FAA 51 Percent Rule: What “Amateur-Built” Actually Means
Share this story Somewhere over the Sonoran Desert there is a yellow and blue two-seater turning in the evening light, and the person who owns it also built it. Not assembled it from a crate over a weekend. Built it, over several years, in a garage, with a rivet gun....
MQ-9 Reaper vs Radar: Why Big Drones Are Easy to Find
Share this story A Reaper does not sneak. It orbits. For twenty hours at a stretch it flies long, patient racetracks over somebody else’s country at the speed of a fast train, hauling a sensor turret and a pair of Hellfires, in full view of anything with a radar...
Neptune Missile Explained: Ukraine’s Ship-Killer Turned Deep-Strike Weapon
Share this story In April 2022, Ukraine says, two missiles hit the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The cruiser Moskva caught fire, its ammunition exploded, and the ship sank. The weapon Ukraine credited was a missile almost nobody outside the region had...
Cockpit Jumpseat Explained: Who Gets to Ride Up Front
Share this story Behind the two pilot seats on almost every airliner there is a small fold-down seat, sometimes two. It is called the jumpseat, and it is one of the most coveted seats in aviation. Off-duty pilots ride it to get to work. FAA inspectors use it to check...
What Happens to a Retired Airliner: Storage, Part-Out and Recycling
Share this story On 14 October 2026, SWISS flew its Airbus A340 HB-JMB for the last time: one hour from Zurich to Twente in the Netherlands, where it will be taken apart. It is one of hundreds of airliners that reach the end of their lives every year. Most passengers...
US Weapons Test Ranges: Where America Tests Its Secret Weapons
Share this story Every new American weapon, from a heat-seeking missile to a stealth fighter, has to be shot, dropped, jammed or flown somewhere before it goes to war. For the past 80 years, that somewhere has mostly been a handful of enormous fenced-off deserts in...
Agile Combat Employment Explained: Why Air Forces Scatter Their Jets
Share this story A modern fighter is fast, stealthy and deadly in the air. On the ground it is a very expensive sitting duck. A few cruise missiles or a handful of cheap drones can wreck a squadron parked on one airfield before it ever takes off, as Russia learned at...
Operation Spiderweb: Ukraine’s Truck-Launched Drone Raid on Russian Bombers
Share this story On 1 June 2025, trucks parked near Russian air bases thousands of kilometres from Ukraine suddenly opened their roofs. Out of wooden cabins on their flatbeds rose swarms of small quadcopter drones. Minutes later, Russian strategic bombers that had...
Golden Hawks: Canada’s Gold Sabre Display Team Before the Snowbirds
Share this story Long before the red-and-white Tutors of the Snowbirds, Canada had a jet team that glowed in the sun. In 1959 the Royal Canadian Air Force painted a group of Canadair Sabres gold, trimmed them in red and white, and sent them across North America as the...
Rafale A: When France Walked Out of the Eurofighter in 1985
Share this story On 4 July 1986, a white delta-winged jet with canards and two American engines lifted off from Istres in the south of France. Test pilot Guy Mitaux-Maurouard climbed to 11,000 metres and pushed it to Mach 1.3 on its very first flight, which lasted...
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