Category: Military

Be Nice to Your Drone

Last week was the RAeS Future Combat Air & Space Capabilities Summit. This was organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) to discuss the future of combat air and space capabilities. The summit centred around presentations and to discuss the future of air and space combat power. The summit took place in London with 70…

Read more… 2 Jun 23

MV-22B Osprey crash onto side of USS Green Bay

On the 5th of August 2017, an MV-22B Osprey crashed while on a routine training mission off the coast of Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia. The crash resulted in three deaths, 23 injured and the total loss of the aircraft. The US Marines were part of a greater simulation, including an embassy reinforcement mission. The crew…

Read more… 22 Jul 22

The Destruction of a Dream

There is only one aircraft type where I have always used the definite article when writing about it: The Antonov An-225. The An-225 is a one-of-a-kind cargo aircraft designed by Antonov Design in then-Soviet Ukraine. The aircraft’s name is Mriya, literally “Dream” in Ukrainian (Мрія). This massive aircraft with six turbofan engines is capable of…

Read more… 4 Mar 22

F-35C lost in South China Sea

On Monday, the 24th of January, the US Naval Institute News released that there had been a landing mishap on the deck of USS Carl Vinson when a landing F-35C fell off the flight deck. The USS Carl Vinson is a Nimitz-class super carrier named after a congressman from Georgia who was known as “the…

Read more… 28 Jan 22

Abused fighter planes and the men who love them

A few months ago, I wrote about how to shoot down a fighter jet while flying it, the case of a test-pilot in a Grumman F-11 Tiger who managed to catch up to his own gunfire. One of the fantastic things I found out in the course of writing that piece was that Tom Attridge…

Read more… 23 Oct 20

Mid-Air Collision in Marine Training Exercise

Last week, on the 29th of September 2020, two US Marine aircraft collided over the Naval Air Facility El Centro in California while taken part in a refuelling exercise as a part of a seven-week training event, the Weapons and Tactics Instructor course. The fighter was an F-35B (Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II), a single-seater,…

Read more… 2 Oct 20

Accident Reports

Bomber 139's Third Run: What the Investigation Found

In order to follow this analysis, you’ll need to have the details of the flight and the crash from last week’s article about the flight. When we last saw Bomber…

Bomber 139's Third Run: Downhill to Disaster

On the 6th of February 2023, a Boeing 737-3H4 Large Air Tanker crashed into a ridge line of 222 feet elevation in Fitzgerald River National Park in Western Australia. There…

Demystifying

Another quick round of questions and answers

It’s time for another Questions and Answers session. I started this series a few years back, when a reader asked if there was a way to pose aviation questions outside…

Durga Puja Pandal Shows Air India Flight 171 Crash

The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner…

History

Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?

This video of a mid-air wheel exchange goes viral once a year or so, but I never get tired of watching it. Last week, it showed up on Reddit and…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

This week, we have a guest post by J.B. Rivard who wrote an article for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and used one of my articles as a reference.…

Fun Stuff

The Mystery of the Caged Tyres and the Porcupine Who Flew Home

This photograph was posted to r/shittyaskflying, a subreddit dedicated to asking silly questions and giving silly answers. In this case, the photograph is enough to make one wonder what’s going…

Songs About Failed Spacecraft and Space Disasters

This week, I’m handing over Fear of Landing to my friend Jack Keller who promised me a playlist of music relating to my interests. All of the titles except one…