Company pilot Carl Cover, along with Fred Stineman (copilot), and Frank Collbohm (flight engineer) make the first flight of the Douglas Sleeper Transport, the first of 10,654 DC-3s and derivatives Douglas will build between 1935 and 1947 takes place at Clover Field, Santa Monica, Calif. The US military will use the military version, the C-47, in three wars. A number of civilian and foreign “Gooney Birds” were still in use in the late 1990s.
Iran War Highlights the Value of Unmanned Aircraft
April 20, 2026
Combat video from MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) striking targets in Iran may have surprised those who thought the iconic unmanned aircraft were destined for retirement now that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are behind us. The Reapers are neither stealthy nor fast and therefore seen as unsurvivable against adversaries with sophisticated air defense systems....
