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On December 15, 1924 Lt. Clyde V. Finter successfully docked a Verville-Sperry M-1 Messenger biplane with an Army Air Service TC-3 dirigible over Scott Field, Missouri. This was the first successful hook-on and release from another aircraft in flight. The idea was to see if long-range airships could carry their own defensive aircraft in flight. While increasingly long-range aircraft an the inherent limitations of lighter-than-air craft were becoming obvious, the idea of a long range aircraft carrying its own protection in the form of a smaller "parasite" fighter was revisited as late as the 1950's, with tests of giant B-36 bombers carrying small "Goblin" fighters successfully undertaken, but again, abandoned as impractical.

Stu Shepherd has been an aviation illustrator for nearly twenty years. His work is mostly known by box cover art on aircraft model kits made by Revell and Monogram, for whom he has done over 300 images (now including car box art and Star Wars items too). Stu has also worked in the Computer Game and Internet Community industries. He also creates art in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Genres, with his strength in spaceship design and environments. Stu just completed his first novel Sci-fi, and will soon complete his second. He lives in Central California.