Military Aviation

The Air Force is encouraging prospective pilots who don’t meet its height requirements to apply anyway because they might just qualify. It’s also considering broadening those requirements to capture more of the population beyond the 13-inch range (five-foot-four to six-foot-five) it now lists as its essential height range. It turns out it’s more complicated that […]

The Air Force says it needs more room to train fighter pilots but GA pilots in New Mexico are worried it will come at their expense. The Air Force has come up with three alternatives to get the elbow room in military operating areas (MOA) it says it needs to overcome a crippling shortage of […]

Two U.S. Air Force airmen were killed in an accident that occurred during a routine training mission on Thursday morning. Two T-38 Talon aircraft based at Oklahoma’s Vance Air Force Base as part of the 71st Flying Training Wing were involved in the crash, which took place at approximately 9:10 a.m. local time. According to […]

A Marine Corps pilot who ejected from his F/A-18 Hornet off the coast of Japan in 2018 was alive on the surface of the ocean for about 10 hours before drowning according to military.com. Capt. Jahmar Resilard was wearing a smart watch when he abandoned his fighter after it collided with a KC-130 tanker during […]

Last week, Airbus Helicopters’ unmanned VSR700 made its first flight in the south of France. Based on the Guimbal Cabri G2, which was a piston-powered, 1500-pound ship, the VSR is powered by a Continental CD-155 four-cylinder, FADEC-controlled turbodiesel running on Jet A, and is intended for navies to expand their surveillance and search-and-rescue capabilities at […]

Barbara M. Barrett was publicly sworn in as the 25th Secretary of the U.S. Air Force on Saturday. The ceremony took place at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was conducted by Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist. Barrett was nominated for the position last May after former Secretary of the […]

The F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin finalized an agreement for the production and delivery of 478 F-35s on Tuesday. The $34 billion contract represents the lowest cost per aircraft in the F-35 program’s notoriously expensive history, with the F-35A unit price dropping an average of 12.8 percent over the three lots (Lots 12-14) […]

The U.S. Air Force’s unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle successfully completed its fifth mission on Sunday, landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility after 780 days in orbit. The X-37B was launched on Sept. 7, 2017, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, onboard a Space X Falcon 9 booster. The longest the […]

The head of recruitment for the U.S. Air Force says she’s on a mission to improve diversity and boost the ranks of the organization with greater flexibility for those who serve. Maj. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt told an audience at NBAA-BACE 2019 that recruitment services have been put all under one roof so those who want […]

Together the more than 375 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in service have logged in excess of 500,000 flight hours, according to maker Bell Boeing. The V-22 was begun in 1983, first flew in 1989, and was finally entered into service with the U.S. Marine Corp in 2007 as the MV-22B. The U.S. Air Force got […]