Jet Fridays!
We love fighter jets. In fact, we support jet aircraft like the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F-5 Tiger II. We also love Fridays. Combine those two together and you have this collection of fun facts and interesting stories about fighter jets and jet engines. Enjoy our Jet Friday posts below.
If you have a jet engine topic for Fridays you would like to see us discuss, email us at About@DuotechServices.com
10 Important Moments in Military Aviation History
Military aviation has played a major role in the success of many countries throughout history. Whether it’s transporting goods and supplies to war zones or providing air support during battles, military aviation is a vital tool that has proven itself in countless...
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town…Fast!
It’s that time of year when jet aircraft all over the world stand in awe of the fastest of them all -- Santa’s sleigh. Twas the night before Christmas and sitting on the tarmac, an F-16 Fighting Falcon dreams of a bright fire engine red paint job and vertical/short...
The Odd Looking Ultra Hump-back Tactical Fighter/Bomber
The 1950s and 1960s were a busy time for U.S. fighter jet development. Aircraft like the P-80 Shooting Star, introduced in 1945, brought America into the jet age. The war in Korea demanded even quicker, more agile fighters to stem the heavy U.S. losses of P-80s to...
Jet Friday: What Is The Pilot Doing During A Carrier Landing
There are many cockpit videos of jet aircraft performing missions, like destroying a moving ground target, evading a SAM in an F-16, or flying in tight formation as part of the Blue Angels demonstration team. Even we are guilty of overindulging in sharing exhilarating...
Jet Friday – Strange and Unusual – The Soviet Union’s VVA-14
Cruising silently off the coast of northeastern Russia, a very unique weapon patrols the deep, dark, cold waters of the East Siberian Sea. Launched in December of 1959, the USS George Washington (SSBN-598), a nuclear-powered submarine, is the first of its kind to...
F-15 Sets World Record But Then The SU-27 Takes It Away
The F-4 Phantom and MiG-25 Foxbat were both fast and powerful fighter aircraft. Between the two, they held many world speed records for time to climb (time-to-altitude), meaning the time it takes to fly from the earth’s surface to certain known altitudes. One of those...
Jet Friday: Train to Fight. Train to Win. Red Flag Exercise
“It’s not a contest or a competition. There are no winners or losers. It’s about training and saving lives.” ~ Narrator, Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag Above a 12,700 square mile area of desert in Nevada, F-15 Eagles from the United States Air Force, Eurofighter...
Switzerland’s History With The F-5 Freedom Fighter
The single-seat, supersonic light fighter F-5 has been in service since 1964 with the United States Air Force. This agile, reliable jet provided great engine performance to its user with low operational costs. Its service life began as the F-5A (single-seat) and F-5B...
Jet Friday – The RAF’s (Previous) Record Holding Bomber
The Avro Vulcan - a uniquely shaped aircraft that was birthed as a high-altitude strategic bomber for the Royal Air Force (RAF) of the United Kingdom. With the growing concern of the Soviet Union in the Cold War, there was a need in 1947 for the RAF to develop a...
7 Fast Facts About the Mirage F1
Flying low across the Chadian landscape, the two French Mirage F1 aircraft are hoping to see a radar signature from a radar station to their north. As they scream through the barren landscape, slipping between canyon rocks about 100 feet above the desert floor, a...
Jet Friday – Introducing the F-16C – Early 80s Video from Inside the Cockpit
When the F-16A/B Fighting Falcon was first introduced into service over four decades ago, it was developed to be a premier air superiority aircraft. To gain the advantage over its opponent in a dogfight, the F-16 was designed with a one-piece polycarbonate bubble...
Jet Friday: The SLUF A-7 Corsair II
The A-4 Skyhawk was a single-seat delta wing subsonic jet-powered carrier-capable aggressor aircraft flown by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. It was instrumental during the Vietnam War, launching from carriers stationed at Yankee Station in the South China Sea just...
Australia’s Beautiful Landscapes From an F-18 Cockpit – RAAF Hornet Ball 2020
Each year the U.S. Navy celebrates the expeditionary flights of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet strike-fighter community in an event called the Hornet Ball. To demonstrate the achievements of the pilots and their aircraft, the F/A-18 Hornet, the Navy shares a compilation...
#JetFriday – This Pilot’s Jet Backpack Is Awesome!
It is most kids' dream to have the ability to fly. Some take that dream and make it a career by learning to fly in the military, commercially, or even just privately. But many of us just continue to look up at the sky and dream about ‘what if’. During the Space Age,...
Jet Friday: The Performance of F-35 Lightning from a Pilot Who Flies It
The F-35 Lightning II is a high performance, stealth, multirole combat aircraft. Its single Pratt and Whitney F135 turbojet engine propels this extremely smart platform up to Mach 1.6 at 1,200 MPH. After it was chosen as the Joint Strike Fighter program winner in...
Jet Friday: AI Vs Pilot The Outcome Could Change Aerial Warfare Forever
In July 2021, an unmanned jet aircraft will face off against a human-operated fighter jet. What are the pros and cons of both sides of this battle? What can this test mean to the future of manned military fighter aircraft? Its a beautiful, blue-sky day and a young man...
Holloman High-Speed Test Track – Hypersonic Sled Tests Reach Mach 8.6
Toward the end of World War II, the world turned its attention to developing the turbojet engine. The Germans were the first to get an operational fighter jet, the Messerschmitt ME 262, into the war followed shortly by the British Royal Air Force. Neither entered...
Jet Friday – Low Flying Fighter Jets in the Mach Loop
When you see fast-moving military aircraft, you are usually always looking up. For that matter, anytime any aircraft is moving through the sky, unless you are also on another aircraft, your head is tilted back and your eyes are squinting as you try to catch a glimpse....
Jet Friday – Bulldozing an F-4 Phantom into Friendlier Territory
It was a clear blue sky over North Vietnam on March 10, 1967, when a large strike force of 72 aircraft was tasked with attacking the iron and steelworks at Thai Nguyen. The steel mill was 35 miles north of Hanoi, one of the most defended locations in the North....
Jet Friday- The Alpha Jet; A Partnership Between Two Countries
The Dassault Dornier Alpha Jet is a light attack jet aircraft that first entered into service in November of 1977. Designed to perform for both the French and German Air Forces, this twin-jet two-seater aircraft was developed for both training and tactical support....
Jet Friday: The F-16 Viper Pilot Dodging 6 SAMs
Jump to Video 28 years ago on January 16, 1991, the Gulf War began with the largest aerial bombing campaign since World War II. Desert Storm began with a secret sortie codenamed Operation Senior Surprise but unofficially referred to as “Secret Squirrel” that departed...
Jet Friday: This Aircraft Shot Its Ownself Down
In early 1956, the United States Navy began testing a new single-seat supersonic fighter, the F11F Tiger. This new carrier-based aircraft was expected to be an upgraded replacement for the Navy’s first carrier-based fighter, the F9F Panther/Cougar, which was also...
The Air Force Envisioned an Airborne Aircraft Carrier
In the Avengers movies, the secret group SHIELD used a massive full-size aircraft carrier called a helicarrier. This mammoth ship contained four gigantic fans that provided enough lift to help hide the carrier amongst the clouds. From the carrier, SHIELD could launch...
Jet Friday – F-15 Eagle Pilot Landing On One Wing
The F-15 Eagle is a large, highly capable beast of a fighter aircraft. Normally piloted by a single crew member, on a training mission in 1983, one two-seat trainer would be tested under some incredible flying circumstances. F-15 Eagle - a rocket with wings The F-15...
Jet Friday: How Producers Got Maverick’s Realistic Flying Footage
After 34 years, Top Gun is returning to the big screen. Things have changed quite a bit since Maverick was being launched off the USS Enterprise in his F-14 Tomcat. Instead of the Enterprise, this time the aircraft carrier is the USS Abraham Lincoln. When he returns...
Jet Friday – The Caspian Sea Monster
It was the mid-1960s and the United States and Russia were both embroiled in Cold War secrets. When it came to winning a potential war, both countries were determined to find new ways to stay ahead of the other in technology and weapons. Each was determined to know...
Jet Friday: The Black Eagles Aerobatic Team of South Korea
We have previously showcased the U.S. Navy Blue Angels’ flight demonstration team that flies the F-18 Hornet. We have also provided you with articles about the Thunderbirds, the U.S. Air Force aerobatic team who fly the F-16 Viper. These teams are great recruiting...
Jet Friday – Unauthorized Photo Session Kills Pilots, Destroys Experimental Aircraft
The XB-70 Valkyrie was the largest and fastest strategic bomber the United States ever built. It was designed to exceed Mach 3, or over 2301 mph, and had a service ceiling over 77,000 feet. It performed these speeds and reached these altitudes using six General...
Jet Friday: Fastest U-turn in History
Black Rock Desert is a very flat and open expanse 100 miles north of Reno, Nevada. It’s also the home of two successful land speed records. This is not the story of one of those. A professional race car driver, Craig Breedlove, was determined to set the land speed...
The First Flight That Technically Wasn’t
As popular an aircraft as the F-16 Fighting Falcon (Viper) is, it was not warmly welcomed when it was in development. Those against this small single-engine air superiority fighter were concerned it would be a threat to its larger big brother, the F-15 Eagle, a...
Jet Friday: How Do You Start a Jet Engine
In previous Jet Friday articles, we have covered the jet engine by showing how one works and how turbojets operate in extremely high altitudes at very high speeds. In this article, we will show you how a jet engine gets started. Though there are differences in how a...
A Pilot Who Has Flown Both the F-16 and MiG-29 Compares Both
The United States Air Force has some very powerful fighter aircraft in its arsenal. From the supersonic light fighter 3rd generation F-5 Tiger II that was introduced into service in 1962 to currently the only active 5th generation stealth aircraft, the F-22, and F-35....
Jet Friday: Comparing Two Air Superiority Fighters; the Raptor and Typhoon
Having command and control of the battlespace cannot be completely accomplished without the ability to also control the air. Controlling the airspace in a combat environment is important for both the eyes in the air and the troops on the ground. If you want to...
USAF Capt. McConnell; First Triple Ace and Top American Korean Ace
During the Korean War, there were battles named for their locations, like Osan, Inchon, Kapyong, and Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir. United Nations (UN) forces fought beside Republic of Korea troops to push the North Korean Army back into North Korea and stop communism...
Jet Friday: The Hustler – An Air Force Record Setter
In the new jet era following WWII, America needed to upgrade its bomber fleet from turboprop aircraft like the B-36 Peacemaker to faster, jet engine powered aircraft. The B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress both met the need for higher altitude and speed to get...
Jet Friday: How The Blackbird’s Turbojet Handled Thin Air at Mach3+
Jet engines are highly complicated instruments that propel an aircraft to very high speeds. When it comes to raw power, nothing is quite like a jet engine. We have shared a video in a past Jet Friday that explains how a jet engine works. The typical turbofan of a jet...
The U-2 Spy Plane, Difficult to Fly, Land, and Launch
An all black, single-engine aircraft soars through the sky above 70,000 feet. It's at the edge of space, 13 miles above sea level, so without radar, it will likely go unnoticed by anyone on the ground below. It is flying over an undisclosed region of the world...
Jet Friday: The 1st at Mach 1, Chuck Yeager
A B-29 Superfortress cruises over the Mojave Desert. The heavy bomber is not on a training mission, but rather participating in an event that will shape the future of flight. Strapped to the bottom of the Superfortress is a rocket-powered experimental aircraft and...
From Prowl to Growl: The Last Squadron of the EA-6Bs is Deactivated
On Friday, March 8, 2019, the Marine Corps will hold a deactivation ceremony for the final squadron flying the EA-6B Prowler. Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2, the first Marine Corps squadron to transition from the EA-6A Electric Intruder to the Prowler...
C-17 Mission: Land On Dirt Airstrip, Unload 2 Apaches, and Take Back Off
The C-17 Globemaster III is the workhorse of the U.S. Air Force. It's not the flashy multi-role F-16 or the low-flying close-air-support A-10. But these big cargo and troop transports put in the work every day, keeping the U.S. military operating around the world in...
Jet Friday: The Seaplane That Would Deliver Nuclear Weapons
Jet aircraft and seawater don’t mix, unless those engines are part of a prototype seaplane designed to be a strategic bomber. Even then, those engines still need to be set high enough on the fuselage of the flying boat to keep spray out of the intakes. In the 1950s,...
Jet Friday: USAF Thunderbirds Lifting Up The Airshow Crowd
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a 40-year-old fighter aircraft that was designed to win and maintain air superiority. Its designers developed innovative technology for the time, like the pilot’s seat that is elevated and set at 30 degree incline to enable the pilot to...
