A captured Heinkel He 177 A-5 Greif heavy bomber of the German Luftwaffe, repainted with British Royal Air Force (RAF) roundels and D-Day-style invasion stripes for test and evaluation flights in England during World War II. Designated TS439, this specific aircraft (ex-F8-AP of II./KG 40) was captured or landed intact and was flown and evaluated by British test pilots—including the famous Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough in 1944–1945.

 

The Antonov An-22Sh (Ан-22Ш) was a proposed outsized cargo variant of the An-22 strategic transport aircraft, developed in the late 1970s to carry components for the Soviet space program. The program needed a reliable means of transporting large and heavy hardware, particularly the core stages of the Energia rocket and components of the Buran space shuttle, from manufacturing facilities directly to the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Rather than carrying the payload externally, engineers considered enlarging the An-22’s rear fuselage to a diameter of between 8.3 and 9.6 metres, allowing the oversized components to be transported internally. However, wind tunnel tests and engineering assessments revealed that the enormous, bulbous fuselage would create serious aerodynamic and stability problems. These difficulties ultimately proved insurmountable, and the An-22Sh project never progressed beyond the design and model-testing stages.

 

The Blohm & Voss BV 238 was a massive German flying boat developed during World War II. It was the largest Axis aircraft of the war and one of the heaviest aircraft ever flown at the time. Designed for long-range maritime patrol, transport, and bomber roles, it was intended to support operations across vast oceanic distances, but only one prototype was completed and flown.

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Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was an American supersonic interceptor and fighter-bomber developed during the 1950s. Often called the “missile with a man in it,” or the widowmaker by the Luftwaffe due to high losses, it featured a needle-nosed fuselage, a high T-tail, and extremely short, razor-thin stub wings built for raw speed and high-altitude climbs.

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Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft, delivered to the U.S. Navy on October 15, 2026, at Marietta, Georgia, to be modified into the future E-130J Phoenix II strategic communications platform.

https://www.naval-technology.com/news/us-navy-c130j-30-delivery

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The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) TSR-2 prototype. Taking off in the foreground, with an English Electric Lightning in the background as a high-speed chase aircraft, and as a museum piece. The British Government cancelled the ambitious supersonic program in April 1965.

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Rockwell B-1B Lancer supersonic, variable-sweep-wing strategic bomber, commonly nicknamed the “BONE” (from “B-One”), took off in 1984; the first production Rockwell International B-1B Lancer, serial number 82-0001, soared into the skies for its inaugural flight from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

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