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  • TINKER HISTORY: Boeing AGM- 84A/D ‘Harpoon’ missile

    The AGM-84A/D Air Launch Cruise Missile is an air breathing missile capable of sustaining high subsonic flight using Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System guidance. The missile was originally developed for the U.S. Navy capable of being launched from land, submarines and surface ships

  • TINKER HISTORY: Boeing E-3 Sentry

    The Boeing E-3 Sentry is a special mission aircraft built around a highly-modified Boeing Model 707-320 commercial airliner. The Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, is essentially a powerful airborne search and track radar system using a rotating dome affixed 11 feet above the top of the

  • TINKER HISTORY: Beechcraft AT-11

    The Beechcraft AT-11 is one of many variants of the popular Model 18 introduced by Beechcraft in 1937. The Model 18 and over 25 variants feature an all-metal design in the form of a low-wing monoplane, twin engines, cantilever tail with twin vertical tails and rudders. The aircraft sits on two main

  • AIR FORCE HISTORY: The early years of American air combat

    The Lafayette Escadrille, which became operational in April of 1916, was established as a squadron of mostly American volunteer pilots flying and fighting for the French Air Service during World War I. The planes, mechanics and the pilot uniforms were French, as was the commander, Capt. Georges

  • TINKER HISTORY: Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighter

    The Republic F-84 Thunderjet was a single-seat day fighter designed around an all-metal wing positioned low to mid fuselage. The single-engine jet sat on tricycle landing and lacked a radar which limited it tactically to daylight operations. The first flight of the XP-84 took place in Feb. 1946. The

  • TINKER HISTORY: AGM-86B/C/D air launch cruise missile

    The AGM-86B/C/D air launch cruise missile is an air breathing missile capable of sustaining subsonic flight using both inertial, Litton terrain contour matching and Global Positioning System guidance. Three distinct versions of the missile consist of the B model with a W80–1 nuclear warhead, the C

  • TINKER HISTORY: Stinson L-5

    The Stinson L-5 “Sentinel” was a high-wing, single-engine liaison aircraft with a tricycle landing gear configuration.The L-5 was an improved version of Stinson’s commercial Model 105 Voyager and earned the nickname “Flying Jeep” due to its versatility and ruggedness.The Stinson L-5 competed against

  • AIR FORCE HISTORY: In the beginning, with B.D. Foulois

    On Aug. 1, 1907, the U.S. Army Signal Corps established a small Aeronautical Division to take “charge of all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines, and all kindred subjects.”At the time, there were few aeronautical “subjects” upon which to build. From the close of the Civil War

  • TINKER HISTORY: Piper L-4 Cub

    The Piper Aircraft Corporation L-4 “Grasshopper” was a high-wing, single-engine liaison aircraft with tricycle landing gear configuration. The L-4 was an improved version of the highly successful Piper J-3 ‘Cub’ through the addition of a radio and military paint and markings. Large sales of the L-4