Afterburner - The Aviation Magazine

21 October 2025

AVIATION HISTORY

René Leduc and his ramjet-powered aircraft

On 21 October 1947, 78 years ago from today, the Leduc 0.10 experimental aircraft performed its first free-gliding flight. Just over a year later, the aeroplane designed by René Leduc, a French aviation engineer, made aviation history with the first [...]
AVIATION HISTORY

17 October 1922 – The first aircraft launched from the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier

On 17 October 1922, the first aircraft, a Vought VE-7 biplane, was launched from USS Langley, the first aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Although it was neither the first time an aeroplane had taken off from a ship nor [...]
OTHER

Bordeaux pélicandrome – end of the fiery season

On 3 October 2025, the last firefighting aircraft left the pélicandrome located within Bordeaux-Mérignac Air Base (base aérienne 106 – BA 106) of Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace (the French Air and Space Force), thereby marking the end of [...]
PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Aero A-18C

Aero A-18C (c/n ?, “Black 5”) racing aircraft, exhibited at Letecké muzeum Kbely (Kbely Aviation Museum), Prague, September 2025. In March 1923, a new biplane fighter developed by the Aero aviation company, designated the A-18, successfully made its maiden flight. [...]
MILITARY AVIATION

Eight more MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters for the USAF

Last week, Boeing officially announced that the company had been awarded an additional contract to produce eight more MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters for the United States Air Force. The deal, worth more than $173 million, includes training and sustainment support [...]

Austrian wingsuit pilot sets the new world speed record

DREAMERS AND DOERS

17 September 2025

It was in early November 2024 that we first wrote about wingsuit flyer Peter Salzmann and his feat of breaking three world records in a single flight. Now, almost a year later, the Austrian skydiver [...]

RWD-8 – the most-produced pre-war Polish aircraft

AVIATION HISTORY

19 August 2025

Among Polish interwar aircraft, those designed by Stanisław Rogalski, Stanisław Wigura, and Jerzy Drzewiecki — designated RWD, the name coming from the initials of their surnames — hold a special place in aviation history. Notable [...]

AVIATION HISTORY