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What's New from 2008 to the present

Acepilots.com main page 2007

Home page 2007

Acepilots.com main page 2003

Home page 2003

Acepilots.com main page 2000

Home page 2000

What's New

Updates from 1999 - 2007

By , June, 1999. Updated July 4, 2011.

Most recent items first:

2007

June, 2007

Ships of World War Two, a major new section begun, starting with the U.S. Navy

Optimized the Google ads, blending them in with the site


April, 2007, added -

Aircraft photos from 1936-38
Breguet 19
Boeing 247
Curtiss Falcon O-1
Fokker Trimotor
Cradle of Aviation Museum, in Nassau County, Long Island, NY
Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber

March, 2007, added -

Hall of Fame of the Air (HFA) - a collection of 1930's newspaper features about noted aviators and airplanes and some pages for airplanes featured on the HFA
Ansaldo SVA biplane
Avro 504
Voisin bomber

 March, 2007 - Added Howard Hughes page

February, 2007 - Updated copyright dates, did miscellaneous maintenance, and added Amazon Omakase ads. The site is now getting about 20,000 visits per day.

March, 2005 - Added James Howard article

2004

Fall/Winter - added several articles on Korean War aces written by Diego Zampini
    - Yevgeny Pepelyayev
    - Russian Aces over Korea
    - George Davis
    - Winton Marshall
    - Dick Becker

August - Edited out defunct Ebay ads

2003

October, 2003 - Began my blog, The Politburo Diktat, a satirical, faux-Commie look at news and politics

October, 2003 - Added Frank Hawks page
    - Added Alexander de Seversky article
    - Added Charles Kingsford Smith profile
    - Added several images of 1935 "Hall of Fame of the Air" cartoon features to World War One Aces articles

September, 2003 - Added Lothar von Richthofen page
    - Added Cradle of Aviation Museum trip report

Added the Shakespeare Dictionary

August, 2003 - Added Erich Löwenhardt page
    - Added Fokker D VII article
    - Added Focke-Wulf 190 article

July, 2003 - Added Google Adsense links
    - 5,500 page views per day
    - updated the P-40 Warhawk page
    - Added Messerschmitt Bf 109 article

March, 2003 - Added original blog (see October 2003)

2002

December, 2002 - Added:

World War Two Picture page

Boyd "Buzz" Wagner page

Robert Latshaw page

James Kasler page


Added Iven Kincheloe page

    - Added Robin Olds in WWII page
    - Added Chuck Older page

    - Added Tom Lanphier article
    - Added Walter Beckham page
    - Added Glenn T. Eagleston page
    - Added Glenn Duncan article
    - Added Fred Christensen page
    - Added David Lee "Tex" Hill - article on a Flying Tiger

November, 2002 - Why Did You Build This Website? essay
    - Vietnamese MiG Aces by Diego Zampini
    - The Search for Manuel "Pete" Fernandez
    - Added Russian MiG-15 Aces of the Korean War, by Diego Zampini
    - Added Soviet P-39 Aces
    - Added Robin Olds article, by Diego Zampini
    - 5,000 page views per day

October, 2002 - Added Randy Cunningham article

September, 2002 - Added P-61 Black Widow article
    - Added F-86 Sabre article
    - Added B-29 Superfortress page
    - Added Site Map
    - Incorporated CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) into site
    - Added Walter Nowotny page

August, 2002 - Added B-24 Liberator article article
    - Added Steve Ritchie page
    - Added WW2 Aircraft Nose Art page
    - Added Japanese Fighter Planes page
    - Added German Luftwaffe Aces page
    - Added U.S. World War II Medals page
    - Added James McCudden page
    - Added links to Ebay
    - Added B-25 Mitchell page
    - Added Adolph Galland page

July, 2002 - Expanded Frank Luke article

    - Added B-17 Flying Fortress page

April, 2002 - Added pages on U.S. Fighter Planes: F4F Grumman Wildcat, F4U Vought Corsair, F6F Grumman Hellcat, F8F Grumman Bearcat, P-38 Lockheed Lightning, P-39 Bell Airacobra, P-40 Curtis Warhawk, P-47 Republic Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang

February, 2002 - Shut down parallel site on westnet.com (the original URL)
    - 3500 page hits per day

2001

August, 2001 - Added the World War One Aces section: Richthofen, Rickenbacker, Fonck, Mannock, Bishop, Goering, Boelcke, etc.

May, 2001 - Added the Ed Shaw article
    - 3000 page hits per day (nice bump when movie "Pearl Harbor" released)
    - removed most of Altavista links when program cancelled
    - added new "Amazon Recommends" dynamic links

April, 2001 - Expanded the Jabara and Fischer articles, to reflect info from Soviet records.
    - Added TBF/TBM Avenger page page
    - Added 1944 Aircraft Plants page
    - 2000+ page hits per day

March, 2001 - Added X-15 page
    - Added Pappy Boyington's Corsair page
    - Added Baa Baa Black Sheep TV show page

February, 2001 - Added VMF-323, "Death Rattlers" page

January, 2001 - Added Thomas Lynch page
    - Added John Bolt page

January, 2001 - Added a lot on Pappy Boyington:
    - Expanded the Pappy Boyington article into two pages
    - Added a VMF-214 Squadron History
    - Added Black Sheep Aces page

January, 2001 - Added section on Aviation Pioneers
    - Charles Lindbergh
    - Amelia Earhart
    - Wiley Post

500+ visitors per day, over 1500 individual page hits

2000

October, 2000 - Added page on Fighter Aircraft Manufacturers

August - Added John Glenn article and moved site to acepilots.com

April 18 - Added Erich Hartmann and Flying Tigers pages

March 25 - added Korean War Aces section
    added "Search This Site" feature

March 11 - reformatted many pages with headlines, removed background images (too distracting), added more white space; about 150 visitors per day

March 4 - added Robert Goebel page

February 24 - added Tuskegee Airmen article,
    added Navy Squadron Summary Table (only for data junkies!)
    added Table of Aerial Victories for Naval Fighter Planes - Hellcats, Wildcats, Corsairs (only for data junkies!)

February 17, 2000 - added Ensign Tillar's story to VF-2 article,
    made separate page for VF-2,
    updated McCampbell article,
    added image banner to main page

February 14, 2000 -

February 9, 2000 - about 120 visitors per day, added Amazon.com search boxes to pilot pages

January 5, 2000 - expanded Tommy McGuire article. Number of visitors dropped to 100 per day over the holidays.

1999

December 23, 1999 - expanded VF-31: Nooy, Hawkins, & Wirth article, made new page

December 12 - expanded Ham McWhorter article, made new page

December 8 - expanded Don Strait and John Loisel articles, made new pages

December 5 - added Bruce Porter page, averaging about 140 visitors per day

November 9 - added John Mitchell/Yamamoto Raid page

November 4 - website featured on Netscape's "What's New" - 750 visitors that day

October 23 - added Chuck Yeager page

October 13-20 - split out many pilot pages, as the main pages were getting too big to load quickly. Also began offering books thru Amazon.com Associates program

October - about 90 visitors per day

October - added Bill Dean and VF-2 page

September - added Tommy Blackburn & Roger Hedrick articles, based on reading The Jolly Rogers

August - about 50 visitors per day

July 20 - Split out USAAF MTO pilots.

July - expanded articles on the USMC fliers, based on reading The Cactus Air Force

June 16, 1999 - Launched website, originally a word document that I had created from surfing through many other websites

MY THANKS TO:

I started this website as a purely individual effort, "flying solo" if you will. But I have received so much help from so many people, that I would like to recognize them.

My wife, Elaine, for putting up with this, and all my other hobbies

My Dad, for his service in the US Navy in WW2 and for sharing with me his love of history

Joe Clark, who shared photos from his family's collection, seen on the Clark Gallery

Bill Cline, who shared his fathers' WW2 photos, seen on the Nose Art page

Charlotte Maloney Davidson, who generously donated to this website her first edition of Robert Sherrod's History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II, so that others could find out more about those men and those events

Bruce Gamble, author of a couple books on Pappy Boyington, who was equally generous. Thanks to Mr. Gamble, the site now has a lot on the famous Pappy Boyington.

Bob Goebel and Ham McWhorter, two aces featured on this site, who "made my day" by communicating with me

Eric Hammel, author of military history, who generously let me have a number of review copies of his books and a lot of his time and insight

Dan McAnarney, who provided me with a lot of good feedback on the Ed Shaw article.

Diego Zampini, who has added lots of good info on the Korean War and jet age aces: Russian, Vietnamese, and Americans.