January 02, 2017 Military Aviation News

Trump’s F-35 tweets a worrying signal for West’s air defences

01/02/2017

President-elect Donald Trump has again unleashed controversy, this time over the future of the US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Trump recently tweeted that “based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet”, and adding: “ … about the F-35. It’s a disaster, it’s totally out of control.”

Will China Fill the Skies With Stealth Jets?

01/02/2017

China is one step closer to selling stealth jets to militaries around world, now that the latest copy of China’s newest stealth fighter has reportedly flown for the first time. The debut of FC-31 number two brings China closer to being an exporter of radar-evading warplanes—and draws the United States closer to, perhaps some day, facing Chinese-made stealth fighters in combat.

Special: Attack Missions in the A-10

01/02/2017

Known for an ability to keep flying after taking multiple rounds of enemy machine gun fire, land and operate in rugged terrain, destroy groups of enemy fighters with a 30mm cannon and unleash a wide arsenal of attack weapons, the A-10 is described by pilots as a “flying tank” in the sky -- able to hover over ground war and provide life-saving close air support in high-threat combat environments.

Today in Aviation History: First flight of the Soviet Built MiG-15

01/02/2017

On December 30, 1947 the MiG-15 fighter jet designed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union (USSR) first flew. The swept wing MiG-15 was small, agile and fast making it a very formidable aircraft. The MiG-15 had a wingspan of only 33 feet, was 33 feet long and stood 12 feet tall. Comparably the United States F-86 fighter jet had a wingspan of 37 feet, was 37 feet long and height of just over 14 feet.

The Brains of the Operation

01/02/2017

In 1937, the Army Air Corps “called for a twin-engine interceptor to pursue and destroy enemy aircraft at high altitude. It also called for a maximum level-altitude flight speed of at least 360 miles per hour and the ability to reach an altitude of 20,000 feet within six minutes. These were unheard-of performance goals at that time in aviation history, and they required the design of an advanced fighter in the truest sense of that phrase.”

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