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You gotta' see this, located at Henderson, NV, United States!

You need to get ready for the next bubble to burst -- because you're going to pay for it. The popping of the airplane bubble could be the next tremor to hit the U.S. economy, as economically unstable commercial airlines around the world buy up fleets of jets that they cannot afford. But if airlines can't pay their bills to jet-makers, you get the tab, thanks to a U.S. government agency -- the Export-Import Bank of the United States -- that has dedicated three-fourths of its loan-guarantee dollars to backstopping sales for the Boeing Company. It's yet another pitfall of...

Russia will begin building new aircraft carriers after 2020, Russian navy chief Viktor Chirkov said on Thursday, in a major boost to Moscow's ability to deploy air power abroad. “At the moment, the construction bureau has received its assignment, the documents are being processed, and the money for the construction program has been allocated,” Chirkov said. If the plans reach fruition, it would be a major boon to the Russian navy, which currently fields only one aging aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. The Kuznetsov, part of the navy’s Northern Fleet, was built in 1985 and has been scheduled to undergo...

Syria has attempted to shoot down a second Turkish aircraft searching for missing pilots, Ankara announced Monday. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told a news conference the Turkish plane, which was searching for the jet that was shot down last week, was not damaged in the incident. He met with reporters following a seven hour cabinet meeting that focused on Syria's attack last week on Turkey's war plane. The F-4 reconnaissance aircraft was allegedly shot down while still technically in international air space near the border with Syria – about 13 nautical miles away, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet...

USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH, At Sea (NNS) -- USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) hosted the ship's namesake, former President George H.W. Bush, and his son, former President George W. Bush, for a promotion and reenlistment ceremony off the coast of Kennebunkport, Maine, June 10. "It's a great honor to be out here," said George H.W. Bush. "I'm thrilled to be on this vessel that bears my name, and I'm very proud of all of those that re-up'd for service to our great country." The ship's sponsor, Doro Bush Koch, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and other members of the...

The 2 Rolls Royce MT30 gas turbines on the Queen Elizabeth class don't seem very powerful compared to the 2 A4W nuclear reactors on the Gerald R. Ford class

Happy Anniversary: 100 Years of Marine Corps Aviation…

The USS Gerald R. Ford, a huge new aircraft carrier, reached a milestone in its pricey and extensive construction Thursday when its final keel section was lowered into place at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. The 680-metric-ton lower bow unit is one of the largest of the 500 modules that will make up the completed ship and is over 60-feet-tall. The bulbous bow seen in the picture shifts water flow around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability. Carriers with bulbous bows have achieve about 12 to 15 percent increased fuel efficiency than vessels...

WWII fighter plane hailed the 'aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb' found preserved in the Sahara A Second World War aeroplane that crash landed in the Sahara Desert before the British pilot walked to his death has been found almost perfectly preserved 70 years later. Most of its cockpit instruments are intact and it still had it guns and ammunition before they were seized by the Egyptian military. There are also signs of the makeshift camp the pilot made alongside the fuselage. No human remains have been found but it is thought the pilot may lie within a 20 mile radius...

Hawker Beechcraft has received approval from a federal bankruptcy court to continue paying employees, vendors and suppliers. There are still many questions about the filing and what it means to current and retired workers. Wichita bankruptcy attorney Bill Zimmerman says planes will continue to be built and, for all practical purposes, Hawker Beechcraft will continue operating during its restructuring. "The whole idea is to maintain value by continuing to operate," said Zimmerman. Something catching employees' attention is a statement on the company website that Hawker may have to terminate its pension plan. Zimmerman says it's not a done deal and...

After a decades-long streak of troubled weapon acquisitions, the Air Force is looking to get off on the right foot as it seeks to buy a new intercontinental stealth bomber. The Pentagon’s new budget proposal gives the Air Force the green light to begin designing a new bomber with a target date for starting production in the mid-2020s. The goal is to acquire up to 100 new aircraft at a cost of about $55 billion. But skeptics already are casting doubts on the plan. They consistently point to the B-2 batwing stealth bomber as a cautionary tale. The Pentagon spent...

In the thick of the Cold War, the Soviet Union built an immense vessel to carry their troops across the seas and into Western Europe. Equipped with nuclear warheads and able to blast across the sea at 340 mph, the Lun-class Ekranoplane; part plane, part boat, and part hovercraft — is a Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV). A GEV takes advantage of an aeronautical effect that allows it to lift off with an immense amount of weight, but limits its flight to 16 feet above the waves. Its altitude can never be greater than the length of the wings. Think of...

The United States Air Force is facing questions from Hawker Beechcraft Corp. after a recent GAO decision effectively removed them from the running in a bid to build our next generation of light attack aircraft.... Hawker Beechcraft, which has been excluded by the U.S. Air Force from competing for a contract to supply a new light attack aircraft, is fighting mad and fighting back. The Wichita-based manufacturer of business jets and turboprops filed suit yesterday with the Court of Federal Claims following notification that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) declined to review its protest of the Air Force decision, which...

Raw power!

The X-37B Mystery Spacecraft Just Had Its Nine Month Mission Extended Indefinitely Robert Johnson Dec. 3, 2011, 9:15 AM Image: US Air Force The pilotless X-37B Orbital Vehicle has been silently circling the planet for the past nine months and the Air Force has announced it will continue its classified mission indefinitely. W.J. Hennigan of the Los Angeles Times reports the X-37B resembles a smaller version of the space shuttle and is said to test various new technologies in space. Via CSM: "We initially planned for a nine-month mission, which we are roughly at now, but we will continue to...

The F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant completed ship suitability testing aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1) off the coast of Virginia in October 2011. Combined, F-35B test aircraft BF-2 and BF-4 accomplished 72 short takeoffs and 72 vertical landings during the three-week testing period.

Bookings for U.S.-made products designed to last at least three years fell by 0.8% last month, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a 1.0% decrease. Transportation orders slumped 7.5% to account for virtually the entire decline... ...Excluding transportation, however, orders climbed 1.7% in September. Demand increased for computers, primary metals, fabricated metals, heavy machinery and electrical equipment.

the Pentagon announced Friday that the remains of 10 airmen missing in action from World War II will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. The Department of Defense said in a news release that the crew was on a bombing mission over Berlin in April 1944 when their B-24J Liberator aircraft crashed near East Meitze, Germany. There were no survivors. The crash site was located in 2003 and human remains were turned over to U.S. officials. Additional remains, as well as metal ID tags and a class ring, were gathered over the next few...

Nearly half of the federal government’s firefighting air tankers are siting idle at a California airport, grounded by the Obama administration in a contract dispute just weeks before wildfires swept through Texas killing a mother and her child, and destroying 100,000 acres. The massive blazes forced Texas Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry​ to abruptly call off a campaign appearance in South Carolina earlier this week to respond to the crisis, and may force him to cancel his first debate appearance Wednesday night. The U.S. Forest Service terminated the contract with Aero Union five weeks ago to operate...