The US Air Force’s scientific research wing is giving Lockheed Martin $26.3 million “for the design, development, and production of a high power fiber laser,” which it expects to start testing on a tactical fighter jet in four years. Sounds cool and certainly futuristic, but the jury’s still out on whether these…
Observed from the ground, the total solar eclipse happening on August 21, when the Moon completely blocks your view of the Sun, will be visible for up to 160 seconds. It will be a fleeting glimpse of a rare phenomenon, which is why NASA plans to chase the Moon’s shadow using a pair of jets.
Somewhere over the Hamptons, the pilot told me to take the controls. To my left, there was a joystick, roughly the same size and dimension as my favorite ‘90s arcade game, After Burner. I clutched it, pulled back, and felt the jet climb.
The US Air Force has declassified a harrowing video showing the heads-up display of student pilot who passed out during a tight maneuver. Mercifully, his F-16 was equipped with a ground collision avoidance system, saving him from certain death.
We all know how badass the Harriers and F-35s of the world are but some of these other vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircrafts from history are totally wild. The Williams X-Jet was essentially a flying one-man podium barrel thing. The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was legitimately a man-made flying saucer. And so…
The internet is filled with butt-clenching stories of horrifying plane turbulence lately. Is dangerously rough air becoming more common nowadays, or what? Well, yes and no.
I forget how impressively thin and futuristic looking a B-2 stealth bomber is. I mean, just watch these two stealth bombers land at Royal Air Force Fairford in England, it looks like a UFO has just touched down on Earth and is ready to take over our planet. Or like a sci-fi fighter jet has hopped through a movie…
I wouldn’t want to stand in front of a fighter jet like this or see one in my rear view for fear of soiling my pants. The F-16 is just on the ground and undergoing pre-flight inspection and it still has such a commanding presence. Killer machine birds.
Wow. Watch the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner pull off an amazing aerial display in preparation for the 2015 Air Show. You can see the big bodied jet pretend it’s like a stunt plane and basically do tricks in the air. The most impressive has to be the take off though, the jet almost immediately goes nearly perpendicular to…
Spending the day at Ikea is a fun treat in the best of times, a relationship-destroying nightmare in the worst. For one Airbus designer, though, following the yellow arrows around the bins of votive candles and wall hooks was a breakthrough moment.
Look, I’m all for extreme sports (and general borderline-stupid shenanigans masquerading as sports). But I think I’d probably draw the line at a homemade, 3-D printed jet-powered snowboard.
Fighter jets and aircraft carriers and fighter jets taking off of aircraft carriers are some of our favorite things in the world for so many reasons. One of them is just how perfect each launch has to be. Just look at how the wheels of the jet reach the end of the aircraft carrier as the fighter jet achieves lift…
Damn, that thing really is stealth. This video shows how the B-2 stealth bomber refuels and rotates its fuel receptacle so that it can maintain its stealth. You see the receptacle in clear view when it's ready for fuel but after it's all filled up, it's gone and the whole plane is back to being undetected.
At this point, it's not even funny how much the Pentagon has screwed up the development of its new stealth fighter jet, the F-35. But the latest report that the jet's 25mm cannon won't be operational until 2019 at the earliest is just laughable. Even more laughable is that it probably doesn't even need the gun to…
For all the boring photography jobs out there—weddings, corporate, et cetera—Sergeant Larry Reid Jr. did pretty well to avoid them all and land one of the most thrilling jobs imaginable. He is the photographer for the Air Force Thunderbirds. His job is to fly with the team and document their amazing flights.
Anders Lejczak loves airplanes. He's also a great 3D artist capable of capturing every detail of anything from Spitfires to MiGs to F-16s with incredible realism. So realistic, in fact, that I have trouble distinguishing some of these renderings from real photos.
Cool video of a diamond formation perfectly executed by four Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrums and five Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers. It was part of the Russian military parade for the 69th anniversary of Victory Day over the Nazis, celebrated on Friday, May 9.
Absurd. Like seriously. Look at this fleet of Blue Angels fighter jet planes fly in a perfect pattern in a practice session. The flight pattern they were practicing, I'm assuming here, is called "Let's get these flying metal beasts as close as possible so that one inch of a mistake will kill us all". I mean the wing…
How do you move three tons of Peterbuilt tractor-trailer more than 1300 feet in less time than it takes to read this sentence? By strapping on a trio of jet engines, obviously.
