Taliban fighters check the cockpit of a damaged Afghan Air Force helicopter at a hangar at the airport in Kabul on Sept. 14, 2021. Once the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s airfield in Kandahar in August, it didn’t take long for photos to appear on social media showing militants posing with military helicopters, including American-made Black Hawks and Soviet-made Mi-17s. (Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images)
Michele Evans, who led Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics business since 2018, died on Jan. 1, 2021. Evans spent 34 years working at Lockheed and, before she experienced medical issues, was seen as a top contender to replace Marillyn Hewson as the company’s chief executive. (Lockheed Martin)
Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes said in October the U.S. Air Force might decide it can’t afford to build an entirely new, advanced engine for its F-35A aircraft and instead stick with the F135, made by Pratt & Whitney. Two months later, lawmakers are pushing for military reports on how either an upgraded F135 or a different propulsion system would affect the Joint Strike Fighter's combat effectiveness, sustainment costs and air refueling needs. (PRNewsfoto/Pratt & Whitney)
Argentina insisted in September that reports the country is buying the JF-17 Thunder aircraft are premature, but analysts said it could still succeed where other fighter types failed — mostly as a result of British pressure. Speculation arose after media reports highlighted a request in Argentina’s fiscal 2022 draft budget for $664 million to purchase 12 JF-17s from Pakistan. The U.K. previously pressured suppliers to cancel deals with Argentina, or sabotaged them by embargoing critical British components. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)
A mockup of former President Donald Trump's preferred livery for the VC-25B was on display during a June 2019 meeting between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. One of the first queries posed to President Joe Biden’s new administration was whether the president would seek to undo the change to the iconic Air Force One paint scheme proposed by his predecessor. (Evan Vucci/AP)
A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B launches from Britain's HMS Queen Elizabeth. A video circulating on Twitter in November purported to show a British F-35B crashing into the sea while attempting to take off from the aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean. (1st Lt. Zachary Bodner/U.S. Marine Corps)
China for the first time showed off retired 1950s-era fighter jets that were converted to unmanned drones, with satellite photos of two of its east coast bases near Taiwan showing a large number of the jets on site. Here, a group of converted J-6 unmanned aircraft sit on the tarmac at China's Liancheng airbase on Sept. 15, 2021. (Planet Labs)
China debuted its dedicated electronic-attack aircraft, dubbed the Shenyang J-16D, at the Zhuhai airshow, which ran Sept. 28-Oct. 3. (Screen grab from Chinese state CCTV footage)
U.K.-based hypersonic propulsion company Reaction Engines, backed by Rolls-Royce, Boeing and BAE Systems, took a step closer to developing an engine capable of powering combat jets and other aircraft at speeds of up to Mach 5 following tests of two subsystems vital to the success of the design. The firm has worked for decades on its Sabre synergetic, air-breathing rocket engine for aerospace applications; one potential use is illustrated in this artist's rendering. (Reaction Engines)
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter emerged victorious in Switzerland’s $6.5 billion fighter competition, beating out entrants from Eurofighter, Dassault and Boeing. Over the course of the program, Switzerland plans to spend up to roughly $6.5 billion to buy 36 F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing models to replace its aging Hornet fleet, the government announced in June. (Senior Airman Kristine Legate/U.S. Air Force)