Recent photos of a high-flying V-shaped jet shows that some pretty interesting new aircraft are just around the corner.

Aviation Week & Space Technology

The Air Force has long debated how to conduct penetrating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions since the venerable, high-speed SR-71 retired in 1998. But despite the need and a lingering requirement, no visible progress toward that goal was made. That’s because the highly classified aircraft – the RQ-180 – has been developed by Northrop Grumman in secret.

In the Dec. 9 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Senior Pentagon Editor Amy Butler and Senior International Defense Editor Bill Sweetman reveal the existence of the black-world aircraft now flying at Area 51.

Aviation Week worked with artist Ronnie Olsthoorn to construct concept images of the RQ-180 based on its attributes, including its “cranked kite” design.

In 2009-10, as the RQ-180 neared flight-testing, shelters were built over ramps and engine test pits in Palmdale, Calif., where classified aircraft are developed.

Completed between 2006 and 2009 and shielded from view behind an earthen berm, this hangar at Area 51 is most likely the home of the new aircraft.

Bill Sweetman

As far as I know, this sort of thing has happened only once since 1956.

 That was when British magazines started getting eyewitness accounts and grainy photos of the Lockheed U-2, then operating out of RAF Lakenheath on its first spy flights over the Soviet Union. Classified programs have been exposed in all sorts of ways since then – for example, the A-12 Blackbird was disclosed under a degree of pressure – but until the RQ-170 Sentinel was seen at Kandahar in 2007-09 there has been no such aircraft photographed before it was declassified. (And in the case of the RQ-170, the operational security people were not trying too hard.)

With that in mind, let’s look at the photos taken by Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett of an aircraft seen over Amarillo on March 10.

There is speculation that the aircraft is either the RQ-180 or the SR-72. Pictured below.

The Lockheed Martin SR-72 is a conceptualized unmanned, hypersonic aircraft intended for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance proposed by Lockheed Martin to succeed the retired Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

One of the best rocket model launches ever.

The amazing Saturn V

In Death Valley National Park, north of Barstow, California, is Rainbow Canyon. It’s not especially remarkable, just one canyon in an area full of them, all but indistinguishable from its neighbors in an area populated mainly by snakes. But stand on one of the canyon tops for long enough and a fighter jet will suddenly roar into the valley below you, flying fast and very, very low. It will be visible for only a few seconds before it turns hard and disappears behind the next hill. But during those few moments, anyone with a camera has a brief chance to take a spectacular picture. Rainbow Canyon (or Star Wars Canyon, as some call it) is part of the R-2508 restricted airspace complex, host to a busy, low-level training route for combat aircraft.

Military pilots train to fly low and fast, hiding behind hills to fool radar and going fast enough that they can’t be shot at. Since flying is a perishable skill, every fighter or attack pilot periodically has to practice such low-level flights. Rainbow Canyon is in the desert of eastern California, where the population is sparse and the airspace wide open. It’s also surrounded by military bases, bombing ranges, maneuvering grounds and radars—an ideal spot for military pilots to hone their skills. Among the nearby facilities are Edwards AFB, Naval Air Station China Lake, and Plant 42 (where Lockheed and Northrop build advanced aircraft).

The Canadian Government has introduced new rules for recreational drone users. Drone user will face a fine of up to $3,000 if you are caught flying:

• Higher than 90 metres
• Within 75 metres of buildings, vehicles, vessels, animals or people
• More than 500 metres away from you
• At night, in clouds or somewhere you can’t see it
• Within nine kilometres of somewhere aircraft take off or land, or a forest fire
• Without your name, address and phone number marked on the drone itself
• Over forest fires, emergency response scenes or controlled airspace

Winnipeg no-fly radius from the airport.

The drone operator in the vid below may be over 90 meters (300 feet). And he is over the Forks, which is within the 9 kilometer no-fly radius. Do this today and he would be $3,000 poorer.

I have never been to the museum. Not sure exactly why, but it is totally worth the trip. It’s located right on the edge of Richardson International Airport, so many take off and landings can be seen from the museum’s observation deck. Admission fees are minimal, friendly staff and great exhibits.

The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada (formerly the Western Canada Aviation Museum) is a museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the second largest aviation museum in Canada. The collection is housed in an original Trans-Canada Air Lines (today operating as Air Canada) hangar dating from the 1930s.

Many very good model displays.

Orville Wright and Charles Lindbergh signatures!

Great maps.

CF-101 Voodoo

Three 20 millimeter machine guns on an CF-86 Sabre

The crazy Avrocar.

The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was a VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. (Canada) as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single “turborotor” blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer.

A very extensive Antonov exhibit.

Cabin of a Vickers Viscount.

Erickson Skycrane helicopter landed at the airport. The beast is installing large transmission towers for Manitoba Hydro south of Winnipeg.

There is even a Kiddie zone.

Interactive exhibits

June 2016 – Turkey, Izmir – US military base – 400km away from Istanbul. Leaked video showing formation of jet fighters escorting strange UFO / alien space craft.

An American witness inside Izmir Air Force Base, Turkey, reports there were many people watching the strange shaped UFO in the sky that was escorted by the jet fighters. There were many witnesses to the event.

Swiss Boeing 777-300 Bound for L.A. from Zurich Makes Arctic Emergency Landing of Snowy Runway

On Feb. 1, Swiss Airlines Boeing 777-300 operating as flight LX40 from Zurich, Switzerland, to Los Angeles, California, diverted to Iqaluit, Canada, capital of Nunavut in the Canadian Northern Territories.
The diversion was caused by an engine problem that required the shut down of the engine and an emergency diversion: actually, according to a statement later released by Swiss, a malfuction message caused the engine to automatically shutdown. The crew decided to make a precautionary landing.
The selection of Iqaluit Airport (airport code: YFB) is remarkable since official sources state that Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers at this airport have only small general aviation aircraft capacity with for more than 15 passengers.
The large Boeing 777-300 can carry up to 550 passengers in its dense-capacity interior configuration.

The airport does have an 8,000 foot asphalt runway. The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, conducted cold weather testing from Iqaluit Airport during February 2006 – its first North American visit. They were hoping to experience −25 °C (−13 °F) weather to determine the effects on cabin temperatures and engine performance. Nunavut authorities hope that the importance of these tests will put Iqaluit on the map as a centre for cold-weather testing.

A380 at Iqaluit airport.