Russia’s New Fifth Generation Fighter

08/17/2010
[caption id="attachment_10802" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Richard Weitz (Credit Photo: The Hudson Institute)[/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz The United States possess the only fifth-generation fighter currently in service, the F-22A Raptor stealth fighter, which entered the U.S. Air Force in 1997. The Russian Federation is hoping to join this exalted category…

An Update on F-35 Manufacturing: The Case of Wing Assembly

06/18/2010
6/20/2010 SLD visited the Fort Worth assembly plant for the F-35 in late April.  During the visit, the focus was upon the transformation of the outer wing box assembly production approach. During the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase, wings have been built in the more traditional military aircraft assembly…

The Shrinking of the Supply Chain: An Upcoming Crisis?

03/29/2010
The Challenges Facing the Supply Chain: An Interview With Bill Anderson The Honorable William C. (“Bill”) Anderson served as Assistant Secretary of the United States Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics as well as the Air Force Senior Energy Executive under President George W. Bush.  Presently he serves as…

The F-35 Low Observability’s Lifelong Sustainability: A Revolutionary Asset for 21st Century Combat Aviation

03/22/2010
2010-05-22 Everyone knows that the F-35 is a stealth aircraft. This is one element of what makes it a fifth-generation aircraft.  But what is not widely known is that the stealth or low observable (LO) character of the aircraft is significantly different from other stealth aircraft like the F-22. The…

Mark Lewis on Hypersonics: Taking a Logical Path

03/16/2010
By Mark J. Lewis Mark J. Lewis is chairman of Clark School’s Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, and president-elect of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was the chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force from 2004 to 2008. An earlier version…

Weapons Development: the Case of the Small Diameter Bomb I Block 9

03/15/2010
The 308th Armament Systems Wing at Eglin Air Force Base: Weapons Development and the Case of the Small Diameter Bomb I Block 9 In mid-February SLD had a chance to interview Randy Brown, 308th Armament Systems Wing Director, and Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Kato, 681st Armament Systems Squadron Commander, 308th Armament…