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The company used their solid propellant Minotaur I rocket to place the payloads into a low Earth orbit with a liftoff from Pad-0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia occurring on Tuesday, June 15 at 13:35 UTC (09:35 EDT). Due to the classified nature of the launch, nothing is publicly known about the payloads. However, the mass must be less than 580 kg, which is the max payload capacity of the Minotaur I. In keeping with NRO tradition, the mission patch consists of a whimsical piece of artwork, a mission motto, and some clues as to the...

Clint Eastwood To Make Film about Capt. Sully Sullenberger By Stephen Pope / Published: Jun 04, 2015 Warner Bros. Pictures announced on Tuesday that the life story of Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is coming to the big screen in a yet-to-be named motion picture that will be directed by none other than Clint Eastwood. The film will be adapted from Sully's book, "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters," co-written with Jeffery Zaslow.

The roar of Super Dave Mathieson's aerobatic aircraft has been grounded over noise complaints. The full-time air show pilot, who made Chilliwack his home base a few years ago, received notification from Transport Canada earlier this month that he could no longer perform the aerobatics under 2000 feet at Chilliwack Airport, citing proximity to "noise sensitive or livestock" areas.

A high-definition video of U.S. Navy fighter pilots swooping between snowy mountains and skimming the western Pacific Ocean has gained more than 135,000 hits since being posted four days ago. The VFA-27 Royal Maces, based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan, shot the footage from their cockpits while flying F/A18-E aircraft at various locations in the Pacific theater. Much of the footage comes from recent patrols while deployed with the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, pilot Lt. Kyle Matson said. Footage includes trips along the Australian coast and various parts of Japan. Some of the most dramatic footage shows...

Kenneth Schechter, Survivor Of Blind Landing, Dies At 83 Kenneth Schechter, who died earlier this month in Fairfield, Calif., at age 83, had been just 22 years old when he survived an unusual blind landing in Korea. Schechter was flying an A-1 Skyraider above the Korean coastline on his 27th combat mission, in 1952, when an enemy shell blew the canopy off his airplane and metal fragments struck both of his eyes. "I'm blind! For God's sake, help me!" he cried into his radio. "I'm blind!" He was answered by Lt. j.g. Howard Thayer, who served with him on the...

Here's a pretty amusing story from "After Action: Your Military Sports Report, " where one young aviator becomes saddled with the call sign "Romo's Bitch" due to his Cowboy fandom. He is not amused. Ensign Steve Crowston filed a complaint with the naval inspector's office thanks to some of the other suggested call-signs his squadron suggested for him ("Fagmeister" and "Gay Boy"), stating the bawdy nicknames were "workplace harassment." "Romo's Bitch" was chosen, which, limits his purported homosexual tendencies to the Cowboys quarterback. Regardless, Crowston's pissed: "I was like, wait a minute? What the hell? You think I'm gay? What...

RONKONOMA, N.Y., March 26, 2010 – When Chief Warrant Officer Herb Dargue joined the Army as a helicopter pilot, the Beatles’ "Penny Lane" topped the charts, the UH-1C Huey was the hottest “chopper” flying, and actor William Shatner was “Star Trek’s” Captain Kirk on prime time TV. Army Chief Warrant Officer Herbert Dargue, an Army rotary-wing aircraft pilot since 1967, will fly his last flight with the New York Army National Guard on March 26, 2010. Dargue, who has more than 21,000 hours of flight time in military and civilian helicopters, is an expert at flying in New York City's...

Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator By Ralph Vartabedian and Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers October 6, 2008 The 23-year-old junior lieutenant wasn't paying attention and erred in using "a power setting too low to maintain level flight in a turn," investigators concluded. As a presidential candidate, McCain has cited his military service -- particularly his 5 1/2 years as a POW. But he has been less forthcoming about his mistakes in the cockpit. The Times interviewed men who served with McCain and located once-confidential 1960s-era accident reports and formerly classified evaluations of his squadrons...

Items belonging to Steve Fossett, an aviator who's been missing for over a year, have been found by a California couple in the woods. The couple was hiking in Mammoth Lakes, California, when they found FAA ID cards belonging to Steve Fossett - and police are saying the cards are not forged. A search of the area has not turned up any further evidence of the pilot. Steve Fossett, the commodities trader turned record-breaking aviator, was declared legally dead in February of this years, five months after he vanished while flying in Nevada.

MINDEN, Nev. -- Throughout the search for record-setting aviator Steve Fossett, the operation's leaders have professed unwavering confidence and asked for patience. But as the search enters its sixth full day Sunday, concern is growing as the unprecedented effort drags on with no clue about Fossett's possible location. His disappearance has prompted a massive aerial search that at times has sent as many as 45 aircraft into the skies over northwestern Nevada. "There's been nothing, absolutely nothing," said John Kugler, a longtime friend who taught Fossett ballooning. "Nobody knows anything. It's a mystery." The 63-year-old adventurer has been missing since...

FORT HUACHUCA — Slightly more than three years ago Chief Warrant Officer Corey Lefebvre was heading to Fort Rucker, Ala. He wasn’t going on duty. He was heading on post to pick up some milk and put gas in his vehicle. Around 7:30 p.m. — BAM — his life changed. He was hit by a drunken driver doing 75 mph. After the wreck, Lefebvre saw his military career take a different path as the result of the crash. Just a week away from graduation at the Army Aviation Center, the former enlisted soldier was heading toward a career as an...

The older I get, the more I realize what an emotional and powerful experience it is to have served my country. And how incredibly strong the bond becomes between other men and women who have served.

First Female Fighter Squadron Commander Takes A-10 Unit Into Combat Wed, 28 Sep '05 "I Am Humbled To Be The First" The first female fighter squadron commander recently took her A-10 unit from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AZ, into combat. Lt. Col. Martha McSally, 354th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, said she is privileged to serve in this role. "I am honored, like anyone would to be entrusted to command a combat fighter squadron, regardless of my gender," Colonel McSally said. "I realize I'm the first female given that opportunity, but that is only because most...

HEALDSBURG, Calif. - Col. Joseph Rogers, a flying legend who piloted aircraft in three wars and still maintains the world record for flying the fastest single-engine jet, died Saturday at his Northern California ranch of congestive heart failure. He was 81. A quiet, dignified man, Rogers' long career paralleled aviation history throughout the 20th century. After growing up on a farm in Chillicothe, Ohio, he joined the Army Air Corps after high school at age 17. He became a flight instructor during World War II. By 1950, he was featured as one of Time Magazine's men of the year, said...

Well, Oscar Night is upon us again. And if Chris Rock is nearly right, I might be the only straight white man who watches the Oscars for both the pretty women almost dressed plus the primetime fun of making rude comments as the awards are handed out. I think I seen about every Academy Awards when I've been able to since my folks got a television set in 1955. It was always in the back of my mind to one night walk up and accept one of those small golden guys. I tried the acting route, even obtaining a SAG...

Raise your hand if you’re shocked that The Passion of the Christ wasn’t nominated for any major Academy Awards. Yep, that’s what I thought. Of course, you could make the argument that The Aviator, Ray, Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, and Sideways were all so great that they deserved to be nominated for Best Picture, so there just wasn’t any room for The Passion. It might even be true. In any case, I wouldn’t be able to argue back, because I haven’t seen any of them. (At least I’m not alone in that. A recent headline in USA Today read,...

Movie star Clint Eastwood is the winner of the best director award from the Director's Guild of America. Eastwood received the prestigious award in Beverly Hills, California Saturday for his critically acclaimed film Million Dollar Baby, beating out fellow American director Martin Scorsese. He was nominated for The Aviator, a biography of the late billionaire Howard Hughes. The 74-year-old Eastwood directed, produced, starred-in and wrote some of the music for his drama about a boxing trainer and reluctant mentor to a scrappy female fighter. The award makes the veteran filmmaker the favorite to win as best director at next month's...

Scorsese's "Aviator" Reflects Randian Lessons Reviewed by Edward Hudgins Ehudgins@objectivistcenter.org In "The Aviator," a bio-pic about Howard Hughes (1905-1976) starring Leonardo DiCaprio with script by John Logan, director Martin Scorsese projects on the screen a moral message that is rarely found in philosophy books much less in movies: the path to joy in life is loving one's work. Scorsese portrays Hughes as a true, can-do American pioneer and visionary in both the motion picture and aeronautics industries who fights the forces of censorship in the one realm and government control in the other. Elements of "The Aviator" find their closest...

Among the many distinctive expressions Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has offered as gifts to the media is the following: “I don’t do quagmires,” referring to the mantra-like repetition by some war critics that Iraq has become a quagmire. The media, however, especially its Official Rumsfeld-Hating Clique, remains mired in the viciously viscous putrid muck of all-consuming loathing of the Secretary of Defense. That same media currently has its puerile knickers in a twist about President Bush awarding Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer and George Tenet the Medal of Freedom. Or, as liberal columnist Richard Cohen, speaking for many media colleagues,...

The Aviator Release Date: December 17, 2005 (NY, LA, SF; wide release: December 25) Studio: Miramax Films Director: Martin Scorsese Screenwriter: John Logan Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly, Kate Beckinsale, Jude Law, Adam Scott, Kelli Garner, Gwen Stefani, Nellie Sciutto, Alec Baldwin, Danny Huston, Matt Ross, Ian Holm, Alan Alda, Frances Conroy, Vincent Laresca, Justin Shilton, Brent Spiner, Josie Maran, Sam Hennings, Willem Dafoe, Stanley DeSantis, Jacob Davich Genre: Drama MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a crash sequence) Official Website: Miramax.com/Aviator Plot Summary: "The Aviator" tells the story of aviation pioneer...