The B-52 Stratofortress

Few things in nature are as instantly recognizable as a rainbow. For thousands of years, rainbows have inspired myths, religion, art, and science. Yet behind those bands of color is an extraordinary interaction between sunlight, water, geometry, and the physics of light itself. F ...  Show more

In the late 1950s, the United States found itself trailing in the Space Race as the Soviet Union achieved one milestone after another. In response, NASA launched Project Mercury, an ambitious effort to put an American into space using little more than experimental rockets, crampe ...  Show more

One of the lowest points of World War 2 for the Allies was autumn 1943, when bombing runs from England to Germany were ramping up. Hundreds of B-17s flew out to strike military targets, but they flew unescorted due to being the only planes with enough range (fighters could only m ...  Show more

60 years ago, a B-52 carrying two nuclear weapons crashed in North Carolina. 

In 1944, Nazi Germany launched the V1s against the UK. The V1 was a pilotless, jet-propelled flying bomb - the first of its kind in the world and a precursor to the modern cruise missile. The V1 was also the first of Hitler's secret "revenge weapons" which he hoped would change t ...  Show more

The F-35 Lightning II, a trillion-dollar, highly capable 5th generation fighter, has been described by the U.S. Air For ...