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...
Why Airliners Don’t Fly Over Tibet

Why Airliners Don’t Fly Over Tibet

Pull up a live flight tracker and look at the airways between Europe and East Asia. Hundreds of yellow aircraft icons stream across Siberia, Central Asia, India. And in the middle of it all sits a hole the size of Western Europe with almost nothing in it. That hole is...
A Robot Tanker Sails Into New York

A Robot Tanker Sails Into New York

Among the tall ships and grey hulls that filled New York Harbor for America’s 250th birthday, the strangest silhouette wasn’t a ship at all. Lashed to the flight deck of USS Nimitz, between rows of Super Hornets, sat a windowless grey machine with folded wings and no...