A Flying Swiss Army Knife

Textron Airland has created a flying swiss army knife. They call it the scorpion. The Scorpion looks like they took an A-10 Warthog, F-18, and F-35 and mashed them together. It is designed to be able to do the jobs of a UAV, C-130 hercules, A-10, and a fighter. It has a top speed of 518 mph, and can carry 3,000 lbs of payload. For more information, click here: http://www.scorpionjet.com/.

Update

We have started updating the Korean War Fighter page, and will finish the WW2 Bomber page as soon as possible.

WWI Page

Since most of the views have been coming from the WWI page, I'll update it more.

Red Tails

As many of you probably know, the movie "Red Tails" came out on Friday. You can watch the trailers:

But be warned that not all the info is correct. I highly recommend seeing it, it was a good movie

F-15s to be Sold To Saudi Arabia + A Little Something About the F-35

The US has sealed a deal of $30 billion to sell 84 F-15s to Saudi Arabia, and upgrade 70 more. Boeing is making the F-15s, and is saying that this will not only open up more jobs in the US, but also in Saudi Arabia.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203899504577128674022827702.html

A F-15

Japan has decided that it will replace it's older F-4s with new F-35 Lightning IIs.
http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/933/?SID=76839e08c242a35214ca8cdd71fe5812

A Japanese F-4

A F-35 Lightning II

I am sorry, but this will be my last post about the news, but if you want to me to continue, please comment about it.

Good Bye F-22s, We'll Miss You

The final F-22 Raptor rolled off the production line on December 13th. The tail number is 4195, and it is the 187th Raptor. The F-22 was conceived at the end of the Cold War as an air superiority fighter, that included stealth. The F-35 is going to replace it, as it will almost all other fighters including the F-16, F-18, and other fighters.

Here is a video of the final F-22 by Lockheed Martin:

More Info On X-47B

Here are more links with more info on the X-47B:

http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/assets/X-47B_Navy_UCAS_FactSheet.pdf
http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/assets/UCAS-D_DataSheet_final.pdf

F-35, See You 2018

The F-35, which was originally supposed to be ready by 2016, has been moved to 2018. Budget cuts and additional testing have pushed production back to that date. Due to this, the military is asking for money to upgrade their already operational F-16 fleet.

X-47 Takes Flight

On Tuesday, the actual X-47B took flight. It was conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, and helped validate the hardware and programming to land on a moving deck. Northrop Grumman is hoping to have the first carrier based take off in 2013, and air-to-air refueling. Check out my other story here.

Boeing Wins $11.7 billion Deal

The Department of Defense gave boeing a contract of $11.7 billion to service and for maintenance of their C-17 aircraft. On Sept. 28 the DOD gave a contract of $469 million for similar service for C-17s in the Indian Air Force.

Drone Kills 6

A us drone killed 6 civilians in Somalia. It is said that the drone's target was an al-Shabab base in the nearby area. Instead, 6 civilians died, with 20 wounded.

Model Planes = Weapon?

People always have fun fly model planes. But a man was recently arrested flying a model plane near the pentagon. The FBI said that Rezwan Ferdaus was going to attack the Pentagon and Capital building using F-4 and F-86 replicas loaded with 5 lbs. of plastic explosives. People say that it would be possible, but extremely hard to inflict a lot of damage.

Japan's Next Gen Fighters

Japan has made the official proposal for new fighter aircraft.They are getting offers from Lockheed Martin, with the F-35 Lightning II, Boeing, with the F/A-18 Super Hornet, and from Europe, with the Eurofighter Typhoon. They are hoping to get 40 aircraft to replace the older McDonald Douglas F-4 Phantoms. They are looking for these qualities in the aircraft: stealth and information-processing capabilities, maintenance and other costs involved, level of involvement of Japanese firms, and support systems after purchase.

Iraq Buys F-16s

Iraq has recently bought 18 F-16, to build up it's post-war air force. They have not yet received the aircraft, or made an official announcement, but they have paid $1.5 billion to the US. The planes are made by Lockheed Martin. In other Iraq related news, we are hoping to bring the 45,000 remaining  troops out by Dec. 31.

Quote of the Week

Fighting spirit one must have. Even if a man lacks some of the other qualifications, he can often make up for it in fighting spirit.

— Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF

quote from skygod.com

Quote of the Week

Anybody who doesn't have fear is an idiot. It's just that you must make the fear work for you. Hell when somebody shot at me, it made me madder than hell, and all I wanted to do was shoot back.

— Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.

Quote from skygod.com

Boeing and Brazil

Boeing has promised Brazil F-18 fighters if they buy them from Boeing, and if Boeing wins a $5 billion fighter bid. President Obama has already assured Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Brazil is also looking at the Swedish Saab AB Gripen NG fighter, and the French Dassault Rafale. The order for 36 Super Hornets has been delayed due to budget cuts.

US Drone Crashes into Cargo Plane

A US Drone (UAV) crashed into a military cargo plane. No one was hurt but if you look at the video links below, you can see the damage. This event has raised concerns about UAVs.

http://www.ktnv.com/multimedia/videos/?bctid=1121116842001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il_aj46bQ8o

Taiwan Buys F-16s

Taiwan has said that they will follow up on the deal for 66 F-16s, despite the fear of angering the china mainland.Delayed before, when a US scout plane was flying over Chinese airspace, the answer was clear. Read a longer story here.

Quote of the Week

In blossom today, then scattered:
Life is so like a delicate flower.
How can one expect the fragrance
To last forever?

— Vice Admiral Ohnishi, Kamikaze Special Attack Force

quote from skygod.com