Free Republic

Viktor Belenko, the former Soviet Air Defence Forces pilot who defected to the West in 1976 in a MiG-25 high-speed interceptor, has passed away on Sep. 24, 2023 Alert 5 first noted. He died in a nursing home in a small town in Southern Illinois on Sep. 24. However, journalists learned about his death only now. The New York Times quoted Belenko’s son, Paul Schmidt, on Nov. 20 as saying that his father had died after a brief, unspecified illness in a nursing home in Rosebud, Illinois. Viktor Belenko was born into a simple family of Soviet workers on Feb....

Prior to President Donald Trump authorizing targeted strikes against Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, federal agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers have been arresting Iranian nationals, nearly all men, in the U.S. illegally. In the last few months, federal prosecutors have also brought terrorism charges against Iranians, including those in the U.S. working for the Iranian government. Iran is a designated state sponsor of terrorism. Iranian nationals illegally in the country are considered “special interest aliens” under federal law. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sunday issued a warning to all Americans to be on a heightened...

Safety experts recommended Wednesday that the engines on Boeing's troubled 737 Max airplanes be modified quickly to prevent smoke from filling the cockpit or cabin after a safety feature is activated following a bird strike. The problem detailed by the National Transportation Safety Board emerged after two bird strikes involving Southwest Airlines planes in 2023 — one in Havana, Cuba, and another in New Orleans. The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing already warned airlines and pilots about the problem and the engine maker has been working on a fix. The NTSB said that the engines CFM International makes for the...

The pilot of a small private jet that crash landed in southern California last month and killed everyone on board, including a famous drummer, clipped a power line during landing while flying too low a preliminary report has revealed. The Cessna 550 Citation plummeted into San Diego's Murphy Canyon neighborhood in the early hours of May 22 as it made its final approach for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Daniel Williams, a former drummer for metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada, and famed music producer Dave Shapiro - who is believed to have been the pilot - were among the six people...

Aseismic shift has occurred in the Trump administration’s new defense spending plan that is just emerging when it comes to the USAF’s airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) predicament. The service’s E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft are dwindling in number and rapidly aging into unsupportability. The proven and in-production E-7 Wedgetail, based on the Boeing 737 and serving with multiple allies, was supposed to bridge the gap between the E-3’s retirement and pushing the sending part of the mission to space-based distributed satellite constellations. You can read all about this here. Now, if the administration gets...

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, desperately cried 'Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift' before the aircraft went down and hit a residential property.

The U.S. Army is giving its soldiers a high-tech edge in the fight against drones, and it’s called SMASH. During a live-fire training exercise on June 6 in Germany, a soldier with the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment used the SMASH 2000L smart scope mounted on an M4A1 rifle to target drones in the sky. The SMASH 2000L, made by Israeli company Smart Shooter Ltd., is no ordinary sight. It uses cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence to track targets and decides the perfect time to fire, according to reporting from Army Recognition. Once a drone is locked in, the system...

A small plane crashed off the San Diego coast shortly after takeoff, killing all six people on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday. The twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the FAA said. The plane was returning to Phoenix one day after flying out from Arizona, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware.com. The pilot told air traffic controllers that he was struggling to maintain his heading and climb as the plane twice turned towards shore before going back out to sea, according to audio posted by www.LiveATC.net and radar data posted by FlightAware. The controller...

Plane crash in Tennessee. Initial reports indicate 16–20 people on board. Injuries reported some airlifted to hospital , says Tennessee Highway Patrol

I think someone is in big trouble over at American. American Airlines made a slight mistake which turned into a big mistake as a flight from Philly was descending into Naples, Italy. The plane was too big. Yep. The plane went to and from the right place, with all the right passengers, on time as far as we know. But someone at American made the mistake of "upgrading" the plane to a size too big for the Naples airport. On June 2, 2025, the transatlantic flight, normally operated by a Boeing 787-8, had been upgraded to a larger 787-9 (registration...

President Donald Trump signed several executive orders on Friday, lifting regulations on aviation technology and working to boost American manufacturing of drones. The trio of orders lifts regulations that had made domestic production of drones costly, prioritizes the usage of American-made drones by federal agencies and provides for the creation of a grant program for U.S. authorities to buy drones, according to NOTUS. The American drone industry had in recent years been struggling to compete with that of China, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Red tape has hindered homegrown drone innovation, restricting commercial drone use and burdening their development,” Michael...

The audacious attacks on Russian airfields highlight the power of unconventional, asymmetric warfare — and the threat to U.S. strategic bases and ports, experts say.Ukraine’s surprise Sunday strike that used relatively inexpensive drones to knock out a significant portion of Russia’s long-range bomber capability was arguably the single largest blow to Moscow in its three-year war on its neighbor and a stunning display of asymmetric warfare. The out-of-the-blue drone blitz elicited glee among Ukraine’s backers in Washington, but also a chilling realization: The United States is increasingly vulnerable to just such a low-tech, low-cost strike. “The Pentagon should be very...

A look at the US Military C5 Galaxy. American ingenuity at work.

Just for the sake of discussion—what if Boeing wasn’t a bloated, risk-averse, demoralized shell of its former self? What if, instead of sitting on its legacy platforms, it unleashed its brightest minds in a modern Skunk Works to reimagine the greatest military cargo plane ever built—the C-17 Globemaster III—for the 21st century? Let’s call it the C-47X Dominator. This isn’t a leak. It’s not sourced. It’s just a thought experiment. But imagine: Re-engineering the C-17 with new-generation LEAP or GEnx engines Using advanced composites to lighten the frame Swapping out hardened battlefield tech that’s no longer needed in civilian ops...

A private jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood during foggy weather early Thursday, setting about 15 homes on fire as well as vehicles, and forcing the evacuation of several blocks, authorities said. It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the aircraft, but officials confirmed multiple fatalities. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Cessna 550 went down around 3:45 a.m. near Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Murphy Canyon, a community comprised of military housing. San Diego Police and other first responders rushed to the scene and battled the flames fueled by spilled jet fuel., KSWB-TV reported. “We...

Scientists had never detected these strange particles in plane exhaust before. (santi lumubol/Shutterstock) ============================================================================ In a nutshell * Scientists have discovered previously unknown “onion-like” nanoparticles in jet engine exhaust that could pose new health concerns, especially for people living near airports. * These tiny particles, measuring just 10-20 nanometers, appear downstream from aircraft engines and may originate from the breakdown of lubrication oil, not fuel combustion. * Unlike traditional soot, these particles remain even when using sustainable aviation fuels, posing a potential challenge for clean aviation initiatives. ============================================================================ TSUKUBA, Japan — Living near an airport might be more complicated than...

In the good ol’ US of frickin’ A we take pride in super-sizing just about everything. From cheeseburgers, to breast implants (nope, not going to link to that one), to deficit spending, to balls of twine, bigger is simply better to many Americans. But despite creating such gigantic aerial icons as the Boeing 747 and the C-5 Galaxy, the USA doesn’t have a monopoly on gigantic airplanes… far from it. This is the tragic story of the Ukrainian-built Antonov An-225 Mriya (meaning “dream” in Ukrainian), which held several records as the largest and heaviest cargo airplane in operation, until it...

The US military believes that this collaboration will inform future strategy decisions and operational planning. ============================================================== Artistic representation of fighter jets entering Radia Windrunner plane for transport. Radia =============================================================== Windrunner, the world’s largest plane that is currently being built in Colorado, is being eyed by the United States military for playing a very different role than what it is primarily meant for. Radia, a Colorado-based startup, is working on the Windrunner, which will be the world’s largest plane with 12 times the cargo volume of the huge Boeing 747. The company believes that it will cater to the wind energy...

US-based defense contractor AeroVironment has revealed a drone that can choose its own targets and cause a lot of damage upon hitting them. Called the Red Dragon, this "one-way attack" drone is intended to help the US maintain "air superiority." The Red Dragon can reach speeds of 160km/h and travel nearly 400km

Palmer Luckey's Anduril just gave the world an inside glimpse of its new project for the US Air Force — an uncrewed fighter jet that teams up with piloted aircraft. The military startup was featured on Sunday in a CBS 60 Minutes segment, during which a few clips showed Anduril's Fury drone being assembled in a hangar or warehouse. It's not the first time the drone was shown to the public — the Air Force unveiled a test representative model on May 1. But the TV segment reveals a few more details about the drone's make. In one clip, two...