Military Aircraft

Eye of the Viper
Take the best pilots. And the best teachers. Put them through a taut-nerve, adrenaline-infused training program where only a handful of mistakes will lead to dismissal. The stakes are high and few succeed.

Hand-picked, pressure-tested, and astronaut gung ho, the young pilots of Eye of the Viper are poised for the toughest assignment of their career: the exhaustive six-month training course at Arizona’s Luke Air Force Base, at a cost of $2 million each. Luke, the world’s largest fighter wing, is the only F-16 fighter training base in the United States, and each year it produces one thousand pilots who will fly the F-16 from Korea to Afghanistan to Iraq.

But being among the elite pilots who are selected for the course is by no means a guarantee that they will earn the right to fly the F-16, perhaps the most agile jet fighter ever sent into combat. Only a few select individuals have what it takes.

Award-winning journalist Peter Aleshire, given unprecedented access to the pilots and teachers at Luke, provides a full blast of the rigors and intensity of the course—the personalities, the incredible machines, the irreverence, the bravado, and the toughness, not only of the hand-picked students seeking a place in the warrior subculture, but of the veteran plots who must teach them how to stay alive.

Readers will quickly come to understand the extraordinary mental and physical demands on a modern pilot—and the incredible joy and sense of freedom that makes most F-16 pilots describe their single-engine, weapons-laden, needle-nosed jet in terms that sound more like true love or helpless addiction.  Eye of the Viper is a frank, ambitious, and eminently entertaining look at the ambitions, fears, frailties, and courage that make or break the young pilots at the exquisitely sensitive controls of a $35-million jet.

In 1981 the Air Force developed a requirement for an Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) as a new air superiority fighter. It would take advantage of the new technologies in fighter design on the horizon, including composite materials, lightweight alloys, advanced flight control systems, higher power propulsion systems, and stealth technology. Air Force leaders believed that these technologies would make aircraft like the F-15 and F-16 obsolete by the early 21st century. In 1985 the Air Force sent out formal requests for proposals to a number of aircraft manufacturers and selected two industry teams, one led by Lockheed, and the other by Northrop, to build the prototypes. The Lockheed and Northrop teams each built two prototypes, one with General Electric YF120 engines and one with Pratt & Whitney YF119 engines. The Lockheed aircraft was designated YF-22 and the Northrop Aircraft was YF-23. After extensive flight tests the Lockheed-Boeing-General Dynamics team won the airframe competition and Pratt & Whitney the engine contract. In 1997 the Air Force sent the YF-22 prototype that had been equipped with GE engines to the Museum. After it was refurbished and equipped with two Pratt & Whitney YF-119-PW-100 engines, the YF-22 was placed on display in 1998.

Janes Aircraft Recognition Book
Since the first edition of this book was published in 1996, there have been major changes to the world’s air forces and significant developments in the civil aviation business. As we enter into the new millennium a new generation of military aircraft is entering service, and mid-life upgrades are significantly changing both military and civil fleets. Jane’s Aircraft Recognition Guide provides technical specifications from Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft (published since 1909). The new format also allows for additional aircraft and information to be featured. Civil Jet Airliners Civil Prop Airliners Business Jets and Turboprops Private Light Aircraft Civil Helicopters Combat Aircraft Military Training Aircraft Combat Support Aircraft Military Helicopters

Jane's All the World's Aircraft
The authority on aircraft under development or in production Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft is the most comprehensive and detailed reference available on aircraft under development or in production worldwide. You will find authoritative commentary on each type of aircraft by country of manufacture, complete with photographs and line drawings to provide additional detail and aid recognition.

Fighter Wing
Now, for the first time, an insider's look at an Air Force combat wing--the planes, the technology, and the people--with Tom Clancy as your guide. Tom Clancy's previous explorations of America's armed forces, Submarine and Armored Cav, revealed exclusive, never-before-seen information an the people and technology that protect our nation. Now, the acclaimed author of takes to the skies with the U.S. Air Force's elite: the Fighter Wing.

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