Farnborough’s $28 Billion Opening Act
Share this story Every couple of years, the aviation industry decamps to a former airfield in Hampshire and spends a week trying to out-announce itself. Farnborough 2026 is no exception — and by the close of the second day, the scoreboard had already ticked past...
Six Flags, One Submarine Hunter
Share this story Hunting a submarine is a team sport. This year, at the world’s largest naval exercise, the team stopped stopping at national borders — and started sharing the same aircraft.For the first time at RIMPAC, the U.S. Navy is flying mixed...
Golden Eagles Cross the Arafura Sea
Share this story The message came from Air Operations Command in Jakarta, and for the ninety-five men and women of Skadron Udara 15 it meant something none of them had done before: pack up five jets, cross the Arafura Sea, and go fly with the world.For the first time,...
Manila’s Mach-1.5 Guard Dog Gets Sharper Teeth
Share this story The Philippines is doubling down on the little jet that guards its skies — and this time it is buying the version that finally bites back at range.The Philippine Air Force has confirmed that its next 12 FA-50 fighters remain on schedule, with...
Ten Nights of Fire Over Iran
Share this story Ten nights in, the pattern has become grimly familiar. Shortly after 9:00 p.m. Eastern on 20 July, U.S. Central Command announced it had finished another round of strikes on Iran — the tenth consecutive night — hitting military command...
Indonesia Buys a Trainer That Shoots Back
Share this story Jakarta went shopping for a frontline fighter and came home, instead, with a very clever trainer that shoots back.At Farnborough on 21 July, Leonardo and its Indonesian partner PT ESystem Solutions signed a contract with Indonesia’s Ministry of...
Europe Quietly Joins the Ghost Bat
Share this story Australia built the Ghost Bat. Europe, it turns out, has been quietly helping all along — and at Farnborough, Boeing finally said so out loud.On 21 July, MQ-28 Program Global Director Glen Ferguson confirmed that Italy’s Leonardo has...
Lockheed Just Halved the Price of a Patriot Shot
Share this story Modern air defense has a money problem, and everybody knows it. A single Patriot shot can cost more than the drone it swats down, and in a war where the incoming threats are cheap and endless, the math eventually breaks the defender, not the attacker....
The Feud That Became a Company
Share this story There is a company on the New York Stock Exchange today whose name is a peace treaty between two men who spent a decade trying to destroy each other in court. Orville and Wilbur Wright patented powered flight. Glenn Curtiss started building aeroplanes...
America Built a Cruise Missile in 1918
Share this story At 5:55 on the evening of Friday 4 October 1918, a small biplane with cardboard wings and a papier-mâché body lifted off a wheeled dolly running down a portable track near Dayton, Ohio. There was nobody aboard and nobody controlling it. It was...
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