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The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the world’s first operational stealth aircraft, was a revolutionary bomber deceptively designated as a “fighter” to attract the Air Force’s best pilots. Born from the top-secret “Have Blue” program, the “Wobblin’ Goblin” proved its worth during the 1991 Gulf War, where it struck heavily defended targets in Baghdad with impunity on the opening night of the air campaign.

At least 19 people have died and 164 were injured after a Bangladeshi air force training jet crashed into a school campus in the capital, Dhaka. Footage from Milestone School and College in the northern suburb of Uttara shows a huge fire and thick smoke, after the aircraft slammed into a two-storey building. The armed forces said in a statement on Facebook that the F-7 jet experienced a mechanical fault after taking off for a training exercise just after 13:00 local time (07:06 GMT). The pilot was among those killed, the air force added. More than 50 people, including children...

NASA and Lockheed Martin have begun initial taxi tests of the X-59 Quest quiet supersonic research aircraft, marking another step toward its long-anticipated first flight. The aircraft moved under its own engine power for the first time on July 10 at Lockheed Martin’s Palmdale, California, facility and conducted a series of low-speed taxi tests, says Brian Griffin, NASA’s X-59 project lead flight test engineer. “It started with a very slow ramp taxi, just for basic ground handling characteristics of the airplane, and then that proceeded on to a low-speed taxi event, which was on the runway itself, and that was...

The B-21 Raider’s more compact airframe compared to the B-2 Spirit is not a limitation but a deliberate evolution in strategic bomber design. Decades of technological progress allow the B-21 to achieve a superior level of all-aspect stealth with a smaller and more efficient profile.

This development could have important effects on China’s next-generation military aviation programs. Chinese researchers are working on a new superalloy cooling technique that could significantly improve the performance and lifespan of high-temperature turbine engine parts. This development could have important effects on China’s next-generation military aviation programs. According to China’s state-run Science and Technology Daily, the innovation may be a critical step toward enabling advanced jet engines, including those designed for sixth-generation fighters and future hypersonic platforms. New superalloy cooling engines Dalian University of Technology in northeast China is researching how superalloy turbine discs are made, according to a report...

On a patch of dirt in the vast wilderness in Alaska, a long-range drone roared like a lawn mower as it shot into the sky. It scanned the ground for a target it had been programmed to recognize, and then dived, attempting to destroy it by crashing into it. But it missed, landing about 80 feet away. On another attempt, a drone nose-dived at launch. On a subsequent try, a drone crashed into a mountain. These drones weren’t flown by amateur hobbyists. They were launched by drone manufacturers paid by a special unit of the Department of Defense as part...

The Pentagon has announced sweeping new changes intended to surge the fielding of small drones, including weaponized types, across the entire U.S. military. Most notably, certain types of smaller uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) will now be treated as “consumables,” more akin to hand grenades and other kinds of ammunition, than aircraft, which has broad ramifications. Lower-level commanders will now also be able to procure smaller UASs directly, as well as authorize subordinates to operate them. The new policies rolled out today represent a huge shift that could not come soon enough for the U.S. military, which has continued to move...

United Airlines has vowed that 50% of its future pilot hires will be women and people of color by 2030—and Delta, American, and Southwest have pledged similar DEI commitments. But how will these goals affect airline standards, pilot competency, and aviation safety?

A new Chinese hypersonic engine could cut long-haul flights to under an hour, pushing aircraft to unprecedented speeds. This breakthrough in propulsion technology might reshape global travel and military strategy. China Unveils an Engine Capable of an Astonishing 20,000 KM/H, That Can Circle the Globe in Just 2 Hours | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel ========================================================================= A new hypersonic engine developed in China could revolutionize air travel by reducing long-haul flight times to mere minutes. Capable of reaching Mach 16—approximately 20,000 km/h (12,250 mph)—this propulsion system represents a significant leap in aerospace engineering. Developed at the Beijing Power Machinery...

House Republicans are calling on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to expedite a national security review of Chinese drone manufacturers like Shenzhen Da-Jiang Innovations Sciences and Technologies Company Limited (DJI Technologies) pursuant to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. In a letter to ODNI signed by representatives Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; Rick Crawford, R-Ark.; and John Moolenaar, R-Mich., the lawmakers requested timely execution of the review as drone technology quickly accelerates. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month prioritizing the accelerated integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into U.S. national airspace. But before that fully...

In Brief: 🚁 A tour helicopter crashed at Destin Executive Airport last month due to a loose bolt, according to a new NTSB report. 🧰 Investigators found other bolts were only hand-tight, and the helicopter suffered major damage, though all passengers survived. 🕵️ While the operator wasn’t named, officials confirmed Timberview Helicopters is the only tour provider based at the airport. ========================================================================== The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its report on the crash that occurred at Destin Executive Airport involving a tour helicopter last month. In the report, the investigator stated that a bolt from the cyclic servo...

Marina Raskova (March 28, 1912 – January 4, 1943) was a pioneering Soviet aviator, navigator, and military commander, often compared to Amelia Earhart for her fame and achievements. Born in Moscow to a middle-class family, she initially pursued music, dreaming of becoming an opera singer like her father, Mikhail Malinin. After his death in 1919 and a middle ear infection that ended her singing ambitions, she turned to aviation. Raskova became the first woman in the Soviet Union to earn a professional air navigator diploma in 1933 and the first female instructor at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. She set...

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...