Happy New Year! A year (and a gazillion maiden flights of new Chinese aircraft types) has passed. 2025 was a bugger for many, but it also had some cool moments in the world of aviation.

I have sent an important email to you so please check your spam folders. I can only email 500 people a day, so only emails starting with A-D have been sent today. The rest will follow this week.

You were asked to vote for the best-looking British aircraft. With such a mouthwatering bevvy of sublime flying machines, selection was a tough task for the many people who took part. Such is ...

Unlikely as it is, the main competitor of the F-35 is the Saab Gripen-E. These two fighter types, are as different as they could get, one akin to a bulky people carrier, the other a stripped-down ...

The debate on single versus twin engines for fighter aircraft continues. Paul Stoddart* follows Gen Chuck Horner and David Baker, PhD into the ring. The choice of engine is a fundamental design driver ...

Fast and agile, with a decent range, the Crusader carrier fighter enjoys a positive reputation as ‘The Last Gunfighter’. It has been described as.“..by far one of the greatest fighters of its era”; we ...

17 years after Saab started talking about partitioning mission systems from vehicle management on what was then Gripen NG, the verdict is in: that’s how it’s done on the B-21 and Rafale F4. The F-35 ...

Stephen Liddle looks into the surprisingly long story that led to the first flight of the most advanced heavy bomber the world has ever seen. The first flight of a completely new combat aircraft – ...

Steve Parker doesn’t flew the HC-130 for the U.S. Coast Guard. Here he gives us the low-down on the demanding life of a flying coastguard. “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.” That’s not ...

Aerospace Engineer Joe Wilding examines why the Mustang was so good. “I want to start with an embarrassing confession. With a lifelong obsession with aircraft and a few decades of experience ...

If you were unlucky enough to still be flying a piston-engined fighter in 1949 you’d better hope your enemy didn’t have jets. The piston age was over. Though the ultimate piston-engined fighters were ...

The Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 is the workhorse of the Royal Air Force’s air combat fleet, excelling in both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. Starting life in 2003 as a dedicated interceptor, the ...