Rafale: Omnirole, Combat-Proven and Exported, but Not in Ukraine
Share this story A post circulating on Instagram sums up the Dassault Rafale as the ultimate “omnirole” fighter: carrier operations, nuclear strike, close air support and air superiority “from a single airframe without configuration changes”,...
Ocean Molica: U.S. Fighter Jet Disables Ship Running the Iran Blockade
Share this story Ignore a U.S. warship on channel 16 and you may get a very short, very loud reply. On Saturday, 10 October 2026, a U.S. fighter jet put a precision-guided munition into the stern of the Panama-flagged cargo ship M/V Ocean Molica in the Gulf of Oman,...
Inside the Su-34 Cockpit: No Bunk, No Tail Radar, and a Can Heater
Share this story The Sukhoi Su-34 “Fullback” is one of the odder fighters in service: a two-seat strike jet with the crew sitting side by side, a pressurised cabin you can stand up in, and a reputation for creature comforts. A post circulating on Instagram...
Dornier Do X: The Swiss-Built Flying Boat That Was the Jumbo of 1929
Share this story In a glass case at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne sits a model of a flying boat with twelve engines mounted in pairs above its wing. The placard beside it calls the Dornier Do X the “Jumbo der 1930er-Jahre”, the jumbo of the...
Riyadh Airport Attack: 12 Killed as Missile Hits King Khalid Terminals
Share this story The third strike in four days was the one nobody walked away from. On Saturday, 10 October 2026, a projectile slammed into King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the Saudi capital’s main gateway, killing at least 12 people and wounding...
Faster Than Any Fighter? The Lockheed Orion at the Swiss Museum of Transport
Share this story In the aviation hall of the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne hangs a bright red low-wing monoplane with white stripes and Swissair titles. The placard beneath it is headed “Faster than any Fighter-Plane”. It is the Lockheed Orion, the...
Queen Suthida Flies the Gripen Solo: Thailand’s First Female Gripen Pilot
Share this story At 10:06 on Thursday 8 October 2026, a single-seat JAS 39C Gripen rolled down Runway 22 at Wing 7, Surat Thani, in southern Thailand. In the cockpit, alone, was Queen Suthida. She landed 41 minutes later as, in the words of the Bureau of the Royal...
FAA Special Airports: How Captains Qualify for Aspen and Telluride
Share this story Telluride Regional sits on a mesa in south-west Colorado at 9,069.7 feet, which makes it the highest commercial-service airport in the United States by a wide margin. The runway is 7,111 feet long and ends, at both ends, in air. The FAA’s own...
Forward Scatter Radar: The Fence Stealth Cannot Defeat
Share this story Stealth is an argument about angles. Shape an airframe so that almost everything a radar sends at it leaves in some other direction, coat what is left so that part of the remainder turns into heat, and the energy coming back to the transmitter falls...
Saba, Lukla and Courchevel: The World’s Shortest Runways
Share this story De Havilland Canada publishes a short-field take-off figure for the Twin Otter: 366 metres. The declared take-off run available on runway 12 at Saba is 349 metres. Runway 30 gives you 355. The scheduled aeroplane that serves the island needs more...
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