Fightersweep

Have you ever heard of a helmet that costs $400,000? Well, for the most expensive aircraft program in the world (the F-35) it would make sense that it also comes with the most expensive fighter pilot helmet ever. Watch What the F-35 Helmet Can Do Apparently, the $400,000 helmet, while being very cool is also […]

President Trump announced today that he has made a deal with Lockheed Martin to lower costs of the F-35 program by $600 million. Trump said the savings applies to the next 90 aircraft that are going to be purchased. “I appreciate Lockheed Martin for being so responsive,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We […]

How many of you would love to pilot a Predator drone? Well, watching this video may be the next best thing. Watch below as Airmen from the 119th Wing, North Dakota Air National Guard remotely pilot MQ-1 predator drones at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. The MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) […]

Enjoy watching and listening as F-22 Raptors aerial refuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker. Video footage was taken during Vigilant Shield 2017 Field Training Exercise October, 2016. The Raptors were from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and the KC-135 Stratotanker was flown by the 92nd Aerial Refueling Squadron from Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. Vigilant Shield 17 (VS17) […]

Airplanes are supposed to land into the wind. Of course, wind direction can vary so airports align their runways in directions based on historical wind directions for that location. Sometimes the winds don’t cooperate. A crosswind condition exists when the winds are not parallel to or directly with/against the line of travel. All aircraft have […]

A little over one minute after launch, while traveling at Mach 1.92 and at an altitude of 46,000 feet the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in the cold bright blue Florida sky at 11:39am, on January 28, 1986. Most people at that time remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard of […]

Spike Aerospace says they will build the world’s first ‘quiet’ supersonic business jet and fly a subsonic prototype of the aircraft in 2017. The Spike S-512 Quiet Supersonic Jet carries 18 passengers and utilizes Spike’s proprietary technology, Quiet Supersonic Flight (QSF) which minimizes the sonic boom by optimizing the aerodynamic design of the aircraft. Engineering […]

January 27, 1967 NASA astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White II and Roger Chaffee were seated in their Apollo 1 capsule atop the launch pad in a pre-launch test when a fire broke out. An electrical spark ignited a fire in the 100 pure oxygen atmosphere of the capsule and the astronauts were not able to escape. Gus […]

As previously noted on Fighter Sweep, ISIS is making claims of having weaponized drones and attacking Iraqi forces with them. In this video ISIS states that it shows their drone dropping some type of bomb on an Iraqi Abrams tank killing the tank commander who was standing in the open turret. ISIS Drone Drops Bomb […]

In one of his first initiatives after being named as Secretary of Defense, General Mattis signed a memo today demanding a “detailed assessment to reduce associated program costs” of the F-35 Lightning II program. While calling for “significantly reduced” F-35 costs the memo even calls for a review that compares the operational capabilities of the […]

Since the air war against the Islamic State (ISIS) began in 2014 the Unites States has spent almost $11 billion on its mission to degrade and defeat the terrorist organization. The Air Force has taken on most of the financial burden of this air offensive paying for approximately two thirds of the total expenditure. The […]

The US Navy announced they will officially decommission and give a final farewell to the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 65) in a ceremony on February 3rd. The event is closed to the public but the Navy will post the ceremony on their Facebook page. The Enterprise played a role in many major events in US history […]