Free Republic

It’s called the Clean Air Act, but it was never intended to ensure pure, pristine air. Congress wanted America to have safe, healthy air, and regulations based on solid scientific and medical studies.The law says costs cannot be considered where human health and safety are actually at stake. But legislators also understood that efforts to bring emissions to zero are unnecessary, technologically impossible, extremely expensive, harmful to electricity generation, factory output, job creation and retention, and living standards – and thus likely to reduce human health, wellbeing and longevity.The Obama Environmental Protection Agency ignored these facts and employed highly dubious...

The benefits the P-51 Mustang brought to aerial battles in World War II, particularly over Germany, are reasonably well known. The iconic fighter plane could fly higher, faster, farther and generate more kills per sortie than the U.S. Army Air Force’s aviation bureaucracy’s preferred P-47s or P-38s. However, the real P-51 Mustang story is just as much about the difficult gestation of a great new fighter as it is about the quashing of the drop tanks urgently needed to extend the range of existing fighters. Then there’s the guerilla tactics some officials unleashed in the corridors of power to overcome...

While at best, Clinton’s clean cookstove campaign seems slimy, and may be illegal, one might cast a blind eye if the program achieved its aggrandizing goals. Hillary Clinton’s “trustworthiness” problem is fed by a long history of “varying credibility,” as a recent Politico story delineated, including cattle-futures trading, law firm billing records, muddled sniper fire recollections and e-mail use. While providing pertinent points, the Politico list is just a sampling. One missing item on the “mistrust” litany is a project she reportedly cooked up as Secretary of State, but that was shaped by her family foundation. State Department staff sent...

AIRO (AP) - The voice and data recorders from the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean nearly a month ago are "extensively damaged" and will need repairs before they can be analyzed, an Egyptian official said Friday, dampening hopes for quick answers as to what caused the disaster. The official didn't elaborate on how long the repairs would take but said if this cannot be done in Egypt, the so-called "black boxes" would be sent abroad. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. With the wreckage of the Airbus...

Cockpit voice recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight found in Mediterranean, Egyptian investigators say

President Barack Obama plans to nominate Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson to be the head of U.S. Northern Command — which would make her the first female combatant commander, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Friday. Robinson is now the head of Pacific Air Forces. If confirmed by the Senate, she would replace Adm. Bill Gortney, who’s been in the post since 2014.

The U.S. military is testing out a dependable, rugged little vintage bomber as it battles elusive ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq. War was just an experiment for two of the U.S. military’s oldest and most unusual warplanes. A pair of OV-10 Broncos—small, Vietnam War-vintage, propeller-driven attack planes—recently spent three months flying top cover for ground troops battling ISIS militants in the Middle East. The OV-10s’ deployment is one of the latest examples of a remarkable phenomenon. The United States—and, to a lesser extent, Russia—has seized the opportunity afforded it by the aerial free-for-all over Iraq and Syria and other...

espite a California Construction Trucking Association lawsuit attempting to halt the regulations, the CARB brought in big federal guns The metastasis of statewide diesel truck regulations created by the California Air Resources Board has forced many large and small truckers out of business. The truckers still in business have had to spend $20,000 to $50,000 per truck retrofit with the CARB’s expensive, mandated Diesel Particulate Filter, or they have had to buy newer model trucks to meet the new regulations. New trucks are hugely expensive. By the stroke of a pen from unelected career bureaucrats hiding behind layers of government,...

Diesel Particulate Filter is expensive to install and maintain, mechanically unreliable, and the warranties are inadequate both as to time, mileage and scope of coverage California truck and business owners initiated a lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board because of exploding trucks and roadside fires, due to the CARB’s mandatory, faulty diesel particulate filters, they say. Ironically, the filters even fail at cleaning the air. The Alliance for California Business, a voluntary group whose purpose is to protect and promote business interests throughout California, says Diesel Particulate Filters have started more than 31 fires in the last two years,...

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has revealed the existence of a program to develop a so-called "Arsenal Plane." Designed to back up fifth generation fighters such as the F-35 with a large number of conventional weapons, backing up the high-tech fighters with tried-and-true ordinance. The Arsenal Plane actually has its roots at sea. During the 1990s, there was an effort to create so-called "Arsenal Ships"— large boats packed with hundreds of missile silos that would rely on the targeting data of the rest of the fleet. The Arsenal Ship was never built, but four Ohio-class submarines were converted to...

Since China's capital city Beijing issued its first ever air pollution red alert last week, sales of bottled Canadian fresh mountain air to Chinese customers have soared. Two entrepreneurs from Alberta have been selling Vitality Air for just over a year, but over the last two weeks their sales to China have increased dramatically, reports The People's Daily Online. The red alert over air pollution was issued by Beijing authorities on December 7, lasting three days, amid the second bout of bad air this month. During this time PM2.5 levels - tiny hazardous airborne particles - exceeded 900 micrograms per...

The Russian air force conducted another massive strategic bomber raid on Daesh targets in Syria yesterday. As before, the Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95MS bombers played a prominent role, however, the supersonic Tu-22M3 Backfire bombers conducted the majority of the attacks. “A squadron of Tu-22M3 long-range bombers made airstrikes against six ISIS facilities in the provinces of Raqqah and Deir Ezzor. They engaged depots with weapons and ammunition, mass concentrations of military hardware, training camps and workshops producing explosives,” reads a statement from the Russian defense ministry.

Russia Sends Its Only Aircraft Carrier To Syria, Signals It Is Just Getting Started

From all the recent sounds of celebrating coming out of Washington, D.C., you might think the Pentagon’s biggest, priciest and most controversial warplane development had accelerated right past all its problems. The price tag—currently an estimated $1 trillion to design, build and operate 2,400 copies—is steadily going down. Production of dozens of the planes a year for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps is getting easier. Daily flight tests increasingly are hitting all the right marks. Or so proponents would have you believe.

Emirates has announced the launch of the world's longest non-stop flight - an 8,700mile journey lasting an incredible 17 hours 35 minutes. Starting on February 1, 2016, the service from Dubai to Panama City is exciting news for those who love Central America, but it will be a stern endurance test for anyone in economy class. Panama City is Emirates' first gateway destination in Central America.

The F-35 program could cripple U.S. defense for decades to come. “You could argue it [the F-35] was already one of the biggest white elephants in history a long time ago,” stated former U.K. defense chief Nick Harvey in a May interview. Harvey then doubled down, saying there is “not a cat in hell’s chance” the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) would be combat-ready by 2018. While it is noteworthy that a person of Harvey’s stature would level such harsh criticisms, his statement merely reflects the conclusions of reports by the U.S. Defense Department’s Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E),...

Canadian forest fires, which delivered unto us a Fourth of July weekend pall, seem to have inspired the release of a new report from the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. We are being told that air pollution is killing about 2,000 people a year, a figure so preposterously guessed at it that they might as well have made it 175,000 people a year if it's alarm they are trying to sound. The following words were used: likely, estimates and roughly. Air pollution likely contributes to thousands of deaths each year, a state study estimates. The...

The aerial dogfight was not supposed to happen. On May 20, 1967, eight U.S. Air Force F-4C fighters were patrolling over North Vietnam when they spotted as many as 15 enemy MiG-17 fighters a short distance away. Fog and the MiGs’ low altitude had prevented the F-4s from detecting the North Vietnamese jets from farther away.

Breaking: US Air Force Cancels Two UK 4th of July Shows Due to “Severe and Credible” Threats (VIDEO) Jim Hoft Jul 2nd, 2015 9:40 pm 6 Comments The US Air Force cancelled two air shows planned on Independence Day in Great Britain because of threat there is considered severe and credible. The two-day festival was due to be hosted by US crew based in RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall, England. The Daily Mail reported: The U.S. Air Force has cancelled planned Independence Day celebrations at a Norfolk RAF base due to the increased risk of a Jihadi terror attack. The two-day...

Two people were hospitalized after shots were fired when a civilian tried to gain unauthorized access to the Little Rock Air Force Base Monday morning. The base said the suspect was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. A bystander was also transported for non-related medical care and was released. The base went on lockdown after the incident. Jacksonville Police Sgt. Dustin Brown said the suspect had attempted to gain access to the base, which is in Jacksonville and about 15 miles northeast of Little Rock. A bomb squad was checking a green SUV parked near a visitor center...