Table of Contents—Aviation History March 2015

FEATURES

Luftwaffe’s Last Blow!
By Don Hollway
Seventy years ago, Germany launched Operation Bodenplatte, a last-ditch, all-out effort against Allied airfields.

The Miraculous Mosquito
By Stephan Wilkinson
Britain’s “Wooden Wonder” became the world’s most successful multirole combat aircraft.

The Iron Eagle’s Last Flight
By Michael Loftus Langdon
Colonel Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Nazi Germany’s most decorated soldier, ended his war with a defiant surrender flight.

‘Daughter of the Skies’
By Michael D. Hull
New Zealand’s glamorous Jean Batten blazed a long-distance trail across the skies in the 1930s.

Winged Warhorse
By Robert Guttman
Though far from pretty, the Breguet 14 is remembered as one of the best all-around aircraft of World War I.

Cold War Airpower Laboratory
By Eileen A. Bjorkman
Today’s expeditionary forces learned their trade beginning in 1955, with the Nineteenth Air Force.

ONLINE EXTRAS

Discussion:

The commercial aerospace industry suffered two serious setbacks in October (see Letter From Aviation History). Should the United States rely on private firms to do the lion’s share of heavy lifting into earth orbit, helping free NASA to conduct aerospace research and space exploration missions?