Il B-29 che quasi tornò a casa

Il B-29 che quasi tornò a casa

On 21 May 1995, on a frozen lake 280 miles north of Thule, Greenland, a B-29 Superfortress that had not moved in forty-eight years swung onto its makeshift ice runway under its own power. Four rebuilt engines ran sweetly. Half a century of Arctic exile was about to...
How Jets Trick Missiles Into Missing

How Jets Trick Missiles Into Missing

On the night of 24 July 1943, 791 British bombers crossed the German coast toward Hamburg. In each aircraft, a crewman knelt by the flare chute with a stopwatch, shoving out one paper bundle every minute. Each bundle held 2,200 strips of aluminium-coated paper,...
The Strike Eagles Came Home as Monsters

The Strike Eagles Came Home as Monsters

The first eight came in before sunset on 1 July, dropping onto RAF Lakenheath’s runway one after another. The last three arrived in the dark, their names unreadable. Eleven F-15E Strike Eagles of the 48th Fighter Wing, home from the Iran air war — and...
Poland Freezes Its MiGs for Ukraine

Poland Freezes Its MiGs for Ukraine

In the spring of 2023, Poland became the first NATO country to send fighter jets to Ukraine — fourteen MiG-29s, handed over while other capitals were still debating. Three years later, the last fourteen Fulcrums in Polish service were supposed to follow them...
Iron Dome Just Got a Laser Sidekick

Iron Dome Just Got a Laser Sidekick

For fifteen years, Iron Dome has answered incoming rockets with a $50,000 interceptor. Now it has a second option on the trigger: light. Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced on 30 June that a comprehensive Iron Dome test series has, for the first time, folded...
An Eagle and a Ghost Fly Together

An Eagle and a Ghost Fly Together

One photo, two aircraft, and a very large hint about the future of air combat. On 1 July, Pacific Air Forces posted imagery of a US Air Force F-15EX Eagle II flying over the Philippine Sea in close formation with something no American fighter had been photographed...