Free Republic

Photo credit: US Army via Military Times The Pentagon is realizing that fighting in the frigid north may be more of a possibility than ever as Russia prepares its forces for sustained arctic operations. Now a handful of the US Army’s attack helicopters are getting optimized for this scenario, receiving skis, a pilot survival pod and being tested to see how they adapt to the extreme environment. The Apache’s permanent presence in Alaska is still a relatively new development. It came about as the result of the Army’s aviation reorganization plan that saw the sudden (and some would say boneheaded)...

It is one of the oddest plane designs ever created - a tiny propeller-driven craft with twin tails and two pilots sitting almost on top of each other. However, Boeing and a South Africa's Paramount Group firm hope the wacky design, currently used to patrol borders, could be turned into a low cost fighter plane. The two firms plan to add missiles and a slew of sensors to the advanced, high-performance, reconnaissance, light aircraft, which has been named Mwari after an all-seeing mythological being in Southern African folklore. The advanced, high-performance, reconnaissance, light aircraft (AHRLAC) is a high-wing aircraft, with...

Paramount Group AHRLAC Plane This weird plane will soon get weapons. Probably normal weapons, maybe weird weapons too. South Africa’s AHRLAC is a weird bird. With a narrow, high body, and stadium seating for the pilot and sensor operator, it looks like a rough draft for an F-4 phantom. A pusher prop and slightly forward-swept wings seem like an aviation mistake from the First World War. Built as a bushwacking scout, able to operate from rough fields without runways, AHRLAC is an odd drone alternative, a peopled plane built to do a drone’s job. Now, thanks to a deal Paramount...

A Norwegian fighter pilot has published a soft rebuttal to a damaging critique leaked last summer about the Lockheed Martin F-35A’s dogfighting prowess, contradicting many of the critical points made in the scathing review written by a Lockheed test pilot. Royal Norwegian Air Force Maj Morten “Dolby” Hanche, a US Navy test pilot school graduate with 2,200 flight hours in Lockheed F-16s, has flown several mock dogfights from Luke AFB in Arizona since becoming the nation’s first F-35 pilot last November. These have yet to advance to performing "dissimilar" training against other aircraft types. In a blog post on Norway’s...

As the Museum of Flight prepares the final flight of the first ever built Boeing 727 from its Restoration Center down to the actual museum this week, we look back at the history of the Boeing 727 program. This specific aircraft, N7001U, has spent the past 25 years at the Museum of Flight Restoration Center up at Paine Field in Everett. This prototype 727 was the first of 1,832 made when production ended in 1984 with a final delivery to FedEx. Until the 737 broke its record in the early 1990s, the 727 held the sales record for the most...

Boeing aims to broadly replace its 757 model, a top-end narrow-body jet with a single aisle. The new model would try to rewrite airplane economics by being wide enough for two aisles to seat seven people in each row, but able to produce the skintight margins of a smaller single-aisle, six-abreast plane such as the workhorse Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Airbus calls the project a bluff and says it reflects Boeing's frustration at losing market share to its A321. One of the designs on Boeing's drawing board is an unusually oval-shaped cross-section, rather than a rounder shape typical of...

The funny thing about working in engineering is that your education is never really over. Innovation is constantly reshaping the concepts and processes you find in various areas of engineering, so the professionals focused on these fields have to be on their toes to learn the latest and greatest advancements. A decent chunk of this learning is done through experience, but sometimes you need to jump start it with a course or two. And who better to do that with than MIT, Boeing and NASA? That’s right: The biggest names in engineering are teaming up to develop the ultimate systems...

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10, 2016: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has initiated the procurement of a fresh lot of 40 additional Su-30MKI air dominance fighters at an estimated $75 million apiece, reliable diplomatic sources disclosed to Arming India. The procurement is being taken up as a follow-on order to the 222 Su-30MKI fighters already contracted to be made under transfer of technology at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)'s Nasik division. Along with the initial 50 aircraft acquired in a flyaway condition from Russia in the late 1990s, the latest increment of 40 aircraft will take the total number of Su-30MKIs ordered...

Boeing Co. wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep something in mind as he looks to turn India into a defense manufacturing powerhouse: Size matters. With Modi planning to spend $150 billion to modernize military equipment over the next decade, the world's largest aerospace company sees an opportunity to grow its presence in India. Boeing lost out in 2012 to smaller French rival Dassault Aviation in what was then the biggest fighter-jet deal on record. "If India wants to jump start an aerospace economy, do you want to do that with Dassault -- that's about a $5 billion company --...

After refusing to sell Israel new planes for several years, mostly for fear that Israel would turn around and go bomb Iran with them, the White House now agreed in principle to let Israel buy the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus, using the US security assistance package. According to Walla, the Dept. of Defense initially offered Israel to purchase older models, to make room on its shelves for the new merchandize, but Israel refused, and started spreading hints that if Obama won’t give her what she needs, she can always get it from the next tenant in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. So last...

The president has nominated attorney J. Mark McWatters for the bank board. However, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, has said he's "in no hurry" to hold a hearing or a vote on the nomination. Other pending confirmations take precedence, he said.The last of the 2015 lobbying reports are in, and the top corporate spender turns out to have been the Boeing Company, at $21.9 million. Not coincidentally, the aerospace giant also outranks thousands of other firms in profiting from the subsidies doled out by the Export-Import Bank. Last year, Boeing benefitted...

(CNN)—The pilot for Donald Trump's private jet was forced to divert to Nashville international airport Wednesday afternoon. The Federal Aviation Administration says the presidential candidate's Boeing 757 had to make the emergency landing after reporting engine problems. Trump was en route to Little Rock, Arkansas for a campaign event when his plane was diverted. The 757 landed safely at Nashville International airport. Trump eventually made it to the Arkansas campaign event, albeit nearly two hours late.

Boeing Co. is recommending that new Littoral Combat Ships be mounted with Harpoon missile launchers this year before routine trials near Mayport, Florida, a company official said. In a recent interview with Military.com, Jeffrey "Scott" Jones, Boeing's global sales and marketing lead for the Harpoon and a retired Navy rear admiral, said a new upgrade kit that aims to double the missile's range makes it a strong candidate for mounting on the LCS and the frigate that will follow. The Navy's director of surface warfare, Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, called an over-the-horizon missile an "absolute requirement" for the ship in...

NEW DELHI: US aircraft maker Boeing Co is in a "conversation" on manufacturing its F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet in India, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg was quoted on Wednesday as saying on his first visit to the country. "We see the Super Hornet as an opportunity ... to tie directly into the 'Make in India' strategy," Mr Muilenburg told the Hindustan Times in an interview whose authenticity was confirmed by the company. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' drive is designed to expand India's industrial base. Boeing was willing to back the project with billions of dollars in...

Qatar asked for clearance from the U.S. Government to purchase 72 F-15E Strike Eagle derivatives, but the request has been slow-rolled. Now, almost two years later and after the Iran Nuclear Agreement has been implemented, there are high hopes the deal may finally be allowed to move forward. Considering that Qatar remains a close ally of the U.S. in the region, and their fighter business has traditionally gone to European manufacturers, penning a deal for dozens of F-15 Strike Eagles seems like a no-brainer. Yet, politically, this would seem not to be the case. Aside from Israel and Saudi Arabia,...

The B-52 had long been one of the Air Force's key weapons, being the first aircraft to attack Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War. But over the past two decades, half of the military's B-52s have been scrapped due to budget constraints, leading several companies to come up with suggestions for a replacement. One of these groups was Boeing, who came up with a plan in the 1980s to turn a 747 into a launcher capable of carrying 70 cruise missiles. The aim was to create a low-cost bomber, at 15 per cent the price of the B-2, but able...

Reuters reported in October that Bombardier had offered the CSeries to Southwest, a long shot since the airline maintains an all-Boeing fleet. The CSeries is due to enter service in 2016 after delays and amid cash problems at Bombardier. The plane maker did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman said this week the plane is "a top contender in several key campaigns." Delta Air Lines Inc on Tuesday said it was considering Bombardier's new aircraft. Another competitor for the United order, Brazil's Embraer SA, declined to comment on the Boeing deal. United is expected to buy more...

Paris (CNN)As round trips go, it was more of an oval: Paris to Paris with no ground stop in between, and it had grown men and women getting all misty-eyed. For Air France and its Boeing 747s, it was time to say goodbye -- but the airline and its personnel were having a hard time doing so. The last scheduled Air France 747 flight had landed days earlier, but here we all were at 8 a.m. for the first of two separate "last 747 flights" around France which, in fact, were just a prelude to a few more "last 747...

On 16 January 1991, seven Boeing B-52Gs fully loaded with AGM-86C conventional air-launched cruise missiles took flight from Barksdale AFB in Louisiana on a top-secret mission to destroy targets inside Iraq. Those 35h missions were the first combat sorties of Operation Desert Storm. Lesser known is that the mission, dubbed Secret Squirrel, also marked the combat debut of the AGM-86C, with 35 weapons fired and 85-95% of targets successfully destroyed, according to the US air force. A derivative of the nuclear-tipped AGM-86B, the B-52G would not have been deployed if only armed with nuclear cruise missiles and unguided bombs. Now,...

Boeing and ANA (All Nippon Airways) have celebrated ANA becoming the first airline to reach its 100,000th revenue flight with the 787 Dreamliner, during a gate ceremony at Sea-Tac International Airport, Seattle, US. "The 787 Dreamliner has played an important role especially in forming the backbone of our international fleet," said Osamu Shinobe, President and CEO, ANA. "Reaching the 100,000th revenue flight milestone with the 787 Dreamliner is a significant milestone for ANA. As the largest customer of the 787, we look to forward to introducing the entire family of Dreamliners into our fleet as we aim to celebrate another...