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Sep 1, 2024 | 
usni.org | J. M. Caiella |Norman Polmar
From 1923 to 1938, one aircraft defined U.S. military aviation during the so-called Golden Age of flight. The Curtiss Hawk dominated the era, with Navy, Marine Corps, and U.S. Army Air Corps units flying 410 of the aircraft in various versions. The Hawk started as a private venture in 1922 to fill a void the military did not foresee. Glenn H.
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Jun 30, 2024 | 
usni.org | J. M. Caiella |Norman Polmar
Fifteen years before the Vought F4U Corsair cemented its name in history over the Pacific Ocean in World War II, the original Corsair earned its own significant place in the annals of naval aviation over Nicaragua. Built around the then–newly available Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine, the first Corsair was a two-seat observation biplane equipped with three .30-caliber machine guns, one fixed and two mounted on a flexible Scarff ring. It also had one of the first all–steel tube fuselage structures.
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Apr 30, 2024 | 
usni.org | J. M. Caiella |Norman Polmar
Mr. Caiella is a journalist of more than 45 years with experience as a photographer, editor, writer, designer, and graphic artist. He has worked as lead editor of scholarly publications for the Naval History and Heritage Command, senior editor of Proceedings and Naval History magazines, and writer-editor for the U.S. Marine Corps’ History Division.
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Mar 1, 2024 | 
usni.org | Norman Polmar
1. This column is based in part on Lt. Col. Kenneth F. Gantz, USAF, ed., Nuclear Flight: The United States Air Force Programs for Atomic Jets, Missiles, and Rockets (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1960), and published congressional hearings on the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program and Nuclear Rocket Engine Development Program. 2. See N. Polmar, “The First Atomic Submarine,” Naval History 38, no. 1 (February 2024): 50–55. 3.
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Jan 3, 2024 | 
usni.org | Norman Polmar
By the mid-1930s, most scientists realized that the stars, including the Earth’s sun, radiate large amounts of nuclear energy. There was relatively satisfactory proof that very large amounts of energy were available if a suitable method for releasing and controlling it could be found. “It” was discovered in 1938 by German researchers in the form of nuclear fission.
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Jan 1, 2024 | 
usni.org | J. M. Caiella |Norman Polmar |Andrew Blackley |James Delgado
In this issue we run the gamut from John Paul Jones storming across the deck of the Bonhomme Richard to the birth of the nuclear Navy. The importance of history was evident in the seminar on critical thinking held by the U.S. Naval Institute and U.S. Naval Academy at the Jack C. Taylor Conference Center in ...
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Dec 31, 2023 | 
usni.org | Norman Polmar
Norman Polmar is an analyst, consultant, and author, specializing in naval, aviation, and technology subjects. He has been a consultant or advisor on naval issues to three Senators, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and three Secretaries of the Navy as well as to the director of the Los Alamos national laboratory, and to the leadership of the U.S., Australian, Chinese, and Israeli Navies. He has written or coauthored more than 50 published books.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
usni.org | Mark Carlson |Charles Stephenson |Eric L. Mills |Norman Polmar
The Black Sea city of Sevastopol was enduring a bitter cold on the evening of 29 October 1955. Seemingly since its founding in 1783, the port city had been touched by war and plague, prosperity and famine. Exactly a century before, the city was under siege for three months by the British Army during the Crimean War. From 1941 to 1942, the city was bombarded by German shells as Nazi forces marched into the Soviet Union.
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Aug 31, 2023 | 
usni.org | Norman Polmar
The Loening OL-series amphibians were among the most popular aircraft used by the U.S. military services between the world wars, being flown by the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. And the aircraft made history when three COA-1 variants were taken on the 1925 Arctic expedition led by Donald B. MacMillan and Eugene F. McDonald, with Lieutenant Commander Richard E.
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Apr 30, 2023 | 
usni.org | J. M. Caiella |Norman Polmar |Eric L. Mills |Christina Adams
Our cover story this issue looks at what was unfolding in the South Pacific 80 years ago during this actionful chapter of Halsey’s career. The Great Northern War and the Rise of Russian Sea Power Europe has produced its share of mighty empires down through the ages, one that probably doesn’t spring first to mind is Sweden. By Christina C. Adams and Captain Andrew Thomson, U.S. Navy The history of Aegis development is a history of concepts as much as process.
