Military Aviation
International military aviation programs and the U.S. military, including the Air Force, Marines, Army and Navy
The New Afghanistan Air Force
How the U.S. military is training Afghans to fly.
January 2011 |
By Stewart Nusbaumer
Too Hot to Handle: McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat
Man cannot zoom by blended wing alone; he must have an engine that, well, works.
January 2011 |
By Stephan Wilkinson
The Great Escape
For U.S. airmen trapped in Yugoslavia during World War II, building a secret airstrip was their only way out.
January 2011 |
By Phil Scott
You've Got EMALS
We told you all about electromagnetic catapults in this story from January 2007. Now the first airplane has been launched with an EMALS system: an F/A-18E Super Hornet, at a Navy test site in Lakehurst, New Jersey.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euLsg_viWW0
December 30, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Human Crash Test Dummy
You had to hand it to John Stapp. When it came to exploring the limits of human tolerance, he didn't ask test subjects to try anything he wasn't willing to do himself.On this day in 1954, Stapp set the record for G-force tolerance—a whopping 46.2 Gs.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfZjN2ceVOI
December 10, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Still, It Was a Crowd Pleaser
Four T-38 pilots from Vance AFB in Oklahoma are being investigated by the Air Force for flying too low over a college football crowd last month. They came screaming over the University of Iowa's Kinnick Stadium at an altitude of 500 feet just as the national anthem ended—but were supposed to be twi...
December 06, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
T-bird Low Show
Are the United States Air Force Thunderbirds offering a new "low show" when cloud cover is below minimums?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUdHAx6gZqg&NR=1
We contacted the demonstration squadron and asked. Their reply: "Thank you for your interest in the USAF Thunderbirds and for taking the tim...
November 24, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Happy Veterans Day
It's not often that you get to see a Boeing C-17 Globemaster make a flyover down a palm-tree-lined street, but it happened one recent Veterans Day in Long Beach, California. Enjoy. Gotta love the car alarm going off in the background at the end of the video—no flyover's complete without one.
http:/...
November 11, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Air Force Sloganizing
The U.S. Air Force recently announced its new motto: "Aim High...Fly-Fight-Win," which generals chose out of five contenders suggested by airmen and the general public: Fly Fight Win, Aim High, Above and Beyond, Air Power, and Wings of Freedom.
This from the same people who named the Boeing C-17 ...
November 09, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
Western Low-Fly Zones: Not in My Sky
The Air Force is looking for places in the American West where pilots can practice flying special operations missions over terrain similar to the rugged mountains of Afghanistan. One proposal would call for a new Low Altitude Tactical Navigation area straddling the border of Colorado and New Mexico...
November 08, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Air Force Drones Cut to Wide Angle
U.S. Air Force drones that serve as the aerial eyes of American combat troops in Afghanistan are about to widen their view.A multi-camera system called "Gorgon Stare" (named for the Medusa's deadly gaze, which turns onlookers to stone) will be installed on unmanned Reaper aircraft and deployed t...
November 05, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
A Piece of Lafayette Escadrille History
On November 15, 2010, Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco will auction this dark grey-green canvas fuselage insignia panel from a Spad VII flown by the Lafayette Escadrille, featuring the familiar Indian-head insignia. The panel, says the company's press release, was collected by Sergeant E...
November 03, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Just Shoot Me
Late in World War II, the Bell P-63 became an aerial gunner's easiest target.
November 2010 |
By James Dunaway
The Autobots Are Coming!
The defense research agency DARPA recently selected six companies to participate in a year-long program to transform a Humvee-like vehicle into an aircraft. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corporation are asked to supply something that can “avoid traditional and asymmetrical threats while avoiding road ...
October 25, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Magellans of the Air
On September 28, 1924, crowds cheered and sirens shrieked as the Army Service pilots known as "the Magellans of the Air" landed at Sand Point Field in Seattle, Washington, after completing the first round-the-world flight.They had set off on April 6, some six months earlier, determined to circumnav...
October 21, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Top Gun 2.0?
The Hollywood grapevine and other gossip networks are all atwitter over the news that Paramount Pictures is reportedly in talks with producer Jerry "Blow It Up" Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott about a sequel to their 1986 movie, "Top Gun," which made a megastar of the Grumman F-14 (and some o...
October 15, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
You've Got (Balloon) Mail
In September 1870, not long after the start of the Franco-Prussian War, the city of Paris was under siege by Prussian soldiers. By the 19th, the German army had blocked all communication into or out of the city. There was nothing worse, wrote French journalist Francisque Sarcey, than to "live cut o...
October 13, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Pushing His Buttons
Alex Spencer, curator of British aircraft and military flight materiél at the National Air and Space Museum, started his career some 20 years ago as a lowly intern. One morning, as he was riding the shuttle out to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryl...
October 04, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
