Pilot Wings: The History of the Military Aviator Badge
Share this story At Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Florida, a winging ceremony builds to one moment: family members step forward and pin a small gold badge on the chest of a newly graduated naval aviator. Years of flight training come down to that. In April 2026,...
Ye-166: The Soviet Speed Record Jet That Never Existed
Share this story On 7 July 1962, Georgy Mosolov flew a sleek Soviet delta-winged jet down a measured course twice, once in each direction, and averaged 2,681 kilometres per hour. That made it the fastest aircraft in the world. The paperwork sent to the Fédération...
Lockheed CL-400 Suntan: Kelly Johnson’s Hydrogen-Fuelled Spy Plane
Share this story In January 1956, Kelly Johnson walked into the Pentagon with an offer the Air Force could not refuse. The man who had just built the U-2 proposed a successor that would cruise at Mach 2.5 and nearly 100,000 feet, and he promised the first of two...
Gripen E Engine: Saab and GKN Deepen Work as Sweden Builds Know-How
Share this story The Gripen E is a Swedish fighter with an American heart. Its engine is a General Electric F414, the same family that powers the Super Hornet. On 8 October 2026, Saab and GKN Aerospace signed an agreement that gives Sweden a bigger hand in looking...
Herbst Maneuver: How the X-31 Turned on Its Tail in 1993
Share this story Every fighter pilot is taught to respect the stall. Pull too hard, raise the nose too far, and the wing stops producing lift and the aircraft stops doing what you want. On 29 April 1993, over the Mojave Desert, the second Rockwell-MBB X-31...
X-51A Waverider: 210 Seconds Above Mach 5 on a Scramjet
Share this story The X-43A proved a scramjet could work for ten seconds. The question the US Air Force asked next was harder: could one keep working for minutes, burning the kind of fuel a real aircraft could carry? On 1 May 2013, over the Pacific, the Boeing X-51A...
X-43A Hyper-X: NASA’s Scramjet That Hit Mach 9.6 in 2004
Share this story Off the coast of southern California on 16 November 2004, a NASA B-52B released a rocket with a strange, flat, surfboard-shaped object bolted to its nose. The Pegasus booster lit, climbed to about 110,000 feet and let go. For roughly ten seconds, the...
L-39 Skyfox Drone Hunter Gets Thales Laser-Guided Rockets
Share this story The jet trainer most famous for teaching pilots to fly fast is learning a new trade: hunting drones. Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody and Thales Belgium announced on 5 October 2026 that they have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the...
Power Bank Flight Rules: ICAO’s Two-Bank Limit and mAh vs Wh
Share this story The gate agent turns the power bank over in her hand, looking for a number. The passenger already knows the one printed on the case in the largest type: 20,000 mAh. It is the number the shop advertised, the number on the box, the number in the Amazon...
Morocco’s First F-16 Block 72 Takes Flight in Greenville
Share this story A two-seat F-16 in desert camouflage climbed away from Lockheed Martin’s plant in Greenville, South Carolina, on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, carrying red Moroccan roundels on its wings. It was the first flight of the first F-16 Block 72 ever built,...
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