Search Results for: sukhoi

In an apparent drone attack from Ukraine, this morning, the Smolensk Aviation Plant in Russia was reportedly set ablaze. The factory produces the Sukhoi Su-25 ground-attack aircraft, as well as parts for other aircraft and missiles. Newsweek reported that the attack was confirmed by Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at Ukraine’s […]

The Dutch Ministry of Defense announced today that a pair of Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35s detected three Russian military aircraft in NATO airspace on Friday (Dec. 6) over the Baltic Sea and escorted them back over international waters. The Netherlands had assumed the NATO Air Policing Mission earlier this month as part of the […]

Ukraine is trying to manage expectations as the first F-16s enter service with its air force over the next couple of weeks. For one thing, only six Ukrainian air force pilots have been fully trained to fly the Vipers, and Ukraine is expected to take a conservative approach to their deployment. According to the Washington […]

Russia’s plan to replace Airbus and Boeing aircraft with homegrown versions of its own designs has been delayed at least a year according to the Moscow Times, as translated by the Kyiv Post. Last year President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s aviation industry to build at least 1,000 domestic route airliners a year by 2030 […]

According to a report in the Washington Times, jet fighters assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) intercepted six Russian military aircraft off the coast of Alaska last week. The joint U.S.-Canadian defenses detected and tracked the Russian aircraft, which were breaching the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). NORAD reported that, while […]

Last Thursday, a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 fighter/bomber “accidentally” released unspecified ordnance that exploded on the streets of the Russian city of Belgorod, about 25 miles from the Ukraine border. Two days later, more than 3,000 citizens of Belgorod were evacuated after officials found another undetonated explosive. It’s not clear if the second weapon was also […]

According to Russian news sources, the airport at Saint Petersburg was temporarily shut down on the afternoon of Feb. 28 (local time) and jet fighters were scrambled to respond to an “unidentified flying object” intruding on the airspace. The object was described by the Russian minister of defense as a large drone. As reported by […]

Parent and child pilots on airliners are relatively common but the Indian air force may have scored a first with a father-daughter formation flight. Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma and his 24-year-old daughter Ananya achieved the distinction on May 30. “The father-daughter duo created history on 30 May 2022, when they flew in the same formation […]

Ukraine has adopted a novel approach to military procurement with a crowdfunding campaign aimed at the world’s kazillionaires urging them to go airplane shopping. “We need your help. We need a fighter jet,” says part of the text at buymeafighterjet.com. Whoever you are – a businessman, an IT specialist, an actor or a singer, whichever […]

It’s spring here at 41 degrees north latitude, when, as Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92) mooned, “a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” And with apologies to Lord T, I’ll add, “an old pilot’s fancy turns to thoughts of cutting tailwheel furrows in soft verdant earth.” Flight and the lusty quest thereof comprise […]