Curtiss P-36 Hawk: Hero Plane of Pearl Harbor?

At the National Museum of the United States Air Force, many visitors will see an unfamiliar aircraft at the entrance to the WWII gallery. The museum’s display of the gleaming silver fighter coded “86” on the fuselage, features a pilot boarding the plane in his pajamas, with an M1911 pistol ...

By Tom Laemlein

Army Testing Shorter, Lighter XM8 Carbine (Revised)

The XM8 ships with a 25-round magazine. Twenty-round mags from the M7 remain compatible. That directly addresses one of the louder complaints in Army Capt. Braden Trent's May 2025 assessment of the M7, which called the 20-round capacity a liability. As TFB covered when the Army type-classifi...

By Josh C

Kingfisher vs. Zero: Shocking Victory Over Iwo Jima

A wide range of really well-known aircraft types were used in World War II, by both sides. But for every Mustang, British Spitfire, Bf109, Zero, Flying Fortress, Corsair or Mitchell bomber, there were many other hard-working planes that received little to no attention. Quite often their operation...

By Tom Laemlein

Ayoob: Was the 10mm Destined to Fail?

No other handgun cartridge has experienced quite as many ups, down and reinventions of purpose in so short a time as the 10mm Auto. Generally thought to have been a product of the 1980s, the 10mm’s whole story actually goes back further. A Brief History of the 10mm The mid-twentieth century saw...

By Massad Ayoob
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