“In her book, “Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design”, Kat Holmes recounts a wartime example of how a rigid approach to design can go wrong. America’s Air Force took the bodily measurements of its pilots and used the average to design the cockpit. After many unexpected crashes, a researcher took ten of the most important measures… Read More
The Air Dominance and Suppression (ADS) Project Team, part of the Weapons Operating Centre, was formed by the merger of the former Air to Air Missile (AAM) and Surface Attack (SA) Project Teams in November 2014. The ADS Project Team is responsible for: Meteor is the next generation Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile developed to… Read More
“The battle we are now approaching demands a colossal measure of production capacity. No limit on rearmament can be visualized. The only alternatives are victory or destruction… We live in a time when the final battle is in sight. We are ready on the threshold of mobilization and we are already at war. All that… Read More
“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” Marshal Ferdinand Foch (1851 to 1929) Speaking in his role as Professor of Strategy at the French War College (Ecole Superieure de Guerre) in 1911. Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch was a Marshal of France and commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War… Read More
Table 1 outlines the top 10 air forces by active fleet for 2015 (FlightGlobal, 2014, p.5). Table 1: Global Military Fleet Position Country Active Fleet Share 1 USA 13,902 27% 2 Russia 3,429 7% 3 China 2,860 6% 4 India 1,905 4% 5 Japan 1,612 3% 6 South Korea 1,412 3% 7 France 1,264 2%… Read More
“The battlefield in the air will be the decisive one.” Douhet (1920 to 2007) An Italian army general and the ‘father’ of strategic air power. Trained as an artillery officer, from 1912 to 1915 Douhet served as commander of the Aeronautical Battalion, Italy’s first aviation unit (also the first to practice aerial bombardment, in Libya… Read More
“It is probable that future war will be conducted by a special class, the Air Force, as it was by the armoured knights of the Middle Ages.” Sir Winston Churchill (1874 to 1965) Conservative Prime Minister twice: from 1940 to 1945 (before being defeated in the 1945 general election by the Labour leader Clement Attlee)… Read More
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