Free Republic

Read the memo circulated by Shane Osborn's U.S. Senate campaign to counter criticism about his decision in April 2001 to land a disabled Navy reconnaissance plane in China. * * *Dogged by questions about his 2001 decision to land a crippled Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane in China, U.S. Senate candidate Shane Osborn has distributed an official-looking Navy memo supporting his account.The memo, written Aug. 8, 2013, on Navy letterhead, is titled “Disposition of actions by EP-3E flight crew on April 1, 2001.” It explains that Osborn's plane was authorized to land on China's Hainan island “due to the extreme circumstances...

The US has confirmed that one of its reconnaissance aircraft violated Swedish airspace on July 18th, according to a media report. US authorities told the CNN news channel that the plane was conducting reconnaissance missions in international airspace when it was observed by Russian radar. Russia is reported to have scrambled aircraft to chase the US plane away. The US crew elected to exit the area by the fastest route possible, which meant passing through Swedish airspace. The flight passed over Gotland, an island off the east coast of Sweden, on July 18th in the late afternoon. A classified document...

Northrop Grumman has formally entered the race to win a US Army contract to deliver a new fleet of signals intelligence aircraft. The announcement adds the company to a growing list of declared rivals - including Boeing and L-3 Communications - bidding for the enhanced medium-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance system (EMARSS). The army wants a prime contractor to integrate a small but sophisticated suite of multiple SIGINT collectors on to Beechcraft King Air 350ERs. Payloads include an electro-optical camera and low-band communications interceptors. Northrop has not revealed details about the proposal submitted to the army before the 25 June deadline....

Last year the U.S. Air Force decided to extend the life of its U-2 fleet and cut back on the use of large UAVs for strategic reconnaissance. One of the many upgrades U-2s will now receive will be better cockpit pressurization. Currently, pilots operate in a cockpit pressurized to conditions found at 9,600 meters (30,000 feet). This puts more strain on the pilot's body. That, and the fact that they breathe pure oxygen while up there, means they tend to be completely exhausted after returning from a long mission. So pressuring the cockpit to the level of a lower altitude...

An SR-71 Blackbird Tail Fin Is For Sale On eBay For $1 Million A tail rudder from the fastest airplane in the world could be yours — for a cool $1 million. The seller didn't say if it was a spare part, or if it was once part of a functioning SR-71 Blackbird, which is an important distinction given the cost. When it debuted in 1964, the SR-71 Blackbird — the mean looking surveillance aircraft that cruised high above the Soviet Union at speeds of up to mach 3.5 — cost the U.S. Air Force $34 million per air frame....

How To Fly A U-2 Spy Plane Got your eye on a sweet used '59 U-2 spy plane you saw on Craigslist? Would you go ahead and take the plunge if you just, you know, knew how to fly it? Then boy, are you in luck. That's because a couple days ago an entire flight manual for the U-2 from 1959 was declassified and released by the CIA. You can tell it's declassified because on each page where the word "secret" appears, someone has carefully drawn a line through it. We've got a copy here for you. The U-2 is,...

A newly declassified CIA history from 20 years ago spills the story about Nevada's Area 51 and its secret mission — which was not to study UFOs, but to test the U-2 and other spy planes. The CIA's story about the legendary test site is contained in "The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: the U-2 and Oxcart Programs." The document was approved for release in June, with just a few remaining redactions, in response to a Freedom of Information request filed by George Washington University's National Security Archive back in 2005.

ARLINGTON, Va. — On a September day in 1974, Capt. Harold "Buck" Adams set the world speed record in the U.S. military's SR-71 Blackbird aircraft. At the controls of the twin-engine supersonic plane, Adams flew from London to Los Angeles in a blistering 3 hours, 47 minutes and 39 seconds. The Cold War was in full swing, and "there was a need for an airplane that could penetrate Soviet airspace with impunity," Adams, a retired brigadier general for the U.S. Air Force, told an audience July 18 here at a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) expo showcasing the Pentagon's...

This story apparently took place last month, right after Malaysia flight 17 was shot down over the Russia – Ukraine border area, but we’re only hearing about it now. A United States aircraft – a Boeing RC-135 – was performing reconnaissance of Russian forces when the Russians noticed, began tracking the craft using ground radar and dispatched a fighter jet to intercept it. Complicating the issue is the fact that the US plane took evasive action which included flying into Swedish airspace without getting permission to do so. Once the crew on board the spy plane realized they were...

A U.S. Air Force spy plane evaded an encounter with the Russian military in recent days by flying into nearby Swedish airspace without that country's permission, a U.S. military official told CNN. The RC-135 Rivet Joint plane was flying in international airspace, conducting an electronic eavesdropping mission on the Russian military, when the Russians took the unusual action of beginning to track it with one of its land-based radar. The Russians then sent at least one fighter jet into the sky to intercept the American aircraft, the U.S. official said Saturday.

The U.S. military acknowledged Sunday that an Air Force spy plane slipped into Swedish airspace without permission last month to avoid a possible encounter with a Russian aircraft. The incident occurred one day after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down by a missile over eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. The craft, in which all 298 onboard were killed, was allegedly downed by Russian separatists in Ukraine who were supplied and trained by Moscow.

Aircraft number 61-2664 was built in 1961 at Boeing's sprawling Seattle works in Washington state. A variant of the commerical 707 airliner, the aircraft was first fitted out to perform the tasks of weather reconnaissance for Military Airlift Command. She performed these tasks for almost a decade. In 1972, WC-135 number 61-2664 was refitted to serve as a strategic reconnaissance platform. Dozens of other C-135s had been converted to comically long-nosed RC-135s over the decades, but 61-2664 was to join a specially small fraternity: Cobra Ball. Two RC-135 S-models were produced, both stationed at Eielson AFB, Alaska. Their highly...

At 3:30 in the morning of August 31st, 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 landed at Merrill Field in Anchorage, Alaska. An hour and a half later it took off from Runway 32 bound for Seoul's Kimpo airport. Aboard were 240 passengers, a cabin crew of 20, a three-man flight crew and six other KAL crew members deadheading back to Seoul. Shortly after take-off, Flight 007 was cleared directly to the Bethel VOR beacon and then on to the Romeo 20 route. However, the aircraft started diverging from its intended course and passed 12 NM North of the Bethel beacon....

Aircraft 61-2664 was built in 1961 at Boeing's sprawling Seattle works in Washington state. A variant of the commerical 707 airliner, the aircraft was first fitted out to perform the tasks of weather reconnaissance for Military Airlift Command. She performed these tasks for almost a decade. In 1972, 61-2664 was refitted to serve as a strategic reconnaissance platform. Dozens of other C-135s had been converted to the comically long-nosed RC-135 over the decades, but 61-2664 was to join an especially elite fraternity - Cobra Ball. RC-135 S-models at the time were stationed at Eielson AFB, Alaska. Their mission: await...

Aircraft number 61-2664 was built in 1961 at Boeing's sprawling Seattle works in Washington state. A variant of the commerical 707 airliner, the aircraft was first fitted out to perform the tasks of weather reconnaissance for Military Airlift Command. She performed these tasks for almost a decade. In 1972, WC-135 number 61-2664 was refitted to serve as a strategic reconnaissance platform. Dozens of other C-135s had been converted to comically long-nosed RC-135s over the decades, but 61-2664 was to join a specially small fraternity: Cobra Ball. Two RC-135 S-models were produced, both stationed at Eielson AFB, Alaska. Their highly...