The Aviationist

On Aug. 19, at around 12.30 pm, Tony Scott, film director of Top Gun, committed suicide by jumping from a Los Angeles county bridge. Although he directed and produced many successful movies, his most famous hit is Top Gun, filmed in 1986. Actually Top Gun 2 was in the works too with Tom Cruise initially [...]

After watching several Mil Mi-8/17 Hip and Mil Mi-25 Hind gunship helicopters, L-39 combat trainers, Mig-23 fighter bombers and also some drones being employed by the Assadists against the rebels, here’s the first video (to my knowledge) showing a Syrian Arab Air Force Mig-21 Fishbed firing rockets on Free Syrian Army positions on Al-Mayadeen, near [...]

During the 1982 Falklands War (Malvinas for the Argentine people) the U.S. publicly claimed neutrality. But in secret, President Ronald Reagan’s administration had developed plans to loan a ship to the Royal Navy if the British ally had lost one of its carriers (the high priority targets of the Argentine Air Force and Navy A-4 [...]

On Aug. 21, the first avionics and radar testbed for what it’s thought to be the Saeqeh V fighter jet, made a sudden appearance on the images taken during the presentation of six types of new military equipment held in Tehran. In fact, according to FARS, the aircraft was showcased during a presentation that included [...]

On Aug. 10, the Argentine Air Force presented the new AT-63 Pampa II trainer to the authorities and media representatives during the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Military Aviation School (the Air Force’s history begins with the establishment of the Escuela de Aviación Militar – Military Aviation School – on 10 August 1912, [...]

The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Defense Force has grounded its entire fleet of Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters (thought to be between 25 – 38 aircraft) after one of them had a problem with its rotor system and had to make an emergency landing. The incident took place on the evening of Wednesday Aug. 15 [...]

Between Aug. 19 and 21, a total of 18 F-16CJs belonging to the 169th FW / 157th FS “Swamp Fox” of the South Carolina Air National Guard arrived in Morón, Spain on their return leg from Kandahar, Afghanistan. The aircraft have been replaced in theatre by the Minnesota Air National Guard F-16CJs belonging to the 148th FW [...]

Being the base of the Red Flag, Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, is used to host U.S. and foreign combat planes quite frequently. However, the Air Force One is a quite rare sight at Nellis too. The following picture depicts the Air Force One landing there on Aug. 21, 2012. President Obama went [...]

The following cockpit footage filmed from a quite unusual point of view shows two Royal Danish Air Force F-16s (not literally “buzzing” but) overflying the Storebæltsbroen in Denmark on a training mission. Indeed, the camera attacked to the canopy gives a clear view of both the pilot (wearing a JHMCS helmet), the HUD (Head Up [...]

Few days after the Indonesian Sukhoi Su-30s made their first appearance at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin for Exercise Pitch Black, the base in Australia’s Northern Territory will soon host another quite unusual visitor. According to the U.S. Pacific Command, a B-52 operating from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, will be temporarily based to [...]

Released on Aug. 15, “Retun to base” (R2B) is a brand new action movie about combat planes and fighter pilots. The movie (a remake of 1964 title “Red Scarf”) is a sort-of Sotuh Korean version of “Top Gun” featuring T-50 planes of the Black Eagles (the Republic of Korea Airforce Aerobatic Team) and F-15Ks involved [...]

Spanish Defense Minister, Pedro Morenés, has confirmed that Spain wants to defer the delivery and purchase of 12 Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes he has signed with the Eurofighter Defense Consortium and were going to get this year. He has not detailed the economic impact of this decision, although it is clear that it will have a [...]

Poland is planning to replace its fleet of aging Soviet era Sukhoi Su-22M strike aircraft with an unmanned strike aircraft (UCAV) system. According to Poland’s Ministry of Defense, a future procurement of some 30 armed unmanned aircraft equipping three squadrons by 2018 is being considered. Senior defense officials say Poland will not modernize the Soviet-built [...]

The final F-16 Block 52 fighter jets ordered by Morocco were delivered last week when three “Vipers” (nickname of the F-16 within the fighter pilot community) left Lockheed Martin production facility at Ft. Worth to cross the pond and join the 19 single and dual-seat aircraft that have already been delivered (beginning in 2011). Among [...]

A miscommunication caused alarm across Europe and the Netherlands when the Dutch Ministry of Defense announced that two F-16 fighter jets had been scrambled to intercept and escort a civil liner in bound to Schipol airport with a suspect hijacker on board. While terrorist scare spread, the Vueling flight 8366 (VLG8366), an Airbus 320 registered [...]

Taken on Aug. 29, the following pictures show night flight operations on the deck of the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) by U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier jump jet aircraft assigned to Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 542. The ship is currently operating in the Philippine Sea. Note the green night formation [...]

Although the footage is a bit bumpy, it provides a cool point of view: that of an RQ-4 Global Hawk spyplane’s chase car during the huge drone take off from Beale Air Force Base, California, home of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing. Chase cars are a safety measure used during take off and landing phases in [...]

In 1960, the RAF issued Specification 239 for a strategic transport, which during September 1961 resulted in an order for five VC-10’s from Vickers- Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd. The VC-10 was an airliner designed for high subsonic speed at high altitude whilst operating from hot and high airfields found in African countries of the old British [...]

All the U.S. “Wild Weasel” F-16s are being given a new paint job similar to the one of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It is called “Have Glass 5th generation” as it represents the evolution of the standard Have Glass program that saw all the F-16s receiving a two-tone grey color scheme made with a [...]

Even if other readers had already pointed out to me that the video allegedly showing a Syrian L-39 crashing into the ground might be a fake, it was only thanks to “alfavega” that I eventually found the evidence that the footage was not genuine. Here’s the video posted by the rebels: And here’s the video [...]

Top Gun director Tony Scott commits suicide. He personally paid 25,000 USD to keep an aircraft carrier on course and shoot the F-14s backlit by the sun

Syria: Mig-21 firing rockets caught on tape

USS Iwo Jima would have been loaned to the Royal Navy if the British had lost one of their capital ships during the Falklands War

Iran’s next generation fighter jet testbed unveiled (and it looks like an F-5 attached to a Tupolev 154)

[Special Report] The spectacular flypast for the Argentine Military Aviation School’s 100th Anniversary

Israeli Air Force grounds its fleet of CH-53 Yasur helicopters

Another OEF rotation: 18 South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter jets return from Afghanistan

An unusual visitor at Nellis Air Force Base: Obama’s Air Force One, world’s most heavily defended plane

Video: Danish F-16 buzzing Storebæltsbroen bridge as seen from the cockpit (from an unsual point of view)

U.S. strategic bomber and tanker to be (temporarily) based in Australia. The first of a series of “future rotational deployments”

Insane flybys and crazy urban dogfights between F-15 and Mig-29 fighter jets: the South Korea’s version of “Top Gun”

Spain to defer the delivery and purchase of 12 Typhoon fighter planes signed with the Eurofighter Defense Consortium

Drone Revolution has just begun: Poland to replace Su-22 Fitter strike fighters with UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles)

Photo: Morocco’s final three F-16 Block 52 fighter jets in exotic desert color scheme departing from Ft. Worth

[Update] Big misunderstanding sparks hijack alert at Amsterdam. F-16 fighter jets scrambled, Special Forces dispatched.

Photo: Harrier night flight operations aboard a forward-deployed amphibious assault ship

Video: Global Hawk drone take-off from chase car at Beale Air Force Base

Royal Air Force pays tribute to the “queen of the skies” VC-10 with a three-ship flypast across the UK

U.S. F-16s tasked to destroy enemy radars, missile batteries to get the same radar-absorbing paint job of the F-35

Fake video of Syrian L-39 forced to crash raises questions about rebel claims