With their steely nerves and cool demeanor, fighter pilots seem born to fly. Yet even the toughest human beings are unequipped to survive, much less thrive, in combat airplanes. Soaring at up to ...

The 332nd Fighter Group, better known as the Tuskegee Airmen, made history in 1949 as winners of the first Top Gun contest, a gunnery competition that drew top pilots from across the Air Force.

In Memoirs of a Cold War Fighter Pilot, Steve Ladd, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, writes about his experience flying two stone-cold classics: the F-4 Phantom and the A-10 Warthog.

The first line of defense was warm clothing. Pilots and bomber crews were bundled up in thick, sheep shearling clothing as well as fur-collared leather flight jackets like the G-1, B-3 and B-10 ...

Pilots and bomber crews were bundled up in thick, sheep shearling clothing as well as fur-collared leather flight jackets like the G-1, B-3 and B-10 when they set off into the blue.