Valkyrie Vision
23
Sep
Hit The Road, Jack
It's been road-base week. In an extensive joint exercise in Finland, an RAF Typhoon landed and took off from Highway 551 near the unusually vowel-deprived town of Tervo, some 200 miles north of Helsinki. A couple of days later, the Royal Norwegian Air Force did the same with...
04
Sep
Blue Bears, WIGs and rocket fighters
As I write this on Labor Day, in the residential hinterland of the Pentagon, local citizens including, no doubt, a greater-then-average number of those responsible for planning national defense, are rolling up to shop at the neighboring Costco. We're in luck! Look at all the parking spaces!
27
Aug
Civil supersonics – as difficult as ever
Walking into a London office around lunchtime, and announcing that I had enjoyed breakfast in Singapore, was a memorable experience. That was at the end of the 1977 International Air Transport Association AGM, as Concorde F-BTSC completed a 30,000 mile sales tour of the Far East, including a...
18
Aug
Adios, cigar and popsicle stick?
2028. Leaders of the airline and commercial airplane industry gather at an environmental conference, in the new high-tech city of Neom in Saudi Arabia. As a waterside reception flows on, eyes turn to an unfamiliar shape in the sky, growing larger by the second, something like a great...
31
Jul
A Life On The Ocean Wave
Are sea-based aircraft ready for a comeback? The latest in a series of new seaplane ventures made a splash at the Oshkosh air show, where Catalina Aircraft of Florida announced plans to restart production of the classic Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat, with new turbine engines (likely the...
16
Jul
Et tu, Cobber?
The latest air force to start looking at "beyond the F-35" options is... Australia?
Steve Trimble reports in Aviation Week:
A missing piece in Australia’s fighter inventory will be filled in the short term by extending the life of the Boeing...