The Iran War’s $4.3 Billion Airline Bill

The Iran War’s $4.3 Billion Airline Bill

Share this story Last year the Middle East’s airlines made $7.2 billion. This year they are on track to lose $4.3 billion. That is an eleven-and-a-half-billion-dollar swing in twelve months, and it makes the Gulf the only major airline region on earth expected...
Two Crashes, Forty-Eight Hours, One Question

Two Crashes, Forty-Eight Hours, One Question

Share this story The Turbulent weighs about as much as two adult passengers. It is built from wood and fabric, powered by a converted Volkswagen Beetle engine, and its own display team has cheerfully described it as little more than a flying motorbike. On Sunday...
Spain’s First Kill Over Romania

Spain’s First Kill Over Romania

Share this story At 04:44 on Sunday morning, a Romanian radar operator watched a small, slow-moving return cross the Prut and slide into national airspace from Moldova, roughly 24 kilometres north of Galați. Seventeen minutes later it no longer existed.The...
The Publicity Photo That Killed the Valkyrie

The Publicity Photo That Killed the Valkyrie

Share this story It was supposed to be a photograph. Five gleaming aircraft, all powered by the same company’s engines, tucked into tight formation over the California desert for a publicity shot. Twenty minutes later, two of them were falling out of the sky,...
Concordski: The Day the Soviet SST Fell

Concordski: The Day the Soviet SST Fell

Share this story The West called it “Concordski,” half in mockery. It flew two months before Concorde, looked almost identical, and carried the pride of the entire Soviet aerospace industry on its needle nose. On 3 June 1973, in front of a quarter of a...
Colonel Toon: The Ace Who Never Was

Colonel Toon: The Ace Who Never Was

Share this story He had thirteen American kills, a colonel’s rank, and a name that made young U.S. pilots go quiet: Colonel Toon. He was North Vietnam’s deadliest ace, the ghost every Navy flier feared meeting over Haiphong. There was only one problem with...
The Pentagon Wants Lasers That Fly

The Pentagon Wants Lasers That Fly

Share this story Cheap drones have humbled expensive air defenses for years now. The Pentagon’s answer keeps coming back to the same idea: a weapon that fires light, costs pennies a shot, and never runs out of magazine. This week a senior Defense Department...
The Huey’s Last Days Over Washington

The Huey’s Last Days Over Washington

Share this story For 55 years, the same stubby twin-engine helicopter has clattered over Washington, ferrying VIPs and standing ready to whisk officials out of the capital in a crisis. The UH-1N Huey’s watch is finally ending. On 12 August 2026, the Air Force...
The Soviet Hind That Fights for the Marines

The Soviet Hind That Fights for the Marines

Share this story In the California desert this month, U.S. Marines rehearsed an attack under fire from an unlikely enemy: a Soviet gunship built to kill NATO troops. The Mi-24 Hind was not captured, and it was not a mock-up. It was the real thing, flying for the other...
CENTCOM Builds a Drone Army in the Gulf

CENTCOM Builds a Drone Army in the Gulf

Share this story For years the drone story in the Middle East was about what the other side could do — Iranian Shaheds, Houthi one-way attackers, the slow bleed of American surveillance drones falling from the sky. This week, U.S. Central Command answered with a...