Free Republic

RUSSIAN-backed rebels in Ukraine’s east believed they had shot down a Ukraine Airforce fighter jet as disturbing new footage shows them ransacking the luggage of passengers and crew from Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. A year ago today, 298 passengers and crew including 38 Australian citizens and residents died aboard the Kuala Lumpur bound commercial flight after it was shot down over east Ukraine, 40km from the Russian border. Much footage exists particularly on the internet of the aftermath of the downed airliner, smouldering over three main wreckage sites about the rebel stronghold of the embattled Dontesk region. But, after a...

A video uploaded to YouTube by MrJasonmx3 shows Angel #5 doing a low fly-by. While the aircraft did not appear to be at unsafe altitude, it was close enough to the ground to send tents and umbrellas flying in the air. According to reports, the maneuver was performed by Lt. Cmdr. Mark Tedrow. Tedrow is a Pennsylvania native who has been with the Blue Angels since September 2011. The performance occurred July 11.

Tomorrow Prince William joins the East Anglian Air Ambulance as a pilot Former member of RAF will ferry critically ill members of public to hospital Work is hazardous and involves night shifts but is a 'very rewarding job' Prince William, who formerly served as a RAF search-and-rescue pilot (pictured) will become an air ambulance pilot It's hazardous, it involves night shifts, staff might have to work Christmas Day and they take a packed lunch because there’s no canteen. It hardly sounds like a career fit for a prince, yet at 7am tomorrow the Duke of Cambridge reports for duty at...

Twenty-five army, navy and coast guard men -- the entire crew and passenger list of a converted Flying Fortress carrying the homeward-bound servicemen from Gander, Newfoundland -- were killed last night when the plane crashed against 1200-foot Mount Tom. Salvage crews summoned to the scene of New England's worst air disaster

The last flight for US Airways will take place this fall, and one more name in airline history will disappear. The farewell flight for US Airways will be a red-eye — Flight 434 is scheduled to leave San Francisco around 10 p.m. and land in Philadelphia after 6 a.m. on Oct. 18. The US Airways website will be turned off. Airport kiosks and signs will change to American Airlines. The two airlines merged in December 2013 and decided to keep the better-known American name. Vestiges of the carrier will survive for some time, however, as some planes won’t be repainted...

The remnants of Transcontinental Air Mail Route Beacon 37A, which was located atop a bluff in St. George, Utah. (Photo: Dppowell/Wikipedia)Across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York, lies a network of mostly forgotten infrastructure, a system that was obsolete before it was ever finished—forgotten relics from the early days of powered flight. The early 20th century was an era of American history where Manifest Destiny seemed, well, manifest. The West had been won, and the cities blossomed. But with innovation came change and obsolescence. Trains became the prime movers of not only people and goods, but also the mail. The Pony Express proved...

A military fighter jet crashed into a Cessna flight midair about 11 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina this morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The condition of the pilots of the planes is unknown at this time. There have been no reports confirming any other passengers. In a statement, the FAA said the collision involved a Cessna C 150 and an F-16 fighter aircraft at around 11 a.m. A defense department official confirmed to ABC News that the pilot of the F-16 ejected safely. The plane and pilot came from Shaw Air Force Base, roughly 100 miles north...

For his new book, The Wright Brothers, ­Pulitzer Prize winner David ­McCullough pored over newspaper articles, photographs, and more than 1,000 letters to create a gripping account of Wilbur and Orville's quest to fly.

No More Free Checked Bags on JetBlue. As of June 30, the airline introduced new fare options when booking tickets online, which include charges to checked bags, unless passengers pay for its premium fares. Passengers purchasing Blue fare—JetBlue’s base fare—will now be charged $20 for the first checked bag when purchased during web check-in or at a kiosk, or $25 at the check-in counter, and a $35 fee for a second checked bag.

A test pilot has some very, very bad news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can’t turn or climb fast enough to hit an enemy plane during a dogfight or to dodge the enemy’s own gunfire, the pilot reported following a day of mock air battles back in January. “The F-35 was at a distinct energy disadvantage,” the unnamed pilot wrote in a scathing five-page brief that War Is Boring has obtained. The brief is unclassified but is labeled “for official use only.” The test pilot’s report is the latest evidence of fundamental problems with...

Cities and states across the U.S. regularly lobby airlines to add flights and routes, arguing that air service is vital to economic development. But one of the most important places in the country to corporations — Delaware — now has no commercial air service. The Wilmington News Journal reports that Frontier Airlines quietly dropped flights last week to Wilmington’s New Castle Airport. That leaves the state as the only one in the country where airlines do not fly. Frontier spokesman Jim Faulkner told the paper that the airline discontinued service because it wasn’t profitable. “If market conditions change, we may...

It has been claimed the chief architect of Pyongyang Airport was executed by North Korea's totalitarian leader Kim Jong-un because he disliked his designs. Ma Won-chun, who was North Korea's director of the Designing Department of the National Defence Commission, vanished last year and was allegedly executed in November. This coincided with a report the same month explaining how the fearsome ruler was dissatisfied with the construction of Terminal 2 at the country's capital city.

With no announcement or fanfare, Eastern Airlines and HavanaAir quietly moved their inaugural revenue flights, MIA-HAV-HAV flight to today. Flight 3145, departed from Miami at 2:26pm EST according to FlightAware. Return flight 3146 arrived back in Miami from Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport at 5:05pm.

Pilot Romain Jantot has one more item to add to his pre-flight checklist: always check for cats. The Daily Record reports Jantot was teaching a flying lesson in Kourou, French Guinea, when an unexpected stowaway made an appearance. After a smooth ascent, a cat creeps from its place on the wing toward the cockpit. The feline flyer seemed unfazed by its journey among the clouds, although the pilot chose to cut the trip short. Jantot uploaded the above video to YouTube on Sunday, where it has since been viewed nearly 400,000 times. He notes the carry-on cat is doing well,...

Night Witch commemorative stamps (Photo: toysworld.od.ua)In the Nazi-occupied Soviet Union, German soldiers had a very real fear of witches.Namely the Night Witches, an all-female squadron of bomber pilots who ran thousands of daring bombing raids with little more than wooden planes and the cover of night—and should be as celebrated as their male counterparts.This month marks the 73rd anniversary of the start of their pioneering service. In June of 1941, the Axis powers pushed into the Soviet Union using the largest invading force in the history of warfare. The infamous Operation Barbarossa saw over four million troops wade into Russia from...

Svetlana Kapanina performing at Sochi Olympics 2014 with an Extra 330 LC RA-1568 (G)...And the cockpit cam shows how it looks inside while pulling some serious Gs.

Just thought I would share my project I have been working on for about 5 years now. I am definitely on the home stretch now, about 90% complete. I have a guy coming next week to do all the finish work on the outside, I simple do not have the patience for finish work, everything else was pretty easy, just time consuming. I already have a 200hp IO360 ready to bolt on. Gear was all installed but I had to remove to seal the fuel tanks, so Now it is on a stand. After the finisher does the top and...

Two planes began their takeoffs on intersecting runways at Chicago’s Midway airport on Tuesday evening, before being ordered to stop by air traffic control and averting a collision in the center of the airport, the FAA confirmed. The two planes involved were Southwest Flight 3828 bound for

British warplanes scrambled to intercept nine Russian aircraft within hours after they flew menacingly close to the Baltic States in what was described as the biggest act of provocation since the Cold War. Moscow sent the world’s fastest supersonic fighter jet, along with spy planes and bombers to ‘snoop’ on Nato war games designed to send a ‘warning to Vladimir Putin’. A senior RAF source last night told the Daily Mail: ‘We’ve never had a period like this in living memory.’

Beneath the panes of Perspex in her floor, the daisy-strewn runway falls away as fast as 80 years of history. The Blenheim’s snout lifts skywards, her twin engines casting a heat haze behind the propellers’ silver blur. At 200mph, she throttles towards a patchwork of cumulus and sun, quiet, quick and deft. Inside she is bare of today’s technology. Her khaki flight deck contains pedals as delicate as a piano’s, a joystick, and a small black bank of antique instruments. I am perched in the navigator’s place on a circular seat the size of a dinner plate. Above me and...