Alone, the J-20 Loses. With Drones, It Wins.
Share this story A number from a Chinese laboratory has been making the rounds, and it is a striking one: 95 percent. That, according to a computer simulation, is how often a Chengdu J-20 beat an American F-22 Raptor in a fight north of Taiwan. Read a little closer,...
American Puts Chicago Back on the Tokyo Map
Share this story Seven years after American Airlines walked away from the route, Chicago and Tokyo are about to be joined by a nonstop again — and this time American is flying it with its own metal. Starting 27 March 2027, American will run a daily Boeing 787-9...
A Gulf First: Qatar Airways Reaches Caracas
Share this story On 22 July, a Qatar Airways Boeing 777-200LR will do something no Gulf airline has ever done: land in Venezuela. The flight is QR783, and it does not fly a straight line. It threads Doha to Bogotá to Caracas and back — a single sprawling triangle...
Air New Zealand’s Engine Nightmare Is Over
Share this story In the red dirt of Alice Springs, in the middle of the Australian outback, a Boeing 787-9 sat parked for the better part of a year — not broken, not retired, just waiting for engines. On June 28 it finally flew home to Auckland, and with it, Air New...
GOL Goes Long-Haul: Rio to New York
Share this story For a quarter of a century, GOL has been Brazil’s definitive short-haul airline: a vast orange-tailed fleet of Boeing 737s hopping between São Paulo, Rio and every corner of South America. On July 8, that identity changes. A GOL flight number will...
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 Navy Is Sinking Its Own Cruiser
Share this story Somewhere in the Pacific in the coming weeks, a US Navy cruiser that fired Tomahawks in two wars will be hit by torpedoes, missiles and bombs until she slips under — and the people shooting will be her friends. The decommissioned USS Mobile Bay is...
A Robot Tanker Sails Into New York
Share this story Among the tall ships and grey hulls that filled New York Harbor for America’s 250th birthday, the strangest silhouette wasn’t a ship at all. Lashed to the flight deck of USS Nimitz, between rows of Super Hornets, sat a windowless grey machine with...
The Stealth Bomber That Stayed Home
Share this story On July 4, virtually everything in the US military that flies made an appearance over Washington. Three bombers in one formation. Eight Thunderbirds. A brand-new Air Force One with a Raptor escort. The one aircraft everybody on the internet was...
Nine Hours of Thunder Over Washington
Share this story The thermometer read over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the crowd on the National Mall had been baking since morning, and somewhere above the haze four F-5 Tigers were pulling into formation. One of them was flown by the administrator of NASA himself. It...
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