Planes
Fighter jets, bombers, spy planes, helicopters, and the aircraft pushing the edge of flight.
29 articlesLatest in Planes
Aurora Spy Plane: The $2 Billion Aircraft That May Never Have Existed
The Aurora legend began with a black-budget line item, sonic booms, and triangular sightings. The evidence points to something murkier than one spy plane.
Why the U.S. Still Has Not Replaced the Cobra and Apache
Why the Cobra and Apache keep outlasting the U.S. attack helicopter programs built to replace them.
Boeing E-4: America's Advanced Airborne Command Post
How the E-4 Nightwatch became America's airborne command center, built to keep national command authority alive through nuclear war, disasters, and crises.
MQ-28 Ghost Bat: Australia's Combat Drone That Allies Want to Buy
Australia's MQ-28 Ghost Bat is a Boeing-built collaborative combat aircraft designed to team with crewed jets, fire missiles, and scale allied airpower.
Su-75 Checkmate: Russia's F-35 Rival That Still Has to Fly
Russia's Su-75 Checkmate was pitched as a cheap fifth-generation export fighter. Its real test is whether UAC can turn a mockup into a flying aircraft.
H-20: China's Stealth Bomber Is Still a Mystery
China's H-20 stealth bomber has been promised for years. The public record still shows a program wrapped in secrecy, delay, and unproven claims.
Project Pulse
The engineering briefing that explains why nothing gets built on time — or on budget.
More in Planes
The Most Expensive Plane Crash in History
In 2008, a $1.2 billion B-2 Spirit stealth bomber crashed on takeoff in Guam after moisture corrupted its sensors — the costliest aviation accident ever.
The MiG 1.44: How the Soviets Answered the F-22
Inside Mikoyan Project 1.44, the secret Soviet fighter built to rival the F-22 Raptor, why it flew only once, and whether it was ever real
The E-4B Nightwatch: Inside America's Doomsday Plane
Inside the Boeing E-4B Nightwatch, the EMP-hardened 747 built to be America's airborne command post in a nuclear war, and the plane set to replace it
The Boneyard: Where Aircrafts Go to Die
Inside the 309th AMARG at Davis-Monthan AFB — how 3,200 aircraft are stored, maintained, and redeployed from the Arizona desert.
The Convair Pogo: The US Navy's Weirdest Prototype Ever
The Convair XFY-1 Pogo was the US Navy's tail-sitting VTOL fighter that took off straight up, flew at 300+ mph, and very nearly worked
The SR-91 "Aurora": The Plane That Doesn't Exist
A 1985 budget line, sightings over Britain and California, a Skunk Works denial. Inside the Aurora, the spy plane that may never have existed