The Challenge Of Flight Series

Unbelievable footage of pilot and aircraft in terrifying moments.

Few films deal with combat from a pilot's perspective.

Here is the real story of naval military aviation.

The cat launch; the recovery; the most challenging phases of naval aviation flight

The ultimate challenge of pilots in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat is to deliver their weapons

Bullets and missiles aren't the only things that kill military aviators and destroy aircraft.

In the heat of combat, nothing is more frustrating or deadly than engaging an enemy that outperforms you.

Getting through to the target and destroying it is the mission.

For 10 long years, Vietnam was home to thousands of American military aviators.

Military aircraft are finely tuned, tough, fast and agile machines.

Eject! The one word a pilot hates and fears most.

Fighter pilots study their opponents the way football players study game films.

Witness first hand a jet that has been struck, disoriented, killed by a missile shot, dying in violent skies.

WWII as seen from the gun sights of American fighters and attackers.

Top gun pilots know the sound of freedom is the sound of a fighter jet with power to the max and afterburners blazing.

It is the nature of pilots to stay with their planes and bring them and their crews home,

In vertical flight, aircraft control is a balance between the enormous forces of gravity pulling in opposition to powerful motors

They are missions as dangerous as combat itself.

The U. S. Coast Guard has put air power to work since the very first days of flight,