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Shortly after takeoff this week, a small plane experienced engine problems and was forced to crash into a busy stretch of California’s 405 freeway.

A couple of years ago, many of my local friends were curious about traveling to Cuba. They seemed fascinated by the idea of traveling to an island isolated from reality for 50-plus years. I would often hear this expression: "I want to see it for myself." Some of my friends went, and others never got to go. The ones who went all seem to be singing the same tune: "Beautiful beach, okay hotel, but the internet does not work and the people are not happy." We learned today via the Miami Herald that Southwest Airlines is canceling flights to Cuba:...

Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz said the plane had crashed and two people in their early 60s were hospitalized with traumatic injuries. Both patients “had vitals” when they were removed from the plane, he said. It’s not clear what caused the plane to crash, he said. “As far as exactly what occurred to the aircraft, that’s up to the FAA for investigation,” Kurtz said. The plane’s wreckage was on the southbound freeway near the MacArthur Boulevard exit, on the path that aircraft use when landing at John Wayne Airport. The Cessna 310 aircraft “landed” on the freeway short...

The Donald Trump Pentagon, in so many words, is saying that the Obama administration’s decision to waive punitive sanctions and buy combat helicopters from Russia was a bad deal. The Pentagon’s first congressionally required report on Afghanistan under President Trump says the Russian Mi-17 chopper has proved a failure in the long war and will be phased out in favor of American-made UH-60 Black Hawks. The Obama administration came to realize the failure in its last weeks in office and stopped the deal. The report this month on “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan” marks official confirmation that the Russian...

Russian military aviation firm MiG said on Friday it was ready to deepen its cooperation with India, just days after U.S. arms maker Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) agreed with Tata Advanced Systems to build F-16 fighters there. India's air force needs hundreds of aircraft to replace its Soviet-era fleet, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has said foreign suppliers must build the planes in India to boost the domestic industrial base and cut outright imports. MiG General Director Ilia Tarasenko told Reuters in a written interview that his company had been cooperating with India for more than 50 years, providing...

The Republic of China Air Force’s (ROCAF’s) 499th Tactical Fighter Wing has unveiled four Mirage 2000s (serials 2003, 2017, 2020 and 2055) with identical special liveries to commemorate 20 years of service for the type. A ceremony was held at the wing’s home base at Hsinchu on June 2. This was attended by Defence Minister Feng Shih-kua and General of Air Command Shen Yi-Ming. The latter was part of the first batch of pilots trained on the Mirage 2000. Also present were ROCAF senior officers and past and present Mirage 2000 flight crews. The paint scheme features a stylised dragon...

How Private Jet Travelers Were Still Flying Despite The Heat In Phoenix Doug Gollan , Contributor I write about luxury travel from private jets to experiences Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. If you tuned on the news this past week you learned this time there were no “tapes” and that airplanes sometimes can’t fly in extreme heat. Nearly 50 flights by American Airlines were canceled, impacting thousands of passengers when temperatures at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport approached 120 degrees. While thousands of airline passengers were being inconvenienced by weather as happens to tens of thousands of flights...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., wants drones regulated, and she wants them regulated now. And, along with strong bi-partisan support, the goal is to have them primarily regulated at the state and local level. It won’t happen in Washington. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled last month the Federal Aviation Authority lacks authority to regulate drone use by hobbyists or to require they register their drones in a national database, and legislation the senator introduced to regulate drones in the last Congress went nowhere. So she has opted for another approach. She has joined forces with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.,...

Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) is in the final stages of negotiating a deal worth more than $37 billion to sell a record 440 F-35 fighter jets to a group of 11 nations including the United States, two people familiar with the talks said. This would be the biggest deal yet for the stealthy F-35 jet, set to make its Paris Airshow debut this week. The sale represents a major shift in sales practices from annual purchases to more economic multi-year deals that lower the cost of each jet. The pricing of the jets was still not final, although the average...

Videos posted by attendees at the U.S. Open show a blimp crashing to the ground after apparently catching fire. The Washington County Sheriff's Office is responding to the crash, CBS affiliate WDJT-TV reports. At least one person is injured, officials said. Jeff Alstadter, a spokesman for the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) tells CBS News officials were still gathering information about the crash. Twitter users posted clips showing the blimp falling from the sky near the golf tournament, which is being held at Erin Hills Golf Course in Hartford, Wisconsin

Although its Falcon business jet unit is enduring something of an orders slump, Dassault Aviation’s defence arm is enjoying a bumper time with its Rafale multirole fighter, with production already assured through at least the middle of the next decade. Recent boosts to the programme include a French commitment to launch an F4 operating standard of the jet; confirmation of a long-planned Indian order; and numerous other prospects to add to its list of export buyers. Announced earlier this year under a deal with France's DGA defence procurement agency, the Rafale's F4 evolution will build on its so-called "omnirole" capabilities....

The F-35 is getting slammed hard once again, this time due to the sudden grounding of 55 of the stealth jets based at Luke AFB following a series of in-flight life support issues. These issues included bouts of hypoxia and other incidents that made it hard for pilots to breathe. The truth of the matter is that the F-35—still a relatively new weapons system that remains deep in testing regardless of how the USAF portrays its status—is the least flagrant offender when it comes to operational aircraft that manifest these anomalies. But the fact that the prized jet is now...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Navy intends to buy at least 80 more Boeing F/A-18E-F Super Hornets over the next five years to address its fighter shortfall, a change from its previous on-the-books plan to zero out the aircraft program beginning next year, service officials said in congressional testimony today. The Navy’s written testimony to the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee notes the “Fiscal Year 2018 President’s Budget requests $1.25 billion in [the Navy’s aircraft procurement account] for 14 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft” and that, “with the support of Congress, we will also procure a minimum of 80 additional Super Hornets...

This F/A-18F Super Hornet, belonging to VFA-213 "Blacklions" and operating aboard the USS George H.W. Bush in the eastern Mediterranean, is equipped with one uniquely massive and highly destructive payload. No less than ten 1,000lb GBU-32 JDAMs are slung under its wings. In addition, a pair of 188lb AIM-9X Sidewinders adorn its wingtips. A 400lb ATFLIR targeting pod is attached on its left intake station, and a 480 gallon centerline fuel tank rounds out its external stores list. Add in the four multiple ejector racks and the pylons, not to mention 412 rounds of 20mm ammo, and this "Rhino's" stores...

A week before the Paris air show, the head of Airbus Defence & Space's military aircraft division has called on France to participate in the development of a new airborne weapon system proposed by Germany and Spain to succeed the Eurofighter Typhoon. "I really hope that France will be involved," says Fernando Alonso, speaking to reporters on 9 June at Airbus media day. "We have to do this in Europe. There's no place to do two or three different systems." The objective of a single European fighter programme first arose 25 years ago, but Germany and France pursued different paths:...

American aerospace giant Boeing and France's Dassault Aviation are among the four entities that have responded to he Indian Navy’s 'Request for Interest (RFI)' to provide 57 multi-role carrier borne fighters, industry sources said. The other two are Sweden's SAAB and Rosoboronexport of Russia. While Boeing has pitched its F/A-18 Super Hornet, Dassault has briefed the navy on its Rafale. SAAB has offered the maritime variant of its Gripen single-engine fighter jet. Naval Chief Sunil Lanba confirmed the development. "We will examine the RFI and take it forward," he told this newspaper. The deal is valued over Rs 50,000 crore....

For the first time in more than four decades, American forces have come under aerial attack after a drone released an unspecified weapon near U.S. special operators and their Syrian partners at a garrison in the town of At Tanf. The strike has huge implications for the conflict in the country, as well as the future of warfare as a whole. U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), the top American task force leading the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, announced the incident in talking to the press on June...

The process behind combat testing an RAF plane has been revealed in a new book written by former pilots. Incredible images taken at RAF Waddington, RAF Donna Nook and RAF Coningsby, all in Lincolnshire, show the test flights of various jets and weapons over the past 30 years. They include the first firing of the laser-guided Brimstone anti-armour missile in 1999 and the evaluation crew of the F3 Tornado fighter in the mid 1980s. The book, called Operational Test: Honing the Edge, is written by David Gledhill, a former RAF tactics expert, and ex-RAF navigator and weapons tester David Lewis....

The Sukhoi Su-35S supermaneuverable multirole fighter in service with the Russian Air Force is optimized for air-to-air combat but is quite useless as a ground attack aircraft as proven by its combat experience in Syria. Russian state-controlled media reports the air force as being "more or less satisfied with the Su-35S" and its performance in Syria. The "less" in this case is the result of the failure of the fighter's PESA (Passive Electronically Scanned Array) radar to accurately and consistently locate and guide bombs onto their targets. "Since the aircraft was employed for ground strike missions -- more with smart...

President Trump will reportedly introduce a plan on Monday to privatize the air traffic control functions of the Federal Aviation Administration this week as part of a broader push for infrastructure reform. The Washington Post reports that Trump will instruct Congress to pursue privatizing air traffic control and spin it off into a nonprofit corporation. Trump could send principles for the plan to Congress as early as this week, according to the report. Trump will be joined by the CEOs of several major airlines as he makes his air traffic control announcement, ABC News reported Sunday evening.