Pakistan Bets on China’s Stealth Fighter

Pakistan Bets on China’s Stealth Fighter

Pakistan is on course to fly something no air force outside China has ever operated: a Chinese stealth fighter. The Pakistan Air Force has moved to acquire the Shenyang J-35 — reportedly up to 40 jets — in what would be the first export sale of a Chinese...
Batik Air Links Kuala Lumpur to Sydney

Batik Air Links Kuala Lumpur to Sydney

Sydney has a new way to reach Asia, and it comes wearing a splash of Malaysian batik on its tail. From 1 July 2026, Batik Air Malaysia flies a daily Airbus A330 between Kuala Lumpur and Sydney — the airline’s fourth city in Australia and a fresh shot across the bows...
China’s B-2-Sized Drones Step Into the Open

China’s B-2-Sized Drones Step Into the Open

In the desert of far-western China, a passing satellite caught something Beijing would much rather keep in the shadows: two enormous stealth flying wings, sitting in the open on a remote airfield — the larger of them nearly as wide as an American B-2 bomber. The...
The Navy’s New Doomsday Plane Is Late

The Navy’s New Doomsday Plane Is Late

There is one aircraft the United States hopes it never has to use for its real job: the plane that would relay the order to launch nuclear missiles from America’s submerged submarines. Its replacement is now running late — and the government watchdog that warned about...
What Buzzed a Private Jet Over New York?

What Buzzed a Private Jet Over New York?

Ten minutes after lifting off from New York on Independence Day, climbing through 15,800 feet, the crew of a NetJets business jet saw something big and silver flash past their windscreen — close enough to report it. Then it was gone. They keyed the radio and told air...
Britain’s £298 Billion Bet on the Next War

Britain’s £298 Billion Bet on the Next War

Britain has put a number on its future: £298 billion. That is the size of the Defence Investment Plan unveiled at the end of June, the government’s four-year blueprint for rebuilding an armed forces bent on fighting “the wars of today and tomorrow.” It is a genuinely...
Alone, the J-20 Loses. With Drones, It Wins.

Alone, the J-20 Loses. With Drones, It Wins.

A number from a Chinese laboratory has been making the rounds, and it is a striking one: 95 percent. That, according to a computer simulation, is how often a Chengdu J-20 beat an American F-22 Raptor in a fight north of Taiwan. Read a little closer, though, and the...
American Puts Chicago Back on the Tokyo Map

American Puts Chicago Back on the Tokyo Map

Seven years after American Airlines walked away from the route, Chicago and Tokyo are about to be joined by a nonstop again — and this time American is flying it with its own metal. Starting 27 March 2027, American will run a daily Boeing 787-9 between Chicago O’Hare...
A Gulf First: Qatar Airways Reaches Caracas

A Gulf First: Qatar Airways Reaches Caracas

On 22 July, a Qatar Airways Boeing 777-200LR will do something no Gulf airline has ever done: land in Venezuela. The flight is QR783, and it does not fly a straight line. It threads Doha to Bogotá to Caracas and back — a single sprawling triangle stitched across more...
Air New Zealand’s Engine Nightmare Is Over

Air New Zealand’s Engine Nightmare Is Over

In the red dirt of Alice Springs, in the middle of the Australian outback, a Boeing 787-9 sat parked for the better part of a year — not broken, not retired, just waiting for engines. On June 28 it finally flew home to Auckland, and with it, Air New Zealand quietly...
GOL Goes Long-Haul: Rio to New York

GOL Goes Long-Haul: Rio to New York

For a quarter of a century, GOL has been Brazil’s definitive short-haul airline: a vast orange-tailed fleet of Boeing 737s hopping between São Paulo, Rio and every corner of South America. On July 8, that identity changes. A GOL flight number will push back from Rio...
A Kamikaze Drone Launches From a Warship

A Kamikaze Drone Launches From a Warship

Off the south coast of England, a small black flying wing shot off a catapult rail bolted to the deck of a moving Royal Navy ship, climbed away on a whining turbojet, and flew itself to a target. No pilot, no recovery, no second chances — the Nyan is designed to fly...