Military Aviation

Testifying before the House and Senate Armed Services committees this week, leaders of the Air Force and Navy described the billion-dollar economic impact the national pilot shortage is having on their services. Gen. Steven Wilson, Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, told congressional leaders, “We can recruit pilots without a problem. The problem […]

While the Air Force and some in Congress muse about a fleet of low-cost light attack aircraft (and seem to prefer mostly foreign-derived designs) there are two American-designed counterterrorism and close air support aircraft in service overseas. Just before he left office, President Barack Obama approved the sale of 12 weaponized Air Tractor AT-802U single-engine […]

Northrop-Grumman will not be submitting a bid for the U.S. Air Force T-X project to replace the T-38 Talon. In a statement released earlier this week, the company said “Northrop Grumman and its principal teammate BAE Systems have carefully examined the U.S. Air Force’s T-X Trainer requirements and acquisition strategy … [and] have decided not […]

U.S. Air Force officials have expressed support for a proposal by Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to acquire several hundred low-cost light-attack and observation aircraft. As proposed by Sen. McCain, “the Air Force should procure 300 low-cost, light-attack fighters that would require minimal work to develop. These aircraft could […]

An Air Force C-17 has become the latest target of a green laser attack. The crew of the big cargo plane reported they were at 4,000 feet over the Jersey Shore on Saturday when the cockpit was illuminated. No one was hurt and the aircraft continued its flight. The laser strike occurred about 9:15 p.m. […]

The Air Force marked the end of almost 60 years of service of the F-4 Phantom with a ceremony at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico just before Christmas. The last flying Phantom took off to assume its final role as a ground target for training pilots in more modern platforms. Holloman has been […]

The Afghan air force’s only female pilot has asked for asylum in the U.S., saying it’s too dangerous for her to return to her own country. Capt. Niloofar Rahmani finished a type course on C-130s with the U.S. Air Force last Thursday and promptly requested to stay in the U.S. She had been training in […]

Boeing and Saab flew their T-X trainer for the first time on Tuesday and officially entered the race to provide the Air Force with its next generation training platform. The single-engine twin-tailed jet took off from Boeing’s facility in St. Louis for a flight that lasted 55 minutes and covered basic flight characteristics. Boeing lead […]

A big hunk of metal that a sea cucumber diver thought might be a Cold War atomic bomb turned out to be a piece of industrial junk. The Royal Canadian Navy sent a ship to a remote area off the northern Pacific coast of British Columbia late last month after the diver, Sean Smyrichinski, reported […]

So now we have a Republican congress and a soon-to-take-office Republican president. What does this mean for general aviation’s interests? For the airlines? For aerospace in general? Probably about what it means for every other segment of the economy; no one seems to know enough to hazard a guess. Yet. In theory, the sacred project […]