Stalin’s Flying Aircraft Carrier

La portaerei volante di Stalin

Long before anyone talked about “loyal wingman” drones flying off crewed jets, the Soviet Union built the real thing: a flying aircraft carrier. A single giant bomber would haul as many as five fighters into the sky, cut them loose in mid-air — and, in its combat...
Landing Blind: How Autoland Works

Landing Blind: How Autoland Works

Heathrow, a December morning. The fog is so dense that from the cockpit of a taxiing 777 the crew cannot see their own wingtip. Officially, the runway visual range is 125 metres — about the length of the aircraft plus a bus. And yet, every couple of minutes, 300...
An AWACS in Orbit

An AWACS in Orbit

For half a century, the West has tracked hostile aircraft the same way: a converted airliner with a radar dome, orbiting on station for hours at 9,000 metres (30,000 feet) while a crew in the back stares into scopes. On 29 May 2026, the U.S. Space Force committed...