Like every year, between 22 and 27 January the World Economic Forum (WEF) brought together a large number of heads of state, chief executive officers, political and religious leaders as well as the media. The World Economic Forum is a purely Swiss event, but since it is being held in the town of…

On October 21st the Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) Hyakuri annual airshow took place on Hyakuri Air Base, also called Ibaraki Airport for the civil side of the airfield. In early 2010 civil operations began after a new parallel runway was constructed including a terminal on the west side of…

For more than 35 years, Leopoldsburg Airfield, near Hechtel, Belgium has hosted the International Sanicole Airshow. Though being a private organised airshow (the only one in the country) it always gets excellent support from the national and international military demonstration teams. For…

Located in St Mary’s County, Maryland near the mouth of the Patuxent River, is United States Navy test base Naval Air Station Patuxent River. It is home to the US Naval Test Pilot School and also for various test and evaluation Squadrons. Touchdown Aviation was invited to visit the base and to visit…

It's 10.05h local time at Geilenkirchen when I hear "NATO45 you are cleared for take off, runway 27" in my headset. The clearance was given just after an E-3A passed in front of us performing a missed approach. Before we start rolling the pilot lt. col. M. Glatt-Kallenberg and co-pilot lt. col. T.…

After the successful first exercise last year, RNLAF exercise Dutch Blaze was held again from June 20th – July 1st 2011. Although the name remained the same, the exercise had reduced in size and participants and had a different character than last years exercise. A couple of things remained the same…

From October 4th - 15th the skies over Holland were filled with the tigers roarrr produced by some 50 aircraft participating in the NATO Tiger Meet 2010. 313 Squadron based at RNLAF Volkel was host to this annual exercise organised by the NATO Tiger Association (NTA). It was the largest exercise…

To prepare RNLAF helicopter crew for their future ISAF deployment in Afghanistan, exercise Dutch Blaze was held at different area's in the Netherlands from June 28th till July 9th. Participants were AS532 Cougars from 300 squadron and CH-47D Chinooks from 298 squadron. Touchdown Aviation saw the…

The last decade the Slovak Air Force saw some major changes with the withdrawal of several aircraft types and a restructure of it's organization as a result of the NATO membership in 2004. From Monday May 24th until Friday May 28th Touchdown Aviation was guest at Malacky-Kuchyña and Prešov Airbases…