USAF Collaborative Combat Aircraft will join a large-force employment exercise for the first time at Emerald Flag in December, in a combined fourth and fifth-generation push.
KC-135 Battle Damage: Patching a Smoking Tanker Under Fire
Air Mobility Command has described how a KC-135 riddled with shrapnel and loaded with 200,000 lb of fuel was patched on the ramp and flown across an ocean.
Istanbul Airport Overtakes Heathrow as World’s Most Connected
OAG Megahubs 2026 puts Istanbul first in the world for the first time, with 337 destinations. Heathrow slips to second as Middle East schedules stay broken.
Mountain Home F-15E Nose Art: Thanos and Darth Maul Come Home
Twelve MO-coded F-15E Strike Eagles of the 389th Fighter Squadron landed at RAF Lakenheath on 16 September wearing Thanos, Darth Maul, the Joker and a good deal of Austin Powers.
AIM-260 JATM: Pentagon Signs Lockheed Production Deal
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have signed a framework agreement to ramp up production of the AIM-260 JATM, the long-range air-to-air missile built to answer China’s PL-15.
Operation Arctic Vanguard: F-35s Fly From Pituffik, Greenland
U.S. Northern Command says Wisconsin Air National Guard F-35As were launched, maintained and recovered from Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland under Operation Arctic Vanguard.
The Soviets Asked the Phantom Crews to Do Barrel Rolls
Somewhere over the North Atlantic, in late 1973 or early 1974, a US Air Force F-4C Phantom flew a barrel roll around a Soviet Tu-95 Bear. The Soviet crew had asked for it, by hand signal, through the glass. The photographs were taken by Robert M. Sihler, the weapon...
Atlas Cheetah: The Fighter South Africa Built Because Nobody Would Sell It One
The UN embargoed South Africa in 1977, so Atlas took the Mirage III apart and rebuilt it. The Atlas Cheetah, the Israeli connection, and the war it never fought.
The Rhodesian Air Force: Fifteen Years of Flying Under Embargo
The UN’s first mandatory arms embargo was aimed at Rhodesia in 1966. Its Hunters, Canberras and Vampires flew for fourteen more years. How the Rhodesian Air Force did it.
Air France 4590: The Ninety Seconds That Ended Concorde
On 25 July 2000 Air France 4590 crashed at Gonesse seventy seconds after lift-off, killing 113. What the BEA actually found, and what almost every retelling gets wrong.
The Cenepa Air Battle: The Kfir’s Only Kill Outside Israel
On 10 February 1995 Ecuadorian Mirages and Kfirs shot down three Peruvian aircraft over the Amazon. Inside the Cenepa air battle, and why Peru still disputes it.
Skybolt and Blue Streak: How the RAF Lost Britain’s Bomb
Britain cancelled its own missile, bet the deterrent on an American one, and lost that too. At Nassau it got Polaris instead, and with it the RAF lost the job it was built for.
The Snark: America’s Nuclear Cruise Missile That Flew Into the Amazon
It ignored its own self-destruct, outran the fighters sent after it, and vanished over Brazil. Then it served as an American nuclear weapon for under four months.
Su-27 vs MiG-29: The Only War They Fought Each Other
Ethiopia and Eritrea bought Flankers and Fulcrums from the same country within months of each other, then flew them at each other over Badme. Most of what you have read about it is wrong.
Operation Provide Comfort: When Two F-15s Shot Down Two Black Hawks
Twenty-six dead over northern Iraq in 1994. American flags painted on the fuel tanks, nineteen people watching from an AWACS, and a court-martial that convicted nobody.
Three Killed as a Cirrus SR22T Hits a Slope Above Leukerbad
The aircraft had flown from Lugano via Sion and was heading for Buochs when it struck the northern slope at Fluhalp. SUST and the Federal Prosecutor are both investigating.
Bell Starts Building Nigeria’s AH-1Z Vipers
A Nigerian delegation signed the frame of the first of twelve AH-1Z Vipers at Amarillo. Behind the ceremony sits a decade of argument about whether Washington would sell them at all.