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U.S. Air Force

F-117 Nighthawk stealth jet landing on a runway

The only F-117 flown in all four conflicts where Nighthawks saw combat, nicknamed The Overachiever, is joining the Smithsonian and is expected on public display in late October

One Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk carries a combat record no other airframe of its type can

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The Convair XC-99 in flight, circa 1948.

Convair built only one XC-99, a transport with a 230-foot wingspan designed to carry 400 troops, and it moved more than 60 million pounds of cargo before its final flight in 1957

Take the wing of the B-36 bomber, all 230 feet of it, and build a

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Jet engine on a test stand with afterburner lit

How Air Force maintainers can now inspect the hard-to-reach fifth stage of the F-16’s F100 engine without tearing it down, after two crashes caused more than $54 million in damage

Deep inside the Pratt & Whitney F100 engine used in F-16s, the fifth compressor stage

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Bell X-2 rocket plane landing on the lakebed

How Capt. Mel Apt flew the Bell X-2 to Mach 3.196, about 2,094 miles per hour, on Sept. 27, 1956, after a B-50 carried it aloft to 31,800 feet

A B-50 bomber did the first part of the climb. Shortly after daybreak on Sept.

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Air Force basic trainees marching behind a guidon at graduation

The Air Force has set a 2027 goal of 36,300 new active-duty enlisted airmen, the first goal above 35,000 since 2003, after signing 31,950 in fiscal 2026

The Air Force wants 36,300 new active-duty enlisted airmen in fiscal 2027, which began Oct.

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HH-43 Huskie rescue helicopter on museum display

The HH-43 Huskie was the first Air Force rescue helicopter into Southeast Asia and the last to leave, and it made more combat saves than any other USAF helicopter

The Kaman HH-43 Huskie was a small twin-rotor helicopter bought mainly for base rescue and

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Night launch of a rocket carrying a GPS III satellite

GAO says the Pentagon canceled its next-generation GPS ground control system in 2026, 16 years after development began, and new GPS receivers won’t reach every Army aircraft until 2049

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department’s Next Generation Operational Control System, the ground segment meant to

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The unpainted F-15 Streak Eagle parked on a runway

A stripped-down F-15 called Streak Eagle broke eight time-to-climb world records in 1975, reaching 98,425 feet just 3 minutes, 27.8 seconds after brake release

Three minutes and 27.8 seconds. That is how long a McDonnell Douglas F-15A nicknamed Streak

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F-35A Lightning IIs and F-16 Fighting Falcons of the 354th Fighter Wing assemble during a readiness exercise at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on May 20, 2022.

GAO found Eielson Air Force Base had 428 vacant civilian support positions, the most of nine remote bases it reviewed, and that the Pentagon has no clear definition of a remote installation

What makes a military base remote and isolated? The Pentagon has a rule for designating

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The Question Mark takes on fuel from a tanker aircraft flying above it during the January 1929 endurance flight

The Fokker C-2 Question Mark stayed aloft for almost 151 hours on refueled flight in January 1929, an endurance record the Smithsonian calls unofficial

One Army Fokker circled over Van Nuys, California, from New Year’s Day 1929 until an

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