Seventy-Eight Years of Jet Fighters
WIB air December 5, 2017
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
WIB air November 28, 2017
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
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
Uncategorized February 19, 2016
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
Uncategorized January 27, 2016
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
Uncategorized August 14, 2015
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