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Taiwan's air force said Friday it was planning to upgrade the island's U.S.-made and indigenous fighter jets to maintain the balance of air power across the Taiwan Strait. The upgrades are aimed at boosting the fighters' performance and avoid a "gap in Taiwan's war-fighting capabilities," the island's semi- official Central News Agency reported Friday. The upgrades would seek to address "the trend of the tipping of the military balance in the Taiwan Strait," the air force reportedly said, without elaborating. On Thursday Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu told lawmakers that the military was considering mothballing the some 60 French-made Mirage models...

MELBOURNE, Australia — An Emirates jetliner carrying more than 225 people slammed its tail into the runway as it took off from Australia, sending smoke into the cabin and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing, officials said Saturday.No one was hurt, but passengers described being terrified after learning something was wrong soon after the Airbus A340 took off from the southern city of Melbourne about 10:30 p.m. Friday, bound for Dubai.After the strike, which reportedly left debris strewn on the runway and knocked out some runway lights, the pilot flew over the sea, dumping fuel, before returning to...

Meanwhile, millions more Americans are out of work as Congress jets! In March, we learned how ravenous the travel appetite is for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats in Congress. The documents which show the frequency of trips to exotic destinations would be a crushing scandal if Republicans were in charge of Congress. But since Dems are in charge, few will say a negative word about this: House Orders Up Three Elite Jets By Paul Singer Roll Call August 5, 2009 Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by...

Military ordered to turn back Zelaya's jetBy WILL WEISSERT and NESTOR IKEDA – 1 hour ago TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' ousted President Manuel said he was getting on a flight home to reclaim his post on Sunday, accompanied by the U.N. General Assembly president and a group of journalists. The interim government said it ordered the military to prevent the landing of Zelaya's plane. If turned away, it will likely land in El Salvador, where a separate flight was headed with Latin American leaders who support Zelaya's reinstatement. Thousands of protesters were gathering in the capital of Honduras in...

ON TV Hitler's Stealth Fighter airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. About the show >> Top stealth-plane experts have re-created a radical, nearly forgotten Nazi aircraft: the Horten 2-29, a retro-futuristic fighter that arrived too late in World War II to make it into mass production. (See Hitler's stealth fighter in pictures.) The engineers' goal was to determine whether the so-called stealth fighter was truly radar resistant. In the process, they've uncovered new clues to just how close Nazi engineers were to unleashing a jet that some say could have changed the course...

More debris from an Air France jet that came down in the Atlantic has been spotted, but investigators are pessimistic about finding the black boxes that could explain the tragedy. The vast area over which the new debris was found has led some experts to suggest the plane exploded before it hit the water. According to a report in French newspaper Le Monde, the "wide dispersion of wreckage discovered suggests that the Airbus (A330-200) exploded at high altitude". The experts, who were not named, said the plane most likely broke up after a "massive depressurisation" in the cabin. If this...

WATERLOO (KWWL) -- A Boeing 757 made an emergency landing at the Waterloo Regional Airport just after 10:00 a.m Tuesday morning. Northwest flight #335 took off around 8:30 a.m. Iowa time from Detroit due for Los Angeles. The airport was notified that there was smoke in the cockpit and the plane needed to land in Waterloo. The airport was notified when the plane was ten miles out. We have a crew on the scene and will bring you the latest on the KWWL News at Noon.

The possible successor of the U.S. Air Force's MQ-9 Reaper recently made three official flights during testing. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the same company that developed the Reaper and MQ-1 Predator, is responsible for developing the Predator C Avenger unmanned aerial vehicle. The next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle is 41 ft. long and has a 66-foot wingspan, which is slightly bigger than the 36 ft. long Reaper. Most notably, Avenger is jet-powered, allowing it to travel more than twice the speed of Reaper -- Avenger has flown as fast as 460 mph, while Reaper's top speed is 230 m.p.h.

NEW YORK (AP) — It was supposed to be a photo op that captured images of an Air Force One plane with a majestic Statue of Liberty in the background. Instead, it turned into a public relations nightmare that led to recriminations from the president and mayor and prompted thousands other to ask, "What were they thinking?" Just before the workday began on Monday, an airliner and supersonic fighter jet zoomed past the lower Manhattan skyline. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11.... An Air Force combat photographer took pictures...

Stephen Trimble—master of all things flying—has found this video that apparently shows a T-38 training fighter shooting down the theoretically invincible F-22 Raptor in a combat training exercise—first kill documented on video ever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXmDj3mFrXQ&feature=player_embedded It's not the first time it has happened, however: An EA-18G—a modified F/A-18 F Super Hornet Block II—"got lucky" and killed another F-22 with an AIM-120 AMRAAM in a simulated combat exercise over at Nellis AFB. This is something that Stephen confirmed himself.However, this time instead of a high-tech EA-18G, the killer plane was this:A humble T-38 training jet, piloted by a trainer on a combat training...

Here is video of Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlining deep cuts in many of the nation's biggest weapon's programs. Gates made the proposed cuts as part of a Defense Budget proposal ordered by President Obama, who pledged during the 2008 campaign to cut back on many of America's defense programs. One of the casualties of the cuts will be the F-22 Fighter Jet which will soon be halted. At the same time, the U.S. will move forward with the F-35 Fighter Jet. . . . . . . (Watch Video)

Barack Hussein Obama will propose a massive business tax on greenhouse gases in his FY 2010 federal budget to be presented this week.The massive tax increase and power grab was buried at the end on article on Obama's forthcoming budget proposal in The New York Times:On energy policy, Mr. Obama’s budget will show new revenues by 2012 from his proposal to require companies to buy permits from the government for greenhouse gas emissions above a certain cap. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the permits would raise up to $300 billion a year by 2020. Since companies would pass their...

Suffice to say, President Barack Obama likes his new ride. Before taking off yesterday on Air Force One for his first trip as president, Obama told reporters traveling with him that the plane is "spiffy" and showed off his new crew jacket with his name stitched on it. "What do you think of this spiffy ride here? It's not bad," he said to reporters sitting in the back on the plane.

OBAMA & CONGRESS BLAST CITI OVER JET By JENNIFER GOULD KEIL and CHUCK BENNETT January 27, 2009 -- High-flying Citigroup executives, trying desperately to hang on to their new, $50 million luxury jet, took heavy flak yesterday from the White House and Congress after The Post revealed how the beleaguerred bank is blowing taxpayers' rescue funds. EDITORIAL: CITIBOOBS The Financial behemoth, being kept afloat by $45 billion in public life support, should not be spending its precious greenbacks on frivolous luxuries, said President Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs. Obama "doesn't believe" business jets are the "best use of money," said Gibbs....

<p>Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed.</p> <p>Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it's burning through a $45 billion taxpayer-funded rescue, the airhead execs pushed through the purchase of a new Dassault Falcon 7X, according to a source familiar with the deal.</p>

....autonomous airplane that would launch and recover on Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and conduct strike and other missions — without the hands-on controls of an onboard pilot... FULL STORY

China signed its biggest aircraft export agreement, in terms of both number of jets and contract value, Tuesday at the 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai city of southern Guangdong province. The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) will sell 25 ARJ21-700 regional jets to GE Commercial Aviation Services of the United States. Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang, who announced the opening of the six-day airshow, attended the signing ceremony of the sales contract. The deal is valued at five billion yuan (733.1 million U.S. dollars).The first jet will be delivered in 2013 and then another will...

Swiss adventurer crosses English Channel using homemade jet wing DOVER, England — A Swiss adventurer using a homemade jet-propelled wing has flown across the English Channel from France in less than 10 minutes. Yves Rossy landed safely in a field near Dover on Friday. The National Geographic Channel showed Rossy leaping from a plane at an altitude of about 2,700 metres, then firing up his wing for the 35-kilometre flight from Calais, France, to Dover, England. Minutes later Rossy looped over onlookers on the British side.

Russian jet crash kills all 88 on board Photo: AFP PERM, Russia (AFP) - An Aeroflot Boeing-737 jet crashed near a Ural mountains city Sunday killing all 88 passengers and crew on board, after reportedly catching fire in the sky, the airline said. There were 21 foreigners and seven children on the jet which came down as it prepared to land in Perm on a flight from Moscow. The wreckage cut off the Trans-Siberian railway. "It was burning while still in the sky and it looked like a falling comet," one female witness told Russia's Vesti-24 television. The jet narrowly...

SOURCE According to PolitiFact, the plane, bought by her Republican predecessor whom she beat in 2006, was listed for sale three times on the San Jose internet auction giant. But no one ever met the minimum bid. The plane was listed with an asking price of $2.5 million in 2007. The state had paid just under $2.7 million for it in 2005. Finally, the state turned to an aircraft broker, who sold the jet to an Alaskan businessman for $2.1 million

Questions for John Edwards and Fred Baron When Next Either Surfaces to Confront the PressA "Thank You" to our Network of Readers, Comment-writers and Tipsters! ...including all at Free Republic John Edwards and Fred Baron have had a close relationship over the last ten years. Both Edwards and Baron are successful trial attorneys and both shared the dream of seeing John Edwards elected President. Both may, at some point, want to share some information on campaign travel billings. A DBKP reader, known only as "Phil Ander", did some independent research into the Edwards' campaign's use of Baron's private jet and...

As part of a month-long aircraft makeover, a painted American flag was removed from the tail of Sen. Barack Obama's official campaign airplane and was replaced with the presidential candidate's trademark "O" symbol. The refurbished 757 was unveiled to members of the news media today, 41 of whom boarded the craft and took off to meet Obama in Amman, Jordan, where the presidential candidate will stop as part of a Middle Eastern and European tour. Obama traveled to the Mideast earlier this week on board a separate airplane. Fox News blogger Bonny Kapp, traveling on Obama's new airplane, reported: "The...

FALLON, Nev. (AP) -- Two fighter jets from the U.S. Navy's elite training school collided Friday over northern Nevada's high desert, killing one pilot and injuring two others who parachuted to safety. The pilot who died was based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., said Jeffery Wells, a spokesman at Fallon Naval Air Station. He was at the controls of an F/A-18C Hornet at the time of the crash.

Jet Streams Are Shifting And May Alter Paths Of Storms And HurricanesHurricane Andrew. Storm paths in North America are likely to shift northward as a result of the jet stream changes. Hurricanes, whose development tends to be inhibited by jet streams, may become more powerful and more frequent as the jet streams move away from the sub-tropical zones where hurricanes are born. (Credit: NOAA) ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2008) — The Earth's jet streams, the high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence the paths of storms and other weather systems, are shifting--possibly in response to global warming. Scientists at the...

The cost of buying and operating a new fleet of jet fighters for the U.S. military is nearing $1 trillion, according to a congressional audit that found the program dogged by delays, manufacturing inefficiencies and price increases. Released Tuesday, the report from the Government Accountability Office offers a sobering assessment of the ambitious effort to deliver a modern series of aircraft known as the F-35 Lightning II to the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Tasked by Congress to conduct an annual assessment of the program, the GAO said costs have gone up by $23 billion since last year alone....

A British-designed, 3,800mph (6,115kph) hypersonic airliner could one day ferry holidaymakers from Brussels to Sydney in five hours. The company aims to have the plane in service within 25 years, and believes that an Antipodean return trip would cost about as much as an existing business-class ticket – around £3,500. The project, known as the Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies or LAPCAT, is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to encourage the use of space-travel technology in aircraft design. According to Reaction Engines the A2 would be capable of sustained travel at Mach 5, or 3,800mph - more...

Silver Bullet: If it works, the HTV-3X will be the first reusable scramjet-powered plane. It will be able to take off from a runway, fly at speeds of up to Mach 6, land safely, and then do it again. Last March, engineers from Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) gathered in the control room of a high-temperature tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. After a countdown, a jet of blue flame fueled by methane gas roared down the 12-foot length of the tunnel. A low rumble crept into the control room. It sounded like a rocket firing, which actually...

Tue November 20, 2007Hopes Flew With Lame Jet By Bryan Dean Staff Writer A four-star general pinned medals Monday on 12 airmen and nine civilians from Tinker Air Force Base for their role in salvaging a B-1B bomber after an engine fire left the jet crippled on an airstrip in Afghanistan. The plane landed at an airfield in Afghanistan in mid-August after a fire warning went off during a mission. The jet's No. 4 engine was in flames, and firefighters had to extinguish the blaze after the plane landed. The Air Force had a tough choice. The fire caused significant...

Far as I can tell, it's a children's video that teaches a lesson while making fun of old media.

A plane TU-154 of the Moscow governmental air company Atlant-Soyuz has become the first passenger aircraft in the history of Russian aviation equipped with Global Navigation Satellite System.

High-flying John Travolta is in an uproar over an airport near his $8 million home in Florida. Travolta contends he was lied to(!) by owners of the Greystone Airport near Ocala, Fla., because they didn't want him to land his Boeing 707 there. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the new Mrs. Edna Turnblad claims that Greystone owners James and Christine Garemore falsely told Travolta that they couldn't accommodate his jumbo jet. It's so tough owning your own plane! Travolta says he used to use the Greystone airport all the time, but in 2006, the Garemore's changed the airport's master record...

Here is a video showcasing the capability of the US Air Force’s first F-22A flight demonstration routine, now wowing audiences at North American air shows and challenging perceptions of the Raptor. This fighter best known for stealth, speed and sensors, has been designed to evade radar, supercruise above Mach 1.5 and fly at 65,000ft. With its two Pratt & Whitney F119 engines vectoring their 35,000lb of afterburning thrust through +/-20º as an integral part of the flight-control system, the F-22 proves itself to be surprisingly agile, performing helicopter turns, tailsides and backflips.

F-15 Fighter Jet Crashes In Southwestern Indiana Officials: Pilot Ejected, Thought To Be Uninjured UPDATED: 2:24 pm EDT May 30, 2007 VINCENNES, Ind. -- A Missouri National Guard F-15 pilot ejected safely from the aircraft just before it crashed during a training mission in rural Knox County Wednesday morning. The plane went down at about just before 11 a.m. EDT south of Vincennes, near the Illinois border, as it conducted standard training maneuvers, according to a release from the National Guard. The plane was affiliated with the 131st Fighter Wing, which is headquartered at Lambert Field in St. Louis. Capt....

The male impotence drug Viagra may be useful for treating jet lag, according to Argentinian researchers who gave it to hamsters and made them feel like rodent globe-trotters. Researchers have found that hamsters subjected to simulated jet lag recover better when given the drug, which is normally used to treat erectile disfunction. The researchers first manipulated the schedule of turning lights on and off to induce jet lag in the laboratory animals, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Adult male hamsters given Viagra, also called sildenafil, recovered from jet lag up to 50 % faster...

Typhoon delivers the fright stuff By Adam Lusher, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:35am BST 29/04/2007Page 1 of 3 Some joker has got his hands on of one of our aircraft. Unfortunately, that joker is me. I am at 36,000ft in an RAF Typhoon (aka the Eurofighter, cost £66.7 million), "flying" the result of Britain's most expensive and probably most controversial weapons project at almost the speed of sound above an unsuspecting part of Lincolnshire. What is truly alarming is not the speed or the altitude or the cost, or even that I have just been asked to execute a turn,...

Alaska wants an aviation broker to do what eBay couldn't: get rid of the governor's jet. "The eBay thing didn't work out very well," said Dan Spencer of Alaska's Department of Public Safety, who is charged with trying to unload the Westwind II. The new plan calls for Turbo North Aviation, an Anchorage-based aircraft broker, to receive 1.49 percent of the deal if it sells the jet, bought for former Gov. Frank Murkowski. The aircraft cost Alaskan taxpayers about $2.6 million, the Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday.

France and Israel are on a collision course in south Lebanon following incidents involving Israeli warplanes over- flying the positions of the French military contingent serving with the UN peacekeeping force there. In the most serious confrontation, French troops were said by sources in Paris to have been "just two seconds" from launching an anti- aircraft missile at two Israeli F-15 fighters carrying out mock low-level attack runs over one outpost.There is little entente cordial between Israel and French troops in south Lebanon, writes philip jacobson

'Flaming debris' nearly hits jet The pilots of a Chilean passenger jet reported seeing flaming debris fall past their aircraft as it approached the airport at Auckland, New Zealand. Lan airline said the captain "made visual contact with incandescent fragments several kilometres away". New Zealand and Australian media suggested the debris was from a Russian satellite expected to enter the atmosphere later in the day. But the US space agency Nasa said it was more likely to have been meteors. '40 second margin' The Lan Airbus A340 had just entered New Zealand airspace as it approached Auckland's airport when the...

Jet sabotage 'possible': PM March 8, 2007 - 10:21AM Do you know anyone who survived the crash? Message theage.com.au at 0403 THE AGE (0403 843 243) or email scoop@theage.com.au. Foul play cannot be ruled out of the Yogyakarta air crash that killed at least 22 people including, it is feared, five Australians, says Prime Minister John Howard. "There is no evidence that I am aware of suggesting it was sabotage or a terrorist attack, but it's impossible for me to rule out anything," Mr Howard told ABC radio this morning. Among the missing is Jakarta-based Australian Federal Police officer Brice...

Should Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi be given an Air Force 757 to commute to her district in San Francisco? No. Her predecessor was given a 12-seat jet and that was probably too much. I guess global warming only counts for some people. Yes. She's America's little princess!

MORE than 60 years after jets took to the air, the dream of using them for personal transport has come closer to reality with a new type of small aircraft that will begin filling the skies this year. The era of the relatively affordable very light jet was proclaimed by the US Federal Aviation Administration this week when it forecast that thousands of the winged limousines would be taking up airspace within a few years. Policing the traffic could be a headache, the administration said. Five firms are behind the first wave of the high-tech aircraft, which seat four to...

Saturday February 10, 6:08 AM Honda to build new jet in North Carolina WILMINGTON, North Carolina, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Honda Aircraft Co. Inc. will build its new light jet, the HondaJet, at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, Gov. Michael Easley's office said on Friday. The Honda Motor Co. Ltd. subsidiary will invest up to $100 million over the next five years to build an aircraft manufacturing plant and expand the Greensboro operation it established in August to oversee production, certification, sales and service of the aircraft, Easley said. He described the HondaJet as a lightweight private...

OK, Nancy. It's time to turn around this airline story to your advantage. The security issue is easliy addressed. Consider the risks of a new hijacking...it's nearly zero and the people know that. But, if you ask any passenger which jet they would like to take, they will choose the one that has 3 or 4 extra sky marshalls (armed) on it. You can fly commercial and share the extra security with the common folk, if you are still willing to fly with them. Think of the positive publicity! Fly with Nan! Use it!

(02-08) 09:45 PST WASHINGTON D.C. -- A political odd couple, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House spokesman Tony Snow, today slammed critics of Pelosi's bid to use a government plane that can fly her nonstop between Washington and her home district in San Francisco. "This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker,'' Snow told reporters. E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com.

Critics charge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is abusing the perks of power by asking for a jumbo military jet with sleeping accommodations for her flights across the country. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon agreed to provide the speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, flew in a small commuter-sized Air Force jet. Pelosi wants a larger aircraft that can fly to her San Francisco district without stopping to refuel. Some sources are claiming that Pelosi...

A photograph taken in Beavercreek has some hoping it's proof of top-secret 'pulse jet' tests. BEAVERCREEK — A Beavercreek man's photograph of an unusual aircraft condensation trail has sparked a high-flying debate among scientists and aviation fans over whether the Air Force or NASA is flying an aerospace vehicle with an exotic new propulsion system. The photo of the vapor trail, taken Nov. 10 by amateur meteorologist Bill Telzerow from his backyard, shows a distinctive "doughnuts-on-a-rope" shape. The photo has raised questions about whether an experimental propulsion system that uses pulse detonation engine technology is being tested here. The propulsion...

A small business jet crashed while taking off from Van Nuys Airport on Friday, killing two people, federal officials said. A witness said the door of a nose compartment on the plane was open as it took off. The plane had been carrying only its two crew members when it went down around 11 a.m., said Joe Miller, a dispatcher with Sun Quest Executive Air Charter, which operated the plane. Fire Department spokesman Ron Myers said two bodies were located in the burned wreckage. The plane's left-hand nose baggage door was "wide open" as it took off, and the jet...

India's Jet Airways buys 10 Boeing 787 aircraft Reuters Tuesday, January 2, 2007; 5:37 AM MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's biggest domestic airline, Jet Airways Ltd. (JET.BO), said on Tuesday it had purchased 10 Boeing 787-8 aircraft to support its international operations. The wide-bodied 787 Dreamliner planes are scheduled for delivery between July 2011 and December 2012, Jet said. Jet had executed the order for the aircraft "in late 2006," a senior company official said, in a deal valued at $1.48-1.58 billion at the current list price.

On a beautiful day at sea somewhere in the world, a United States Navy fighter jet (F-14 Tomcat? F-18 Hornet?) pilot teaches the finer points of low-level transonic flight and the sonic boom. Via "Supersonic Fly-By VI" at http://www.AlexisParkInn.com/military_videos.htm