Established December 1997

During its initial four-year run, Uncommon Aircraft provided information about little-known military aircraft, defined as military aircraft which exist in the nooks and crannies of military aviation history. Specifically:

• Military aircraft conceived with a specific military role; i.e., fighter, bomber, recon, transport, etc.; but not research aircraft with no intended military mission.
• At least one example of the aircraft was built and flown.
• A large number of the aircraft were not built.
• The aircraft most likely did not see service use (other than operational evaluation).
• The aircraft was not a variant of an existing aircraft.

In other words, airplanes that, for one reason or another, were not successful, where success is defined as entering military service in significant numbers. This does not imply that these aircraft were failures, merely that there were perhaps other airplanes that were more successful in their intended mission, their perceived mission was eliminated or changed, or they demonstrated how not to do it. Mostly though, aircraft are chosen at the author's whim.

After almost a three-year hiatus, Uncommon Aircraft was updated and revised in January 2005. Some data no longer deemed relevant was removed, while the remaining information was re-organized in a new format. Many existing images were re-scanned at higher resolutions for greater clarity. Over the course of that year, some new reference data was updated, such as additional Luftwaffe fighter insignia. Some new reference information was added: US Military Aircraft Acquisition Programs and Luftwaffe Aircraft Acquisition Programs, and a section about unknown aircraft.

In 2011 and 2013, the Japanese Military Aircraft Designations reference information was expanded, including more detailed information about pre-World War II aircraft. In 2013, an Overview of US Radar Countermeasures and SAM suppression Aircraft was added to the USA reference information.

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