to land in only 1650 feet, compared to the 7500 feet of a conventional F-15.   The vectored thrust feature was used on the F-22 Raptor, butAmerican military aircraft designers decided not to use canards, leaving those for European fighter aircraft like the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and Saab Gripen.

F-4D Phantom II (World Fighter Aircraft Collection)

The F-4 Phantom II has a loyal following of "Phantom Phanatics" who consider it the greatest American fighter of the Vietnam war.

This is the Collings Foundation F-4D "Triple Nickel", the only civilian-operated Phantom II in the world.

The F-4 exceled not only as an air-to-air fighter, but also as a ground attack platform and in the reconnaisance role.   It's also one of a tiny number of aircraft which have operated equally effectively with the air force and the navy.   It was so successful that it remained in production from 1958 to 1981 and over 5000 aircraft were built.   It operated with numerous foreign air forces including Australia, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom; Germany, Greece and Turkey are still using them.   The United States flew it in the Wild Weasel role in the first Gulf War and numerous QF-4s still operate in the United States as high-performance target drones.

Grumman J2F Duck (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

The Grumman J2F Duck is an American amphibious biplane from World War Two.

The war in the Pacific developed into an island-hopping campaign, with forces moving quickly from one group of islands to the next.   Often there were no airfields available, so amphibious aircraft played an important part in these operations, performing reconnaisance and rescued shipwrecked sailors and downed aviators.   Many of these amphibians wereflying boats like the Catalina, but there were also several float planes like the Duck which performed shorter-range missions.   Since it had a retractable undercarriage, it could land and take off from regular runways, and there was even a tailhook to allow it to operate from aircraft carriers.

Although it only had a single engine, the Duck had a lot of space inside to house its three-man crew of pilot, observer and radio operator.   There was also space within the fuselage for a stretcher patient or two seated passengers.   As well as watching for enemy forces, the observer also operated a single machine gun for defense, and bombs or depth chargescould be carried to allow attacks to be mounted against shipping or submarines.