Jet Aces #4

In "Death-Date at 40,000," Col. Kylov confronts Capt. Wings in a high-stakes aerial duel above the clouds, each flying a jet from opposing sides of the Cold War divide—Wings in his Grumman F9F Panther, Kylov in his MiG-15—driven by a bitter accusation that Wings betrayed his own men. The tension crackles as two pilots, bound by duty and distrust, face off in a fight that’s as much about honor as it is about survival.

Murph arrives at his squadron already skeptical of Tomkins, the old-timer veteran who seems aloof and cynical about volunteering for dangerous missions. When Murph is shot down behind enemy lines during a coast sweep, Tomkins unexpectedly volunteers to pilot a ramshackle amphibian on a rescue mission into MIG-infested territory—proving there's more to the gruff pilot than his jaded surface suggests. It's a tense high-altitude duel that reveals what real courage looks like when it counts most.

Captain Stan Wells haunts himself with memories of a mysterious Sabre that strafed American infantry during a close-support run near White Horse Mountain—but his own damaged plane bore the scars, and his squadron mates won't believe his story. When another pilot falls victim to the phantom killer, Wells and "Sox" Davis race to intercept the mysterious attacker before suspicion tears their unit apart.

Capt. Dave Heller is a natural fighter pilot—the kind of ace who trusts his instincts in combat—but when he's promoted to major and given command of a squadron, he discovers that leading men requires more than individual skill and daring. Heller pushes his pilots hard to rack up kills against enemy fighters, but a critical mission to strafe advancing Communist troops forces him to confront what really matters in war, and whether his way is the only way.

Colonel Kane leads 177 B-24 Liberators on a daring daylight raid against the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania on August 1, 1943—a strike so vital that the crews have trained relentlessly on dummy targets to ensure precision. When your plane successfully drops its payload on the Astra Romana refinery, enemy fighters close in hard, crippling two engines and forcing a desperate, fuel-starved run for friendly territory. As Colonel Kane nurses the damaged bomber across mountains and toward safety, the crew jettisons everything they can spare, racing against fuel and altitude to bring their ship home.