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Do you recall a time, a few years back, when the media wouldn't shut up about a supposed outing of an agent? Yup, the left and the media were pissed. I bet you could just imagine the firestorm of coverage that would result if instead of a former Secretary of State leaking a name it was our President....right? Guess not: Just a week ago the establishment media was aflutter with news that a CIA double-agent had thwarted a new type of underwear bomb attack targeting U.S. flights in a plot devised by al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. But as...

News that China is building a second aircraft carrier was leaked by an overenthusiastic local government, but reports were subsequently deleted from Web sites and social media here, a development that will do little to calm nerves in neighboring countries about Beijing’s growing maritime power. The government in Changzhou, in eastern Jiangsu province, boasted Sunday on social media that a local firm had won a contract to supply electrical cabling for the carrier. It later deleted the post, but not before it had been widely circulated. A report in a local newspaper was also withdrawn.

Britain summoned the Russian ambassador on Thursday and asked him to explain why two Russian "Bear" long-range bombers had flown over the English channel the previous day, a move that forced British authorities to divert civil aircraft. "The Russian planes caused disruption to civil aviation. That is why we summoned the Russian Ambassador today to account for the incident," the Foreign Office said in a statement. Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the two Russian planes, which were flying close to UK airspace, on Wednesday

Shocking enough are the allegations that a long-perceived unassuming state senator tried brokering an international arms deal with military-style rifles and rocket launchers, but Leland Yee may have narrowly escaped an even more ominous label: supporter of terrorism. Yee, whose arrest after an FBI undercover sting shook the California political world last week, would likely have been charged with aiding terrorists if not for a bureaucratic label missing from the militant Filipino group that he is accused of sourcing for an international arms deal, counterterrorism experts told this newspaper. His ties to the group, whose leader has said he personally...

Over the objections of reputed gang figure Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow's lawyers, a federal judge has ordered that the government's evidence in a sweeping criminal case that includes political corruption charges against state Sen. Leland Yee must be kept secret for now. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer imposed the restrictions Monday on every lawyer and defendant in the case, finding the material should be kept under wraps while both sides prepare for trial. Breyer rejected the free speech arguments of Chow's lawyer, J. Tony Serra, who insisted he should be able to reveal evidence to combat the government's public charges.

One of the U.S. Army’s giant surveillance blimps will rise to 10,000 feet above Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland on Friday for a three-year test. A second aircraft will begin testing in January. The Army’s Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS), which is built by Raytheon, will be tested for its ability to identify incoming enemy aircraft. “This will enable senior defense officials to support a determination whether to transition JLENS capabilities to an enduring mission at the conclusion of the three-year operational exercise,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement on...

A large association of battlefield target spotters has written to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to oppose the planned retirement of A-10 Warthog strike jets — a debate that now encompasses the “friendly fire” deaths of five American soldiers in Afghanistan. The A-10 endorsement from the Tactical Air Control Party Association is significant because, outside of the Warthog’s pilots themselves, perhaps no other warriors know its ability to protect ground troops under fire better than the ground controllers who guide it to enemy targets. ... The five fatalities occurred on June 9, when a B-1B strategic bomber — a planned replacement...

Sat rusting away in a field 555 miles east of Moscow, these relics are all that's left of a bygone era of Soviet innovation in military and civilian aircraft. Among them are some of the former Communist regime's greatest achievements in air travel, that have since been superseded many times and rendered redundant. Nine thousand of the hulking Cold War wrecks can be seen at the vast plane and helicopter graveyard at Russia's largest aviation museum in Ulyanovsk, in the Middle Volga region. Each off the exhibits had to make their last flight here, touching down at the Ulyanovsk-Central airport,...

When Textron AirLand first announced the Scorpion—a lightweight surveillance and strike aircraft—last year, it raised a few eyebrows. Now the American company is talking about the first two potential customers for the diminutive jet. Namely, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. Neither country has bought the Scorpion … yet. But the company is pitching the aircraft as a solution for featherweight and middle-size countries looking for an advanced combat plane that doesn’t break the bank. This is especially the case for countries that need eyes in the sky—and the ability to go after insurgents.

The U.S. Air Force is taking a serious look at overhauling the nearly 60 year-old B-52 bomber—including a new engine for the ancient plane. The question is not whether it makes sense, but why it hasn’t been done before. The answers include poor planning, budgetary procedures that defied economic logic, and at least one bone-headed accounting error. The B-52 first entered service in the mid-1950s. Putting new engines on the “Buff,” or Big Ugly Fat (cough) Fella, became a possibility after 1978, when the commercial airplane business launched two modern engines, the Rolls-Royce RB.211-535 and the PW2000. Unlike the first...

The Middle Seat The Trouble With Keeping Commercial Flights Clean With the Ebola Crisis in the Background, Standards for Disinfecting Planes Vary Based on Time, Class Just how clean are airplanes? Do they really get scrubbed down after each flight? WSJ's Scott McCartney joins Tanya Rivero on Lunch Break with the answers. By Scott McCartney Updated Sept. 17, 2014 The Ebola crisis and heightened concerns about the risk of spreading disease during air travel have focused concern on what airlines do to keep planes clean. It's a murky area without clear regulatory standards. The Federal Aviation Administration says it doesn't...

I home school a young girl. In years past, we have gone to the local air show and done such things as measure the tops and bottom of wings and rotos and figure the ratio or difference between the area of the top of the wing versus the bottom and estimated which wings had more lift than others. We measure how much area the wheels occupied on the ground and consulted with the crew chief what the tire pressure was and calculated the weight of the plane. In years past we were able to see F18s form a vapor cone...

US Air Force pens A-10 maintenance deal with Korean Air By: Dan Parsons Washington DC Source: Flightglobal.com This story is sourced from Flightglobal.com With top officers still calling for the aircraft’s retirement as a cost-saving measure, the US Air Force has announced a major potential investment in depot maintenance for the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt.The air force on 9 September announced a $46 million contract award to Korean Air Lines Co. (KAL) for depot-level maintenance and repair of A-10s, commonly called Warthogs, stationed Osan Air Base, South Korea. The work will be performed at KAL’s facility in Seoul with an expected...

Last night I saw something I had never encountered before: the launch of what I'm told were probably six large drones. They really made my mouth open with astonishment. They went up very fast then changed heading and rose into the clouds. Two minutes later they were joined on the same course by some fast movers which I could hear overhead but could not see due to high cloud. Bearing in mind that "Loose lips sink ships" (which WWII-era warning not coincidentally we began to use again after 9/11/2001), I'm not sure how much to say here. But it's natural...

unresponsive aircraft over atlantic, USAF in pursuit

FAA says too risky to fly over Syria. Banned US carriers from flying.

The US has confirmed that one of its reconnaissance aircraft violated Swedish airspace on July 18th, according to a media report. US authorities told the CNN news channel that the plane was conducting reconnaissance missions in international airspace when it was observed by Russian radar. Russia is reported to have scrambled aircraft to chase the US plane away. The US crew elected to exit the area by the fastest route possible, which meant passing through Swedish airspace. The flight passed over Gotland, an island off the east coast of Sweden, on July 18th in the late afternoon. A classified document...

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Crocodile might be responsible for plane crash in the Congo: UK investigators • Only one person survived the crash — as did the toothy reptile, though it was killed with machetes by rescuers sifting through the plane's wreckage. A plane crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo that left 18 people dead may have been caused by a crocodile. The animal is thought to have climbed out of a hold midflight and spooked the crew and passengers. They all panicked and ran towards the cockpit, and the forward shift in weight may have caused the plane to plummet to the...