Author: trameditor

With a sleek needle nose and a swept double-delta wing with two prominent nacelles, the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird spy plane is the stuff aviation legend. Although the SR-71 first flew in late December of 1964 and hasn’t been in service for almost 25 years, it’s still the fastest plane that’s ever seen action.

Powered by two Pratt & Whitney J58 turboramjets, the jet could fly faster than Mach 3 and climb so high that the crew needed to wear pressure suits so as not to pass out. Basically, the J58 combines the functionality of a turbojet and a ramjet. Below Mach 2.0, air is pulled into the inlet, slowed down and then compressed by a turbine-driven multistage compressor. Afterwards, the air is mixed with fuel in the burners, with more fuel combined to the exhaust at the afterburner stage.

But at speeds greater than Mach 2.2, six bypass tubes around the engine open and move air directly from the fourth stage of the compressor to the afterburner. This gives the engine greater fuel efficiency.

Its supersonic speed and low radar profile (owing to its swept design and black ferrite iron radar-absorbing paint) made the Blackbird a difficult target. The military designed this super-jet to take over a number of missions performed by the much slower U-2 reconnaissance plane, which had become increasingly vulnerable to Soviet interceptor aircraft and surface-to-air missiles. Indeed, in 1960, a U-2 aircraft was shot down over the Soviet Union and pilot Gary Powers was taken prisoner. Then, two years, later another U-2 was taken out over Cuba.

Still, flying the plane was tricky. Both the pilot and navigator had to be in good shape because the latter lacked flight controls and the former didn’t have a navigation set. If the pilot passed out, the navigator’s best hope was that the plane was on auto-pilot at the time. That way, he could program a destination into the Astro tracker.

If the reverse happened, the pilot would have to make due with a standby “whiskey compass.” (According to one theory, the “whiskey” is NATO phonetic for W, which stands for “wet” and refers to old compasses filled with kerosene.)

Going at Mach 3 also generated temperatures that could melt typical aluminum airframes, so the SR-71 had to be covered in titanium. However, this titanium proved tricky to handle on the assembly line.

As Lockheed Martin says on its website: “Conventional cadmium-plated steel tools, it was soon learned, embrittled the titanium on contact; so new tools were designed and fabricated—out of titanium.”

The Blackbird was subjected to all kinds of extremes. After speeding up to such incredible velocities, it had to slow down for mid-air refueling from a much slower tanker. That caused the skin of the plane to cool down and contract, which meant the SR-71 was often a leaky mess.

Nevertheless, the SR-71 set a number of air performance records. For example, in July 1976, it reached a staggering altitude of 85,068.997 ft.

In 1990, a Blackbird flew from West Coast of the United States to the East Coast in a little shy of one hour and eight minutes, hitting an average speed to 2,124.51 mph.

Likewise, the aircraft had an impressive military record. The Blackbird penetrated Soviet and Chinese airspace, as well as that of other communist states. It studied Israeli and Arab troop positions during the 1973 Yom Kippur War; provided support for the U.S. bombing mission against Libya in 1986; and had been used over a wide range of countries, from South Africa to Nicaragua. Throughout all these missions, no SR-71 Blackbird has ever been shot down.

Nothing lasts forever, though. The 1980s saw an increase in threats capable to countering the SR-71, including improved enemy air defenses and the introduction of the MiG-31, which was armed with the R-33 air-to-air missile could intercept the Blackbird. The U.S. military turned to spy satellites, which flew high above these threats, and put an end to the SR-71 program in 1990.

Today, you can find some 30 remaining Blackbirds and Oxcarts scattered in museums and US Air Force bases throughout the country, for example, at the USAF Museum, in Dayton, Ohio, and the National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C.

There have been rumors of a secret follow-on spy plane called the Aurora, but they remain unproven. Ironically, the older U-2 is still in service because the high-altitude Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk drone, which was supposed to replace the aging aircraft, has yet to live up to its billing. The U-2 can still fly higher than the Global Hawk, carry a greater payload, and its sensors have more of a slant range. The Global Hawk also lacks de-icing equipment and countermeasures against Russian SAMs. We may be entering the age of drones, but old-fashioned piloted planes can still do a thing or two.

As reported in PM, NASA is currently the revisiting the supersonic spy plane concept. It recently awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Skunk to test the feasibility of the SR-2, a supersonic drone that would fly almost twice the speed of the Blackbird. The idea is that speed would play the role that stealth once did in beating enemy air defense network. Lockheed says that plane, if developed, could be ready in 2030.

The F-16 or the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was developed by General Dynamics (now part of Lockheed Martin) for the United States Air Force. The decision came after the Vietnam war when results dictated that the USAF needed better fighter jets. The F-16 is a day fighter which means it does not come equipped with night flying or fighting technologies and boasts air superiority. Along with being used by the United States Air Force, F-16s are also used by the United States Navy as well as the US Air Force Thunderbirds. There is something special about the F-16. It’s a favored fighter jet not just in the US, but also air forces of various nations around the world.

Like with anything military, the F-16 hides many secrets. Though, most of them have now become common knowledge now thanks to the Internet. That doesn’t mean the US Army is happy about it. Here are 15 such facts…

15. Before The Maiden Flight, There Was An Accidental One

The official first flight of the F-16 (then the YF-16) was a 90-minute one, and took place at the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), California on February 2, 1974. However, the actual first flight was an unplanned one made on January 20, 1974, during a high-speed taxi test where the pilot lifted-off to avoid damaging the jet.

14. Reaching 9Gs Was A First For The F-16

The F-16 became the first fighter jet in the world to pull 9G maneuvers, simply because it was purposefully built to do so. Its aerodynamic design reduces drag and energy loss when it pulls high-Gs, and it was also the first supersonic jet to reach speeds of over Mach 2.

13. The F-16 Pilot Has Perfect Vision

With the enemy on your tail in the sky, perfect vision comes in handy. And the F-16’s frameless bubble canopy constructed out of single-piece polycarbonate (which is fully bird-proof) gives 360-degree all-round visibility. It also gives the pilot a 40-degree look-down angle on the sides and a 15-degree one over the nose of the craft.

12. The F-16 Is Called The Viper

The F-16 came to be referred to as the Falcon, which makes sense considering it’s nothing short of a predator in the sky. But many still call it Viper because of its resemblance to the head of a snake. Oh, and it totally looks like the Colonial Viper starfighter of Battlestar Galactica. The award given out to outstanding F-16 pilots is therefore Semper Viper award.

11. There Aren’t Too Many F-16s

The F-16 became a USAF favorite for one main reason, and that was the price. A single unit in 1998 cost $18.8million, which may sound a lot, but is cheap by fighter jet standards. As of now, some 4,588 F-16s have been built in total, according to American Machinist.

10. F-16s Are Highly Manoeuvrable

The F-16s come equipped with a fly-by-wire control system, the first of its kind. It replaced the completely manual controls with an electronic interface that judged how much the plane needed to dip or roll and then moved the actuators at the control surface accordingly to provide that result.

9. It Is Also Deliberately Unstable

Along with the fly-by-wire, the F-16 also came with relaxed static stability – which means if the pilot releases the controls, the F-16 does not go back to straight and level flight altitude. It harmonically oscillates until the pilot takes action, and this increases maneuverability – which, in a fighter jet, is boss of just about everything.

8. The Weapon System Is Scary

A fighter jet comes loaded with anything that can destroy. An internal M61 Vulcan cannon for strafing and close combat as well as 11 locations for mounting weapons etc are standard equipment. The F-16 can carry a wide variety of air-to-ground missiles, electronic countermeasures, rockets and bombs, weapon pods, and nine hardpoint-mounted fuel tanks as well.

7. The Vortex Lift Was A First Too

The F-16 was also the first fighter jet to use vortex lift by special strakes designed on the wings’ edges – this lets the F-16 lift off at high angles even in tight spaces. This feature comes in handy by letting the F-16 climb high altitudes quickly, thus reaching angles-of-attack a lot faster than other fighter jets.

6. It Is Amazingly Easy To Service

The F-16 may be tough to fly and need special skills from pilots to run smoothly but their servicing is a lot easier than other fighter jets. More than 80% of the access panels in the F-16 can be opened without the need for a ladder or a stand. It makes a technician’s job that much easier and faster.

5. The First Kill Was Made By Israel

Even though the F-16 is more of a USAF homeboy, it made its first kill at the hands of the Israeli Air Force. On April 28, 1981, an F-16 Fighting Falcon of the Israeli Air Force took down a Syrian Mi-8 helicopter with cannon fire. One year down, the Israeli Air Force used the F-16 to shoot down another fighter jet as well.

4. It’s The World’s Favorite Fighter Jet

While there are only 4,588 F-16s in the world – it is the world’s second most plentiful military craft, second only to the Sikorsky UH-60 military helicopter. The F-16 is used by militaries of 28 countries, with almost 3,000 in use by the air force of countries like Bahrain, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Slovakia and more.

3. It Was Massively Used In Operation Desert Storm

For the USAF, F-16s actively participated in combat in the 1991 Gulf War. During Operation Desert Storm alone, 249 USAF F-16s flew 13,340 sorties to engage the enemy. They battled with Iraq in the air and engaged ground targets as well. Only three F-16s were lost to enemy action, 246 returned home safe.

2. There Is Now An F-16 Drone

The USAF, along with Lockheed Martin, has now developed unmanned F-16s. These “drones” have been tested to show accurate air-to-air and air-to-ground strikes. Even more exciting is that they can also interpret an air threat and accordingly adapt to complete the required mission. So are pilots a thing of the past now?

1. Want To Buy An F-16?

According to Popular Mechanics, you can now legally buy an F-16. Exciting, right? But only if you have spare-change of $8.5 Million, that is. The aircraft on sale by a Florida company is from 1980 and has clocked 6,000 air miles – but will certainly come stripped of all its cool features – meaning weapons. Interested?

Its flying wing structure, along with composite materials and rare coatings help make the B-2 Spirit a top covert military bomber.

The B-2 Spirit bomber, also known simply as the Stealth Bomber, is a heavy strategic aircraft that was manufactured by Northrop Grumman. The flying wing military design of the B-2 was initially developed as part of the Advanced Technology Bomber or ATB project during the Carter years.

The promise offered by the B-2 Spirit was a contributing factor in Carter’s decision to cancel the Mach 2 B-1A bomber. The project continued through the Reagan era before the first B-2 flight in 1989. The Northrop Grumman bomber was not officially introduced until the mid-’90s, however.

Let’s take a look at some fascinating facts surrounding the history and abilities of the B-2 Spirit bomber.

10. Top Secret Origins Of The B-2 Spirit

When the B-2 Spirit was being designed and developed, the program was classed as a black project. This meant that anyone working on the program needed secret clearance before releasing any information to the public. With that said, more personnel within the U.S. federal government knew about the B-2 project than was the case with the more secretive Lockheed F-117 program.

However, a Northrop employee, Thomas Patrick Cavanaugh, was arrested in 1984 as he intended to sell classified information to the U.S.S.R. Cavanaugh would spend sixteen years in jail before being released on parole.

Knowledge of the B-2 Spirit remained largely under lock and key until the mid-’80s when more details became available. In the present, anyone working on the B-2 often, if not always, undergo a detailed background check and require special-access clearance.

9. The Magic Of Stealth

The B-2’s use of stealth technology is one of its most notable advantages. The B-2 Spirit is capable of minimizing its aerial signatures, whether in relation to infrared, acoustics, electromagnetism, or radar.

Its highly aerodynamic flying wing structure, along with composite materials and rare coatings, also assists in making the B-2 Spirit a top covert military bomber. The B-2 Spirit is therefore a great choice for penetrating complex defenses and protecting important, defended targets.

8. Individually Named Spirit Aircraft

Northrop Grumman has produced a total of 21 B-2s. Aside from Spirit of America, each Stealth Bomber is named after a U.S. state, beginning with the Spirit of Texas, which became active in March 1994. Other B-2s include the Spirit of New York, Spirit of California, and Spirit of Arizona.

A 22nd aircraft was proposed but never made. In February 2010, the Spirit of Washington suffered severe fire damage but was subsequently repaired and is still in operation today. The same cannot be said of the ill-fated Spirit of Kansas (a.k.a AV-12), which crashed in February 2008. Although AV-12 was destroyed shortly after taking off, the crew survived, as they had safely ejected just in time.

7. The B-2 Spirit Is Subsonic But Effective

The Stealth Bomber’s speed falls short of Mach 1, with a top speed of 630mph (Mach 0.95) at sea level. Its cruise speed lands around 560mph at an altitude of 40,000 feet. With that being said, the B-2 Spirit can reach up to 50,000 feet and it has a range of up to 6900 miles.

Despite lacking the supersonic speeds of aircraft like the Mach 2.5 General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, the service ceiling and stealthy qualities of the B-2 Spirit make it a compelling bomber. The B-2 Spirit can travel up to 11,500 miles with a single refueling and notably, it can refuel mid-air.

6. Large Hi-Tech Winged Design

One standout feature of the Northrop B-2 Spirit is its design, whereby the entire aircraft resembles a giant wing. The origins of this design began with the founder of the Northrop Corporation (later Northrop Grumman), Jack Northrop, who first envisioned such an aircraft structure in the 1920s and ’30s.

Other cold war flying designs dating back to the 1940s included the N-M9 Flying Wing, XB-35, and the YB-49. Its flying wing design means high aerodynamic efficiency, thanks, in part to a lack of tail or fuselage.

5. The B-2 Spirit’s Use In War

The B-2 is suited to attack missions at a range of attitudes of up to 50,000 feet. Mid-air refueling is also advantageous for the B-2 during war campaigns. The B-2 was designed with a cold-war nuclear scenario considered, whereby it would perform deep-penetrating nuclear strikes thanks to its stealth.

The B-2 saw its combat debut during the Kosovo War in 1999. It successfully took out 33% of selected Serbian targets within two months of U.S. aerial intervention. The B-2 bomber was unsurprisingly utilized as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

B-2s were also used during the Iraq War and the 2011 international intervention in Libya. More recently, two B-2 bombers killed about 85 ISIS militants in January 2017 during an aerial attack on a training camp.

4. The B-2 Spirit Set An Aerial Record During The Afghan War

The Stealth Bomber claimed the record for the longest aerial combat mission of all time in 2001. The Spirit of America led five additional Spirit B-2s into Afghan airspace for a record time of 44 hours following 9/11. In fact, the B-2 made a short stopover for 45 minutes and underwent a service change while the engines continued to run, emphasizing its incredible capabilities.

3. The B-2 Has Two Internal Bays For Up To 80 Bombs

The B-2 Spirit has two internal bays for payload and ordnance. The aircraft can deploy a mix of thermonuclear and conventional weapons with a payload capacity of 40,000 lb. This could translate to a total of eighty 500 lb class bombs (e.g., GBU-38 or MK-82), thirty-six 750 lb CBU class bombs, sixteen 2,000lb class bombs (e.g., GBU-31 or MK-84), or two GBU-57 precision-guided bombs, among other combinations. The Stealth Bomber is the only aircraft officially recognized as being able to carry large standoff weapons in stealth mode with air-to-surface capabilities.

2. The Stealth Bomber Won The Collier Trophy In 1991

In 1991, the B-2 Spirit claimed the most reputable award in aerospace in the form of the Collier Trophy. The Northrop Corporation was honored with this award for their production, test flights, design and development of the Stealth Bomber. This eminent award has been granted to innovative companies since 1911. Other victors over the years include the Bell X-1, Boeing 747, F-22 Raptor, and Mars Curiosity Rover.

1. The B-2 Spirit Is Still In Flight Today

A total of 20 Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirits continue to operate today. Northrop Grumman regularly updates and enhances the abilities of each aircraft for reasons of maintenance and to keep up with the times. Modern upgrading includes software engineering, development, and testing.

This incredible military bomber is employed by the U.S. Air Force and is set to continue until 2032. At that point, the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider will replace the B-2 alongside other bombers. The B-2 Spirit is a marvel in military history, and even if it retires a little over a decade from now, it will be remembered for its unique design and stealth capabilities.

The pointy-nosed plane barreled down the French tarmac and into the air. The crowd of 200,000 spectators that gathered near the runway at Le Bourget Airport for the 1973 Paris Air Show watched the star of the day, the Concorde, climb toward the horizon.

Its rival would not be so fortunate. The Soviet-built TU-144, like its British/French competitor, sought to usher in a new era of supersonic passenger travel. But the Soviet plane swerved suddenly during ascent and dropped like a stone onto the nearby village of Goussainville, where it killed six in the plane and eight on the ground.

Though marred by tragedy, the air show of ’73 signaled that the supersonic era had arrived—and that the Concorde would be its vanguard. From 1976 to 2003, the Concorde shrank the Atlantic Ocean in half, ferrying passengers from New York to London or Paris in a just three and a half hours. The plane cruised higher than 50,000 feet, revealing the curvature of the Earth at a casual glance out the window. Tickets were outrageously expensive—the average transatlantic round-trip flight cost approximately $12,000—but living in the future, even for just a few hours, has never been cheap.

Today, that future has come and gone. Because of difficult economics and the physical realities of air travel beyond the speed of sound, the Concorde retired more than 15 years ago. No supersonic airliner has risen to take is place—yet. A half-century after its first flight, the legacy of the Concorde’s engineering genius lives on, especially in the new breed of aviation startups and companies seeking to bring back supersonic travel.

The Birth of the Concorde

On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager broke through. Cruising in an experimental Bell X-1 aircraft at an altitude in excess of 40,000 feet, the test pilot made history by crashing through the sound barrier and becoming the fastest man in a plane to date.

Nobody knew it at the time, since the U.S. government’s top-secret project stayed under wraps until 1948. Soon, though, the nations of the world knew supersonic air travel was possible. Just as the 1950s gave rise to a space race, so too did it spur a competition in the stratosphere to build an airliner that could carry passengers faster than the speed of sound, effectively shrinking the globe.

The United Kingdom mostly watched the space race from the sidelines as the USSR put satellites in orbit and the United States rushed to catch up. The supersonic race, however, represented a theatre in which postwar Europe could reclaim some pride. Various groups were in on the directive, such as Britain’s Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee, which was tasked in 1956 with developing a Supersonic Transport (SST) fit for commercial use.

Nationalism fueled the ambition. “The reason it was built was largely politics,” says Bob Van Der Linden, Chairman of the Aeronautics Department of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. The Concorde was a way for Europe to leapfrog the U.S., which had already tried and failed to build its own smaller SSTs in the 1950s, but still dominated the market for commercial planes.

However, Britain’s aviation experts soon discovered the cost of building such a plane would be huge. So Britain sought help. “The British government wanted to split the costs with another country,” says Jonathan Glancey, author of Concorde: The Rise and Fall of The Supersonic Airliner. After unsuccessfully seeking American assistance, Britain found an ally in France. In 1962, the two nations signed the Anglo-French Concorde agreement, ensuring cooperation on a new plane, one they hoped would finally level the aeronautical playing field in Europe’s favor.

“[Great Britain and France] let politics and reasons of national pride get in the way,” Van Der Linden says. “This was a way of showing we are as good if not better than the United States than it was building an airplane for the market…“They were the pride of Great Britain and France and they wanted to show it off and had every reason to show it off.”

Befitting its two-nation heritage, the Concorde’s name translates to “harmony” or “union” in French. The two aviation giants charged with building it, Aérospatiale (which later became Airbus) and the UK’s British Aircraft Corporation, faced an onerous challenge. “They almost had to reinvent the airplane to make it work, and they did,” Van Der Linden tells Popular Mechanics.

The speed itself wasn’t the problem. By the early 1960, flying faster than the sound barrier in a military jet had gone from milestone to routine. Going that fast in airliner crammed with 100 paying passengers, however, entailed a different kind of thinking.

The Concorde was equipped with four Rolls-Royce afterburner engines, the same kind used on fighter jets, each of which generated 38,000 pounds of thrust. The bird used a slanted droop-nose that lowered upon takeoff and landing, enabling pilots to see the runway. Revamped brake systems allowed the plane to touch down on a tarmac unscathed even if it landed at far higher speeds than its subsonic counterparts. Because the plane’s nose temperature could climb to 278 degrees while it flew, it was coated in a highly-reflective white paint that radiated heat.

Perhaps the most impressive engineering improvements was the plane’s triangular delta wings, which allowed it to navigate different angles of attack while soaring at breakneck speeds. “None of these lesser technical improvements approached the revolutionary status of the thin delta wing design that made sustained supersonic flight possible,” says to Samme Chittum, author of the Last Days of Concorde.

That pride and the work paid off. Four months before men walked on the moon, the Concorde made its maiden flight. In 1973, it bested the Soviet supersonic effort in Paris. And soon thereafter it finally appeared on the runway, bearing the liveries of British Airways and Air France.

Flying High

The Concorde could dart through the clouds at speeds greater than Mach 2 (1,350 mph). Despite the jarring kah-boom that resonated as it breached the sound barrier, inside the cabin, all was serene and luxurious, even as the plane seemed to violate the rules of time and common sense. Judging by the official time, the London to New York flight would land before it departed. The Irish journalist Terry Wogon gleefully remembered the Concorde allowing him to eat “breakfast at Heathrow, and breakfast again on arrival in New York.”

The plane spurred the kind of hype and fanfare not seen since the debut of Boeing’s brawny 747. It became the vessel of choice for showbiz stars like English late night host David Frost, who, according to legend, would commute between London and New York to record segments, and then zip back across the Atlantic to retire for the evening. For others, flying on the Concorde turned air travel into a bucket list item, as Samme Chittum tells Popular Mechanics:

It’s hard to overestimate both the hype and romance surrounding Concorde and travel. As much [hype] as there was, that was equal if not surpassed by what passengers actually experienced.When they took a flight on this supersonic plane, they knew what they were doing was a first in a lifetime experience for them. What it was like at that height seeing the curve of the Earth and knowing that moment watching it on a display in a cabin when you were traveling at supersonic speed, there was a tremendous thrill involved. You have to be quite a dull person not to appreciate that.

The Concorde engines guzzled 6770 gallons of fuel per hour, necessitating ticket prices that climbed into quadruple digits. To account for the price, the service was top-notch and the settings upscale.

“I felt more strongly that I had entered a private club,” Tom Ford, a worker on a maintenance crew tasked with updating the Concorde’s interior for British Airways, told CNN this year. “It was a brief glimpse into a life I had not known, polite, considerate, and beautifully detailed. It was impossible to not feel spoiled, and valued.”

Beneath the glamor, sex appeal, and the thrill of flying at Mach 2, however, lurked some serious problems. While 16 airlines initially placed orders for the Concorde, the plane launched right into the oil crisis of 1973 that thinned out the demand for a thirsty supersonic plan. In total, only 20 Concordes were built, and six of them remained prototypes.

In With a Boom, Out With a Whimper

The Concorde could outrun any airliner. It could never withstand the economic and engineering woes that were always in close pursuit. For one thing, the cost of burning fuel at such an unprecedented rate meant ticket prices even the plane’s well-heeled clientele struggled to afford. “The airplane usually flew with lots of empty seats, just because it was too expensive,” Van Der Linden says.

The environmental movement came into full bloom in the 1970s, and protesters who resented the Concorde’s fuel-guzzling routinely greeted the plane’s arrival at airports with ire-laden protests. Countries banned the jet from flying over their airspace because of the cacophonous sonic boom, which limited routes to those over the ocean. (The United States still has laws on the books barring SSTs from traversing the country, for fear of noise pollution and windows shattering below.) The Anti-Concorde Project sprung into action almost as soon as the Concorde was ready to roll out on the runway, validating academic studies that noted the plane’s deleterious effect on the environment.

And then came the crash. In July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed during takeoff, the result of a punctured tire that spewed shrapnel into a fuel tank. All 109 people onboard died in a cataclysmic fire, one that damaged the public perception of supersonic passenger jets.

“The Concorde crash was entirely preventable,” Chittum says. “The inadequate tires were not replaced with more resilient tires, even after it became obvious that they should have been following a string of documented tire blowouts during take off.”

Air France 4590 was by no means solely responsible for the Concorde’s demise. Shortly afterward, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks fostered an understandable sense of public paranoia that also cratered Wall St.’s faith in the airline industry. But the crash signaled the beginning of the end. Concorde maintenance costs had been climbing for years while the number of customers willing to pay exorbitant ticket prices waned. By 2003, Concorde manufacturer Airbus cited a litany of growing concerns, revealing it would cost British Airways alone £40m over the next several years to maintain its beleaguered fleet.

 

Lastly, many travelers had simply realized that the time saved on a Concorde flight wasn’t worth the expense. “For some people, saving them four hours was vital, but for most people it wasn’t that important. And not enough to justify the price tag,” says Van Der Linden.

Within five months of each other, Air France and British Airways would throw in the towel on flying the Concorde.

A Supersonic Return?

The Concorde is just a museum piece now, but the dream of flying faster than sound hasn’t died. A number of players, ranging from NASA and Lockheed Martin to upstarts like Boom Supersonic, are vying to revive SSTs and make them viable again.

Although the technology is clearly proven, the challenges pervading the return of a commercial SST remain. It’s been illegal for commercial SSTs to fly over land in the United States since the Concorde’s heyday, but lawmakers are cozying to the idea of their return if scientists can minimize the sonic boom.

NASA and Lockheed Martin’s X-59 prototype, for example, plans to reduce the tumult to little more than than a faint thud. Still, the plethora of hurdles remains. Samme Chittum sees SSTs returning, albeit in a different, more limited capacity:

I wouldn’t bet my savings on it. It seems very likely, that business people with a lot of money could be flying supersonic private jets. It seems unlikely that supersonic flights will become commercially available to everyone.

With that in mind, it seems the Concorde, or anything like it really, might just remain absent from the skies forever.

When automotive enthusiasts hear the name Saab, they probably always think about the famous car manufacturer. The manufacturer that we now miss greatly, but that also produced some utterly amazing cars. Think of the 9-3 Viggen perhaps, or the utterly insane looking Sonett III. But something that is easily forgotten is that the Saab name is still going strong. Except it’s not in the world of cars. Oh no! The Saab name is going strong in the world of military aviation, and has done since the late 1930s.

Saab’s latest aircraft is the JAS 39 Gripen and it is one of the most capable multirole fighter aircraft in the world right now. And it follows a long tradition of Saab producing utterly incredible aircraft. One of the very best has to be the Saab 35 Draken. This fearsome, delta wing aircraft is an all-time classic and remarkably to this day, there are examples of the Draken still flying in private hands and in the hands of the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight.

Development Of The Draken

The desire for the Draken was born out of Sweden foreseeing that they would need a jet fighter that could both intercept bombers at high altitude, and engage with enemy fighters. This can be traced right back to the start of the jet age in 1949, and the new aircraft would have to be an all-weather fighter to be flown by a single pilot. The aircraft would also have to be suitable to operate on rough, public roads, and the Saab company soon found out that a lot of the issues posed by the design could be met with a delta wing aircraft. Delta wings at the time were a novelty, but Britain showed they could be successful with its Avro Vulcan bomber.

Like with the Vulcan, Saab built a smaller, research aircraft dubbed the 210, and it earned the nickname “Lilldraken” which translated to little kite. Tests with the Lilldraken proved the concept would work, and the first flight of a Draken prototype took place on October 25th 1955. In 1956, the first operational version of the Draken, designated the J 35A, was ordered into production. The impressive new aircraft reached Mach 2 for the first time on January 14th 1960, thanks to its modified British made Rolls-Royce Avon Mk.48A engine. Sweden had just developed a brilliant new delta wing aircraft.

The Draken In Service

The Draken would soon enter Swedish Air Force service, with deliveries of the J 35A taking place at the end of 1959. By the end of the following year, multiple wings in the air force were now equipped with the Draken. Exercises in 1959 had shown that the scramble and turn-around times of the aircraft were good, and the introduction into service of the aircraft had gone quite smoothly. Its good quick-turn ability and hight speed at all altitudes accidentally meant the Draken would be good as a fighter plane as well as an interceptor.

Over the years, the aircraft would receive plenty of upgrades. There were six different versions of the aircraft, the final model of which was the J 35F, the last version to remain in Swedish Air Force service. Exports of the aircraft also took place, most notably to Denmark and Finland, while Austria bought 24 Draken Ds in 1985. The aircraft thankfully never saw combat service, but the type no doubt would have proven successful had it done so. Eventually, the Draken would be replaced by its successor from Saab, the Viggen.

A Happy Retirement For The Draken

Following its retirement from service in Sweden at the end of 1999, Drakens would go on to fly for a mew more years in Austria and Denmark, before the final retirement of the type in Austria in 2005. The Draken had become a hugely popular and iconic aircraft in the aviation world thanks to its delta wing design. And as such, a large number of the type are on display around the world. There are also two airworthy with the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight, as well as a pair of Dakens flying out of McClellan Air Park in California in the United States.

The Linage Of The Draken

The Draken would effectively start a run of hugely successful Swedish Air Force jet fighters. The Viggen would be introduced into Swedish service in June 1971, while it would in turn be replaced by the JAS 39 Gripen, an aircraft that is still in service to this day. The Gripen as first introduced into active service in June 1996 and has been exported to a few air arms around the globe including the Czech Air Force and Brazilian Air Force. Despite the loss of the car brand, Saab is still going strong to this very d ay in the aviation world.

At a confirmation hearing earlier this month, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown spoke of plans to retire 119 F-15E Strike Eagles by the late 2020s.

The move would shrink the Strike Eagle fleet by more than half and is apparently part of a larger push by the Air Force to divest itself of legacy platforms.

While it is necessary to part with dated equipment, especially as new technologies such as the F-35A and Next Generation Air Dominance come online, these relatively dramatic cuts leave some observers wondering whether the remaining F-15E fleet will be able to meet demands in the interim.

Meet the F-15E

The F-15 was designed as an advanced air superiority fighter meant to tackle the Soviet Union’s MiG-25s. It proved to be exceptional at this role, and little thought was given to ground attack capabilities. In the early 1980s, the Air Force sought to replace the F-111 for deep air-interdiction missions. They needed a tactical aircraft capable of flying behind enemy lines without fighter escort to perform strike missions.

While the F-15 had originally been designed strictly to shoot down aircraft, a team at McDonnell-Douglas swiftly implemented changes to fill this role. One of the most significant design details was the addition of conformal fuel tanks. Traditionally, fuel is stored in tanks either inside the aircraft, which can limit their capacity and thus the fighter’s range, or in external drop tanks, which greatly increase capacity and range at the cost of maneuverability and weapons hardpoints. The Strike Eagle’s conformal tanks fit snugly onto the airframe. The inclusion of pylons, rather than traditional weapons racks, further reduced drag.

Structurally, the F-15E’s airframe was upgraded with advanced composites to incorporate more powerful engines. These engines, with a maximum thrust of up to 29,000 lbs each, allow it to carry a significant complement of weapons. When fully loaded, the Strike Eagle can carry up to eight air-to-air missiles or any air-to-surface weapon in the Air Force arsenal, including nuclear bombs.

Why Retire?

The F-15E has proven incredibly capable, serving in the Gulf War, the Balkans, and Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. A squadron of Strike Eagles continues to provide support to American forces in Syria. In August 2021, a Strike Eagle shot down an unidentified drone approaching U.S. positions.

Given this record, it is unclear why the Air Force is moving to cut the force so drastically, particularly while the F-35A is still in production and the NGAD is still in development. These cuts come as the Air Force is also reducing its fleet of F-15C/D air superiority fighters, apparently with no replacement. Indeed, F-15Es have been spotted flying in the air superiority role without their conformal fuel tanks out of bases in England, and the retirement of two F-15C/D squadrons in Japan does not seem to have a replacement.

While the F-15EX, with an advanced defensive sensor suite known as EPAWSS, is waiting in the wings to replace the aging A-10 in National Guard units, so far there appears to be no replacement for the Strike Eagle and Eagle squadrons. Divesting down to 100 or so airframes also raises the question of the costs associated with maintaining a training and replacement pipeline for so small a fleet.

A major defense policy bill with updates to the Air Force’s efforts to retire some airplanes is close to passing in Congress. The Air Force wanted to remove two critical warplanes from its fleet before lawmakers made their decision on the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the House of Representatives has already approved.

Time for Some Warthogs to Bid Adieu

Now, 21 A-10 Warthogs will be ending their service next year, but the House said no to retiring the F-22 Raptor. The Air Force was slated to cut 33 of the oldest F-22s. The Senate is expected to pass the NDAA in its current form in a vote that would save the F-22 from the chopping block.

Cuts Will Be for the Reserve Component

The A-10s will be removed from the Fort Wayne Air National Guard Base in Indiana and F-16s will take their place. Congress and the Air Force have been sparring about the future of the A-10 for years as some legislators have fought to preserve it, while other Air Force leaders have wanted to move on from the ground strike airplane.

F-22 Numbers Are Unchanged

The F-22 lives to fight another day as the service branch wanted to nix a batch of the oldest F-22 Block 20 Raptors. Some members of Congress felt that both airplanes are expensive to fly and maintain. For example, the F-22 will cost around $1.8 billion to keep in the air over the next eight years.

Language in the Bill Prohibits F-22 Cuts

The NDAA codifies that the F-22 will be provided funds for maintenance and support personnel. The policy bill specifically forbids reducing the numbers of the F-22. The legislation also calls for a study on how the older Block 20 Raptors can be upgraded to the current Block 30/35 variants.

Down to 1,800 Total Airplanes for the Air Force

Other airplanes such as the F-16 C/Ds and F-15 C/Ds will be eventually retired from the active component of the Air Force. The final number of airplanes in the fleet will fall from 1,970 to 1,800. The Air Force will again report to Congress on how these future cuts will impact the force’s posture and readiness.

Pros and Cons About the A-10

The A-10 has its pluses and minuses. It served its country well during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by providing close air support to pinned-down soldiers. Its dangerous 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger cannon brought death and destruction to enemy combatants. But some Air Force leaders and lawmakers have reservations about how effective the airplane would be against modern air defenses. The airplane flies low and slow. It is not seen as something that could evade a bevy of surface-to-air missiles in contested air space.

“The A-10 is a great platform for a [permissive] environment,” Air Force Chief of Staff General CQ Brown told Congress in April. “I don’t see very many [permissive] environments that we’re going to roll into in the future.”

China Is Building More Stealth Fighters

As China prepares to produce its own stealth fighter – the J-20 Mighty Dragon – in higher amounts, some lawmakers believe that now is not the time to reduce the numbers of American stealth fighters, despite the expensive flight costs per hour.

Other Programs Are Competing for Funding

The main idea behind the reduction in force is the savings from airplane retirements that could be re-invested into buying additional platforms such as the F-35. The NDAA calls for only 38 new F-35s for the Air Force which would not keep pace with the new J-20 that China is making rapidly. The branch also needs funding for the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter and the new F-15EX Eagle II.

The compromise between Congress and the Air Force should not hurt the overall force posture that much. The A-10s were in the reserve component and the F-22s could eventually be upgraded. But China continues to produce new airplanes and the U.S. military must keep up. Many members of Congress have agreed with this assessment that removing F-22s is not appropriate in FY23.

The arguments have raged in the back bars of officers clubs for years about which fighter is the greatest. (And many times a pilot’s vote is for the airplane he or she happens to be flying at that time.) But in terms of staying power and mission agility, no other military airplane can match the track record of the venerable F-4 Phantom.

Here are 7 photos that prove the point:

1. Air-to-air

The Phantom was the first American military jet made with air-to-air missiles as the primary offensive weapon, and over the course of the airplane’s long history that capability was used to good effect by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and a host of foreign countries including Israel, Iran, and Turkey. USAF F-4 crews alone scored over 107 kills during the Vietnam War.

2. Air-to-ground

The F-4’s bombing capability made it a workhorse during the Vietnam War. The Phantom’s power and number of weapons stations allowed it to carry a wide variety of ordnance, which allowed it to be tailored to a specific mission in ways that were impossible for other airplanes.

3. SAM suppression

The “Wild Weasel” variant of the F-4 had the mission of flying into surface-to-air missile envelopes in order to coax SAM operators to come to life. Once they did, the Wild Weasels would take the SAM sites out with Shrike missiles or conventional bombs, but in the process aircrews often found themselves dodging missiles shot at them from the ground.

4. Reconnaissance

The photo version of the Phantom had cameras in the nose cone and took advantage of the jet’s speed and agility to get important imagery to military decision-makers in a hurry.

5. Test and evaluation

Phantoms were used by NASA and a variety of military TE squadrons for data points around supersonic flight and other mission areas. At one time the F-4 held 15 world records for flight performance. Here, VX-4’s “Vandy One” with arguably the coolest paint job in military history chases an SR-71 over the Mohave Desert.

6. Flight demonstration

The F-4 was used in the late ’60s and early ’70s by both the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds. The rear cockpit was generally unoccupied for demonstration flights. The Phantom show was a crowd-pleaser — fast and loud. The airplane was ultimately too expensive and too much to maintain on the road, so the Blues switched to A-4s and the Thunderbirds went to T-38s.

7. Target drone

Look, ma, no pilot! At the end of their lives, a number of Phantoms were turned into drones for missile exercises and advanced testing.

Bonus . . . Mothballed asset

Phantom phans, take heart: There are hundreds of F-4s lined up in the Arizona desert outside of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base ready to come back into service if the need arises.

The Chinook’s service in supplying the US military on the frontline is set to continue for many years to come.

The Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift heavy helicopter has long been one of America’s most iconic rotary aircraft. Since it was introduced in the 1960s it has seen extensive use by American forces all around the world. Additionally, it has been exported to many militaries around the world and has seen extensive service over the last 50 or more years.

The Chinook is twin-engined and is named after the Chinook Native American people in Washington state. The Chinook fills a crucial role in ferrying supplies to the front line as well as airlifting wounded from the battlefield.

Here is everything you need to know about the CH-47 Chinook, America’s heavy-lift helicopter.

The U.S. Air Force F-22 fleet was prematurely truncated around 169 aircraft following the collapse of the Soviet Union

(Washington D.C.) The U.S. Air Force F-22 fleet was prematurely truncated around 169 aircraft following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The decision was in retrospect regarded as ill-advised and detrimental to the U.S. Air Force’s ability to maintain its edge over great power rivals such as Russia and China. Perhaps decision-makers at the time were distracted by counterinsurgency and operated with only a short-term threat calculus. After all, while built in the 1990s, the F-22 was first introduced in 2005 during the height of the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Circling the Fleet

The size of the fleet, however, is merely one of several reasons why even the older F-22s should not be retired. An ability to “mass” F-22s for their well-known “first-strike, first-kill” mission mantra would be compromised should the fleet be greatly reduced. However, continued service life for the F-22 would be much less relevant if the aircraft did not retain or expand upon its combat performance abilities.

While often thought of by pilots as an “aerial quarterback,” air-to-air supremacy fighter with an optimal thrust-to-weight ratio and the most maneuverable air-combat fighter in existence, the F-22 has in more recent years shown its versatility by successfully performing Close Air Support attack missions against ISIS in 2014. This 2014 deployment was in fact the F-22’s first combat deployment.