National Security Journal on MSN

The F-14 Tomcat Fighter Was the U.S. Navy’s Wonder Weapon

Born for Cold War fleet defense, the F-14 Tomcat married variable-sweep wings with the Hughes AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix to swat bombers at 100+ miles while staying nimble for dogfights. -Early ...
National Security Journal on MSN

Mach 2.65 F-111 ‘Aardvark’ Strike Fighter Has a Message for the U.S. Military

The F-111 Aardvark grew from the 1960s TFX drive to field a fast, long-range strike jet. -General Dynamics’ swing-wing design, twin TF30 turbofans and the first production terrain-following radar let ...
SlashGear

AD-1: The Strange NASA Aircraft With A Pivoting Wing

You might have noticed that the wings of unpowered gliders look very different from fighter jets. That's because they're optimized for completely different modes of flight. Long, straight wings are ...

Sixty-Five Years of Air Dominance: A Chronological History of U.S. Fighter Jets

Over the past 80 years, the air forces of the world have ripped through the skies in five generations of jet fighters. The ...
autoevolution

USAF Settles on Blended Wing Body Aircraft Design, This Is It

More than a century of aviation has given us humans certain preconceptions when it comes to the machines that fly in our sky. Just take the shape of an aircraft into consideration. The simple mention ...
Yahoo

Poland’s Su-22 Fitter Swing-Wing Strike Jets Pass Into History

The last of the venerable Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter swing-wing strike aircraft in Europe have been officially withdrawn from service. At one time, the Su-22 was a backbone of Warsaw Pact offensive airpower ...
Time

Aircraft: Swing to a New Wing

When Boeing Co. beat out Lockheed Aircraft Corp. for the prize of building the U.S. supersonic jet transport, it was on the basis of a venturesome swing-wing concept that many aeronautical designers ...
The National Interest

Meet the X-5: The American Aviation Experiment That Revolutionized Airplane Design

Here’s What You Need to Know: The X-5 was likely the world’s first airplane that incorporated variable-sweep wing technology. The X-5 was likely the world’s first airplane that incorporated ...
FlightGlobal

Airbus remains open to blended-wing design for larger aircraft, confirms tube-and-wing structure for next narrowbody

Airbus has determined that blended-wing-body designs are more competitive for larger aircraft while traditional tube-and-wing configurations remain optimal for narrowbody jets, CEO Guillaume Faury ...
Nature

Blended Wing Body Aircraft Design and Performance

The Blended Wing Body (BWB) concept represents a transformative shift in aircraft design, merging the wing and fuselage into a single, continuous lifting surface. This integration offers substantial ...

Boeing 737 Countermeasure Flare Release Captured In Stunning Photos

It’s not every day that you see a Boeing 737 airliner spitting out infrared countermeasures in a dramatic display of pyrotechnics.