HYDEF Hypersonic Interceptor: Europe’s Answer Clears Stage One
Share this story A hypersonic glide vehicle gives a defender very little time and even less certainty. It flies inside the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound and can change course on the way in. Europe wants an interceptor designed specifically for...
Dien Bien Phu Airlift: CAT Pilots, Earthquake McGoon and the Last Drops
Share this story In November 1953 the French army dropped thousands of paratroopers into a remote valley in northwest Vietnam, repaired an old Japanese-built airstrip and dared the Viet Minh to attack. Dien Bien Phu was meant to be an airhead: a fortress that lived...
Air France and KLM Fined $425,000 for Delta-Coded Flights Over Iraq
Share this story An American safety rule does not normally apply to a French or Dutch airline. Put a Delta flight number on the ticket, though, and it does. That is the lesson Air France and KLM have just paid $425,000 to learn, after the US Department of...
Archange: France’s Falcon 8X Spy Jet Arrives at Évreux for Evaluation
Share this story France has had a gap in its electronic ears since 2022, and a business jet with an unusual bulge under its nose is about to close it. The first Dassault Falcon 8X Archange, the French Air and Space Force’s new strategic signals-intelligence...
Helsing Contra: AI Interceptors Built to Hunt Russia’s Jet Gerans
Share this story Europe’s best-funded defence start-up has decided the drone war needs a cheaper bullet. On Monday 26 October in Berlin, Helsing unveiled Contra, an AI-controlled air defence system, together with two interceptors of its own: the jet-powered AD-1...
EASA Design Organisation Approval: Europe’s Answer to the ODA
Share this story Suppose you want to build an airliner. In the United States you file an application for a type certificate and the Federal Aviation Administration begins work. Your company needs no prior approval to exist as a designer; the FAA will, over the...
Ukrainian Air Force Wings: NATO-Style Overhaul Planned to 2035
Share this story Ukraine’s Air Force is planning to rebuild itself around Western-style aviation wings and multi-type air bases. Yurii Ihnat, head of the Communications Department at Air Force Command, laid out the plan in an interview on RBC-Ukraine’s...
Airbus and BAE Systems to Discuss an Airbus Role in GCAP Fighter
Share this story Germany’s fighter question has moved from the chancelleries to the boardrooms. Executives from Airbus are set to sit down with BAE Systems to explore how the European group could join the GCAP fighter programme, the Global Combat Air Programme...
Neil Armstrong’s Four Close Calls: Korea, Gemini 8, the Flying Bedstead and the Moon
Share this story When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon on 20 July 1969, he was 38 years old and had already survived more close calls than most pilots see in a career. Two ejections, a spacecraft tumbling out of control in orbit, and a landing that ended with the...
Cargolux 747-8F LX-VCF: Landing Gear Collapses While Parked
Share this story Landing gear failures usually make headlines on touchdown, at speed, with a crew fighting to keep a heavy aircraft straight. This one happened with the aircraft standing still. On Friday morning, 23 October 2026, the left wing landing gear of a...
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