Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Fight Over TAP
Portugal has put its flag carrier back on the block, and on 29 July 2026 two of Europe’s three airline mega-groups laid their cards on the table. Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Group both filed binding offers for a stake in TAP Air Portugal. The third giant, IAG —...
Ukraine Loses Another F-16 in Combat
On 29 July 2026, the Ukrainian Air Force reported the loss of an F-16 during a combat mission to intercept Russian air targets. The pilot ejected and survived.According to the Air Force, controllers lost contact with the aircraft while it was engaged over one section...
Air India’s Fuel Switch Passed Every Test
On 30 July 2026, India’s government told Parliament something that, more than a year after the Air India 171 disaster, only makes the central mystery harder to solve: the Boeing 787’s fuel control switches — the very components at the heart of the...
A US Drone Triggered a Korean Border Scare
At about 2:30 in the afternoon on 30 July 2026, sensors along South Korea’s border with the North picked up something they couldn’t identify: an unmanned aircraft, near a frontline outpost, not squawking anything friendly. In the most heavily militarised...
A Sensor Failure Stripped an A320’s Stall Protection
On 6 July 2026, British Airways flight BA919 from Düsseldorf was on its initial approach to London Heathrow’s Runway 27L when the aircraft, an Airbus A320-232 registered G-EUUN, lost a piece of information most passengers never think about: reliable airspeed. An...
South Korea Finishes Building Its Own Fighter
On 29 July 2026, at Korea Aerospace Industries’ plant in Sacheon, South Korea did something only a handful of nations have ever managed: it declared its own supersonic fighter finished. The KF-21 Boramae — “young hawk” — is officially through...
France’s Biggest Airlifter Turns Water Bomber
Over the pine forests of the Gironde, a shape far too large to be a water bomber banks low, opens its rear cargo ramp, and lets a red cascade of retardant fall across the treetops. This is no yellow Canadair. It is an Airbus A400M Atlas, the biggest tactical airlifter...
The F-101 Voodoo: The Treetop Spy Camera Over Cuba
Some warplanes make their name in dogfights, twisting through the sky with guns blazing. The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo made most of its name doing the opposite: flying low, flying flat out, and flying completely unarmed straight over the people trying to kill it,...
The Tu-160 White Swan: The Largest Combat Aircraft Ever Built
Some aircraft impress by their cleverness. The Tupolev Tu-160 impresses first by its sheer dimensions. At 54.1 metres (177 ft 6 in) it is longer than a Boeing B-52, and when its wings are spread it measures 55.7 metres (182 ft 9 in) from tip to tip. Painted in...
Dutch Roll: The Wobble Swept-Wing Jets Are Built to Fight
Every swept-wing jet you have ever flown on carries a small, tireless piece of automation whose only job is to stop the aircraft from wallowing. The motion it suppresses has a name that sounds almost comical: Dutch roll. It is neither a stall nor a spin, but a slow,...
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