What Happened at Muwaffaq Salti

What Happened at Muwaffaq Salti

Share this story The air base is named after a man who died in an aeroplane. Lieutenant Muwaffaq Salti was a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot, killed in combat with Israeli fighters on 13 November 1966 during the Battle of Samu. Jordan gave his name to the base at...
The RAF’s Newest Jet Is Bright Green

The RAF’s Newest Jet Is Bright Green

Share this story If you happened to be at Birmingham Airport on the afternoon of 15 July, you would have seen something that looked like a mistake: a Boeing 737 with a large rectangular fin bolted to its spine, painted an unlovely metallic green, climbing out over the...
The Transport That Became a Jammer

The Transport That Became a Jammer

Share this story On 28 May 2017, a photographer at Miho Air Base in western Japan took a picture of a Kawasaki C-2 transport, tail number 68-1203. It was an unremarkable aeroplane doing an unremarkable thing: a high-winged, T-tailed freighter on a ramp, clean-lined...
The Wild Weasels Barely Unpacked

The Wild Weasels Barely Unpacked

Share this story Two weeks ago the story was aircraft going home. Raptors leaving the Gulf for England, squadrons rotating out, a ceasefire holding well enough that the US Air Force felt comfortable thinning out its presence in the region. That lasted about as long as...
Germany Joins a French Nuclear Exercise

Germany Joins a French Nuclear Exercise

Share this story On the morning of 16 July, two French Rafales and two Luftwaffe Eurofighter Typhoons met in European airspace and took fuel from a French A330 Phenix tanker. No weapons were carried. The manoeuvres were unremarkable. Any air force in NATO does this on...
Starlux’s Flying Sculpture Lands in America

Starlux’s Flying Sculpture Lands in America

Share this story Most airlines paint their jets. Taiwan’s STARLUX hired one of the world’s most famous artists to turn an Airbus A350-1000 into a mirror-finished flying sculpture — and on 15 July, it flew the thing across the Pacific to Phoenix.Flight JX026...
Riyadh Air Cleared for Beijing and Shanghai

Riyadh Air Cleared for Beijing and Shanghai

Share this story Two and a half weeks after it flew its very first paying passengers, Saudi Arabia’s brand-new airline has been handed the keys to the world’s second-biggest aviation market. Riyadh Air is going to China.The Civil Aviation Administration of China has...