Free Republic

By Presidential Proclamation, December 17 is Wright Brothers Day. The President is requested each year to issue a proclamation inviting the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. Wright Brothers Day is an annual United States national observation. It is codified in the US Code and Wright Brothers Day commemorates the first successful flights in a heavier than air, mechanically propelled airplane, made by Orville and Wilbur Wright on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Wright brothers were American brothers, inventors and aviation pioneers...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German Defence Ministry said on Monday that the European fighter jet was the leading candidate to replace its Tornado jets, which it wants to start phasing out in 2025. The ministry’s position appears to contradict that of the German air force, whose chief indicated last month that he preferred Lockheed Martin’s F-35, which meets the military’s requirements of stealth and long-distance operational capabilities. In a letter to a Greens lawmaker who had inquired about the deliberations, the ministry said the F-35 and Boeing’s F-15 and F-18 fighters were secondary options. “The indicated view of the inspector...

Lockheed Martin (LMT) announced today that its board of directors has elected Jeh C. Johnson and James D. Taiclet, Jr. to the board effective January 1, 2018. Johnson, 60, is a partner at the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Previously, he served as U.S. secretary of homeland security as part of an exemplary career of public service. He also served as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of the Air Force. He's currently a director of PG&E Corporation (PCG). Taiclet, 57, is chairman, president and chief executive officer...

Westerns analysts have concluded that Russia’s fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter is unlikely to enter operational service before 2027. Postponements, cost-overruns and research and development-related problems mar the project. This should come as no surprise. The Su-57 program was never really viable. Back in early 2006, Russian president Vladimir Putin integrated all of Russia’s aviation companies into a single, state-owned holding — the United Aircraft-building Corporation. Over the time, UAC absorbed more than 20 aviation companies, and re-organized these into four aircraft-manufacturing divisions. One for combat aircraft, one for military transport aircraft, one for civilian aircraft and one for aircraft...

Defence group BAE Systems’ shares jumped in early trading as investors reacted to a long-awaited export sale of the company’s Typhoon jet fighters. BAE shares rose almost 3pc after a £5bn sale of 24 of jets along with a training and support package to Gulf nation Qatar was announced on Sunday afternoon. BAE, Airbus and Italy's Leonardo each have a one-third share in the Typhoon programme. The deal also threw a lifeline to BAE’s programme building the Hawk training jet - the aircraft flown by the Red Arrows - whose production line is running out of orders. Qatar’s purchase also...

Qatar has taken up the option to buy 12 additional Dassault Rafale fighters announcing the deal at a event with the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani,from the Qatar Armed Forces As part of the French president's state visit to Doha, Qatar also ordered 50 A321neo narrowbodies. Qatar Airways already operated 39 Airbus A320s and has 11 more due for delivery before 2020 This new defence order follows on from the contract signed on 4 May 2015 between the State of Qatar and Dassault Aviation for the acquisition of 24 Rafale,...

This plane passed over my house today. It flew low and looks like an old time plane. I'm thinking it has something to do with Pearl Harbor Day? I heard it as it passed over, flying pretty low. Had an old time motor sound and so I ran out to see what kind of plane it was, bringing my camera as I did. Snapped the shot as it was flying over my neighbors yard. Wish I had caught it over my own yard, would've been a better shot. Anyway going to ask if anyone out there recognizes this type of...

With F-35B production ramping up, the AV-8 Harrier is entering into the twilight of its service with the United States Marine Corps. By most accounts, America's Harrier fleet has quite a bit of life left in it, especially considering Pentagon picked up the UK's entire fleet of 74 Harriers, many of which were very young, and all the spare parts that went with them, for cost of roughly 1.35 F-35Bs at today's prices, or a paltry $177M. As a result, large quantities of surplus Harriers and ample stocks of spare parts are likely to be put up for sale by...

Japan is at a strategic crossroads of sorts. The days of strict adherence to Article Nine of the country's constitution are coming to an end as threats both new and old grow and evolve. Tokyo seems to be willing and able to move beyond the strategic confines of its post WWII past to become a more capable and longer-reaching military force that can project power well beyond its own territory and even its region. But considering what seems like an exponentially expanding threat posed by North Korea, as well as an increasingly hostile dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands,...

China’s second home-grown aircraft carrier could be a world-class warship if it uses a domestically developed hi-tech launch system, but the hefty fighter jets it would have to launch remain a fly in the ointment for the country’s naval power aspirations. While Beijing is narrowing the aircraft carrier technology gap with the United States, the country’s carrier programme is still hindered by the capabilities of its carrier-based warplanes. China spent more than a decade developing its first carrier-based fighter, the J-15, based on a prototype of a fourth-generation Russian Sukhoi Su-33 twin-engined air superiority fighter – a design that is...

TOKYO (REUTERS) - Japan is preparing to acquire precision air-launched missiles that for the first time would give it the capability to strike North Korean missile sites, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. Japan plans to put money aside in its next defence budget starting April to study whether its F-15 fighters could launch longer-range missiles, including Lockheed Martin Corp's extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER), which can hit targets 1,000km away, said one the sources with knowledge of the plan. "There is a global trend for using longer range missiles and it is only natural that...

The United States Air Force is adding the ability to attack moving targets to its new Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighter with the addition of the 500lbs Raytheon GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II laser-guided bomb. "Fielding the GBU-49 for use on the F-35A is a key milestone in delivering combat capability to the warfighter," Brig. Gen. Todd Canterbury, director of the Air Force F-35 Integration Office, said in a statement.

FORT WORTH -Bobby Tamplin was 26 years old in 1977, when he went to work as a parts fabricator on the F-16 fighter jet. At the time, he was told his job would last “maybe five years.” Forty years later, the 66-year-old recently stood on a windy, cold flight line at Lockheed Martin — just a few weeks before his retirement — to bid goodbye to the last F-16 to be built in Fort Worth. It is a bittersweet moment for Tamplin, who grew up working on the assembly line, to remember a time when the plant built almost one...

Living bacteria were found on the surface of the International Space Station (ISS), and they might have extraterrestrial origins, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov said. The microorganisms will be studied further on Earth. Shkaplerov, an ISS expedition flight engineer who will take his third trip to the ISS in December as part of the Expedition 54 crew, said that scientists found living bacteria while they were taking samples from the surface of the station. Speaking to TASS, he said that the microorganisms might have come from outer space. ... However, traces of bacteria originating on Earth – from Madagascar – and...

The military space business is stuck in its old ways and missing a "golden opportunity" to capture the energy of a rejuvenated commercial industry, said a former White House space and aviation technology adviser who is now a top official at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. ... Kennedy's..words ... were met with skepticism from executives in the audience who argued that DARPA often funds the development of technologies that already are available in the private sector, creating government vs. industry competitions that undermine private efforts. ... Executives in the audience pointed out that the Defense Department has not moved...

Numerous pilots reported they saw the aircraft, but none came close enough to identify it. Ultimately, Oregon Air National Guard F-15 fighters from Portland International Airport were sent up to investigate, but saw nothing. The War Zone article also cites two Reddit users familiar with the incident and who seem to corroborate much of what the air traffic controller audio has to say. The aircraft was near Crater Lake, Oregon when air traffic controllers started asking nearby pilots about it. The aircraft was described as a white object flying north between 35,000 and 40,000 feet. At one point in the...

Test shuttles found inside derelict Soviet warehouse near Cosmodrome Baikonur, 125 miles east of Aral Sea The space craft were both developed as part of Moscow's Buran programme which was shut down in 1993 Same building home to vast Energia rocket, designed to propel the unmanned space plane Buran into orbit Russian model had striking external similarities to the US Space Shuttle Columbia sparking espionage claims These eerie photographs show how USSR-era space craft have been left to rust in an abandoned desert hangar in Kazakhstan. Two test shuttles were found inside a derelict Soviet warehouse near the Cosmodrome Baikonur,...

On Thursday, Virgin Orbit won a contract from the Air Force to carry "technology demonstration satellites" on its LauncherOne rocket by early 2019. The LauncherOne rocket will be "air launched" from a modified Boeing 747 called "Cosmic Girl." The contract follows Branson's quiet launch earlier this month of Vox Space, a subsidiary of Virgin Orbit, that will focus on military contracts. While there is plenty of room in space, the launchpad is becoming more crowded. That's good news for the Pentagon as it looks toward increased competition and embracing new technology like reusable rockets to lower launch costs. United Launch...

Popescu has been charged with five different counts of embezzlement, 13 different counts of fraud and one count of forgery. The charges range from $100 to $20,000. According to arrest records online, he was arrested in Jonesboro, Georgia Wednesday and then extradited to the Dona Ana County Detention Center.

Northrop won the bomber contract in 2015... activity is ramping up sharply under an Air Force budget that has reached $2 billion for this fiscal year. ... The project marks a sharp turnaround in the fortunes of the Southern California aerospace industry, which has been atrophying since the end of the Cold War. It was widely assumed that the region would never again be home to a large aircraft manufacturing program and now it has one of the largest in modern history. The program is breathing new life into an industry that once defined the Southern California economy. ... A...