Britain has cleared MBDA to release classified data on UK components in the Storm Shadow, letting France and Ukraine advance local SCALP assembly. In return, the UK gets first access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI battlefield dataset.
Bangladesh J-10CE Deal: 20 Chinese Fighters for $2.3 Billion
Dhaka has finished drafting an agreement to buy 20 Chengdu J-10CE fighters from China for $2.302 billion, which would make Bangladesh the second confirmed export customer after Pakistan.
Poland and the F-15EX: Warsaw Denies a $131 Billion Hint
Poland appears among the Foreign Military Sales customers in Boeing’s $131.23 billion F-15 Eagle Crest contract. Warsaw denies any F-15EX plan, but the 2017 Apache precedent says watch this space.
J-20 Mystery Shapes Solved: China’s Fire-Training Mock-Ups
Fighter-like shapes spotted at Chinese airbases since 2022 have finally been explained: new ground-level photos show a J-20-shaped mock-up used for airfield firefighting training.
Blackbeard on the Super Hornet: Hypersonic Testing Begins
A photo shown at Tailhook confirms Castelion Blackbeard test rounds have been loaded onto a US Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, with early operational capability targeted for 2028.
MH370: What Is Actually Known, Twelve Years On
The satellite arc, the debris, the simulator file — and a search that quietly restarted in 2025 and has now swept half the priority zone without finding anything.
Bell 47: The First Helicopter Anyone Could Legally Buy
Designed by a philosopher who spent twelve years building models on a farm, the Bell 47 became the world’s first certified civil helicopter — and the Angel of Mercy over Korea.
Helios 522: The Ghost Flight and the Horn That Meant Two Things
A switch left in MANUAL, and a warning horn identical to one the crew heard every day on the ground. 121 people died, and the $4,438 fix took six more years to mandate.
The Nimitz Tic Tac: What the Navy Aircrew Actually Reported
Stripped of embellishment: what is in the sworn testimony, what the Pentagon released, and why the most deflationary quote in the whole case comes from the pilot who shot the video.
JAL 123: Thirty-Two Minutes With No Flight Controls
A faulty repair in 1978 blew the tail off a 747 seven years later. The crew flew for 32 minutes on engine thrust alone. 520 died — and some of them survived the impact.
Aeroflot 593: The Autopilot That Gave No Warning
A captain let his children hold the controls. The A310 silently declutched its aileron channel — no light, no sound — and 75 people died. The crew came within seconds of saving it.
Boeing’s Overwing Strut: Making Room for the Open Fan
An open fan is twice the diameter of a turbofan and will not fit under a 737-sized wing. Boeing has patented a strut that wraps over the wing and takes either engine.
Cross-Decking F-35Bs: When a British Carrier Armed an American Jet
In August 2021 a Marine F-35B launched from HMS Queen Elizabeth, rearmed aboard USS America and flew on to strike again. Five years on, it looks less like a stunt and more like doctrine.
Reno Air Races: The End of the Fastest Motorsport on Earth
For 59 years Reno was the only place on earth where WWII fighters raced at full power fifty feet off the desert. It ended in 2023 — and the Unlimiteds then sat out a season.
Black Hawk Down: The Air Battle Over Mogadishu, 1993
Aidid’s fighters worked out that the helicopters were the American centre of gravity. Two Black Hawks came down, eighteen Americans died, and US Army aviation learned to fly higher.
Boeing 247: The First Modern Airliner Boeing Refused to Sell
In 1933 the Boeing 247 made every other airliner obsolete. Boeing kept the entire production run for its own airline — so TWA wrote to Douglas, and the DC-3 buried it.
Gloster E.28/39: Britain’s First Jet, and a Lapsed Patent
It was the third jet aircraft to fly, not the first. But the engine in its nose began the line that replaced the piston engine — invented by a man who could not afford a five-pound patent fee.