The Raid That Blew Open a Gestapo Prison
Share this story At noon on 18 February 1944, the guards of Amiens prison sat down to lunch, as they did every day. Outside, snow lay deep across Picardy and the sky was a low grey ceiling. Inside the cruciform building, behind a three-and-a-half-metre perimeter wall,...
A Kamikaze Drone Launches From a Warship
Share this story Off the south coast of England, a small black flying wing shot off a catapult rail bolted to the deck of a moving Royal Navy ship, climbed away on a whining turbojet, and flew itself to a target. No pilot, no recovery, no second chances — the Nyan is...
The Ramjet Fighter That Hit Mach 2 on Half an Engine
Share this story Somewhere over central France in the late 1950s, test pilot André Turcat pushes a strange delta-winged aircraft past the speed where a normal jet engine begins to gasp for air. And that is when the Nord Griffon comes alive. Behind him, a ramjet the...
Real Bombers Grounded the World’s Biggest Airshow
Share this story Every July, a quiet corner of Gloucestershire becomes the busiest military airfield on Earth. Fighters, bombers and display teams from dozens of nations pack the ramp at RAF Fairford for the Royal International Air Tattoo — the largest military...
The UK’s Drones Won’t Always Ask Permission to Fire
Share this story For decades, one rule has sat quietly at the centre of Western air power: a human being decides when a weapon kills. On June 30, 2026, Britain edged away from it. Buried inside a sweeping Defence Investment Plan — more than £5 billion for drones, the...
The £4.6 Billion Cheque That Starts a Sixth-Gen Fighter
Share this story For months, Europe’s most ambitious fighter programme had a hole in the middle of it: the money. On July 3, 2026, that hole was filled. The United Kingdom, Italy and Japan signed a £4.6 billion ($6.1 billion) contract to push their sixth-generation...
NATO’s Next Radar Jet Is Swedish
Share this story For 44 years, the deep rumble of Boeing E-3A Sentries out of Geilenkirchen has been the sound of NATO watching its own skies. Now, according to a Reuters report published on 2 July, the alliance is preparing to hand that job to a jet from a country...
China Grounds All General Aviation After Light Plane Hits Beijing Skyscraper
Share this story Share this story China has grounded all general aviation nationwide — private light aircraft, business jets, flight schools, parachute clubs, and glider operations — after a small single-engine plane crashed into the CITIC Tower in central Beijing on...
GCAP Locked In: UK Pledges £8.6 Billion for Sixth-Gen Fighter
Share this story The world’s most ambitious sixth-generation fighter programme just survived its biggest political test. The United Kingdom has committed £8.6 billion over the next four years to the Global Combat Air Programme, as part of its new £298 billion...
The Embraer-Northrop KC-390 Partnership: A Brazilian Tanker for American Skies
A Brazilian Air Force KC-390 Millennium (FAB 2858) on display at NATO Days 2023 in the Czech Republic. The aircraft has rapidly gained traction with European air forces. (Wikimedia Commons) In February 2026, Embraer and Northrop Grumman signed a memorandum of...
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