Military Aviation

Hurricane Sally disrupted operations and wrecked some airplanes but most of the facilities affected along the Gulf coast and inland in Alabama are open and cleaning up the mess. AOPA found five facilities either closed or with limited operations in the storm’s aftermath but most were back in business by the weekend. The impact stretched […]

The U.S. Air Force is testing a new fighter jet prototype designed and built under its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. The mystery aircraft has already been flown, although it has not been made public how many prototypes have been built or how much flight time the design has accrued. Details about the fighter’s […]

Ground testing of Boeing’s Loyal Wingman prototype is underway with the first engine start on the autonomous unmanned aircraft successfully completed this month. The Loyal Wingman is designed to serve as the foundation for Boeing’s Airpower Teaming System, which uses “artificial intelligence to fly independently or in support of manned aircraft.” The aircraft is the […]

The Air Force is toying with the idea of giving the president a supersonic ride to his or her international appointments. According to military.com the Air Force’s Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate has awarded a $1 million small business innovation research contract to aerospace startup Exosonic to nail down the basics of a low-boom supersonic […]

United Launch Alliance says it will be at least a week before it can try again to launch an expensive spy satellite from Cape Canaveral. Its Delta IV Heavy rocket automatically aborted starting its engines just three seconds before liftoff early Saturday. The launch had already been postponed from its Aug. 27 planned liftoff. In […]

An artificial intelligence algorithm beat an “experienced” F-16 pilot in five straight simulated dogfights in a project designed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Aug. 20. The pilot was up against an AI system named Heron and the two duked it out in a Second World War-style forward firing gun battle. The human […]

A startup aviation company is proposing an optionally manned surveillance and light attack platform that it says can replace such complicated aircraft as the P-3 and P-8. Icarus Aerospace’s TAV (tactical air vehicle) is a clean-sheet design that looks a lot like a cleaned-up OV-10. Although it comes with two seats, it can also be […]

NORAD fighters fired flares to get the attention of an RV-7 pilot who blundered into the presidential TFR surrounding President Donald Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort on Saturday. The jets were scrambled and intercepted the homebuilt in the restricted airspace but weren’t able to raise the pilot on the radio. Shortly after the flares […]

The USAF Thunderbirds will do a full airshow performance in September but only Canadians will get to see it. Ditto the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team, the F-22 Raptor demo team and C-17 demo team. The London (Ontario) Airshow is going ahead Sept. 12-13 as a drive-in event with room for 2500 vehicles. The […]

Rolls-Royce announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Bell Textron to provide the propulsion system for Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor. In addition to the propulsion system, Rolls-Royce will also be supplying an advanced infrared suppressor system for the Valor. Along with the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant, the V-280 was selected last March to […]