Italy’s Quiet Shield Over the Gulf
For four months, one of Europe’s larger air forces was fighting a quiet air-defence campaign over the Arabian Peninsula — and almost nobody noticed. Since the second half of March 2026, Italy has kept Eurofighter Typhoons, an early-warning aircraft and a...
Singapore Eyes Europe’s Sixth-Gen Fighter
Singapore has a habit of buying the best fighter it can find, years before it strictly needs it — and doing so quietly. So when reports emerged on 30 July that the city-state has opened exploratory talks around the Global Combat Air Programme, the...
WestJet Braces for a Long-Weekend Strike
Canada is heading into its August long weekend with a familiar knot in its stomach: another airline, another strike clock ticking. On 30 July, the flight attendants who staff WestJet’s cabins served the airline with 72 hours’ strike notice. WestJet fired...
Turkey’s Fighter-Drone Fires From Within
A stealth aircraft that hangs its bombs under the wings is not really a stealth aircraft. The whole point of a low-observable shape is undone the moment you bolt angular metal to the outside of it. That is why the milestone Baykar announced on 30 July matters more...
Allegiant Finally Pours a Free Drink
For years, flying Allegiant meant paying for everything that was not the seat itself — the carry-on, the boarding pass at the airport, and yes, the cup of soda. That is the whole point of an ultra-low-cost carrier: a rock-bottom fare, then a menu of extras. So...
Lasers Arrive in Europe to Kill Drones
The cheapest weapon on a modern battlefield is a drone you can buy online. The U.S. Air Force has just answered it in Europe with one of the most futuristic: a laser. Quietly, and at locations it will not name, U.S. Air Forces in Europe has fielded the Compact Laser...
Turkish F-16s Take Over the Baltic Watch
On Friday, the flags came down at Ämari. Portuguese airmen who had spent months guarding the Baltic sky handed the watch to a new crew, and for the first time the pilots taking over spoke Turkish. Five Turkish F-16 Fighting Falcons are now sitting alert in Estonia,...
Marine F-35B Goes Down at Miramar
Black smoke over San Diego is never a good sign. On Friday morning, it meant a stealth fighter was down. A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II crashed in the vicinity of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar shortly before 10 a.m. Pacific time, sending a column of black...
The Fastest Jetliner Ever Built — and a Sales Flop
In the early 1960s, two American giants owned the jet age: Boeing’s 707 and the Douglas DC-8. Convair, a division of General Dynamics, decided it could not out-size them — so it tried to out-run them.The result was the Convair 990 Coronado: a sleek...
A Passenger Landed the Plane After His Pilot Died
Doug White was having the worst week of his life. He, his wife Terri and their two daughters were flying home to Louisiana from Florida, where they had just buried his brother. It was Easter Sunday, 2009. White, a 56-year-old private pilot who had only ever flown...
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