The Perch

9 April 1969 Concorde 002, G-BSST, the first British-built prototype of the supersonic airliner, made its first flight from Filton Airport, Fairfield, England, with British Aerospace Corporation’s Chief Test Pilot, Ernest Brian Trubshaw CBO MVO, as pilot, John Cochrane as co-pilot and Flight Engineer Brian Watts. Also on board, monitoring a range of instruments in the forward cabin, were three other Test Flight Engineers, Mike Addley, John Allan and Peter Holding. After a preliminary test flight, they landed the new prototype at RAF Fairford, 50 miles northeast, where the flight test program would continue. This flight was just five weeks after the French-built Concorde 001 had made its first flight. The two prototypes were used to establish the airliner’s flight characteristics and performance envelope, and to develop flight procedures. Follow-on pre-production Concordes were constructed to go through government certification as a commercial airliner.

Cockpit view of Russian Air Force (VVS) SU-25s in formation during a training mission, April 10, 2025

Su-30MKA of the Algerian Air Force

German MiG-29 Fulcrum and an Swiss F-18 Hornet fly over the Swiss Alps.

Wall of flankers from PLAAF 2nd aviation division of the southern theater command.

A-7 Corsair IIs of the Hellenic Air Force, unknown date and place. The type was retired in 2014, with the F-16C/D/V blocks 50/52/70 taking its place.

A Saab J29B with a camouflage net on while parked at the Kamina Air Base during the Congo crisis, 1962.

A Peruvian Air Force Mil Mi-35P "Hind F" flies over the VRAEM region, in Pichari, Perú, in Sept. 19, 2014. The helicopters were deployed to destroy clandestine airstrips used for drug trafficking in the VRAEM (Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River Valleys region).

Airmen of the 8th Maintenance Group attached to the 916th air refuelling wing fuel and arm a F-16C in Kunsan Airbase, South Korea, 28th October 2020

Captured Dornier Do 335A Pfeil (Arrow). Note scale of plane to US soldier This was the fastest piston engined aircraft of WW2 at 474 mph (412 knots/763kmh)

Brazilian Air Force Saab Gripen E/F-39E Aircraft equipped with two underwing fuel tanks, with a capacity of 1,100 liters each, as well as two Diehl IRIS-T short-range infrared-guided air-to-air missiles and two MBDA Meteor long-range missiles.

Nigerian Air Force pilots posing in front of a newly built JF-17B. This photo was taken within Pakistan. The Nigerian pilots were undergoing training for their JF-17A block 2’s and snapped these.

The eyes in the sky... A collection of U-2 "Dragon Lady" photos

JF-17 BLK 2 from the Pakistani Air Force performing at Zhuhai Air show, 2018.

F-117A during a Lockheed Martin photoshoot

J-35A on Reheat/Afterburner, from Zhuhai Airshow 2024 Poor J-35A only got in the spotlight for a short while before being overshadowed. Fun fact: It has already been accepted into PLAN service.

The hangar of HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08), with four F-35B Lightning IIs.

MiG-19 SM-10 variant. From 1955-1956, with the help from a modified TU-16 "Badger" as the air tanker, the Soviets experimented with various different types of air-to-air refuelling techniques, ranging from probe and drogue, to wingtip-to-wingtip refuelling (interestingly, this method has only ever been used for air-to-air refuelling of TU-4s). However, despite the programme being successful, it was dropped due to it being incompatible with the Soviet's air warfare doctrine. 1st, 3rd picture: the SM-10 receiving fuel though the probe and drogue system. 2nd picture: wingtip-to-wingtip refuelling.