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In the summer sky over rural Dorset, a swirling air battle rages. Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes vie for control of the air with Messerschmitt Me 109s, while Stuka dive-bombers plunge earthward, sirens screeching, to attack shipping off the coast. There’s a momentary miscalculation – and a Hurricane collides with a 109, slicing it in half. The stricken fighters spiral to the ground as above them RAF and Luftwaffe pilots, twisting and turning in a desperate mass dogfight, battle on regardless. This is the Battle of Britain, fought not in 1940 but in the present day – and at a...

(CNN) - A 14-year-old Danish boy doing research for a history class found the wreckage of a German World War II plane with the remains of the pilot in the cockpit. Daniel Kristiansen and his father, Klaus, discovered what's believed to be a Messerschmitt fighter plane buried in a field on their farm near Birkelse in northern Denmark. "We went out to the field with a metal detector," Klaus Kristiansen told CNN. "I hoped we might find some old plates or something for Daniel to show in school." Instead, they found bits of plane debris. So they borrowed an excavator...

The UK's 70th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Britain attracted an unusual visitor to the Royal International Air Tattoo: a rare Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter. Owned by EADS, the aircraft is one of only a handful of the more than 34,000 Bf 109-class fighters produced which remain airworthy. Also known as "Red Seven", the aircraft was built in 1958 and served with the Spanish air force until 1965, before later taking a starring role in the 1969 film The Battle of Britain. Now carrying Luftwaffe markings, the Bf 109 was due to mark the anniversary by flying in formation...

Tens of thousands throng the runways and hangars of the EADS (Airbus) plant at Manching in southern Germany enjoying the July sun. Employees, family members, guests, all invited to the "family day" at the military systems division of the European aerospace giant. They stroll around the ground display, the children's activity center and fast-food stands, but all are waiting for the central event, the air show. The flight program begins with two Eurofighters, the latest combat plane developed jointly by four European nations, tearing through the sky. After them appears other modern fighters, helicopters and transport planes, but the best...

A replica of one of Germany's greatest technological triumphs late in World War II, the Messerschmitt Me.262 fighter jet, has left American soil and reached Germany after U.S. State Department officials delayed it 60 days because they saw it as a weapon of war. The four 30 mm replica cannons aboard lack a firing mechanism and still wouldn't fire if they had one. The aircraft now has arrived in Germany where it will be reassembled by the Messerschmitt Foundation aircraft collection and flown once again. The replica project has been taken over by a group of retired Boeing engineers operating...

You've heard the rumors, perhaps even seen a magazine article or two -- several Me 262 jets are now under construction in the United States!! This incredible project is the result of a decade of privately-administered effort to create flight worthy examples of the Messerschmitt 262 fighter, and is now entering its final stages. Formerly subcontracted to the Texas Airplane Factory and administered by Classic Fighter Industries, Inc. the WTMF owner's group has now assumed watch over the final, and most critical, phase of the project. Our Seattle-based team of expert designers, engineers and technicians recently completed the flight test...

Louis Hernandez and Vincent Radkiewicz met by chance two years ago, at an East Side pancake house. Hernandez had a postcard from Poland but couldn't read it. Radkiewicz, another customer, could - and did. The two struck up a conversation. Hernandez told Radkiewicz, a Polish native, that he was shot down over Poland during World War II. Radkiewicz, 66, who remembers the horrors of the war, realized he could do something to thank Hernandez, 83, for his sacrifice. So he did. Hernandez was a World War II pilot with the 452nd Bomber Group based in England. On June 21, 1944,...

You've heard the rumors, perhaps even seen a magazine article or two -- several Me 262 jets are now under construction in the United States!! This incredible project is the result of a eight-year production and engineering effort, now entering its final stages.  Formerly subcontracted to the Texas Airplane Factory and administered by Classic Fighter Industries, Inc. the WTMF owner's group has now  assumed watch over the final, and most critical, phase of the project.  Our Seattle-based team of expert designers, engineers and technicians expects to reach the flight test stage in the next three months. SPECIAL UPDATE for...