France Gets Its First Special-Ops Caïman
France’s special forces are about to get a very different kind of helicopter. On Jul. 30, 2026, Airbus Helicopters announced the delivery of the first NH90 Caïman Standard 2 — a purpose-built special-operations version of France’s standard...
Britain Builds an Islander Again After 60 Years
It is one of the least glamorous aircraft in the sky and one of the most useful: a boxy, high-wing twin that lands in under a thousand feet, seats nine, and turns up wearing airline colours, army camouflage and even spy fits. Now, for the first time in almost sixty...
Italy’s Quiet Shield Over the Gulf
For four months, one of Europe’s larger air forces was fighting a quiet air-defence campaign over the Arabian Peninsula — and almost nobody noticed. Since the second half of March 2026, Italy has kept Eurofighter Typhoons, an early-warning aircraft and a...
Singapore Eyes Europe’s Sixth-Gen Fighter
Singapore has a habit of buying the best fighter it can find, years before it strictly needs it — and doing so quietly. So when reports emerged on 30 July that the city-state has opened exploratory talks around the Global Combat Air Programme, the...
Turkish F-16s Take Over the Baltic Watch
On Friday, the flags came down at Ämari. Portuguese airmen who had spent months guarding the Baltic sky handed the watch to a new crew, and for the first time the pilots taking over spoke Turkish. Five Turkish F-16 Fighting Falcons are now sitting alert in Estonia,...
Ice Killed Both Engines — Everyone Walked Away
At 08:47 on the morning of 27 December 1991, a nearly new SAS MD-81 lifted off from a frozen Stockholm-Arlanda. It had sat out the night in near-freezing air with cold fuel chilling its wings, and a layer of clear ice — invisible, glass-smooth — had built...
The Luftwaffe’s Last, Desperate Sunrise Gamble
Before dawn on New Year’s Day 1945, while much of the Allied camp slept off its celebrations, hundreds of German fighters lifted off in near-total silence. No radios. Incomplete maps. Pilots who, in many cases, had been told only minutes earlier where they were...
The French Ace Who Wrote ‘The Big Show’
He was born in Brazil, to a father from Alsace and a mother from Lorraine, and learned to fly at a club in Rio. He would end the war a wing commander in the Royal Air Force at the age of twenty-four, and General de Gaulle would call him “France’s First...
Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Fight Over TAP
Portugal has put its flag carrier back on the block, and on 29 July 2026 two of Europe’s three airline mega-groups laid their cards on the table. Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Group both filed binding offers for a stake in TAP Air Portugal. The third giant, IAG —...
Ukraine Loses Another F-16 in Combat
On 29 July 2026, the Ukrainian Air Force reported the loss of an F-16 during a combat mission to intercept Russian air targets. The pilot ejected and survived.According to the Air Force, controllers lost contact with the aircraft while it was engaged over one section...
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