Aircraft

News, explainers, and analysis about military aircraft.

Latest in Aircraft

Teams with a wagon in a black and white photo try to inflate a hot air balloon.
History

How the Union took to the skies in the Civil War

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Mar 24, 2025

Capt. Jesse Guerin and Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Angulo were named the Army’s best medics of 2025 after winning a competition at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
News

These are the Army’s best medics of 2025

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Feb 27, 2025

An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in a highly elliptical orbit in 2024. As part of the X-37B's seventh mission, the vehicle executed a series of first-of-its-kind maneuvers, called aerobraking, to safely change its orbit using minimal fuel. (U.S. Space Force Courtesy Photo)
News

US military releases first photo from orbit from its mysterious space plane

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Feb 21, 2025

Local Marines fold flags for Lance Cpl. Joe Jackson’s family during his funeral May 4 at Tahoma Cemetery. Jackson was killed April 24 by an improvised explosive device blast in Afghanistan.
News

US Marine, 3 Pentagon contractors die in Philippines plane crash

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Feb 6, 2025

Capt. Jordan Wiggins, 23d Fighter Group pilot, speaks into his HGU-55/P helmet prior to departure July 2, 2020, at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. Wiggins is flying one of the two A-10s assigned to the 23d Fighter Group that are scheduled to conduct a flyover as a part of the 2020 Salute to America in Washington, D.C., celebrating the United States of America’s 244th birthday. The flyover provides the men and women of the 23d Fighter Group the opportunity to demonstrate capabilities and join in national celebration, while obtaining necessary training hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. Kaylin P. Hankerson)
News

Cancer rates in military pilots and other aviators could get a closer look

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Jan 23, 2025

A F/A-18F moves down the runway of an aircraft carrier.
News

Navy shoots down its own F/A-18 in Red Sea fight

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 22, 2024

An F/A-18F Super Hornet takes off at night, with a bright exhaust.
News

Carrier Air Wing 9 flew hundreds of combat sorties while fighting Houthis

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 16, 2024

Seven C-130 aircraft are lined up along a runway.
News

C-130s from around the world gather for an ‘elephant walk’

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 15, 2024

Archaeologists use measuring tapes and underwater cameras to record and document a WWII aircraft site in Papua New Guinea. Photo: Project Recover — Project Recover is a collaborative effort to enlist 21st-century science and technology in a quest to find and repatriate World War II MIAs to bring recognition to the service member, closure for their families, and to help a grateful Nation keep its sacred promise to bring our MIAs home. As a result of Project Recover’s missions, there are 84 MIAs awaiting recovery at this time (January 2020). Since 1993, Project Recover (formerly The BentProp Project) has located 30+ downed World War II US aircraft associated with scores of MIA service members.
History

Meet the team helping recover missing U.S. troops from deep underwater

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Nov 20, 2024

A man in uniform stands behind a four-legged robot.
Tech & Tactics

That’s CHAPPIE: Why the Space Force has a nuclear material sniffing robot

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Nov 12, 2024

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress, flies alongside a KC-10 Extender after receiving fuel on Jan. 6, 2021.
News

US sending destroyers, B-52 bombers to the Middle East

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Nov 2, 2024

A F-16D Fighting Falcon assigned to Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., sits on an alert mission during EXERCISE BAMBOO EAGLE 24-1 Feb. 1, 2024, at March Air Reserve Base, California. Bamboo Eagle is an exercise designed to provide an expeditionary air base environment where allied forces focused on Agile Combat Employment command and control, Air Superiority, and Joint War at Sea. (U.S. Air Force photo by Kekoa Santiago)
News

How a parked F-16 suffered $30 million in damage

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Oct 21, 2024

190401-N-HC646-0062 OAK HARBOR, Wash. (April 1, 2019) An EA-18G Growler assigned to the "Cougars" of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 139 takes off during a Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) at an outlying landing field attached to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. FCLP is a required flight training exercise that simulates conditions encountered during carrier landing operations while on deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Marc Cuenca/Released)
News

Growler crew dead at crash site, Navy says

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Oct 20, 2024

Army Basic Training
News

Army revamps basic training to simulate battlefield stalked by drone swarms

By Jeff Schogol

Posted on Oct 17, 2024

A US. Air Force B-2 Spirt assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing, Whiteman Air Force Base receives fuel from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 assigned to the 185th Air Refueling Wing, Iowa Air National Guard in the sky over northwest Missouri on August 29, 2018. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot
News

B-2 bombers strike Iran-backed Houthi targets in Yemen

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Oct 17, 2024

lakota crew
News

New York Guard helicopter crashed in Texas after ‘unanticipated’ spin, review board finds

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Oct 11, 2024