[PHOTO] P-51 Mustang Fighter being re-armed on Saipan, 1945
Posted: February 27, 2016 Filed under: History, War Room | Tags: 1940s, Air Force, P-51 Mustang Fighter, Photography, WW2 1 CommentLIBERAL HEADS EXPLODE: Kentucky’s New Lieutenant Governor Jenean Hampton
Posted: November 3, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: African American, Air Force, Conservative, Detroit, GOP, Jenean Hampton, John Fund, Kentucky, Kentucky Election, Liberal, Liberal Heads Explode, Matt Bevin, National Review, Rochester, Single Mom, Tea Party, University of Rochester 24 CommentsJohn Fund continues:
…Both Bevin and Hampton are Tea Party activists who have never held elective office. Hampton’s path certainly represents triumph over adversity. Born in Detroit, the 57-year-old Hampton and her three sisters were raised by a single mom who lacked a high school education and couldn’t afford a television or a car.

Lt. Gov. Candidate Jenean Hampton shakes hands with Jenny Goins during the ceremony to celebrate the Class of 2015 Veteran’s Hall of Fame inductees.
But Hampton was determined to better herself. She graduated with a degree in industrial engineering and worked for five years in the automobile industry to pay off her college loans. She then joined the Air Force, retiring as a Captain.
[UPDATE – How Kentucky’s New Black Lieutenant Governor Became a Conservative – John Fund]
She earned an MBA from the University of Rochester, moved to Kentucky and became a plant manager in a corrugated packaging plant….(read more)
Source: National Review Online
[PHOTO] Ava Gardner and Chuck Yeager
Posted: September 18, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, History, Space & Aviation | Tags: 1950s, 1960s, Air Force, Ava Gardner, Chuck Yeager, Glamour, Hollywood, NASA, Photography, Test pilot, U.S. Air Force, United States Air Force, USAF, World War II Leave a commentAva Gardner with U.S. Air Force legend and World War II hero, Chuck Yeager
What if the World’s Most Expensive Fighter Planes Can’t Defeat Our Enemies?
Posted: May 15, 2015 Filed under: Space & Aviation, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Air Force, Aircraft, Defense, media, military, National Review, news, NRO, Twitter, USAF Leave a comment
What if the World’s Most Expensive Fighter Planes Can’t Defeat Our Enemies? http://t.co/VRxX9q4MKs pic.twitter.com/epzSzuBIyJ
— National Review (@NRO) May 15, 2015
Air Force announces First Female F-35 Pilot
Posted: May 6, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Space & Aviation, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: Air Force, Aviation, Combat, F-35, military, Pilot, U.S.A.F. Leave a comment[TheHill]
[PHOTO] Russian Air Force SU-27
Posted: January 22, 2015 Filed under: Russia, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Air Force, Aviation, Fighter Jet, Photography, Pilot, Russian Air Force, SU-27, Vitaly Kuzmin, Vladimir Putin 1 CommentRussian Air Force SU-27 Cockpit Detail
Photo: Vitaly Kuzmin
ISIS Downs a Coalition Jet
Posted: December 24, 2014 Filed under: Diplomacy, Global, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Air Force, Coalition, Fighter Jet, ISIS, Islamists, Jihadism, Jihadists, Middle East, National Review Leave a commentISIS Downs a Coalition Jet: What Does It Mean? http://t.co/UfROZkp65n pic.twitter.com/Fy9vpy8jDi
— National Review (@NRO) December 24, 2014
[PHOTO] NASA/USAF Martin Marietta X-24B
Posted: October 29, 2014 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Air Force, Aviation, Martin Marietta X-24B, NASA, Photography, Space Exploration, Test Flight, USAF Leave a commentNASA/USAF Martin Marietta X-24B – Lifting Body Test
X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle : What is the Pentagon’s Secret Space Drone Doing?
Posted: September 29, 2014 Filed under: Robotics, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Air Force, Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar, Boeing X-37, DARPA, NASA, New York Post, North Korea, Pentagon, Rockwell X-30, Sharon Weinberger, Space Shuttle, Spaceplane 1 CommentSharon Weinberger writes: For almost two years, an unmanned space plane bearing a remarkable resemblance to NASA’s space shuttle has circled the Earth, performing a top-secret mission. It’s called the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle — but that’s pretty much all we know for certain.
“Despite the secrecy surrounding its mission, the space plane’s travels are closely watched. The Air Force announces its launches, and satellite watchers monitor its flight and orbit. What is not revealed is what’s inside the cargo bay and what it’s being used for.”
Officially, the only role the Pentagon acknowledges is that the space plane is used to conduct experiments on new technologies. Theories about its mission have ranged from an orbiting space bomber to an anti-satellite weapon.
The truth, however, is likely much more obvious: According to intelligence experts and satellite watchers who have closely monitored its orbit, the X-37B is being used to carry secret satellites and classified sensors into space — a little-known role once played by NASA’s now-retired space shuttles.
For a decade between the 1980s and early 1990s, NASA’s space shuttles were used for classified military missions, which involved ferrying military payloads into space.
“Now, with the X-37B, the Pentagon no longer has to rely on NASA — or humans.”
But the shuttles’ military role rested on an uneasy alliance between NASA and the Pentagon. Even before the 1986 Challenger disaster, which killed all seven crewmembers, the Pentagon had grown frustrated with NASA’s delays.
Now, with the X-37B, the Pentagon no longer has to rely on NASA — or humans.
The X-37B resembles a shuttle, or at least a shrunken-down version of it. Like the space shuttles, the X-37B is boosted into orbit by an external rocket, but lands like an aircraft on a conventional runway. But the X-37B is just shy of 10 feet tall and slightly less than 30 feet long.
Its cargo bay, often compared to the size of a pickup truck bed, is just big enough to carry a small satellite. Once in orbit, the X-37B deploys a foldable solar array, which is believed to power the sensors in its cargo bay.
“It’s just an updated version of the space shuttle type of activities in space,” insisted one senior Air Force official in 2010, the year of the first launch, when rampant speculation about the secret project prompted some to question whether it was possibly a space bomber. Read the rest of this entry »
Vintage Toy of the Day: Kohno Kakuzo
Posted: May 17, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Asia, Japan | Tags: Air Force, Collectible, Comics, design, Illustration, Imperial Japan, Japan, Model Airplane, Toy, typography, vintage Leave a commentKohno Kakuzo (Japan)
1930s
Vintage War Poster: ‘To Protect Our Way Of Life’
Posted: May 14, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics | Tags: Air Force, Comics, design, Illustration, Patriotism, Poster Art, propaganda, typography, USAF, V-Day, vintage, WW2 Leave a commentTHE WORLD OF DR. ORLOFF! : Photo
Double Life: Seattle Seahawks cheerleader is First Lieutenant in United States Air Force
Posted: January 31, 2014 Filed under: Entertainment, U.S. News | Tags: Air Force, Cheerleading, Fox Sports, New York Post, Quaco, Sea Gal, Seattle Seahawks, United States Air Force 1 CommentFrom Andy Nesbit, Fox Sports: During her free time, Alicia Quaco, 25, is a member of the “Sea Gals,” the cheerleading squad for the Seattle Seahawks.
What’s her full-time gig? First lieutenant in the US Air Force.
The New York Post has the details:
Rookie “Sea Gal” Alicia Quaco, 25, works long days as a contract manager for the Air Force before rushing to evening cheerleading practice… taking on the demanding double life, she first had to convince her military higher-ups in a formal presentation to let her moonlight as a Sea Gal after trying out for the squad last year, she said.
U.S. Fighter Pilot Scares off Iranians with ‘Top Gun’-Worthy Stunt
Posted: January 20, 2014 Filed under: Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Air Force, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, Iran, Mark Welsh, Top Gun, U.S. Air Force, United States Air Force, Washington Times 1 Comment
An F-22 fighter jet (U.S. Air Force)
‘You really ought to go home’
Douglas Ernst reports: The U.S. Air Force has a message for Iran: Don’t mess with our drones.
In what only can be described as a scene out of Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun,” Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force chief of staff, describes how F-22 stealth jets scared off Iranian jets from a U.S. drone flying in international airspace.
Secret New Drone Project: RQ-180 Shows Stealth, Efficiency Advances
Posted: December 12, 2013 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Air Force, Global Hawk, Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, Northrop Grumman, Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, Unmanned aerial vehicle 1 Comment
Aviation Week’s Amy Butler and Bill Sweetman report: A large, classified unmanned aircraft developed by Northrop Grumman is now flying—and it demonstrates a major advance in combining stealth and aerodynamic efficiency. Defense and intelligence officials say the secret unmanned aerial system (UAS), designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, is scheduled to enter production for the U.S. Air Force and could be operational by 2015.
Funded through the Air Force’s classified budget, the program to build this new UAS, dubbed the RQ-180, was awarded to Northrop Grumman after a competition that included Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The aircraft will conduct the penetrating ISR mission that has been left unaddressed, and under wide debate, since retirement of the Lockheed SR-71 in 1998.
Neither the Air Force nor Northrop Grumman would speak about the classified airplane. When queried about the project, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy said, “The Air Force does not discuss this program.”
The RQ-180 carries radio-frequency sensors such as active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and passive electronic surveillance measures, according to one defense official. It could also be capable of electronic attack missions.
This aircraft’s design is key for the shift of Air Force ISR assets away from “permissive” environments—such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where Northrop Grumman’s non-stealthy Global Hawk and General Atomics’ Reaper operate—and toward operations in “contested” or “denied” airspace. The new UAS underpins the Air Force’s determination to retire a version of the RQ-4B Global Hawk after 2014, despite congressional resistance. The RQ-180 eclipses the smaller, less stealthy and shorter-range RQ-170 Sentinel.
The Air Force’s $40 Billion Space Push
Posted: August 24, 2013 Filed under: War Room | Tags: Air Force, Defense, Foreign Policy, Space Shuttle, Spy Satellites Leave a comment“America’s civilian space program may be on life support, now that the Space Shuttle’s gone. But its military space program is very much alive — and about to get much, much bigger. In the coming decades, the U.S. Air Force plans to pour an additional $36 to $40 billion into its effort to put military and spy satellites in orbit using commercial rocket services,” Foreign Policy reports.
“The Air Force is using that cash to add 60 launches between 2018 and 2030 to its $35 billion rocket launch effort called the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. EELV is the Air Force’s program to pay private businesses to build and launch the rockets that carry Defense Department satellites into orbit. This planned cash infusion would make EELV one of the Pentagon’s top ten spending programs, InsideDefense points out. This comes just two years after the EELV program began experiencing massive cost increases — that sucked funding from other space initiatives — due to a spike in the price of rocket production. (Interestingly, one of the rockets currently used in the EELV program, the Atlas V, relies on a Russian engine to get it off the ground.)”
Source: Topic A: DefenseTopic A: Defense – Taegan Goddard