Afterburner - The Aviation Magazine

15 December 2025

AVIATION HISTORY

12 December 1937 – USS Panay incident

On 12 December 1937, Japanese bomber aircraft sank the river gunboat USS Panay while she was patrolling on the Yangtze River in China. USS Panay was launched on 10 November 1924. She was built as a river gunboat to serve [...]
MILITARY AVIATION

MQ-28 Ghost Bat achieves first autonomous air-to-air kill

The Royal Australian Air Force and Boeing recently achieved a significant milestone in the development of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme, when the MQ-28 Ghost Bat successfully carried out a force-integrated, autonomous, air-to-air weapon engagement. This historic achievement was [...]
PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Zlín Z-22 Junák

Zlín Z-22 Junák (c/n 82, OO-FRE) light sport aircraft, exhibited at Letecké muzeum Kbely (Kbely Aviation Museum), Prague, September 2025. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the Zlín aviation plant in Otrokovice began developing new sport and [...]
MILITARY AVIATION

96 Apaches for Poland – the $4.7 billion contract officially awarded to Boeing

At the end of November 2025, Boeing was officially awarded the contract to produce the AH-64E Apache attack helicopter for international customers. The contract, executed under a Foreign Military Sales programme supervised by the US Army, includes ninety-six examples of [...]
AVIATION HISTORY

5 December 1941 – first flight of Kawanishi E15K Shiun

On 5 December 1941, the prototype of the two-seat Japanese floatplane Kawanishi E15K Shiun (Allied reporting name: Norm) made its first flight. In 1939, the Imperial Japanese Navy assigned the Kawanishi Aircraft Company the challenging task of developing a reconnaissance [...]

First ever wingsuit foil soaring flight with altitude gain

DREAMERS AND DOERS

26 November 2025

In its press release published on 19 November 2025, the Red Bull company announced that Austrian wingsuit pioneer Peter Salzmann had once again pushed the boundaries of what is possible in human flight. This time, [...]

End of the tale – Poland retires its Sukhoi Su-22 aircraft

FEATURED

5 November 2025

On 11 September 2025, after more than four decades of service, the Siły Powietrzne (Polish Air Force) officially retired its last examples of the Sukhoi Su-22 fighter-bomber. Once again, one of the iconic aircraft of [...]

DREAMERS AND DOERS