This article, originally titled "On the Road," is from the Fall 2025 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and ...

Wolfgang Czaia, the Whidbey Island test pilot for the Paine Field-based Me-262 Project, had the rare opportunity to fly the first authentic reproduction of the famous World War II German jet fighter.

While it wasn't the first jet-engined aircraft that flew, the ME-262 was the first operational jet-fighter. So many technical and political troubles struck its development that it began its career as ...

With a top speed of 540 mph, Germany's Messerschmitt Me 262 was by far the fastest fighter of World War II. It was powered by jet engines, a new technology that was not always reliable. Still, the ...

Known as the Sturmvogel “Storm Bird” or Schwalbe “Swallow”, the German Messerschmitt Me 262 revolutionized warfare aviation and wreaked havoc on morale among the Allies during World War II. The very ...

Explore the most technologically advanced plane of WWII, the Messerschmitt Me262 jet. Explore the most technologically advanced plane of World War II, the Messerschmitt Me262, a fighter jet that ...

Here’s What You Need to Know: Like its big brother the Me-262, the Kikka was too little, too late. It is a fallacy that Germany was the only nation to develop combat jets in World War II. In truth, ...

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Pilots nicknamed early-model P-47 Thunderbolts the “Razorback,” a reference to the chunky fighter plane’s angular canopy. However, the name was more generally appropriate—like a wild boar, the hulking ...