Military Aviation

Air Force One Deal Near

President Donald Trump has again intervened in the negotiations with Boeing to modify two new 747-8i airliners to serve as the primary Air Force One aircraft and backup but it remains to be seen if the president’s promise of $1 billion in savings will be realized. Defense One reported Trump met with Boeing CEO Dennis […]

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Martin-Baker Fined For Ejection Seat Failure

U.K.-based ejection seat manufacturer Martin-Baker has been fined $1.4 million by a British court after admitting its role in the death of a Royal Air Force Red Arrow Demonstration Team member who accidentally ejected from a team aircraft on the ground. Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham died in a local hospital near RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, on […]

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Boeing Sticks Its Foot In It

Consolidation of the commercial airliner business has been happening since the first passenger-carrying biplanes rattled across the landscape. In the middle of the last century, there were dozens of viable manufacturers innovating and doing their best to cater to a rapidly evolving industry. But being the best has never been a guarantee of business success […]

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Air Force Narrows Light Attack Field

The U.S. Air Force has narrowed the field in the competition for its new light attack aircraft to just two, the AT-6 Wolverine and A-29 Super Tucano, eliminating the Textron Scorpion and L-3 Longsword, a militarized Air Tractor 802 aerial application aircraft. It’s also canceled plans to test the aircraft in combat. “Rather than do […]

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Hypersonic Hypotheses Getting Real

The largely hypothetical hypersonic aircraft race appears to have become a lot more real at an academic forum in Florida last week. Boeing showed off a model of what it thinks a Mach 5 aircraft might look like and a Lockheed Martin official may have let it slip that his company has already built one. […]

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Pentagon Office Investigates UFOs

A shadowy office deep in the Pentagon that investigates unexplained encounters by military aircraft with flying objects continues to operate even though its mandate was officially ended five years ago, according to The New York Times. The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification program was a pet project of retired Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and spent $22 […]

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Drone Has No Control Surfaces

BAE Systems and the University of Manchester have flown a stealthy drone that has no movable control surfaces and therefore does not change shape at all in flight. The MAGMA drone uses blown air to change aerodynamics and allow three-axes control. The most obvious benefit from the innovation is that there is no deflection of […]

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USAF Rejects Retired Pilot Recall

The U.S. Air Force said on Sunday there are no plans to use the powers created by President Donald Trump last week to force the recall of retired pilots. “We appreciate the authorities and flexibility delegated to us,” said Ann Stefanek, chief of Air Force media operations, on Sunday. However, “The Air Force does not […]

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Dream Chaser Gets A Lift

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser left the ground at Edwards Air Force Base on Wednesday but the real testing is just about to begin, more than 35 years after the idea for a small, reusable spacecraft was given form by the Soviet Union. According to Wired, the 30-foot-long “space utility vehicle” was hoisted to 12,500 […]

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