Military Aviation

Raptors Wrecked By Michael In addition to being the main Raptor roost, Tyndall AFB is also the location for the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. In other words, when your 406MHz ELT goes off in the lower-48, they’re the ones who hear the alarm and start the response. I wonder if their operations are affected, […]

The Pentagon temporarily grounded the United States’ F-35 fleet on Thursday after the discovery of defective fuel tubes in an F-35 engine. The findings come from the initial investigation into the crash of an F-35B in late September. Israel and the UK have also paused F-35 flights as a result. “The U.S. Services and international […]

Boeing has announced that it has been awarded a $9.2 billion contract to supply the company’s T-X advanced pilot training system to the U.S. Air Force. The funds will cover 351 new T-X combat training jets, associated ground equipment and 46 simulators, Boeing says. The company developed and tested the T-X in partnership with Saab. […]

The first crash of an F-35B has been reported in South Carolina but early reports say the pilot safely ejected. Circumstances of the crash have not been released but it’s the first operational loss of the fifth-generation fighter. One other F-35 has been written off by fire damage to internal components in 2016 but that […]

The United States Air Force has released the results of a branch-wide operational safety review, which identified a series of safety risks for Air Force flight crews. The report pinpointed stress posed by high operations tempos, a lack of time to properly focus on flying basics and decreased aircraft availability as potential safety concerns in […]

Lockheed Martin has reached a deal to shift production of F-16 wings to India, sparking speculation it might be planning to build the entire aircraft there in the near future. Tata Advanced Systems Ltd., of Hyderabad, already makes airframe components for the C-130J and Sikorsky S-92 helicopter but the F-16 deal is a major step […]

The FAA has granted a Supplemental Type Certificate to Boeing’s KC-46 tanker, the company announced this week. The STC is the second of two FAA certifications required for the aircraft. Next, Boeing will seek a Military Type Certificate from the U.S. Air Force, which is expected in the next few months. The required testing already […]

The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a contract to configure nine F/A-18E and two F/A-18F Super Hornets for the Blue Angels demonstration team. Since the team’s first performance in 1946, the Blue Angels have used eight aircraft models, including the F11F-1 Tiger, F-4J Phantom II and A-4F Skyhawk II. They have been flying F/A-18C/D Hornets […]

The Air Force is hoping to ease its pilot shortage by speeding up the training of new pilots using virtual reality simulators. The first class of 20 Pilot Training Next (PTN) candidates, 15 officers and five enlisted personnel, finished their course on Friday and 13 of the officers passed. Two officers washed out and were […]

The Air Force has suspended flight evaluations in its light attack aircraft experiment after the death of one of the program’s pilots in late June. Lt. Christopher Carey Short, a naval aviator, died in the crash of an A-29 Super Tucano at the Red Rio Bombing Range in the White Sands Missile Range in New […]