Share this story In the autumn of 1935, some of the greatest aerodynamicists alive gathered in Rome for the Volta Congress, an international meeting on “High Velocities in Aviation”. Ludwig Prandtl was there, and Theodore von Kármán, and G....
Share this story Every fighter pilot knows the uneasy moment when the radar warning receiver lights up: someone, somewhere, is looking. Now imagine being tracked with no warning at all. No radar emission to detect, no tone in the headset, nothing for a jammer to...
Share this story Walk along the apron of a busy airport and you pass three very different-looking machines. A regional airliner with two big propellers. A widebody whose engine intakes are so wide you could almost stand up inside them. And, if you are lucky, a slim...
Share this story On 3 July 1936, Short Brothers’ chief test pilot John Lankester Parker took a brand-new flying boat out onto the River Medway at Rochester for what was meant to be nothing more than taxi trials. The big silver hull handled so well that Parker...
Share this story The touchdown looked normal. Then the nose swung left, and a Jet2 Boeing 737-800 rolled off the edge of the runway and onto the grass at Birmingham Airport, while people filming the landing could be heard reacting in disbelief. It happened on Sunday...
Share this story The crew were seconds from touching down at a medical emergency when the cockpit filled with green light. On Saturday evening, 24 October 2026, a rescue helicopter of AAA Alpine Air Ambulance was hit by a laser beam on its final approach to a landing...
Share this story On 19 October 2026 the Federal Aviation Administration issued airworthiness directive 2026-20-14, ordering operators of 1,987 American-registered Boeing 737NGs to measure the free play in their horizontal stabiliser pivot hinges and jackscrews. The...
Share this story On 19 October 2026 the Federal Aviation Administration published an airworthiness directive ordering operators of 459 American-registered Boeing 737NGs to replace the video monitors mounted in their overhead passenger service units. It is a dull piece...
Share this story Over Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on 15 June 2012, a US Navy photographer captured an image most people would rather not think about. The canopy of the Blue Angels’ left wingman’s F/A-18 Hornet sat approximately 18 inches from the...
Share this story For half a century, fighter designers sold air forces a simple promise: kill the enemy before he can see you. Build a big radar, hang radar-guided missiles under the wings, and the dogfight becomes a relic. The Navy started developing the AIM-7...
Share this story Look at the tactical display of a modern F-16 and you will see aircraft its own radar has never touched. A contact a hundred miles away, already labelled hostile. A friendly four-ship on the far side of a mountain range. A tanker orbit, a ship, a...
Share this story On 26 October 1958, with military bands playing on the ramp at New York’s Idlewild Airport, 111 passengers climbed the airstairs of a gleaming Pan American Boeing 707-121. On her nose, in neat script, was her name: Clipper America. Her...
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