Pogo in storage at the Garber Restoration circa 1990's

The Convair XFY Pogo tailsitter was an experiment in vertical takeoff and landing. The Pogo had delta wings and three-bladed contra-rotating propellers powered by a 5,500 hp Allison YT40-A-16 turboprop engine. It was intended to be a high-performance fighter aircraft capable of operating from small warships. Landing the XFY-1 was difficult as the pilot had to look over his shoulder while carefully working the throttle to land.

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June 2, 1954: A Convair XFY-1 Pogo aircraft makes a vertical takeoff and landing. It’s a milestone in the checkered history of VTOL aircraft.

Using designs captured from the Germans, the Navy and the newly formed Air Force crafted two design studies in 1947 for creating a fixed-wing vertical-takeoff-and-landing, or VTOL, aircraft. The goal of the project was to build a fighter that could protect convoys but not require a large landing area.

Wired- This Day in Tech

The engines on a French Concorde are to be examined as the first move in a £15m project aiming to get the supersonic passenger jet back in the air.

The Rolls Royce engines of the former Air France Concorde will undergo an initial examination to see what work needs to be done to start the engines.

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Photos of the Heinkel 219 on display at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The Heinkel He 219 Uhu ("Eagle-Owl") was a night fighter serving with the German Luftwaffe in the later stages of World War II. A relatively sophisticated aircraft, the He 219 possessed a variety of innovations, including an advanced intercept radar. It was also the first operational aircraft in the world to be equipped with ejection seats, and the first German aircraft with tricycle landing gear. Had the Uhu been available in quantity, it might have had a significant effect upon the strategic bomber offensive of the Royal Air Force, but only 268 were built before the end of the War and they saw only limited service.

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Photos of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.

Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made it the second space shuttle to fly after Columbia. However, during the construction of Columbia, details of the final design changed, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an expensive proposition, it was determined to be less costly to build Challenger around a body frame (STA-099) that had been created as a test article. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead.

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The Aichi M6A Seiran ("Mist on a fair day") was a submarine-launched attack floatplane designed for the Imperial Japanese Navy.

It was intended to be used with the I-400 class submarine, a 4,082 tonne (4,500 ton) submarine aircraft carrier. Two or three of the craft would be stowed aboard in disassembled form, and launched by catapult. The twin floats could be jettisoned, and the aircraft was essentially meant to be ditched at sea upon completion of its mission. The Type AM submarine was also intended to carry two of these aircraft.

An alternate version with landing gear instead of floats was designated M6A1-K and named Nanzan ("Southern Mountain"). While generally described as a land-based trainer, some sources indicate that it was designed for the attack role, to be launched from the submarine and then landed. Besides the difference in landing gear, the vertical stabilizer's top portion, which was foldable on the Seiran, was removed.

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Photos of the Aichi M6A "Seiran" at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center and during resoration at the Garber Restoration Center.

The Northrop N-1M "Jeep" was an early flying wing aircraft, predecessor to the Northrop N-9M and Northrop XB-35/YB-35 and YB-49 long-range bomber aircraft.

This aircraft, the first true flying wing produced in the United States, was developed during 1939 and 1940 as a flying testbed for the purpose of proving Jack Northrop's vision of a practical, all-wing aircraft. It first took to the air on 3 July 1941 at Baker Dry Lake in California.

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Photos of the Northrup N-1M "Jeep" at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The Arado Ar 234 was the world's first operational jet powered bomber, built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of World War II. In the field it was used almost entirely in the reconnaissance role, but in its few uses as a bomber it proved to be nearly impossible to intercept. Twin-engined and single seater, was produced in limited numbers. It was the last Luftwaffe plane to fly over England, in April 1945.

It is commonly known as Blitz ("lightning"), though this name refers only to the B-2 bomber variant, and it is not clear whether it was ever formally applied instead of being derived from the informal term Blitz-Bomber (roughly, "very fast bomber"). The alternate name Hecht ("pike") is derived from one of the units equipped with this plane, Sonderkommando Hecht. The Ar 234 (and the Messerschmitt Me 262) showed in which direction plane technique should develop.

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Photos of the Arado 234 "Blitz" at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

I just gave my permission for my photo of a Bleriot XI taken at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI to be published in the next edition of the Aerospace Encyclopedia.  Go figure I travel all through the United States and Europe taking airplane photos and they want one snapped practically in my own backyard.

The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow"), unofficially also Ameisenbär ("anteater"), was a World War II heavy fighter built by the Dornier company. The Pfeil's performance was much better than that of other twin-engine designs due to its unusual "push-pull" layout. The Luftwaffe was desperate to get the design into operational use, but delays in engine deliveries meant only a handful were delivered before the war ended.

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Photos of the aircraft on display at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center and in storage at the Garber Restoration Facility.