Seventy-Eight Years of Jet Fighters
On Aug. 27, 1939, a stubby-winged airplane made of unpainted steel alloy took off over Germany and soared into history. Instead of a pointy propeller hub in the nose, the Heinkel 178 had an open-mouthed turbojet intake, making it the first operational jet-powered aircraft. The He 178 could only... Read more
Russia Is Nearly Halting Stealth Fighter Production for a Decade
The Kremlin’s new state armament plan, which will run from 2018-2027, will continue modernization of the Russian Aerospace Forces. However, while Russia will continue to buy modern combat aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-35S Flanker-E air superiority fighter and the Su-34 Fullback bomber, Moscow is not likely to make... Read more
Too Much Secrecy Could Kill the U.S. Air Force’s Next Bomber
The U.S. Air Force faces three major modernization programs — replacing fighter and attack airplanes with the F-35, phasing out the KC-135 tanker for the KC-46A, and developing a stealth bomber replacement for the B-52 and B-1 with the B-21. Unfortunately, Congress has not appropriated enough funds to purchase... Read more
How to Detect a Stealth Fighter
State-run Chinese media is claiming that the People’s Liberation Army has been able to track the U.S. Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters over the East China Sea. While the Chinese report might be easily dismissed as propaganda — it is not beyond the realm of possibility.... Read more
Russia Pulls Its Stealth Fighter Back From the Brink
Russian and Indian negotiators have bargained down the price for the Indo-Russian Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) — which is being developed from the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA. The two sides have agreed cut the price of the development from $12 billion to roughly $8 billion, saving the joint project from... Read more
America’s Best Stealth Weapons
Stealth, or the idea of reducing the ability of the enemy to detect a weapon, has been around since the first caveman sewed a pocket into his clothing and hid a rock in it. Thousands of years later, with the ability to detect objects on the ground, in the... Read more