The Aviationist Blog

The AMX Ghibli in Italian service turns 30 and the Italians have celebrated the anniversary in style. On Sept. 13, 2019, the Italian Air Force celebrated the 30th anniversary of its AMX “Ghibli” fleet and [...]

Once again, some really interesting participants made Zeltweg airshow worth the trip. And here’s our report. For the 9th time already, the Austrian Armed Forces, Red Bull and the Province of Styria hosted an airshow, [...]

The Washington D.C. area was treated to a rare appearance by the Royal Air Force Acrobatic Team lately. As you probably already know by now, the Royal Air Force Red Arrows are currently on their [...]

Poland to buy the F-35 Lightning II aircraft, becoming first ex-Warsaw Pact member to get the stealth jets. The US State Department issued a clearance for Poland to acquire the F-35 fifth-generation aircraft in a [...]

Aircraft Enters Low Altitude Flat Spin with Attempted Recovery Before Crash. An unidentified German aerobatic pilot who was also a “former Lufthansa pilot” according to reports, died on Saturday, June 15, during the 7th Air [...]

Today, the oldest national flag in the world turns 800 years. Here’s how the Royal Danish Air Force celebrated the “Dannebrog”. On Jun. 15, Denmark celebrates Valdemarsdag, the anniversary of King Valdemar’s victory in the [...]

The Top Gun sequel’s F-14 has returned to her home. And we have obtained some interesting shots of the Tomcat that expose  her movie “costume”. The fact that an F-14 will appear in “Top Gun: [...]

The U.S. Air Force F-35A deployed to Aviano for Astral Knight 2019 shared data with the Italian Air Force F-35A using the Multifunction Advanced Data Link during the recent European Defense drills. One of the [...]

Two Hellenic Air Force F-4E “Phantom” jets will take part in the Dutch Air Force Days 2019. One of them, has markings that celebrate the attendance to the airshow in Volkel. On Jun. 13, 2019, [...]

The Italian Air Force will replace its aging fleet of MB-339s with the “new” M-345HET. Following an initial contract for five aircraft, Leonardo has signed yesterday a contract with the Armaments and Airworthiness Department of [...]

Six VH-92As will be delivered to replace aging VH-3D and VH-60N helicopters. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) on June 10, 2019, awarded Lockheed Martin a $ 542 million contract to build six VH-92A presidential helicopters. [...]

Spangdahlem’s 480th Fighter Squadron deployed to Monte Real Air Base earlier this year. And this is a video showing what they have done in Portugal. The “Warhawks” have been travelling quite a bit lately. As [...]

The 11th “Warbirds Over the Beach” air show not only featured a wonderful assemblage of aircraft from the Second World War, it had some truly rare planes, in the form of a JU-52, FW-190 and [...]

41 helicopters formed up across the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar for a massive readiness exercise that celebrated also the 75th anniversary of D-Day. We have reported about several “Elephant Walk” exercises in [...]

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) has published a statement about the loss of a F-35A. According to the report, the pilot likely suffered spatial disorientation before he crashed. Would Auto-GCAS have helped? On Jun. [...]

U.S. Marine Corps and Hellenic Air Force aircraft have joined Italian Air Force F-35, T-346, Typhoon, CAEW and many other Italian assets involved in Joint Stars 2019. From May 13 to 31, 2019, dozens of [...]

The C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft were taking part in JFEX (Joint Forcible Entry Exercise). The images in this post were released by 3rd Wing Commander on Twitter. They show, from different angles (including from [...]

The 5th gen. jets, belonging to the 34th Fighter Squadron, arrived directly from the US F-35As belonging to the 34th Fighter Squadron “Rude Rams”, based at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, are participating in the [...]

The “Warthog” has the phenomenal ability to use unimproved surface landing strips. And Idaho ANG A-10 pilots regularly train to exploit it. A-10C Thunderbolt II from the 190th Fighter Squadron at Gowen Field, Idaho, have [...]

The recent crash of a South Dakota Air National Guard F-16 into a warehouse near March Air Reserve Base highlights once again the risk associated with Hydrazine leakes. As already reported, on May 16, 2019, [...]