Endless incredible aircraft at the National Museum of the United States Air Force – CNET

The legendary, or perhaps infamous, Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero was one of the most important aircraft of World War II. Japan built more 10,000 of them. This example was found in Papua New Guinea in 2004. 

This odd-looking aircraft is a Curtiss AT-9 Fledgling. Also commonly known as a Jeep, it was a difficult-to-fly twin-engine trainer used during World War II. This is the only surviving intact example.

I think there’s something especially epic about aircraft with huge radial engines. This is a Bristol Beaufighter, used as a night fighter during World War II. This particular example first flew in 1942.

This is one of just a handful of B-24 Liberators that survive to this day. The museum’s plane flew combat missions in North Africa in 1943 and 1944.

On the right is an even rarer Macchi MC.200 Saetta, an Italian fighter-bomber that first flew in the 1930s. It was fairly rugged, with some decent flight characteristics, but was largely outclassed by the start of World War II.

Easily one of the best fighter aircraft of the Second World War, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190D terrorized the skies over Europe. The museum’s example was captured and used for flight testing in the US toward the end of the war.

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was Germany’s other main fighter aircraft of World War II. Initially it flew as an advanced interceptor, but later models were used as fighter-bombers and air superiority fighters, on reconnaissance and more. 

One of the many weird experimental aircraft built by Germany near the end of the war, the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet had incredible intercept speed but limited range and flight time. 

The museum’s example was likely sabotaged in production by one or more of the forced laborers building it.

The Martin B-26G Marauder was a medium bomber used throughout World War II. It had the lowest loss rate of any Allied bomber.

The De Havilland DH 98 Mosquito was an incredible aircraft. Made mostly of plywood, it was extremely fast with impressive range. The museum’s example was built right after World War II, and flew under its own power to Dayton in 1985. 

I’ve also toured the De Havilland museum outside London to get a closer look at that company’s other remarkable aircraft.

The Junkers Ju 88 was a versatile aircraft used by the Luftwaffe in World War II as a dive bomber, night fighter, interceptor and more. The pilot of this example defected to British forces in Cyprus from his home base in Romania.

The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the world’s first operational jet fighter. It offered incredible performance, but only 300 ever saw combat. By the time it was ready at the end of World War II, Germany lacked the infrastructure and pilots for the 262 to be a real threat.

The stacked cockpit, twin-tail P-61 Black Widow is one of the odder Allied designs of the war. It was the US’ first purpose-built night fighter. The pilot sat in the lower forward cockpit, the gunner sat above and behind. The radar operator sat in the rear in his own section.

It’s an inside joke of mine, funny to literally only me, but I have to take a picture if a museum has a PBY Catalina. It’s easily my favorite aircraft of the World War II era. 

The museum’s Catalina was flown by the Brazilian Air Force until 1981. Not bad for an aircraft built in the early 1940s.

Nearby is a replica of the 10,000-pound Fat Man atomic bomb.

Pilots and crew nicknamed the C-124 “Old Shakey” due to (I’m sure) its robust and rigid fuselage.

The double-decked cargo hold could carry tanks, jeeps and up to 200 soldiers.

This plane doesn’t look real. It’s like someone took two P-51 Mustangs and welded them together. Technically, that’s more or less what manufacturer North American did. This is the F-82 Twin Mustang, which saw service in the Korean War. It was the last piston-engined fighter built for the US Air Force and bridged the gap between World War II aircraft and the Jet Age.

Much as the F-82 bridged the gap between World War II and the Jet Age for fighters, the B-50 did a similar thing for bombers. Largely an updated and upgraded B-29, the B-50 was the last propeller-driven bomber for the Air Force. They were replaced in 1954 by the jet-powered B-47.

Not very well known, the B-58 Hustler was a pretty remarkable aircraft. It was the Air Force’s first operational supersonic bomber. (Yep, a bomber capable of Mach 2.) It first flew in 1956, only nine years after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a rocket-propelled experimental aircraft.

Ten years after it entered service, the B-58 was already obsolete and retired from use. This particular aircraft broke three speed records between New York and Los Angeles.

The B-47, or in this case, the RB-47H Stratojet was an early Cold War medium bomber, replacing B-29s and B-50s. It carried the same bomb load, but was 50% faster. This aircraft was the reconnaissance variant. In its 11-year service it flew missions over the Soviet Union from bases in Turkey and Japan.

Sikorsky HH-3Es were CH-3 transport helicopters modified with defensive armament, self-sealing fuel tanks and armor plating. They were used for combat search and rescue missions in Vietnam and up until Desert Storm in the early 1990s. 

On the left, this CH-3E amphibious transport helicopter flew classified special missions during the Vietnam War. On the right, the extremely versatile Douglas B-26K is a modified version of a World War II-era A-26. These saw combat service not just in that war, but in Korea and Vietnam as well. Above is the iconic triple tail of a Lockheed Constellation.

The legendary SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest military aircraft ever. Top speed was over Mach 3, or more than 2,000 mph.

The museum’s aircraft was the first to fly an operational sortie, followed by 941 more, the most of any SR-71.

Even 40 years on, the MiG-29 is a gorgeous aircraft. Originally designed as a counter to American F-15s and F-16s, it’s now more of a multirole combat aircraft and is still in production. This early A-variant was stationed near Moscow. 

This Panavia Tornado was flown by the RAF during Operation Desert Storm, or Operation Granby as they called it, in 1991. The Tornado was a joint effort among the United Kingdom, Italy and West Germany starting in the late 1960s. 

The first operational stealth aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk, had a radar profile a fraction of the size of a comparable aircraft. The museum’s aircraft was the second Nighthawk built and was used for testing.

This is the only B-2 Spirit bomber on display anywhere. Technically it wasn’t a full B-2 since it never had engines or electronics. It was used for structure and fatigue testing. 

Still, seeing one of these in person is quite a thrill given how rare they are and alien they look. It’s arguably the most sci-fi looking aircraft still in service.

Moving forward in time, or at least to the modern era, this is one of nine F-22 Raptors built for engineering and other testing. The F-22 is the Air Force’s next-gen air superiority fighter. Nearly 200 are already in service.

A collection of ICBMs and other launch vehicles brings us to the final hangar, which has some of the rarest air and space craft.

This weird looking aircraft is the Chance-Vought/LTV XC-142A. It was an early experiment into vertical/short takeoff and landing, or VSTOL, transports. The tiltwing aircraft never made it to production, but it certainly foretold the tiltrotor V-22 Osprey that would come 25 years later.

In the 1980s and ’90s the Air Force ran the Advanced Tactical Fighter program to find its next-generation fighter. The F-22 eventually won, but it’s hard to argue that the Northrop-McDonnell Douglas YF-23 wasn’t a gorgeous aircraft. Only two were made. I got a closer look at the other one at the Western Museum of Flight in California.

In the mid 1950s the Air Force experimented with launching interceptors vertically. They’d theoretically land this way as well, negating the need for long, easily-targetable runways. This Ryan X-13 Vertijet launched from a mobile launch trailer, transitioning to normal horizontal flight before landing vertically. The program was canceled due to the aircraft’s limited range and payload and the improvement of ground-to-air missiles.

Stealth designs didn’t end with the F-117. Northrop’s Tacit Blue was an experimental aircraft used during the early 1980s to test curved surfaces and reduced heat signature. It was also exceptionally weird looking. You can see aspects of its design in Northrop’s later B-2 Spirit.

The Bell Textron XV-3 was the world’s first successful tiltrotor aircraft. It was ahead of its time. Testing ended in 1965, and Bell’s V-22 Osprey wouldn’t fly until 1989. The flying saucer next to it is an Avro Canada VZ-9AV Avrocar from the early 1950s. A scale model for a supersonic aircraft that could hover, it was dangerously unstable.

I had a toy of this as a kid. Using parts from F-5s and F-16s, Grumman designed the X-29 to test forward-swept wing performance. It was also a testbed for carbon fiber construction, canards (the small forward wings), computer-assisted flight controls and more. The theoretical performance possible with the wing design was never realized, and the project was canceled.

The Air Force and Navy wanted an aircraft with the speed of a jet, but the better range and shorter takeoff/lower landing speed of an aircraft with a propeller. This is the monstrosity Republic created, the XF-84H Thunderscreech. 

It’s the loudest aircraft ever made. The propeller spun faster than the speed of sound, causing deafening noise and a shockwave powerful enough to knock someone over. One test pilot was reported to have said “You aren’t big enough and there aren’t enough of you to get me in that thing again.” The YouTube channel Real Engineering has an excellent video about this bizarre aircraft.

I pride myself on my aircraft knowledge, but I have to admit I’d never heard of this Fisher P-75A Eagle. Designed as an interceptor in the early days of World War II, it had several uncommon features like an engine mounted amidships, contra-rotating propellers and a variety of parts and panels from other aircraft to save money. It wasn’t particularly good, however, and the project was canceled with only 14 built. This is the only survivor.

In a museum of incredible and rare aircraft, this might be the rarest and the most incredible. Born from the bonkers early Cold War race for faster and more capable aircraft, the XB-70 Valkyrie is an enormous, six-engine, Mach 3 bomber. It might have been the ultimate high-speed, high-altitude attack aircraft. Think of it as an armed SR-71 Blackbird. 

As ICBMs became cheaper and more capable, the need for an ultra-high-speed bomber waned. Two Valkyries were built before the program was canceled, and those were only used for testing. This is the only surviving example, after the other prototype had a tragic midair collision. 

The diminutive and unassuming Convair XF-92A was the first jet aircraft with a delta wing, similar to the XB-70 that looms over it.

The X-3 Stiletto was a radical design to test Mach 2 performance of tiny wings and a dart-like shape. It influenced aircraft like the F-104 Starfighter.

The rocket-powered X-15 is still the fastest manned aircraft ever built. It let the Air Force and NASA test the limits of machine and man. One X-15 pilot, Neil Armstrong, went on to become the first human to step on the moon. This is the X-15A-2, the second built and the fastest. Its top speed was Mach 6.7, or about 4,250 mph.

The first aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight was the Bell X-1. That aircraft is in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. This, the third X-1, studied aerodynamic heating at high speeds. It also was the first aircraft to use reaction rockets for directional control. This technology was later used on the X-15.

The Martin X-24A (middle) and X-24B (foreground) were experimental aircraft designed to study if an aircraft’s fuselage could generate lift on its own. This “lifting body” design was considered for the space shuttle orbiter.