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Obscure XV-5A Vertifan Was The “Mistake” That Preceded Tiltrotors Like Osprey. It was a gateway design to both the F-35B STOVL (Short Take-Off and Verical Landing) variant and the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor. Its performance was [...]

The post 54 Years Ago Today: The Fatal Crash of XV-5A Vertifan That Lead to The F-35B and V-22 Tiltrotor appeared first on The Aviationist.

Several spotters have noticed interesting weapon markings on some of the Buzzards “Vipers” deployed to the UK. Last week, the F-16s of the 31st Fighter Wing, from Aviano Air Base, Italy, have started returning home [...]

The post Let’s Have A Look At The GBU-39 SDB And APKWS Markings Sported By The F-16s Of The 510th FS “Buzzards” appeared first on The Aviationist.

This contract adds to the other two awarded to the company for training at Luke and Holloman Air Force Bases As we reported in the past, the U.S. Air Force is contracting the adversary training [...]

The post ATAC Selected To Provide Adversary Training At Eglin Air Force Base appeared first on The Aviationist.

The Drone, Called Sparrowhawk, Is A Demonstrator That Replicates Technologies Of The DARPA Gremlins Program. General Atomics (GA-ASI) recently announced the first captive carry test of the Sparrowhawk Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS). The test [...]

The post Let’s Talk About The First Captive Test Of First Air-Launched and Air-Retrievable Unmanned Aerial System appeared first on The Aviationist.

Over 65 WWII warbirds were gathered for the Arsenal of Democracy Flyover of Washington DC but the weather did not cooperate. After years of preparation, the 2020 Arsenal of Democracy Flyover was canceled due to [...]

The post A Behind The Scenes Look At The Preparation For Arsenal of Democracy Flyover Scrubbed Due To Weather appeared first on The Aviationist.

The episode happened after the crew had to divert because of adverse weather and the helicopter was parked at a remote airfield. An unusual incident happened on Sept. 16, 2020, when a polar bear damaged [...]

The post Canadian CH-149 Cormorant Helicopter Damaged By A Curious Polar Bear appeared first on The Aviationist.

The U.S. Air Force intelligence aircraft have been using fake Mode-S codes, but this doesn’t give any real operational advantage. It just fuels some crazy conspiracy theory. On Sept. 7, 2020, a USAF RC-135W Rivet [...]

The post Yes, U.S. RC-135s Have Used Bogus Hex Codes To Transmit A False Identity. But It’s Not To Fool China Or Other Enemies. appeared first on The Aviationist.

The New Aircraft Will Abandon The Classic Three-tone Livery Sported By Kuwait’s Legacy F/A-18Cs. One of the first F/A-18Es Super Hornet for the Kuwait Air Force has recently been photographed sporting its new low-visibility livery [...]

The post Kuwaiti F/A-18E Super Hornet Photographed In Its New Low-Visibility Livery appeared first on The Aviationist.

The jets of the 555th Fighter Squadron are based at Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Bulgaria, where they deployed for Thracian Viper 20. Six “Vipers” of the 31st Fighter Wing, from Aviano Air Base, Italy, have [...]

The post U.S. F-16s From Aviano AB Have Started Supporting NATO Enhanced Air Policing From Bulgaria appeared first on The Aviationist.

With a really thin margin of just 9,000 votes, Swiss citizens have approved the multi-billion procurement of new fighter jets to replace both the F-5 and F/A-18 jets in service today. The majority (50.2%) of [...]

The post Swiss Citizens Have Just Given The Go Ahead To The Purchase of New Fighter Jets For The Air Force appeared first on The Aviationist.

After Flying Multiple Missions From Kadena Air Base, Japan, the experimental ARTEMIS (Airborne Reconnaissance and Targeting Multi-Mission Intelligence System) Deployed to the Black Sea Region. The ARTEMIS, is the U.S. Army’s first ever Manned Aerial [...]

The post The U.S. Army’s First Ever Manned ISR ARTEMIS Jet Has Carried Out Missions Over Georgia And Abkhazia appeared first on The Aviationist.

A Magnetic Anomaly Detection Sensor Will Complement The Already Announced Sonobuoys To Detect Submarines. Icarus Aerospace announced last week the partnership with CAE Defence & Security to provide their Wasp-M, the fully militarized version of [...]

The post Icarus Aerospace Continues Development Of Anti-Submarine Warfare Capability For Their Wasp-M Aircraft appeared first on The Aviationist.

The aircraft has crashed in the Kharkiv region. An Antonov An-26 of the Ukrainian Air Force has crashed around 20.50LT on Sept. 25, 2020. The military aircraft came down about 1.2 km from the the [...]

The post Ukrainian Air Force Antonov An-26 Crashes in Eastern Ukraine. At Least 22 Killed in the Incident. appeared first on The Aviationist.

vASC2020 Conference Provided Interesting Details About The Current Situation Of The U.S. Bomber Force. As you may already know, this year’s edition of the Air Force Association Air, Space & Cyber Conference was held virtually [...]

The post Here Is The Status Of The U.S. Bomber Force Outlined By The vASC2020 Conference appeared first on The Aviationist.

The Aircraft, Designated F-39 By The Brazilian Air Force, Will Be Officially Presented Next Month. The first Gripen-E for the Brazilian Air Force flew for the first time in Brazil on Sept. 24, 2020. The [...]

The post First Brazilian Gripen-E Flies For The First Time In Brazil appeared first on The Aviationist.

One of the BUFFs, used radio callsign “LEMAY 35”, that appears to be a tribute to famed SAC Commander Gen. Curtis E. LeMay. On Sept. 23, 2020, five U.S. B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers belonging to [...]

The post Listen To Three B-52s Discussing Their “Gameplan” For Landing After Black Sea and Astral Knight Missions appeared first on The Aviationist.

The 14 Jets Represent The Largest Air Group Of Fifth Generation Fighters At Sea In The World The Royal Air Force 617 Squadron “Dambusters” and the United States Marine Corps Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) [...]

The post U.S. Marine Corps and British F-35Bs Embark On HMS Queen Elizabeth For Joint Exercises appeared first on The Aviationist.

Wildcat of 847 Naval Air Squadron conducted training at Gibraltar’s airport as part of the early phases of the Littoral Strike Group (Experimentation) (LRG(X)) deployment. HMS Albion, HMS Dragon and RFA Lyme Bay called into [...]

The post Royal Marines Train Abseiling From AH1 Wildcat During Littoral Combat Strike Group Stop in Gibraltar appeared first on The Aviationist.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force had announced the participation of the F-35s in the one-day exercise. But the risk of thunderstorm forced the Koninklijke Luchtmacht to cancel the participation of its Lightning II jets. On [...]

The post Risk Of Thunderstorms Prevented Dutch F-35s From Escorting U.S. B-52 During Allied Sky Mission appeared first on The Aviationist.

The Aeronautica Militare considers FARP (Forward Arming and Refueling Point) a crucial capability to support both Special Operations and civilian Search and Rescue missions. The Italian Air Force has recently tested the possibility to airdrop [...]

The post The Italian Air Force Further Expands FARP Capability Testing With Airdrop Of Fuel Containers From C-27J appeared first on The Aviationist.