Afterburner - The Aviation Magazine

29 December 2025

AVIATION HISTORY

26 December 1975 – first operational flight of the supersonic airliner

On 26 December 1975, the Tupolev Tu-144, the first supersonic passenger aircraft (also known as the “supersonic transport” – SST), performed its first operational flight, carrying mail cargo from Moscow to Alma-Ata (now Almaty, Kazakhstan). The Tu-144 prototype made its [...]
PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Hunting (Percival) P.66 Pembroke C.54

Hunting (Percival) P.66 Pembroke C.54 (c/n 105, formerly “SE+515” and “5408” of the German Naval Aviation / Marineflieger), exhibited at the Aeronauticum aviation museum, Nordholz, June 2019. The history of the Pembroke transport aircraft began in the mid-1940s, when Percival [...]
MILITARY AVIATION

One hundred helicopters for the Spanish Armed Forces

Last week, Airbus officially announced that the company had been awarded an order for one hundred military rotorcraft by the Spanish Ministry of Defence. The helicopters will be acquired under four separate contracts signed between Airbus and Dirección General de [...]
AVIATION HISTORY

19 December 1910 – the first flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft in Japan

On 19 December 1910, Yoshitoshi Tokugawa performed the first flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft in Japan, flying the Farman III aeroplane. Yoshitoshi Tokugawa was born in 1884, as the son of Count Tokugawa Atsumori. In 1903, he graduated from [...]
DREAMERS AND DOERS

Human power transferred into lift force – the Peloton Takeoff Project

On 4 December 2025, at Son Bonet Airfield in Mallorca, Spain, a group of cyclists from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe achieved the world’s first human powered aircraft take-off. Known as Peloton Takeoff, the project involved a nine-rider peloton comprised of Florian Lipowitz, [...]

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