Military Archives - Page 172 of 180

In the Viper: A Reporter Rides the F-16

Editor’s note: Aviation Week reporter Amy Butler recently flew a Lockheed Martin F-16D Fighting Falcon, the iconic fighter its pilots refer to as the Viper. The U.S. Air Force’s D model she rode is the latest in a long line of attack jets equipped to suppress and kill enemy radar sites. Butler’s report takes a […]

Flights Rerouted Ahead of North Korean Rocket Launch

South Korea said today it plans to reroute passenger flights over the Yellow Sea to avoid possible collisions with debris from a long-range rocket that North Korea plans to launch this month. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said it made the decision after learning that North Korea had informed China and Singapore of […]

Saudi F-15 Crashes in Persian Gulf

A Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 fighter with only the pilot on board crashed into the Persian Gulf while on a training mission in the kingdom’s Eastern Province, the defence ministry announced on Monday. The jet fell into “Saudi territorial waters and the search for the pilot is still ongoing,” the ministry said, adding that an […]

Deal Reached for 32 More F-35 Fighters

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Defense Department have reached an agreement in principle on a fifth batch of 32 additional F-35 fighter planes, the Pentagon said on Friday, bringing nearly a year of negotiations to a close. The deal is valued at around $3.8 billion, although the two sides are still finalizing details, according to a […]

X-47B UCAS Completes Historic Catapult Launch

The Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator successfully completed its inaugural land-based catapult launch at the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., yesterday, marking the start of a new era for naval aviation. “Carrier-based unmanned aircraft will change the concept of operations for the carrier-controlled airspace,” said Rear Adm. Mat Winter, the program executive […]

Squadron of ‘Lost’ Spitfires Could Fly in Three Years

Archaeologists will begin digging for the historic hoard of at least 36 British fighter planes in January, experts said on Wednesday. A proportion of the aircraft will then be carefully packaged and brought back to the UK next spring, where they will be restored. David Cundall, a farmer and aviation enthusiast from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, has spent […]

High School Students Repair Hill AFB’s Vintage Aircraft

Students at Clearfield High School in Utah are getting hands-on experience in repairing airplanes at Hill Aerospace Museum as part of an aeronautical mechanics course. On Tuesday, a small group of students lined up around a C-7 Caribou that was damaged during a windstorm last year. Using a hydraulic lift, several students were lifted to […]

Sunken Hellcat Fighter Found Off Miami Beach

The crew of a research submarine studying artificial reefs off Miami-Dade County has discovered the mostly intact wreck of a U.S. Navy World War II fighter plane lying upside down 240 feet deep off Miami Beach. Researchers aboard the Antipodes were using three-dimensional sonar gear to investigate a blip on the sea floor last June […]

X-47B Loaded Onto U.S.S. Truman for Tests

The next step toward unmanned, carrier-borne fighter aircraft was taken yesterday when sailors aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Harry S. Truman assisted with the loading of Northrop Grumman’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator. The air vehicle arrived in Norfolk Naval Shipyard by barge Monday from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. A team […]

Czech Pilot Dies in Training Crash

The pilot of the Czech subsonic one-seat L-159 military aircraft that crashed in central Bohemia, the western region of the Czech Republic, on Thursday afternoon was found dead in its wreckage, general staff spokeswoman Jana Ruzickova told CTK, the country’s news agency. A commission of the Defence Ministry in charge of air accidents will investigate the […]