Harrier elevator ride... had never seen this before "The... "Farley Takeoff," developed by legendary test pilot John Farley, involved hovering a Harrier jet at 100 feet before pitching the nose up to a steep 60-degree angle while still in a hover. ⁠ ⁠ Once in this vertical position, he would apply maximum power to "rocket climb" away, a "seat of the pants" maneuver that was strictly forbidden for Royal Air Force and Royal Navy service pilots due to its extreme difficulty and lack of instrument guidance. ⁠ ⁠ Credit: Hawker Siddeley (later British Aerospace/BAE Systems)" ℹ️historyphotographedshow more

Dunsfold Chief Test Pilot John Farley performing the 'Farley... Takeoff' / 'Farley Climb' with Indian Navy HS FRS.51 Sea Harrier IN601 during Farnborough 1982. 🎞️show more

This F-15 fighter jet is hooked up mid-air to... a tanker getting topped off when the pilot decides it’s time to go. The second he disconnects he banks hard and blasts away over the patchwork farmland below while the text pops up saying the Air Force doesn’t do “goodbye” — they just hit you with a “SEEEYUH!” and disappear into the sky. Would you ever ride along in a jet that treats aerial refueling like a quick gas station stop before vanishing like it was never there? Or is this exactly why USAF pilots live in a whole different reality from the rest of us?show more

Overnight, Royal Marines Commandos of the Royal Navy were... involved in the interception of a shadow fleet vessel. They were supported by HMS SUTHERLAND, HMS Ledbury and the Maritime Air Group. Mission success thanks to the skills, bravery and professionalism of our people.show more

It’s London Poppy Day🌹 More than 3,000 volunteers and... Armed Forces personnel from the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force will come together, with the aim of raising £1m in funding for the Royal British Legion’s (Royal British Legion) #PoppyAppealshow more

Before the government proscribed Palestine Action to help out... Israel, I'd never witnessed British old folk being frisked by police in the street before being hauled away on a terrorism charge. Today outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.show more

August 1990, two hikers walking near Calvine in the... Scottish Highlands reported seeing a large, diamond shaped object hovering in the sky. The men claimed the object was metallic and remained stationary for several minutes before blasting upward at high speed. They also reported observing a military jet aircraft in the vicinity, which appeared to circle near the object. It appeared to be a Harrier VTOL jet. One of the hikers photographed the scene, producing a image that later became one of the most discussed UFO photographs in the United Kingdom. The photographs were reportedly submitted to local UK authorities and eventually passed to the Ministry of Defence (MOD). For years, the case was unknown to the public, making people go even more overload government secrecy. Later, a version of one image resurfaced through investigative journalism that I have attached. What do you think this is?show more

JUST IN: Military jet crashes into the San Diego... Bay, two pilots eject shortly before impact. A U.S. Navy spokesperson says the aircraft involved was an E/A-18 G Growler. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the pilots landed in the water and were rescued by a nearby fishing boat. The Coast Guard says the pilots were only in the water for a minute before being sent to the hospital where they are in stable condition. Video: Jack Fischettishow more

The Russian PG-30 rocket has a separate 40mm precursor... rocket that fires shortly before the main round. This is a decoy to trigger active protection systems that then won’t be ready to engage the main rocket 0.2-0.4 sec later. And it has a soft foam nose! 1/2show more

This effect was captured within the time it takes... to bake a single cake using edelkrone motion control devices with flawless position accuracy and with just one camera. This is a new generation effect that has never been seen before in the world. In this age where competition in content production is at its fiercest, we are proud to be able to offer such a feature to our customers for free to help them get ahead in the competition. As edelkrone, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation and delivering the never seen before.show more

You think you’ve seen impressive engineering… and then this... happens. It is honestly incredible to watch this level of aerospace engineering brought down to such a scale. This is not just a flight; it is a masterclass in stabilization, thermal management, and precision guidance. Seeing a vehicle perform a vertical launch, sustain extreme conditions, and return with intact telemetry data is what true innovation looks like. We are witnessing the democratization of space access right here in a backyard. Massive credit to the team for pushing these boundaries and showing us exactly what is possible when passion meets advanced physics. A truly legendary display of technical grit. Credit: projecthorizon_markshow more

A U.S. Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier II with the... “Thunder Chickens” of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (Reinforced), 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU), attached to the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), seen landing earlier today at Rafael Hernández Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. This Harrier was likely one of two that participated in a flyover for the presidential inauguration today in Guyana.show more

Still really love this bit from the 2003 Clone... Wars micro-series where a Clone Trooper sees General Grievous and decides the best means of defense would be to fire a rocket launcher at him while in a moving elevatorshow more

Earlier today, a Royal Air Force Typhoon lost its... cockpit canopy in a bird strike over the North Sea. The pilot managed to nurse his newly convertible fighter back to base.show more

The Prince and Princess of Wales have left Glasgow... Someone there to catch a glimpse shouts: “You’re beautiful!” to Kate - before adding “You too, William” The royal couple were attending an official naming ceremony for HMS Glasgow at BAE Systemsshow more

The Boulton Paul P.111, was Britain's tiny experimental delta-wing... jet built right after WWII to unlock the secrets of tailless deltas. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet, it first flew on October 10, 1950, with detachable wingtips for quick tests between blunt and pointed shapes — one of the earliest pure research platforms for this config. Legendary test pilot Ben Gunn called it "touchy" and "like flying a razor's edge" due to its razor-sharp handling and extreme sensitivity. After a landing mishap, it was rebuilt into the P.111A ("Yellow Peril" in its bright paint, note:my coloring process didn't pick up on that), pushing near Mach 0.98 before retiring in 1958. 👀show more

A Wing And A Prayer Before Jump Doors: The... Insane "Wing-Slide" Technique of the 1930s. The Soviet Tupolev TB-3, a legendary heavy bomber that served as the cradle for the Soviet VDV (Airborne Forces) long before modern safety standards existed, and the unique and harrowing deployment method that predates the standardized jump doors and static lines we know today. Before the invention of dedicated troop transport aircraft with side doors, Soviet strategists had to improvise. The paratroopers would climb out of the open cockpits and hatches of the Tupolev TB-3 while in flight. They would then gingerly walk along the corrugated metal fuselage-battling the slipstream-to position themselves on the broad roots of the wings. At the pilot's signal, they would simply slide off the trailing edge of the wing, pulling their ripcords manually as they fell away. This method, often performed at air shows for high-ranking officials (including Stalin), was a terrifying display of courage and a testament to the "human factor" in early Soviet doctrine.show more

Both the Pilot and Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) onboard... the U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle that crashed this morning over Kuwait due to a “friendly fire” incident, appear to have survived, being found by locals and transferred to local authorities in Kuwait.show more

Unfortunately, I noticed that CENTCOM released footage of the... destruction of a historic fighter jet at the 3rd Tactical Fighter Base of the Iranian Air Force in Dezful. It was a decommissioned MiG-23BN of the Iraqi Air Force that had defected to Iran in 1991 and I was trying to have it transferred to the Iranian Air Force Museum in Tehran in 2012. However, the aircraft remained in Hamedan following to my arrest by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, and unfortunately this historic aircraft was destroyed today. This MiG-23BN defected to Iran in January 1991 during Operation Desert Storm, and it was one of the over ten MiG-23s that defected to Iran. Unfortunately, almost all of them were scrapped in Dezful and Hamedan and their wreckage were moved to Tehran, and the last one, which was supposed to be displayed in the museum, was finally destroyed by a U.S. Air Force MQ-9A drone in Hamedan. I also noticed that all F-4s of Shahrokhi Air Base had already been evacuated from the base to protect them from the threat of U.S. airstrikes. Therefore, what remained there was this historic MiG-23BN of the Iraqi Air Force, which was parked in one of the hardened aircraft shelters. I never managed to photograph it myself but I have a photo of this in my archive and I will release it. #OperationLionsRoar #OperationEpicFuryshow more

The pilot was unable to recover the aircraft from... the roll, and by the time he realized what was happening, he was already too close to the ground. If the jet had a higher thrust-to-weight ratio, it might have had a better chance of recovering. Delta wings rely heavily on high angles of attack to generate lift at low speeds. This results in: High induced drag Significant vortex drag Rapid energy loss during turns Keeping the nose up to maintain a high angle of attack also reduces the pilot’s ability to see the ground, limiting situational awareness. Altitude warnings are then the primary source of awareness, but during airshows pilots often disregard these alerts because they know they will be performing low-altitude maneuvers. This is one reason we saw no ejection from the Tejas. Being at low speed, low altitude, in an under powered jet, operating a delta-wing aircraft under high drag and vortex drag, and having the nose slightly up, thereby reducing forward and downward visibility, means the flawed design of Indian Tejas contributed to the Tejas crash. I have frame freezed in the video where any other jet would have successfully got out of this roll but Tejas crashed. The machine betrayed the man and a pilot was lost. I will place the blame of Tejas crash on politics and designers.show more