Military Aviation
International military aviation programs and the U.S. military, including the Air Force, Marines, Army and NavySon of Israeli Astronaut Dies
An F-16 crash has claimed the life of Lieutenant Assaf Ramon, the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart in 2003. One year after losing his father, Assad revealed his own astronaut aspirations. "I want to share my father's experiences, and to under...
September 14, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
Martial Arts
Memo to bad guys: Wanna know what U.S. warplanes you’ll tangle with in the future? Visit an aerospace model shop.
September 2009 |
By Chad Slattery
Who's depressed? Not military pilots
Clinical depression is a significant health problem in America; even by low estimates, it afflicts 6.7 percent of the general population in a typical year.For military pilots, it can be a career-ender. Air Force pilots and navigators diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are taken off fli...
August 27, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Into the Mushroom Cloud
Most pilots would head away from a thermonuclear explosion.
August 2009 |
By Mark Wolverton
Secret Space Shuttles
When you’re 200 miles up, it’s easy to hide what you’re up to.
August 2009 |
By Michael Cassutt
A&S Interview: Brig. Gen. Iftach Spector
Israeli Air Force Ace, teacher, author
August 2009 |
By Peter Mersky
Watch an F-18 come to life in under four minutes
Another video too cool not to pass on: Speeded-up assembly of an F/A-18F Super Hornet:
July 13, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Recreating Frank Tinker's 1937 dogfight
While a group of well-wishers recently marked the 100th birthday of Spanish Civil War pilot Frank Tinker, one aficionado took it a step further by simulating one of the American-born aviator's most famous victories, a shoot-down of a Messerschmitt Bf-109 in July 1937. See the video here:
July 13, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Billy Mitchell Court-Martial
Courtroom sketches from aviation's Trial of the Century.
July 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
The Dawn of Discipline
A B-47 pilot remembers when an airplane—and Curtis LeMay—stiffened the spine of the Strategic Air Command
July 2009 |
By Walter J. Boyne
June 8, 1989: Bailout at Le Bourget
Even 20 years later, this is an amazing piece of footage: Russian test pilot Anatoly Kvochur bailing out of his MiG-29, just 300 feet off the ground, at the 1989 Paris Air Show. I actually saw this happen—or rather, I was standing talking to a friend when we saw a cloud of black smoke and people r...
June 08, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Grumman’s Homely Seaplane
Grumman has built some venerable seaplanes—think Goose, Albatross, Mallard, and Widgeon—but it ran aground when it put a portly F4F-3 Wildcat on floats and called it an F4F-3S seaplane fighter (a classic oxymoron). The only redeeming feature of the F4F-3S was its nickname: Wildcatfish.
In 1942, th...
June 05, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
One casualty of 45,000
A bit of Memorial Day perspective from Mark Wells, a historian at the U.S. Air Force Academy, from his excellent 1995 book Courage and Air Warfare: The Allied Aircrew Experience in the Second World War:
However dramatic or tragic, statistics alone cannot possibly tell the whole story of the Allied ...
May 22, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Legends of Vietnam: Shoulder to Shoulder
The Grumman A-6 was ugly, but it sure could cook.
May 2009 |
By Rafael Lima
The War Between the Wars
In the skies over Spain, pilots and airplanes rehearsed for World War II.
May 2009 |
By Carl Posey
Remembering the fall of Saigon
On this day in 1975, the last Americans were airlifted from Saigon, bringing an end to the war in Vietnam. Fred Reed, who was a news reporter at the time, was "determined to stay until the end." His account of being evacuated in the middle of the night in a darkened C-130 appeared in our June 1992 ...
April 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Goodwill Mission
To residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast, the Joint Strike Fighter says “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
April 24, 2009 |
By Richard P. Hallion
Hold the F-22s, Order More F-35s
After much lobbying and posturing on both sides, there appears to be a decision: The Air Force will cap production of the F-22 fighter at 187 airplanes, according to an op-ed by Air Force secretary Michael Donley and chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz (link requires registration) in yesterday's Wa...
April 14, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
