Share this story A jet engine is certified to survive a bird. That is the easy half of the problem, and it is the half everyone writes about. The hard half happens on the ground, months earlier, and it involves a biologist with binoculars, a propane cannon, a stack of...
Share this story Somewhere over the Mojave in the first week of November, a bomber that officially does not have a published wingspan opened its bay and let something fall out of it. Nobody filmed it. Nobody has said what it was. The U.S. Air Force waited a week, then...
On 12 November 2026 British Airways flight BA431 from Amsterdam bounced on landing on Heathrow’s runway 27L, struck its tail on the runway twice and went around. The A321neo landed safely about 14 minutes later. The AAIB is investigating.
Italy’s government has asked parliament to approve a revised F-35 programme whose total cost is more than half as much again as the 2009 estimate, while the planned fleet falls from 131 to 115 aircraft. Parliament’s own analysts say key questions are left unanswered.
A year after Türkiye signed for 20 new Eurofighter Typhoons, the first one is taking shape: BAE Systems has begun assembling its front fuselage at Samlesbury in Lancashire, while Airbus builds the centre section in Germany. Deliveries start in 2030.
The Grumman F11F Tiger lasted only about four years as a Navy carrier fighter, but the Blue Angels flew it for 12 seasons, and a Super Tiger set a world altitude record.
The Soko J-22 Orao and IAR-93 Vultur first flew on the same day in 1974: a Yugoslav-Romanian attack jet that outlived both countries’ plans and still flies in Serbia.
The Chengdu J-7 began with incomplete Soviet MiG-21 plans in 1962. China reverse-engineered the rest, built about 2,400 and sold the F-7 from Pakistan to Namibia.
The Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder was the first supersonic bomber the Soviet Union put into production: fast, difficult and unloved, it fought for Libya and Iraq.
The CASA C-101 Aviojet trained Spain’s military pilots for 45 years, flew with the Patrulla Águila for four decades and served in Chile, Jordan and Honduras.
The Shenyang J-8 Finback began as a scaled-up, twin-engine MiG-21 in 1964, was reborn as the J-8II, nearly got US avionics, and met an EP-3 off Hainan in 2001.
The Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante first flew in October 1968 without a company to build it. Within a year it had created Embraer, and it went on to fly in 36 countries.
How an MQ-9 Reaper is flown from the other side of the world: remote split operations, launch and recovery crews, mission control at Creech and the satellite delay.
The Dassault Mirage F1 swapped the delta wing for a swept wing, fought from Angola to the Gulf, and still flies today as an aggressor for US pilots.
The Sukhoi Su-7 Fitter was the Soviet Union’s main fighter-bomber of the 1960s: thirsty and short-ranged, but tough enough to carry India through the 1971 war.
On 11 November 2026 Portugal’s Council of Ministers authorised the Air Force to spend up to €12 million on F-16 engine components in 2026 and 2027.
Sweden’s 2027 budget bill shows the Swedish Air Force flew 10,098 Gripen hours in 2025, down 10.3% from 2024, and blames a shortage of aircraft technicians.