The Aviationist Blog

Unconfirmed reports say an American pilot was also aboard the Ukrainian Flanker. On Oct. 16, a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 flying a training mission crashed near Ulaniv (between the settlements of Berdichev and Khmilnyk) in Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced. According to Meduza, a Riga-based online newspaper and news […]

The F-35 Patuxent River Integrated Test Force (ITF) achieved a new milestone performing a Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) on aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. On Oct. 13, an F-35B STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter performed the first  Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) on the flight deck of […]

Bizarre F-16’s “ground-to-ground” kill injures two. It’s the second accidental aerial weapon discharge in Europe this year. A Belgian Air Force F-16 has been destroyed and another aircraft damaged when the M61A1 Vulcan 20mm cannon on board a third F-16 was accidentally fired on the ground by maintenance personnel at Florennes Air Base in the […]

The 48th Fighter Wing hosts a big exercise, integrating joint service as well as 4th and 5th Generation capabilities. One of the biggest military exercises the 48th Fighter Wing has ever hosted, began on Tuesday Oct. 9, 2018, at RAF Lakenheath, UK. U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors assigned to the 1st Fighter Wing out of […]

We met Major Paul “Loco” Lopez on home soil. Naval Air Station Oceana (NAS Oceana) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. This longevity shows just how important this Naval Master Jet Base is to the local community and the nation as a whole. NAS Oceana celebrates this continuing achievement each year by hosting an […]

Suspected Fuel Problem Results in Grounding of Joint Strike Fighter. Not all of them actually… All Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters were ordered grounded on Thursday, October 12, 2018 for safety inspections of their fuel flow systems following the September 28, 2018 crash of a U.S. Marine F-35B Lightning II in Beaufort, […]

Images May Show Special Operations Unit Training with DEVGRU or Army Delta. Frequent contributor to The Aviationist, Lance Riegle, of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, noticed unusual aviation activity during his recent trip to Virginia Beach, Virginia. He grabbed his Canon EOS 70D with a Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens and started shooting photos. What he got is […]

Each year, waves of paratroopers commemorate Operation Market Garden fought in the Netherlands in September 1944. Operation “Market Garden” is the name of an unsuccessful Allied military operation launched during World War II and fought between Sept. 17-25, 1944, in the Netherlands. The objective of the operation was planned to be achieved through two subsidiary […]

Using Datalink, an F-35B shared target data with an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). 5th Gen. aircraft increasingly used to shorten the “sensor-to-shooter” cycle. According to Lt. Gen. Steven R. Rudder, deputy commandant for aviation, the U.S. Marine Corps have achieved a milestone when a target was destroyed by connecting an F-35B Lightning […]

Recently-released footage shows an unauthorized vehicle being pursued by California Highway Patrol inside Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, in 2016. On the night of Mar. 30 – 31, 2016, a Jeep Grand Cherokee was able to intrude into NAS Lemoore where the vehicle, chased by California Highway Patrol vehicles crashed into the tail end of […]

The F-15C from the California Air National Guard are taking part in Exercise “Clear Sky 2018”. On Oct. 6, 2018, U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagles, belonging to the 194th Fighting Squadron of the 144th Fighter Wing, California ANG, from California Air National Guard Base Fresno, California, landed for the first time ever on Ukrainian soil. […]

Let’s analyse if and how the Syrian scenario is going to change after the delivery of the S-300 air defense system to Assad. Images and video of the first Russian S-300 battery being delivered at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria have been shared by the Russian MoD starting on Wednesday Oct. 3. The announcement […]

Flyover filmed from from a Robinson R44 Helicopter equipped with a gyro stabilized camera system. The footage below was filmed on Sept. 26, as a formation of four aircraft, two F-35s and two F-16s, belonging to the 56th Fighter Wing, from Luke Air Force base, Arizona, conducted the Arizona State Capitol flyover as part of […]

Successful Strike Honored Marine Pilot Killed in Combat in September 2012. New details and photos have emerged from last week’s first-ever combat mission by a U.S. military F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The mission, flown by an undisclosed number of U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) variant aircraft, […]

Spotting outside RAF Marham, home of the UK’s stealth aircraft, on an ordinary day. On Tuesday Sept. 25 afternoon, The Aviationist’s contributor Alessandro Fucito went to RAF Marham, near the village of Marham in the English county of Norfolk, East Anglia, UK, to take some photographs of the first British F-35B STOVL (Short Take Off […]

Dignified Tribute to Fallen Heroes is Heart Wrenching to Watch. Aviation journalist and expert Ian D’Costa shared a video on Monday we had to pass on. This Korean news video, originally published on bemil.chosun.com, loosely translated from Korean as “Military News”, is a dignified and heart-wrenching tribute to South Korea’s repatriated fallen soldiers from the […]

You can’t fly lower than this…. We have already posted quite a few videos of Ukrainian Air Force aircraft performing ultra-low level passes. The most famous ones are those of a MiG-29 performing a show of force onpro-Russia separatist blocking rails; a big Ilyushin Il-76 buzzing some Su-25s (and the Frogfoots returning the favor while […]

Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray and RAF Squadron Leader Andy Edgell were the first pilots to land their F-35 Lightning stealth jets on the flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth. In the last 24 hours we have commented two quite different F-35B Lightning II-related news: the first air strike in Afghanistan and the first crash […]

Details of First-Ever F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Crash Are Developing. A U.S. Marine F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter has crashed near Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station outside of Beaufort, South Carolina on the U.S. East Coast. Reports indicate the pilot ejected from the aircraft. His condition is not known at this time. MCAS Beaufort […]

U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightings Of VMFA-211 Hit Targets in Afghanistan From USS Essex. For the first time in history U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighters flew in combat on Sept. 27, 2018. Official U.S military sources characterized the mission as “successful”. U.S. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211, the “Wake Island Avengers”, of the 13th Marine […]