Japan Wrapped a Jet in White. Why?

Japan Wrapped a Jet in White. Why?

On a humid June afternoon, a Japanese plane-spotter pointed a long lens at the flight line of Gifu Air Base and froze. Tucked against a hangar wall sat something large, the size of a fighter, and it was wrapped from nose to tail in white fabric like a piece of...
India and Brazil Plot a Jet-for-Jet Swap

India and Brazil Plot a Jet-for-Jet Swap

Two of the world’s biggest emerging powers are quietly negotiating one of the most unusual arms deals of the decade — and almost no Western capital is in the room. India and Brazil are working toward a barter: India would hand Brazil its homegrown Tejas...
267 Eagles: The Air Force’s Big Bet

267 Eagles: The Air Force’s Big Bet

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 Man Who Jumped From the Edge of Space

The Man Who Jumped From the Edge of Space

On 16 August 1960, a tiny open gondola hung beneath an enormous helium balloon, 102,800 feet above the New Mexico desert. That is more than 31 kilometres up — high enough that the sky overhead is black, the horizon curves, and there is almost no air left to breathe....