Military Aviation

The Air Force has awarded aerospace startup JetZero a $235 million contract to build a piloted blended wing aircraft. In an announcement on Wednesday, the Air Force said it wants the full-sized prototype to finish flight testing by the end of 2027. “The effort aims to mature BWB technology and demonstrate its capabilities, giving the […]

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has officially welcomed a PT-17 to its collection after a ceremonial transfer at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland this week. According to the museum, the aircraft is significant in that it is one of only two PT-17s still in existence that saw use during World War II […]

The Air Force has put artificial intelligence that was trained by machine learning in the pilot seat of a drone and said it did just fine. A government news release said the three-hour flight of the high-performance jet XQ-58A Valkyrie happened July 25 at the Eglin Test and Training Complex and was the culmination of […]

Electronic Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) hopeful Archer Aviation has announced a $142 million contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop a military version of its Midnight “air taxi” aircraft. According to Reuters, Archer stock catapulted by 33 percent after the announcement. California-based Archer successfully completed final assembly of the first Midnight eVTOL in […]

Air Force officials say their already-challenged basic flight training program has been set back by a destructive thunderstorm that heavily damaged 12 T-6 Texan II trainers at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma July 20. Because of the power of the storm, which had wind gusts of up to 70 MPH, all the remaining 87 […]

The Canadian government has confirmed it is spending $3.6 billion (CAD) on nine militarized Airbus A330 aircraft to replace five first-generation A310 aircraft that will actually reach their life limits in the next few years. The new aircraft, designated the CC-330 Husky, will take over from the five CC-150s that were purchased used from a […]

Ukrainian air force pilots and support personnel will begin training on the F-16 at bases in Denmark and Romania in August. A coalition of 11 countries was formed at the NATO summit in Lithuania to guide the training. The U.S. is not a member of that coalition and has not agreed to send aircraft to […]

Raytheon is pulling long-retired production workers out of their easy chairs and fishing boats to teach the current generation of factory employees how to make Stinger shoulder-launched missiles. Stingers have been out of production for 20 years and the stockpiles in the U.S. and other allies have been depleted by donations to Ukraine. They’re still […]

Northrop Grumman says it’s successfully flight tested a jam-proof navigation system to replace the current gear on military aircraft. Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS) / Inertial Navigation System (INS) Modernization, known as EGI-M, was installed on a Cessna Citation and put through its paces in May. The core of the system is something called an […]

Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks celebrated 80 years on the cutting edge of aviation technology with what might be a glimpse of a new manned fighter planform. The company is among those vying for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program and that will involve a manned fighter working with drones in theater. The new plane will […]