267 Eagles: The Air Force’s Big Bet

267 Eagles: The Air Force’s Big Bet

Military Aviation, News

For a decade the U.S. Air Force kept trying to bury the F-15. The plan was to buy a token batch of new Eagles, then let the production line die quietly while everything went to stealth. The Eagle was the past. The F-35 and the secret sixth-generation jet were the...
The Best Fighter That Never Was

The Best Fighter That Never Was

History & Legends, Military Aviation

The desert air was still cool at Edwards Air Force Base on the morning of 27 August 1990 when Northrop chief test pilot Paul Metz taxied out in a machine that looked like nothing else on Earth. Charcoal grey, diamond-winged, its two tails canted outward like the fins...
296 F-35s: The Biggest Stealth Buy Yet

296 F-35s: The Biggest Stealth Buy Yet

Military Aviation, News

Two signatures. 296 stealth fighters. $24.3 billion. In a single deal, the F-35 program locked in the largest batch of Lightning IIs it has ever agreed to build at once. The contract covers Lots 18 and 19 — production runs split evenly at 148 jets apiece — and the...