The Aviationist Blog

An amazing shot of an amazing aircraft. Three B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and more than 200 Airmen belonging to the 509th Bomb Wing, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, deployed to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPH-H), Hawaii, [...]

Blue Angel Incident Follows Suspension of USAF F-16 Demo Pilot and Tragic Golden Knights Accident. The U.S. Navy has confirmed that a member of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team has been suspended pending the [...]

Late Billionaire Paul Allen’s Expedition Ship Makes Remarkable Discovery. In a sensational story that seems torn from a Clive Cussler fiction novel, the private research vessel funded by late billionaire Paul Allen has located the [...]

Capt. Zoe Kotnik, the Air Force’s First Female Single-ship Tactical Demonstration Pilot, Relieved for “Loss of Confidence”. USAF Capt. Zoe Kotnik has been relieved of her command position as the Air Force’s F-16 Demonstration Team [...]

A “Legacy Hornet” with the NAWDC (Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center) sports a paint job clearly inspired by the Russian Su-30SM multirole Flanker-derivative. As already explained, although the U.S. Navy has retired its last operational [...]

As the Tornado completes its final days of service with the Royal Air Force, which is about to become the first operator to retire the type, we have looked at the how the Italian Air [...]

The Italian Lightning II are involved in their third deployment to Decimomannu airbase. Six ItAF F-35As out of the eight currently in Italy (two more ones are at Luke Air Force Base in the U.S.) [...]

“AOPA estimates that more than 2,000 airports—home bases to more than 28,600 aircraft—are located within the area’s lowest airspace contour.” GPS has become increasingly important to our lives. Not only do Waze, Uber, and many [...]

Long live the Legacy Hornet! On the very same day the U.S. Navy bid farewell to its last operational “Legacy Hornets” at NAS Oceana, Virginia, the U.S. Marine Corps Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 11, 3rd Marine [...]

MH-6 Little Bird and MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters involved in a urban training exercise in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. Army helicopters are conducting realistic military urban training in the greater Los Angeles and Long Beach [...]

The end of an era: “Tonka” have returned to RAF Marham from their last tour of duty. On Jan. 31, 2019, the RAF launched the final operational sortie of the Tornado GR4. The aircraft (ZA601/066 [...]

Interesting images of the 180th Fighter Wing’s Vipers flying over KSC. During the cold winter months, the 180th Fighter Wing’s F-16s belonging to the Ohio Air National Guard, based at Toledo Air National Guard Base, [...]

Here are some shots of the F-35B operating at sea in “Bomb Truck” configuration. F-35B Lightning II aircraft, attached to the F-35B detachment of the “Flying Tigers” of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262 (Reinforced), [...]

Mainstream Media Caught in Case of Mistaken Identity in Christmas Twitter Video. News stories around the world on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018 reported that the U.S. President “… may have revealed the location of SEAL [...]

This image of an Aggressors F-16 provides an opportunity to see heat distortion “at work” and compare it to shock wave distortion. Here’s another stunner. The image in this post was taken on Dec. 20, [...]

What makes this shot really amazing is the distortion caused by the modified index of refraction around the aircraft as a consequence of the shock waves. “Star Wars Canyon” (aka Rainbow Canyon) which empties into [...]

Last year we found rare footage of a Spirit stealth bomber dropping a GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Here’s a clip showing a B-2 dropping two such bombs. As explained in an article we published last [...]

Author Burnett Provides Previously Unpublished Insights into Special Operations Aviation. The best books do several things. They tell a well-paced, compelling story. They bring the reader into the action. In non-fiction, they tell a story [...]

F-14 Tomcat and F-4 Phantom Jets Among The Highlights of Iran International Air Show 2018 During the last week of November, Kish island hosted the 9th edition of the Iran International Air Show. More than [...]

TLP 18-4 saw the participation of the F-35 Lightning II for the very first time. From Nov. 21 to Dec. 14, more than 900 military from 5 different nations and 50 assets took part in [...]