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The 'Turtle' and the 'Dreamboat' is the first detailed account of the race for long-distance flight records between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy less than fourteen months after World War II. The flights were risky and unprecedented. Each service intended to demonstrate its offensive capabilities during the dawning nuclear age, a time when America was realigning its military structure and preparing to create a new armed service-the United States Air Force. The first week of October 1946 saw the conclusion of both record-breaking, nonstop flights by the military fliers. The first aircraft, a two-engine U.S. Navy P2V Neptune patrol plane nicknamed the Truculent Turtle , flew more than eleven thousand miles from Perth, Western Australia, to Columbus, Ohio. The Turtle carried four war-honed pilots and a young kangaroo as a passenger. The second plane, a four-engine U.S. Army B-29 Superfortress bomber dubbed the Pacusan Dreamboat , flew nearly ten thousand miles from Honolulu to Cairo via the Arctic. Although presented as a friendly rivalry, the two flights were anything but collegial. These military missions were meant to capture public opinion and establish aviation leadership within the coming Department of Defense. Both audacious flights above oceans, deserts, mountains, and icecaps helped to shape the future of worldwide commercial aviation, greatly reducing the length and costs of international routes. Jim Leeke provides an account of the remarkable and record-breaking flights that forever changed aviation.

Foundations of Russian Military Flight focuses on the early use of balloons and aircraft by the Russian military. The best early Russian aircraft included flying boats designed by Dimitrii Grigorovich and large reconnaissance-bombers created by Igor Sikorsky.

With the continuous development of military technology, intelligent aviation ammunition has become an important part of modern military operations. However, the safety of intelligent aviation munitions systems has always been a matter of concern. This study aims to explore the safety technology of intelligent aviation ammunition systems to ensure their reliability and stability in combat. First, this study reviews the current development status and application fields of intelligent aviation ammunition systems. Subsequently, it focused on analyzing the security threats and risks that intelligent aviation ammunition systems may face, including perception security, planning security, communication security, and evaluation and testing security. In response to these security challenges, a series of technologies and strategies have been proposed, and comprehensive security measures have been adopted to effectively reduce the security risks of intelligent aviation ammunition systems and improve their credibility and availability in actual combat. This research provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the safety technology of intelligent aviation ammunition systems, and provides a reference for its future development and application.

Nocturnal avian migration flyways remain an elusive concept, as we have largely lacked methods to map their full extent. We used the network of European weather radars to investigate nocturnal bird movements at the scale of the European flyway. We mapped the main migration directions and showed the intensity of movement across part of Europe by extracting biological information from 70 weather radar stations from northern Scandinavia to Portugal, during the autumn migration season of 2016. On average, over the 20 nights and all sites, 389 birds passed per 1 km transect per hour. The night with highest migration intensity showed an average of 1621 birds km–1 h–1 passing the radar stations, but there was considerable geographical and temporal variation in migration intensity. The highest intensity of migration was seen in central France. The overall migration directions showed strong southwest components. Migration dynamics were strongly related to synoptic wind conditions. A wind‐related mass migration event occurred immediately after a change in wind conditions, but quickly diminished even when supporting winds continued to prevail. This first continental‐scale study using the European network of weather radars demonstrates the wealth of information available and its potential for investigating large‐scale bird movements, with consequences for ecosystem function, nutrient transfer, human and livestock health, and civil and military aviation.

With the rapid advancement of aviation equipment, the adoption of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices in aviation equipment has witnessed a substantial rise. As these devices are not specifically designed for aviation equipment with high safety and reliability requirements, their widespread use may give rise to numerous challenges and issues. Therefore, conducting reliability risk analysis and control of COTS devices is crucial for ensuring the performance and reliability of aviation equipment. This paper examines the fundamental conditions and current issues regarding the test and evaluation work of COTS products in U.S. military aviation equipment. Furthermore, it conducts a thorough analysis of the reliability risks associated with COTS devices in aviation equipment. Subsequently, a strategy and procedure for managing reliability risks related to COTS devices in aviation equipment is proposed. The results of the application case analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in identifying and capturing the key factors associated with the reliability risk of COTS devices. This subsequently guides the assessment and control of reliability risks associated with COTS devices in aviation equipment.

The distinct operational characteristics of military aircraft, relative to civil aircraft, have impeded the standardisation of airworthiness management practice across Europe. Standardisation has been further deterred by the intertwined certification and qualification activities specific to military aircraft. The management of airworthiness in European military aviation has undergone significant changes over the past 15 years, with the progress made attributed to the harmonisation efforts driven by the European Defence Agency (EDA). The creation of a Military Airworthiness Authorities Forum and the development of the European Military Airworthiness Requirements (EMAR) have been instrumental in creating a more homogenous regulatory landscape. The examples of five main players of the European aerospace sector, namely France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, are examined from the point of view of adoption and implementation of an EMARs-based system. Their regulatory structures have revealed similarities and primary differences. The EMAR’s framework has enabled a gradual build-up of technical knowhow within the European countries who embraced this, civil-based, framework. All five countries have adopted EMARs, though through a variety of regulatory constructs. Their regulatory structures exhibit diverse practices, especially in how initial and continuing airworthiness is managed. Some countries have also elected to have more than one authority overseeing/been responsible for airworthiness. Closer collaboration between national Military Aviation Authorities (MAAs) can be achieved through standardisation at regulatory structure level. The establishment of a joint MAAs may be the next logical step in the harmonisation process, in line with EDA objective’ for a EU-wide authority with greater powers.

The aerosphere is utilized by billions of birds, moving for different reasons and from short to great distances spanning tens of thousands of kilometres. The aerosphere, however, is also utilized by aviation which leads to increasing conflicts in and around airfields as well as en‐route. Collisions between birds and aircraft cost billions of euros annually and, in some cases, result in the loss of human lives. Simultaneously, aviation has diverse negative impacts on wildlife. During avian migration, due to the sheer numbers of birds in the air, the risk of bird strikes becomes particularly acute for low‐flying aircraft, especially during military training flights. Over the last few decades, air forces across Europe and the Middle East have been developing solutions that integrate ecological research and aviation policy to reduce mutual negative interactions between birds and aircraft. In this paper we 1) provide a brief overview of the systems currently used in military aviation to monitor bird migration movements in the aerosphere, 2) provide a brief overview of the impact of bird strikes on military low‐level operations, and 3) estimate the effectiveness of migration monitoring systems in bird strike avoidance. We compare systems from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Israel, which are all areas that Palearctic migrants cross twice a year in huge numbers. We show that the en‐route bird strikes have decreased considerably in countries where avoidance systems have been implemented, and that consequently bird strikes are on average 45% less frequent in countries with implemented avoidance systems in place. We conclude by showing the roles of operational weather radar networks, forecast models and international and interdisciplinary collaboration to create safer skies for aviation and birds.

Collisions between birds and military aircraft are common and can have catastrophic effects. Knowledge of relative wildlife hazards to aircraft (the likelihood of aircraft damage when a species is struck) is needed before estimating wildlife strike risk (combined frequency and severity component) at military airfields. Despite annual reviews of wildlife strike trends with civil aviation since the 1990s, little is known about wildlife strike trends for military aircraft. We hypothesized that species relative hazard scores would correlate positively with aircraft type and avian body mass. Only strike records identified to species that occurred within the U.S. (n = 36,979) and involved United States Navy or United States Air Force aircraft were used to calculate relative hazard scores. The most hazardous species to military aircraft was the snow goose (Anser caerulescens), followed by the common loon (Gavia immer), and a tie between Canada goose (Branta canadensis) and black vulture (Coragyps atratus). We found an association between avian body mass and relative hazard score (r2 = 0.76) for all military airframes. In general, relative hazard scores per species were higher for military than civil airframes. An important consideration is that hazard scores can vary depending on aircraft type. We found that avian body mass affected the probability of damage differentially per airframe. In the development of an airfield wildlife management plan, and absent estimates of species strike risk, airport wildlife biologists should prioritize management of species with high relative hazard scores.

Organizations in the United States alone spend billions on training each year. These training and development activities allow organizations to adapt, compete, excel, innovate, produce, be safe, improve service, and reach goals. Training has successfully been used to reduce errors in such high-risk settings as emergency rooms, aviation, and the military. However, training is also important in more conventional organizations. These organizations understand that training helps them to remain competitive by continually educating their workforce. They understand that investing in their employees yields greater results. However, training is not as intuitive as it may seem. There is a science of training that shows that there is a right way and a wrong way to design, deliver, and implement a training program. The research on training clearly shows two things: (a) training works, and (b) the way training is designed, delivered, and implemented matters. This article aims to explain why training is important and how to use training appropriately. Using the training literature as a guide, we explain what training is, why it is important, and provide recommendations for implementing a training program in an organization. In particular, we argue that training is a systematic process, and we explain what matters before, during, and after training. Steps to take at each of these three time periods are listed and described and are summarized in a checklist for ease of use. We conclude with a discussion of implications for both leaders and policymakers and an exploration of issues that may come up when deciding to implement a training program. Furthermore, we include key questions that executives and policymakers should ask about the design, delivery, or implementation of a training program. Finally, we consider future research that is important in this area, including some still unanswered questions and room for development in this evolving field.