March 2011
New fighter jets Canada plans to buy will be more than $100 million each at least $25 million more per plane than government estimates according to a top U.S. budget watchdog. Conservative government officials have said 65 new joint strike fighters being built to replace Canada’s F-18 jets will cost about $75 million each, about $9 billion with training and an additional $200-$300 million a year in maintenance. But Mike ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
One aircraft conspicuous by its absence over the skies of Libya is the Air Force’s vaunted F-22 Raptor air dominance fighter. The Lockheed Martin-built jet was likely benched due to its inability to communicate with other coalition aircraft and its limited ability to hit ground targets, analysts said. “The designers of the F-22 had a dilemma, which is whether to have the connectivity that would allow versatility or to have ...
Category: Military Aviation
Naval strike aircraft will be reassigned to the Russian Air Force by the end of 2011, a high-ranking Navy source told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. “The strike component of naval aviation will be transferred under the control of the Russian Air Force by the end of the year,” the source said. Naval strike aircraft include Tu-22M3 Backfire long-range bombers, MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors, Su-27 Flanker fighter jets, and Su-24 Fencer attack ...
Category: Russian Aviation
When, in December, Britain’s Harrier jets landed at RAF Cottesmore for the final time, the sombre mood weighed on all those present. In a ritual known as the ’walk of honour’, the pilots disembarked from their aircraft and walked away without taking a single look back. The walk marked the end of the Harriers’ 41-year career and closed an illustrious chapter in British aviation history. The iconic aircraft has become ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
Coalition air raids have hit the town of Sirte, Col Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown and the next target of rebel forces advancing westwards. A Libyan government spokesman said three Libyan civilians had been killed in the city’s port. Heavy explosions were also heard in the capital, Tripoli, late on Sunday. The raids came as Nato took full command of the whole military operation in Libya, intended to enforce a UN resolution ...
Category: Military Aviation
Russian flagship airline Aeroflot said on Wednesday it had signed a firm order to buy eight Boeing 777s, in line with earlier plans, partly to boost its fleet ahead of the Winter Olympics in 2014. The eight planes six Boeing 777-300s and two Boeing 777-200s have a ticket value of $2.17 billion according to Reuters data, although an industry source told Reuters the carrier had received a discount and would ...
Category: Russian Aviation
The U.S. Air Force’s goal of acquiring 50 percent of its domestic aviation fuel via alternative fuel blends derived from domestic sources by 2016 got a boost on Friday March 18, when an F-22 Raptor was successfully flown at speeds of up to Mach 1.5 on a 50/50 fuel blend of conventional petroleum-based JP-8 (Jet Propellant) and biofuel derived from an inedible plant called camelina. The flight capped off a ...
Category: Military Aviation
As British officials this week claimed the defeat of Libyan air defenses, the aircraft prided to have contributed most to that success include the Rafale, Mirage 200, Tornado and F-16. Other aircraft noted to have contributed to successful air runs against the military assets of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi include the F-15, F-18, B-2 and Harrier jump jets. Military action against Gadhafi’s 42-year-old hold on power mounted Saturday when a ...
Category: Military Aviation
The U.S. government calls it the “one of the most lethal” weapons of its kind an advanced, portable missile, designed to knock planes out of the sky. A variant of it just showed up in Moammar Gadhafi’s army and nobody seems to know how exactly it got there. But diplomatic cables, unearthed by WikiLeaks, suggest one potential culprit: the Chavez regime in Venezuela. Aviation Week’s eagle-eyed reporter David Fulghum spotted ...
Category: Military Aviation
Federal aviation officials are reviewing air traffic controller staffing at airports around the country after two airliners landed at Reagan National Airport without clearance from the airport tower because they were unable to raise anyone there. CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports that the air control supervisor on duty – the only controller on shift had reportedly fallen asleep around midnight on Tuesday when the incident occurred. Veteran aviation expert ...
Category: General Aviation
RAF spy planes helped save the lives of two US Top Guns after their F-15 fighter jet crash-landed in Libya, it was revealed last night. The airmen had to eject from their Strike Eagle warplane after it suffered catastrophic mechanical failure on a mission to hit Gaddafi’s missile bases. They parachuted to safety as the plane plummeted to the ground but got separated in the drop. Sharp-eyed British crew on ...
Category: Military Aviation
Air Force engineers currently plan to fly the second X-51A Waverider hypersonic flight test demonstrator as early as March 22, program officials said March 15. “We are proud of the first flight results, and at the same time we understand the inherent risk in a high-technology demonstrator like the X-51A,” said Curtis Berger, the director of the hypersonics programs at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, the company that built the X-51A’s ...
Category: Military Aviation
Six Danish F-16 fighter are ready to take off from Italy’s Sigonella air base to join the international air campaign against Muamer Gaddafi’s forces in Libya, ANSA quoted a senior Italian military official as saying Sunday. Rocco Massimo Zafarana said the Danish aircraft arrived Saturday at the base in Sicily, which is being used to support Operation “Odyssey Dawn” launched to protect Libyan civilians under a mandate of the UN ...
Category: Military Aviation
Japan is looking to join the United States, China and Russia with a stealth fighter that senior Japanese air force officials say can be ready for a prototype test flight in just three years, significantly upping the ante in the intensifying battle for air superiority in the Pacific. The prototype will likely be able to fly in 2014, Lt. Gen. Hideyuki Yoshioka, director of air systems development at Japan’s Ministry ...
Category: Military Aviation
