The Aviationist Blog

Six Days After U.S. F-22 Shoots Down Balloon, A Second Object Has Been Downed. National Security Council official John Kirby confirmed on Friday that the U.S. has downed another “high altitude object” over Alaska that [...]

The post U.S. Air Force F-22 Shoots Down ‘High Altitude Object’ Over Alaska appeared first on The Aviationist.

A dozen F-16s deployed to Grosseto Air Base, where they integrated with the Italian Air Force Eurofighters for the two-week exercise. The 4° Stormo Caccia (Fighter Wing) of the Italian Air Force has hosted the [...]

The post U.S. F-16s And Italian Typhoons Train Together During Emerald Strike 2023 appeared first on The Aviationist.

The Falcon fleet of the Aeronautica Militare has achieved the milestone during an emergency medical flight. In the afternoon of Feb. 9, 2023, a Falcon 900 of the 31° Stormo (Wing) of the Aeronautica Militare [...]

The post The Italian Air Force Dassault Falcon Fleet Reaches 150K Flight Hours appeared first on The Aviationist.

Concerns About Surveillance Are Valid, But What About Weaponized Weather Modification? The memes are funny. The headlines are fascinating. But the real concern about last week’s Chinese balloon incident is more than hot air. Chinese [...]

The post Could the Bizarre Chinese Balloon Missions Be Even More Sinister Than Aerial Spying? appeared first on The Aviationist.

More than 140 aircraft were involved in the exercise, as well as multiple naval and ground assets. The U.S. Central Command and Israel Defense Forces recently completed Juniper Oak 23.2, the largest United States-Israel bilateral [...]

The post Dissecting Juniper Oak 23, The Largest Ever US-Israel Joint Exercise appeared first on The Aviationist.

The Aggressors are bringing new capabilities to the fight, so they can better replicate new threats and train US and allied forces to counter them. The first two “new” F-16s for the 18th Aggressor Squadron [...]

The post U.S. Air Force And Navy Aggressors Receive Upgraded F-16Cs From Air National Guard appeared first on The Aviationist.

The helicopter crashed near a kindergarten killing the Ministry, part of his team, and three children. A Ukrainian H-225 Super Puma helicopter has crashed at 08:20AM LT on Jan. 18, 2023, in Brovary, an eastern [...]

The post Ukrainian Super Puma Helicopter Crash Near Kyiv Kills 18, Including Ukraine’s Ministry Of Interior appeared first on The Aviationist.

DARPA wants to develop and fly a demonstrator aircraft that does not use external mechanical flight controls. Aurora plans to fly an X-Plane in 2025. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), that serves as the [...]

The post Development Of An Active Flow Control X-Plane For DARPA Progresses appeared first on The Aviationist.

The Su-35S aircraft are part of a major package that will also include air defence systems, missile systems and helicopters. Iran will eventually receive Russian Su-35S Flanker-E jets as part of an agreement with Moscow, [...]

The post Iran To Get Russian Su-35S Fighter Jets In Three Months appeared first on The Aviationist.

Both AIM-120 and AIM-9 missiles were test fired from the new outer wing weapon stations which increase the payload of the F-15EX over its predecessor. The U.S. Air Force recently announced that, on Nov. 29, [...]

The post F-15EX Fires Air-to-Air Missiles From New Weapon Stations For The First Time appeared first on The Aviationist.

The aircraft passed the Functional Test Flight ahead of an extensive flight test campaign, paving the way for the Block 4 upgrade. On Jan. 6, 2023, the 461st Flight Test Squadron conducted the first flight [...]

The post F-35 Flies For The First Time With Technology Refresh 3 Upgrades appeared first on The Aviationist.

The U.S. Air Force is looking for suppliers of maintenance and logistic support to continue flight operations of the Nighthawk for 10 years. The F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational stealth aircraft, was officially retired in [...]

The post The U.S. Air Force Wants The F-117 To Fly Until 2034 appeared first on The Aviationist.

As part of the largest investment in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 30 years, Canada is purchasing the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II. On Jan. 9, 2023, Canada announced the finalisation of an agreement [...]

The post Canada Finalizes Agreement To Acquire 88 F-35s appeared first on The Aviationist.

The new APG-85 radar will replace the older APG-81 on the upcoming Block 4 fighters. Last year, the U.S. Air Force’s unfunded wish list for Fiscal Year 2023 mentioned the procurement of seven F-35A in [...]

The post The F-35 Lightning II Will Get A New Radar appeared first on The Aviationist.

This new aircraft will relieve the pressure on the fleet after a E-11 crashed in 2020 and will allow to sustain a high mission capable rate. The U.S. Air Force 430th Expeditionary Electronic Communications Squadron [...]

The post New E-11A BACN Is Now Operational With U.S. Air Force appeared first on The Aviationist.

Did you know even C-2 Greyhound aircraft perform the famous “Shit Hot Break”? The “break” is the tight turn performed by aircraft recovering aboard a carrier to enter the downwind leg of the traffic pattern. [...]

The post From The Cockpit: C-2A COD Pilot Performs His First ‘Shit Hot Break’ appeared first on The Aviationist.

Some Israeli and U.S. F-35s among the aircraft affected by a technical directive issued by the F-35 Joint Program Office. Some F-35s, including at least 11 F-35s of the Israeli Air Force, and an unspecified [...]

The post ‘Small Number’ Of U.S. And International F-35s Grounded After F-35B Incident At Fort Worth appeared first on The Aviationist.

The MQ-1C Predator A+ Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) has been retired after 18 years and +30,000 flight hours. On Dec. 19, 2022, with a transfer flight from the 61° Gruppo (Squadron) APR (Aeromobili a [...]

The post The Italian Air Force Has Retired Its MQ-1C Predator A+ RPAS appeared first on The Aviationist.

Extremely interesting footage shows the bow shock wave around an F-104 Starfighter flying supersonic. As already explained in a previous article, Piercarlo “Capone” Ciacchi is the Director of Flight Operations at Starfighters Aerospace. A former Italian [...]

The post Bow Shock Wave Caught On Camera As Starfighter Flies At Mach 1.7 Over Florida appeared first on The Aviationist.

The unmanned spaceplane returned to Earth after spending an impressive 908 days in orbit. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle successfully deorbited and landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Nov. 12, 2022, [...]

The post Reflecting On The X-37B’s Latest Record-Breaking Mission appeared first on The Aviationist.