Aircraft have had a huge impact on the United States military throughout history. From dropping nuclear bombs on Japan to soaring tens of thousands feet in the air spying on other nations, aircraft can carry out a lot of deeds.

It all started on December 17, 1903, when Wilbur and Orville Wright made four flights with their first powered aircraft at Kitty Hawk. They are given credit to the first successful airplane. These engine powered air planes were first brought into the hands of the military when the United States Army Signal Corps purchased a Wright Model A in 1909. In 1911, however, other countries grew interested in the realm of aviation and the Italians used aircraft for the first time in the Italo-Turkish War.

After this, hundreds of countries decided to jump on the idea of using aircraft for military use. Nowadays, there are so many aircraft for such specific deeds that there are multiple aircraft designed to do just one job.

First, the bombing aircraft are the most well known throughout the country. The B-52 bomber specifically is probably the most dependable aircraft the United States military has ever used. The b-52 bomber was designed and built by Boeing and was very useful during the Cold War when nuclear warfare almost broke out. The B-52 bomber can carry up to 70,000 pounds of weapons. It has been serving for over fifty years and was just given an upgrade and is now supposed to serve until 2040.

My great grandfather used to load bombs on planes during World War II. Since he is not alive today, I asked my grandfather what it was like during that time with all the new aircraft in use during that time and he told me, “I remember him showing me all the planes and aircraft he would load the bombs onto. I specifically remember seeing the B-24 bomber and how massive it really was. You would see all these pictures on television, but you really didn’t realize how big it actually way until you saw it in person.”

Today, the military has many aircraft designed for spying on enemies. These aircraft are specifically designed to fly high and fast and be practically impossible to see by the human eye.

The most famous spying aircraft is the SR-71 Blackbird, and it is specifically designed to fly very high in the air and is almost silent when flying high in the sky. In fact, the Blackbird can fly up to 85,000 feet in the air and fly as fast as 33 miles per minute. Let’s just say, good lucking shooting this road runner down as it soars above the clouds. The Blackbird is quite expensive as it costs up 33 million to build and 24 million per airframe. This costly aircraft is all worth the money as it is the most reliable spying aircraft the United States Air Force has ever flown and after about 35 years of service this aircraft was canceled due in 1999 to increasing costs. Today, we have a lot of aircraft that carry out the missions that the SR-71 Blackbird did, but we are still looking for that standout aircraft that can do everything the Blackbird could but more.

The United States military has tons of planes that are capable of shooting down other enemy aircraft. The F-22 raptor is considered one of the best aircraft ever due to its constant production of solid fighting through the air.

The United States has a lot on their hands with other countries bombing their neighboring countries, so it is important that the United States Air Force stays on top of things just in case something happens.