Lady Be Good: The B-24 That Vanished in 1943, Found Intact in 1958
On the morning of 9 November 1958, a British oil-exploration team flying across the eastern Libyan Sahara saw something on the sand below that should not have been there. It was an aircraft. A whole one, almost. Broken in two, but still recognisable, still upright,...
Six Turning, Four Burning: The Story of the B-36 Peacemaker
“Six turning, four burning” is one of the great aviation phrases. The six are 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Majors, mounted backwards along the trailing edge of the wing, swinging massive pusher propellers through air thinner than any...
Project Whale Tale: When the CIA Landed a U-2 on a Carrier
The Lockheed U-2 was designed by Kelly Johnson at Skunk Works in 1955 to fly at 70,000 feet, photograph Soviet missile silos in colour, and never — under any circumstances — go anywhere near a body of water. The U-2 had bicycle landing gear. The U-2 had a 24-metre...
The Tu-160 White Swan: Still the Heaviest, Fastest Bomber Ever Built
The pilots call it the White Swan. NATO calls it Blackjack. Either way, the Tupolev Tu-160 is the largest and heaviest combat aircraft ever built, and the fastest bomber in service — a 55.7-metre wingspan of variable-sweep wing, a 275-ton maximum takeoff weight, four...
Alaska Airlines Just Started Flying a 737 to Reykjavik
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is not the aircraft you would design for the North Atlantic. It is single-aisle, range-limited, and built around a route map that runs Seattle, Las Vegas, San Diego, Phoenix. On 28 May 2026, Alaska Airlines is flying one to Reykjavik anyway —...
Gulf Cash Is Pouring Into Turkish Air Defense After the Iran War
The Gulf monarchies watched the 40-day air war over Iran like a long, expensive product demo. The Patriot batteries that defended Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had a good war by any measure. They also went through interceptor inventory faster than anyone expected,...
United Becomes the First US Airline to Fly to the Camino
The pilgrims have been arriving in Santiago de Compostela on foot for 1,200 years. On 27 May 2026, the first ones started arriving by Boeing 737 MAX 8 — direct from Newark, in about seven hours, no European hub in between. United Airlines is now the first US carrier...
Boeing Cranks the 737 MAX Line Back Up to 47 Jets a Month
The number is 47. That is how many 737 MAX airliners Boeing’s Renton, Washington factory is now permitted to roll off its assembly lines each month — a production rate the company has not been allowed to touch since the door plug blew out of Alaska Airlines...
Canada Picks the GlobalEye — Boeing’s Second NATO Loss in Two Weeks
For the second time in a matter of weeks, Boeing has been beaten by a Swede with a radar plank on its back. NATO reportedly settled on the Saab GlobalEye over the E-7 Wedgetail for its alliance-wide airborne early-warning replacement in late April. On 27 May, Prime...
The Navy Is About to Plug a Supercarrier Into a Shore Base
USS Gerald R. Ford carries two A1B nuclear reactors, generates an estimated 1,400 megawatts of thermal power, and routinely supplies more electricity than its own ship can spend. This summer the US Navy is going to plug that excess into the grid of an American shore...
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