MILITARY AIRCRAFT

any type of aircraft that has been adapted for military use. Aircraft have been a fundamental part of military power since the mid-20th century. Generally speaking, all military aircraft fall into one of the following categories: fighters, which secure control of essential airspaces by driving off or destroying enemy aircraft; bombers, which are larger, heavier, and less maneuverable craft designed to attack surface targets with bombs or missiles; ground-support, or attack, aircraft, which operate at lower altitudes than bombers and air-superiority fighters and attack tanks, troop formations, and other ground targets; transport and cargo planes, big-bodied craft with large amounts of interior space for carrying weapons, equipment, supplies, and troops over moderate or long distances; and helicopters, which are rotary-winged aircraft used for ground support, to transport assault troops, and for short-distance transport and surveillance. Additional reading For military aircraft, historical overviews are offered by John W.R. Taylor (ed.), The Lore of Flight (1970, reissued 1986), a technically informed and well-illustrated work with separate sections on history, structures, engines, equipment, and flying, and containing an encyclopaedic index; and David Brown, Christopher Shores, and Kenneth Macksey, The Guinness History of Air Warfare (1976), a concise compilation of salient events and developments. Aircraft design is covered in John D. Anderson, Jr., Introduction to Flight, 3rd ed. (1989), an engineering overview of aircraft design and performance at a basic level, incorporating a technically accurate history of manned flight; and Edward H. Heinemann, Rosario Rausa, and K.E. Van Every, Aircraft Design (1985), a study of contemporary theory and practice. Aircraft propulsion is covered in Herschel Smith, Aircraft Piston Engines (1981), a technically informed history of power plants from the Wright era to the years immediately after World War II; and Edward W. Constant II, The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution (1980), a scholarly history of the development of turbojet engines. For early military aircraft, see Richard P. Hallion, Rise of the Fighter Aircraft, 191418 (1984), a technologically and tactically informed account; and John H. Morrow, Jr., German Air Power in World War I (1982), an account stressing interactions between strategy and tactics on the one hand and social and economic factors on the other. Eric M. Brown, Duels in the Sky: World War II Naval Aircraft in Combat (1988), is an analysis of combat capabilities, based on personal experience, by a military test pilot. Robert L. Shaw, Fighter Combat, 2nd ed. (1988), focuses on modern jet aircraft but incorporates a solid historical base. R.A. Mason and John W.R. Taylor, Aircraft, Strategy, and Operations of the Soviet Air Force (1986), covers the development of military aeronautics in the former Soviet Union. For treatments of radar-evading aircraft, see Doug Richardson, Stealth Warplanes (1989; also published as Stealth), a review of the origins of stealth technology with informed speculation on current and future developments. John F. Guilmartin, Jr.