On 1 July 2002 two airliners collided over Lake Constance because nothing in the rules said whether to obey TCAS or the controller. Seventy-one people died.
Japan Copied a German Rocket Fighter From an Instruction Manual
The submarines carrying the Me 163 blueprints were sunk. Mitsubishi built the J8M Shusui from a handbook instead. It flew once, on 7 July 1945.
Britain Designed a Mach 3 Bomber the Pilot Could Not See Out Of
The Avro 730 was to cruise at Mach 2.5 in stainless steel, with no windscreen and a periscope for landing. Then the 1957 White Paper arrived.
Hawker Built a Mach 2.5 Fighter, Then Refused to Fly It
The Hawker P.1121 was largely built by the summer of 1958. It never flew, and the reason had almost nothing to do with engineering.
Thomas McGuire: 38 Kills, and the Turn That Killed Him
He wrote the rule against low-altitude turning fights himself. At 300 feet over Negros he broke it deliberately, to pull a Japanese fighter off his wingman.
Mount Erebus: Two Coordinates Nobody Told the Crew
Air New Zealand moved a waypoint two degrees east at 1:40 in the morning and did not tell the crew. Eleven hours later 257 people were dead on a volcano.
Barking Creek 1939: The RAF Shot Down Its Own Fighters
Three days into the war, a radar fault sent RAF squadrons after a raid that did not exist. Spitfires shot down two Hurricanes and killed the first British fighter pilot of the war.
Su-34 Production: Russia Has Built 212, Lost at Least 43
An unpainted Su-34 at a Siberian air festival is a reminder that one factory still builds them. The arithmetic against confirmed losses is less comfortable.
La Compagnie Adds Newark to Düsseldorf, All Business Class
A French airline with two aircraft and no economy cabin will fly Düsseldorf to Newark from Spring 2027, on a route nobody else serves nonstop.
Gilmour and Hypersonix: Australia Wants to Sell Mach 5 Tests
A Queensland rocket firm and a Queensland scramjet firm have agreed to build something almost nobody offers: a repeatable way to fly customers’ hardware past Mach 5.
Su-57E: Rosoboronexport Says It Has Buyers, Names None
Russia’s arms exporter says new Su-57E contracts are signed and deliveries start this year. It will not say who signed, for how many, or for how much.
Cessna 172 Crash at Montgomery Field Kills Two in San Diego
A Cessna 172 crashed and burned on a runway at San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport on Monday evening. Both people on board were killed.
AMP-HEL: The Army Laser Burning Cartel Drones for $3 a Shot
A US Army laser has destroyed eleven cartel drones in ten days at about $3 a shot, and the military says traffic fell 75 percent. It will not say 75 percent of what.
Saky: Ukrainian Drone Hits Russian Su-24, Tail Number 49
Ukraine’s HUR released footage of a drone striking a Russian Su-24M in occupied Crimea, and framed it as a present to itself on Military Intelligence Day.
A350F: Airbus Books Eight More as First Flight Nears
Airbus quietly firmed eight more A350F freighters on 31 August, taking the order book to 115, two weeks before the aircraft is due to fly for the first time.
Egypt Takes Its First Five Boeing CH-47F Chinooks
Boeing handed Egypt the first five of twelve CH-47F Chinooks at El Alamein, under a $426 million deal signed in January 2023 to replace its CH-47D fleet.
NATO Scrambled Jets 700 Times in Two Years Over Russia
NATO’s most senior military officer put a number on two years of Russian air provocations: around 700 emergency takeoffs. Almost one a day.