There are many scenarios in which tube artillery can engage attack helicopters. Sometimes called helicopter gunships because of their heavy armament, modern attack helicopters have two primary roles: first, to…
The F-4 Phantoms have to take off during Zulu Alert Scrambles within five minutes of the horn going off The stunning video in this post, which was shot in a…
In Japan, USMC AH-1Zs and UH-1Ys broke distance records using new auxiliary fuel tanks.
The helicopters showed a 25% improvement in range as a result of the fuel tanks, which are installed underneath both sides of the chopper bays and look like torpedoes Marine…
SB>1 Defiant lifts a 5,300-pound Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System training load
The SB>1 Defiant helicopter demonstrated mission-relevant cargo capacity by lifting a 5,300-pound Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System training load. As the video in this post shows, the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant…
Bell restarts UH-1Y Venom helicopter production for first international operator
The commonality between the UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper aircraft enabled critical component supply chains to remain active during AH-1Z production for the USMC. Bell has restarted UH-1Y Venom helicopter…
F-15 Driver describes what it was like sitting Hot Alert during the Cold War
“For 15 years (1977-92) sitting 24-hour air defense – codenamed Zulu – alert was a fact of life for an Eagle Driver at Bitburg,” Doug Dildy, former F-15 Driver “For…
A designated Marine Corps F/A-18 aviator must complete nearly four years of training The largest F/A-18 Hornet squadron in the U.S. Marine Corps is Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 101…
How a US Army CH-47 flight engineer got stuck in mud with his Chinook twice
‘We landed in a soybean field and sank… The field was plowed and the dirt very loose…,’ Chris Ishmael, former US Army CH-47 Chinook flight engineer. On Jan. 5, 2021,…
Luftwaffe Dornier Do 217 bombers sank the Italian battleship Roma using the Fritz X
When the Dornier Do 217 used the radio-guided, free-fall “Fritz X” weapon to sink the Italian battleship Roma, it made aviation history by being the first military aircraft to use…
What it’s like flying a training sortie on an aggressor F-16 for a USAF maintainer
Tech. Sgt. Wesley Walker, an aircraft armament systems technician with the 354th Maintenance Squadron, was given the opportunity to view the mission from a vantage point he had never experienced…