Full-rate production of the Russian Air Force’s new Su-34 fighter-bomber is underway at the Sukhoi production facility in Siberia, a company spokesman said this week, reports the Russian News & Information Agency. The facility will be able to crank out 20 aircraft simultaneously. The two-seat Su-34 Fullback is slated to replace the Su-24 Fencer, which Sukhoi has been upgrading to extend the service life. RIA reports that Russia plans to field 58 Fullbacks by 2015.
In 1941, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold of the then-U.S. Army Air Corps, personally reviewed a jet engine patented by Sir Frank Whittle flying on a Gloster E.28/39 aircraft. Impressed by its design, Arnold arranged for a Whittle engine to be brought back to the U.S. and tasked General Electric…