There are 40 airplanes from 1980 to 1989 in the Military Factory.
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Aerospatiale / Eurocopter SA 332 Super Puma / AS 532 Cougar The Aerospatiale Super Puma series was derived from the successful Eurocopter/Aerospatiale Puma series but featured an extended cabin and new powerplants. The Super Puma, coming under the Eurocopter label as of 1992, went on ...
AIDC AT-3 Tzu-Chiang The AIDC AT-3 series of advanced weapons trainer aircraft was the second design produced by the Aero Industry Development Center of Taiwan (in conjunction with the American firm of Northrop), succeeding the Chung Tsing T-28 T...
Airbus A310 The Airbus A310-300 was produced as a budgeted alternative to the based A300-series (detailed elsewhere on this web site) at a time when Airbus was still awaiting official order placement from potential customers. This interi...
Antonov An-124 Ruslan (Condor) The Antonov-produced AN-124 was the world's largest aircraft before the Russian AN-225 made it's debut, but it remained the largest to go into production nonetheless. The AN-124 was developed foremost as a military transport ...
Antonov An-225 Mriya (Cossack) As of this writing, the Antonov An-225 "Mriya" maintains the title of "largest aircraft ever built". The system eclipsed the previous Antonov design attempt in the form of the An-124 Ruslan "Condor" (detailed elsewhere on thi...
Antonov An-72 (Coaler) The An-72 "Coaler" was another Antonov Design Bureau creation designed to assist the Soviet military in logistical sorties as a tactical transport. The design was of a unique and very identifiable nature, placing the powerful...
Atlas (Denel) Cheetah The Denel (formally Atlas) Cheetah came about through a need by the South African Air Force to update / replace its series of aging fighters while its bordering neighbors were receiving updated Soviet Bloc aircraft. Unfortuna...
Bell AH-1 SuperCobra The AH-1W and AH-1J SuperCobra series of helicopters are an updated and slightly modified version of the AH-1 HueyCobra (or simply "Cobra") detailed elsewhere on this website.
Much like the base Cobra, the SuperCobra is a...
Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior / 406CS Combat Scout The Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior was a further development of the successful Bell OH-58 Kiowa. Intended to be fielded alongside the Apache Longbow and provide scouting and observation capabilities in an offensive support capacit...
Boeing / McDonnell Douglas / Hughes AH-64 Apache Originally a Hughes-based design, the YAH-64 faced off against a Bell YAH-63 system in the United States Army's search for an advanced attack helicopter. The system was to field the latest in technology, maneuverability and b...
Boeing / McDonnell Douglas / Northrop F/A-18 Hornet The F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine carrier-based attack fighter currently in frontline service with a variety of forces worldwide. Derived from the failed YF-17 Cobra attempt at a new USAF lightweight fighter (the F-17 lost o...
Boeing AV-8B / BAe GR.7 Harrier II The AV-8B Harrier II was a follow up design undertaken by the McDonnell Douglas corporation with the junior partner being the British Aerospace Corporation (BAe). The system built upon the successes encountered during use of ...
Dornier Do 228 The Dornier Do 228 appeared in the early 1980's and served as a utility transport and maritime patrol aircraft for several global military branches. The high-wing monoplane was a versatile and steady performer, powered by two...
General Dynamics / Grumman EF-111 Raven The EF-111 Raven was a developed from a United States Air Force need for an electronic warfare aircraft to replace its aging fleet of EB-66 platforms. The EF-111 was born directly from the airframe of the existing F-111 Aardv...
General Dynamics F-16XL Though appearing very much like the F-16 Fighting Falcon base model, the F-16XL was designed as a very different aircraft. The F-16XL was a conversion model development designed to study the effects of laminar airflow at supe...
Grumman X-29 The Grumman X-29 was a technology demonstrator used to test a variety of aerial elements including direction thrust, canards and forward-swept wing formations....
Kamov Ka-50 (Hokum) 'Black Shark' / Ka-52 'Alligator' The Ka-50 Hokum (or 'Black Shark') is another in the long line of Kamov helicopters. The Ka-50 features the Kamov specialty of counter-rotating blades, one element mounted atop of the other. Though not in production as of thi...
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy At one time the Lockheed-built C-5 Galaxy was the largest aircraft ever produced, being able to field a compliment of 350 troops, 10 LAV-type systems, 5 Humvee vehicles, 2 M1 Abrams main battle tanks or a single CH-47 Chinook...
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk (Stealth Fighter) Aptly-named, the Lockheed-produced F-117 Nighthawk became the world’s first operational stealth aircraft in the world. Conceived of and developed from the late 1970’s, the Nighthawk was the subject of much speculation before ...
Lockheed MC-130 Combat Shadow The MC-130 platform has served special forces operations since the Vietnam War and is based on the successful Lockheed C-130 cargo aircraft platform. The MC-130P Combat Shadow specifically serves as an inflight refueling vehi...
Lun Ekranoplan The Lun-class Ekranoplan floatplane was one of the most distinct designs to emerge from the Cold War. The aircraft was designed around the idea known as "wing-in-ground" effect, which basically allowed for an increased weight...
McDonnell Douglas / Boeing F-15 Strike Eagle The F-15E "Strike Eagle" expands the role of one of the Cold War's most potent aircraft designs - the F-15 Eagle. Strike Eagle capabilities were introduced in the latter 1980's to provide the F-15 Eagle base aircraft the abil...
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 (Fulcrum) The MiG-29 Fulcrum was and continues to be a highly prized and respected multirole fighter in service with Russia and a plethora of countries worldwide. The system has proven very robust, flexible and highly maneuverable in t...
Mil Mi-28 (Havoc) The Mi-28 (NATO reporting name of "Havoc") was a product of the Cold War designed as an anti-tank attack platform similar in nature to the American-produced AH-64 Apache series. Like the Apache, the Mi-28 featured an armored ...
Panavia Tornado ADV The Panavia Tornado series of strike aircraft was developed through a consortium featuring the nations of Britain, Germany (West) and Italy. Each country would be responsible for the design and construction of a specialized p...
Rockwell / Boeing B-1 Lancer The Rockwell B-1 Lancer series was a variable sweep wing low-altitude penetration aircraft capable of delivering nuclear free-fall bombs at high speeds. The system was designed from a Cold War initiative in 1965 by the United...
Sukhoi Su-25 (Frogfoot) The Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot" series of aircraft harkened back to the successes of the Soviet IL-2 Sturmovik close-support fighter-bombers. The Su-25 was quite a departure from traditional jet aircraft designs of the time and i...
Sukhoi Su-27 (Flanker) The Su-27 "Flanker" series of aircraft is regarded by most airplane aficionados as the ultimate in Russian fighter design. The Su-27 first appeared in the middle of the 1980's, completely taking NATO and American warplanners ...
Sukhoi Su-35 / Su-37 (Super Flanker) The Su-35 (and similar Su-37) is known as the "Super Flanker". The Su-35 is based on the Su-27 Flanker air-superiority fighter developed in the 1980's with the Su-35 representing a 'more-capable' Su-27.
The Su-35 features ...
Tupolev Tu-160 (Blackjack) At the time of it's inception, the Tupolev-produced Tu-160 "Blackjack" was the largest swing-wing bomber ever produced also mounting the most powerful engines to an aircraft platform ever. Developed as a direct counter to the...
This page features aircraft covering the time period between 1900 and 1919. During this time, flight was just being pioneered and the air war in World War One would solidify the aircraft as a viable fighting machine. Designs throughout wartime forced aviation engineers to learn at a fast pace, usually outdoing themselves design after design. Such was the air of wartime design for aircraft that many would only live to see service for a matter of months before being replaced by more powerful and deadly versions. Design and production of aircraft for military use would continue at war's end and would cause a boom in military spending for new and faster model capable of much more. Aircraft design during these two decades would still revolve around the tried and true fabric-covered skins with synchronized-firing machine guns in the monoplane or biplane designs.
