Fightersweep

On April 1, 2001, a US Navy Lockheed EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance/signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft was operating about 70 miles from Hainan Island, off the Chinese mainland.

The world of tactical aviation is filled with all sorts of stories–good, bad, ugly, and otherwise. Here’s one I heard about over the weekend and was pretty astounded by it. It involves an F-106 Delta Dart  now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base […]

The Florida Air National Guard’s 125FW has deployed to Europe, the first Air National Guard unit to support Operation Atlantic Resolve.

Two airmen from the Royal Saudi Air Force were plucked from the Gulf of Aden after their Boeing F-15SA went down in international waters. It appears that the crew was participating in ongoing airstrikes being carried out by a number of Arab states in against Houthi rebel positions in Yemen. At this point, Saudi officials […]

On behalf of all of us here at FighterSweep, we welcome you back to Burner Friday! This week’s edition of fire and noise is brought to you by Boeing’s F/A-18F Super Hornet belonging to Strike Fighter Squadron 106, the Gladiators, out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia. This particular jet was on loan to Boeing, the […]

In the spirit of Throwback Thursday, we’re going to revisit one of the Navy’s recent retirees, the Grumman Iron Works EA-6B Prowler. Not long ago, we posted a photo gallery featuring the Prowler, one of the more venerable types ever to grace the decks of US Navy aircraft carriers in the last 40+ years. Although […]

I speculated yesterday on the possible causes for the horrific tragedy of the Germanwings crash.  As a throwaway concept, I included the possibility that the plane could have been brought down deliberately, like the EgyptAir 990 crash in 1999.  In light of new information released today, it now seems clear that this is, in fact, […]

French authorities, after initially reviewing the cockpit voice recorder of the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed in the Alps, have determined that the captain was outside the cockpit for the entire descent from cruise altitude, and was unable to re-enter the flight deck. This immediately casts suspicion on the first officer, who remained in the cockpit, as it […]

It is organic to the culture of aviation to discuss a mishap. It is part of the natural process of grieving and shock. This is our work place. The most sensible reason to discuss these tragedies is to try to glean something from them that can prevent further catastrophes. To gain insight and learn; to […]

One afternoon a few years ago, I found myself on the ramp at Nellis Air Force Base walking around a Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle with Nicole Malachowski. It was a U.S. Air Force Weapons School jet, all loaded up with inert ordnance for a training mission to be flown the following day. It was a […]

In Hornet vs Viper (Part Two), an pilot who’s flown both F-16 and F-18 looks at the differences in preflight briefing, gear worn by pilots, and boarding and preparing for takeoff.

At 0940Z this morning, contact was lost with a Germanwings Airbus A320 enroute from Barcelona to Düsseldorf in the Alps in southern France.