JF-17 Thunder: The Pakistan-China Fighter That Keeps Finding Buyers
Share this story Not every successful fighter needs to be the best in the world. Some just need to be good enough, affordable and available. The JF-17 Thunder, built jointly by Pakistan and China, has turned that formula into an export success, and this year it became...
Air Battle of Mansoura 1973: Egypt’s 53-Minute MiG-21 Fight
Share this story At a quarter past three on the afternoon of 14 October 1973, Egyptian radar operators in the Nile Delta watched a formation of Israeli jets sweep in from the Mediterranean near Port Said. Over the next 53 minutes, the sky above the Delta filled with...
Azerbaijan Orders 14 Hürkuş-II Trainers in $500 Million Turkish Deal
Share this story Turkey’s newest military trainer has found a buyer next door. At the ADEX 2026 defence exhibition in Baku on 30 September, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a package of defence contracts worth more than $500 million, and the headline item was an...
WestJet Starts Retiring the Boeing 737-700: 27 Jets Go to FTAI
Share this story WestJet was built on the Boeing 737-700. On 28 September 2026 it started getting rid of them, and it did so in the same week the aeroplane meant to replace them lost its certification date. The mechanism is an agreement with FTAI Aviation covering 27...
Ethiopian Airlines Orders Ten Boeing Freighters, Eight of Them 777-8Fs
Share this story Eight of the ten aeroplanes Ethiopian Airlines just bought do not exist yet. That is the interesting part. On 30 September 2026 Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines announced an order for ten freighters: two 777Fs, the twin-engine workhorse that has hauled...
Cost Index: The Number That Decides How Fast Your Flight Flies
Share this story Somewhere in the twenty minutes before your flight pushed back, one of the pilots typed a number into a keypad on the centre console. It was probably two or three digits. It took about four seconds. That number decided how fast you are about to fly,...
Caspian Airlines Boeing 737 Seized at Istanbul Airport Over €3M Debt
Share this story The passengers were in their seats. The bags were in the hold. The Boeing 737 was ready to push back for Iran. Then, on Monday evening, 28 September 2026, lawyers and court enforcement officers walked up to the aircraft at Istanbul Airport with a...
Ukraine’s F-16s Have Downed 3,150 Aerial Targets, Air Force Says
Share this story When the first F-16 Fighting Falcons arrived in Ukraine in the summer of 2024, a lot of people expected dogfights. What Ukraine got instead was a night shift. Its F-16s have spent most of the war hunting cruise missiles and attack drones over...
Is the F-22 Coming Back? What’s Real Behind the Raptor Restart Headlines
Share this story “The F-22 could return” is back in the headlines. Reports this week claim the United States is examining new production of the F-22 Raptor, the stealth fighter whose line closed in 2011. It is an irresistible story. It is also, on the...
Rejected Take-Off Explained: What V1 Really Means for Pilots
Share this story Every airline take-off has a moment when the pilot’s choice disappears. Before it, a crew that sees a fire warning or loses an engine can pull the thrust levers back and stop on the runway. After it, the same crew must keep going and take the...
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