The winner-take-all nature of aerial combat means the slightest edge can be the difference between victory and death. Power, maneuverability, agility, armor, and armament were all key components of a ...

Key Points and Summary - Born for Cold War fleet defense, the F-14 Tomcat paired swing-wing agility with the AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix to hunt bombers at range and still dogfight up close. -A ...

Today, aircraft wings are increasingly designed to prioritize stealth characteristics over raw speed—giving them a smooth, unbroken connection to the aircraft’s main fuselage. The wing of a fighter ...

Summary and Key Points: The F-16 SFW (Forward-Swept Wing) was an experimental fighter developed by General Dynamics in the 1970s as part of DARPA’s Forward Swept Wing Program. Designed to reduce drag ...

When Boeing Co. beat out Lockheed Aircraft Corp. for the prize of building the U.S. supersonic jet transport, it was on the basis of a venturesome swing-wing concept that many aeronautical designers ...

The B-21 bomber pairs cutting edge tech with a throwback aircraft design. It is based on a visionary aircraft design that dates back to World War II. That aircraft, the YB-49, minimized drag but ...