Military Aviation

The world’s largest airplane took its first flight early Saturday. The Stratolaunch, a six-engine, twin-fuselage behemoth with a 385-foot wingspan, took off from Mojave after years in development. The aircraft was conceived by Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan as an aerial launch platform for low Earth orbit satellites that will reduce launch […]

One of Scaled Composites’ (formerly) most secretive projects was on full display at a Kentucky FBO over the weekend, on its way to NAS Paxutent River from Mojave. The stealthy model 401, one of two that are flying, stopped for fuel at Bowling Green in the middle of a clear day and the pilot wasn’t […]

The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) has announced that the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS) team has been named the recipient of the 2018 Robert J. Collier Trophy for “successfully completing a rapid design, integration, and flight test of critical, lifesaving technology for the worldwide F-35 fleet.” Auto GCAS was developed by Lockheed Martin, […]

The final price tag for two new almost-new VC-25B executive transport aircraft for the Air Force is now pegged at $5.3 billion. Defense One is reporting the Pentagon has asked for $4.68 billion for the conversion of two mothballed Boeing 747-8i airliners in its 2020 budget request and full implementation of the program will add […]

The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) has announced that a wide array of military aircraft ranging from historic World War II warbirds to currently active fighters will be on display for the “Year of the Fighter” at AirVenture 2019 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Special programs and activities highlighting military aircraft will take place throughout the week. Events […]

The Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant helicopter successfully completed its first flight on Thursday. The aircraft was developed by Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky in partnership with Boeing to be part of the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift program. It was designed using technology developed from Sikorsky’s X2 Technology Demonstrator, which won the Collier Trophy in 2010. Features […]

Some of the Air Force’s most expensive and strategically sensitive aircraft have been evacuated from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, after it was flooded by the Missouri River over the weekend. At least nine aircraft were flown to other bases and crews were working around the clock to try to protect facilities that […]

Military aviation forums are buzzing with reaction to a Facebook posting by the Dutch-based Scramble Magazine that four F-117 Nighthawks were pulled out of retirement and snuck into Syria to fly clandestine missions on behalf of the U.S. in 2017. Giving some credence to the report, which is classified as a rumor by most military […]

This week, AVweb’s blog space will feature a two-part story from James Belton, a Gen X pilot who has done what the previous generation of pilots could not: Evolved from pistons, to jets, to drones. Here’s part one. When I was a young man, I desperately wanted to fly. I wanted to fly fighter jets […]

That telltale trail of smoke from the Air Force’s longest serving airframe will soon be a thing of the past but that’s not because the B-52 is going anywhere. A request for proposal will be issued in March to re-engine 76 of the venerable bombers as part of the Air Force’s long-range bombing strategy through […]