Air Force

About a week ago President-elect Trump caused a major stir when he tweeted that the cost Boeing was charging for the new Air Force One program was too much and that he wanted to cancel the program. Today the President-elect went another step further stating the F-35 Lightning II costs are “out of control” and […]

2016 seems to have had a more than usual number of military pilots that have been lost. As you read the many stories of crashes and accidents you may have seen someone comment, “Throw a Nickel on the Grass.” There may be a bit of debate about the exact origins of the saying but all […]

Multiple F-16 ‘Fighting Falcon’ fighter jets put on a show as they taxi down a runway at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. The spectacle that took place in 2012 was a joint demonstration of U.S. and South Korean Air Force capabilities and air power. F-16’s from the following units took place in the event; 35th and […]

Lockheed Martin announced that flight operations for the T-50A advanced trainer aircraft were underway from their Greenville, South Carolina final assembly and checkout facility. The aircraft is a joint partnership between Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries. Described as a complete 5th generation training platform which also includes a ground based training system, the T-50A […]

America lost a true hero when Willie Rogers, the oldest living member of the Tuskegee Airmen died at the age of 101 in St Petersburg, Florida on November 18th, 2016. The Tuskegee Airmen was the unofficial name given to a group of African-Americans that fought in World War II. Most famously known for their pilots, […]

As a pilot, I have had multiple “near miss” events. Most pilots I know have had similar experiences. Some of these events still scare me today when I think about them, others were less intense and grave, but I also remember all of them…and what they taught me. A near miss is any unplanned close […]

It was June 2009 and myself and members of the 34th Fighter Squadron “Rude Rams” at Hill AFB Utah had just finished our night flight training over the UTTR (Utah Test and Training Range) due west of Salt Lake City. As we exited the range our sister squadron the 421st Fighter Squadron “Black Widows,” also […]

Former F-16 pilot Nate “Buster,” Jaros asks if the stealth and advanced technologies of the F-35 overshadow the need for nimble fighters.  What he says might surprise you. Everyone knows that the F-4 Phantom was originally designed without a gun. At the time it entered service in the early 1960s, the Pentagon believed that the […]

Former F-16 pilot Nate “Buster” Jaros shows us how Angle of Attack (AOA) is extremely important in basic fighter manuevers and how optimizing it can help kill the enemy. Angle of attack (AOA) is an important tool for the combat fighter pilot. Understanding how it works and what it provides is key to predicting and optimizing […]

Nate “Buster” Jaros says China will have a fifth generation fighter, and its development of the J-20 (amongst other fifth gen platforms) is significant. If you haven’t been paying much attention to the jet fighter news lately, you may have missed something big. In fact, it doesn’t get a lot of press and over the past couple […]

Former F-16 pilot Nate “Buster” Jaros takes us through his thoughts on USAF pilot retention issues and where leadership has missed the mark. A few years ago, my father (a Cold War F-106 Fighter Pilot of the 1970s) asked me how my F-16 career was going. “Getting about four sorties a week?” he asked. I […]

Boeing is set to unveil its new T-X fighter trainer in September at the Air Force Association conference near Washington, D.C. Boeing’s answer for the T-38 trainer replacement looks like it is here. Or at least here very soon. Boeing is touting an unveiling of the new trainer in less than a month. Disappointingly, the […]