Flightlines — A blog for airmen, their families and fans the Air Force.

An F-35A Lightning II aircraft from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, breaks hard left trailing wingtip vortexes behind as it arrives at Hill Air Force Base, Utah where it will be seen on static display during the 34th Fighter Squadron’s activation ceremony held July 17 at Hill AFB. The 34th will be the first combat squadron to fly the Air Force’s newest fighter aircraft, the F-35A. The squadron has an extremely rich history. (U.S. Air Force photo by Alex R. Lloyd/Released)

Flightlines blog has moved

By Oriana Pawlyk on June 6, 2016 Air Force

But we’re still around. Catch the latest Air Force Times Flightlines’ blog posts at http://www.airforcetimes.com/flightlines/. The entire Flightlines archive (pre-2016) is still here as well.

The ancient city of Palmyra was recaptured from ISIS by Syrian forces Sunday. (Associated Press Photo)

Drone footage shows ruins of former ISIS city

By Phillip Swarts on March 28, 2016 Air Force, Syria

Syrian forces announced March 27 that they have retaken the ancient city of Palmyra from the Islamic State terrorist group. The Syrian Military Media Centre released aerial footage of the city taken from a drone. It not only shows the ancient ruins the area is famous for, but the damage from the heavy fighting the town has seen. The footage was released in the U.S. via the Associated Press.

A B-1B Lancer takes off from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, to conduct combat operations April 8, 2015. Al Udeid AB is a strategic coalition base that supports over 90 combat and support aircraft and houses more than 5,000 military personnel. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman James Richardson)

See a B-1 do an aileron roll

By Phillip Swarts on March 28, 2016 Air Force, Airframes

Maneuverability may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the B-1 Lancer. But the plane showed it can really move when it performed a double aileron roll at an airshow. As first posted by The Aviationist, video captured the aircraft performing the maneuver at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. No word yet on whether the Thunderbirds plan to start piloting the craft

Sara Lance (Caity Lotz, left) posed as an Air Force officer on The CW's Legends of Tomorrow on Thursday, the latest time the service has made an appearance on a superhero TV show. Wentworth Miller, right, also stars as Leonard Snart. (Photo Courtesy/The CW)

Air Force appears again on superhero TV show

By Phillip Swarts on February 15, 2016 Uncategorized

The Air Force made another appearance on a superhero TV show Thursday night, the latest time the service has appeared on a comic book based program. The CW’s time-traveling “Legends of Tomorrow” showed their characters needing to break into the Pentagon in the 1980’s, so two of them dressed in uniform to infiltrate Defense Department headquarters – including Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) posing as an Air Force major. The Air Force has also been a bit of an antagonist on the ABC show “Agents of SHIELD.” Brig. Gen. Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) has butted heads with the SHIELD main characters…

CLOSE CALL: Instead of calling it quits on the aircraft, the pilot alerted the tanker of his malfunction, and the crew escorted the jet to its base "while refueling every 15 minutes to avoid an emergency."
Posted by Air Force Times on Thursday, February 11, 2016

Back to the future: Tankers saving fighter pilots has happened before

By Oriana Pawlyk on February 12, 2016 Air Force, History

History is making a comeback when it comes to tankers lending a helping hand to some stranded Air Force pilots out there. Air Force Times’ readers applauded the news that an Air Force tanker crew from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, helped save a struggling F-16 pilot. He was flying over Islamic State group-held territory last year when a technical problem affected his fuel supply. He might have ejected over enemy territory, but the KC-135 essentially towed him back to base. “Now THAT is a wingman,” reader Sam Axe wrote on the Air Force Times Facebook page. “Teamwork at its…

A B-52H Stratofortress takes off during Exercise Combat Hammer at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Feb. 9, 2016. (Airman 1st Class J.T. Armstrong/Air Force)

B-52s drop bombs in Florida for exercise Combat Hammer

By Oriana Pawlyk on February 11, 2016 Air Force, Airframes, Global Strike Command, Photos

At a time when B-52 heavy bombers are frequent flyers over the Korean peninsula (see: North Korea shenanigans) it’s nice to know that they’re keeping ready. Six B-52 Stratofortresses from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, took part in Exercise Combat Hammer, an annual air-to-ground combat training exercise which tests bombing capability, according to a release from Minot. “We exercise to ensure we are able to hit a target that the Air Force tells us to hit, with weapons they tell us to use, at a time they want it to be hit,” Maj. Ryan Cox, 5th Operations Support Squadron chief of wing…

Air Force: Don’t troll political campaigns on social media

By Oriana Pawlyk on February 9, 2016 Air Force, Defense Department, Washington

Just in time for the New Hampshire primary, airmen have been advised to keep their politics at bay – at least on their social media pages. The Air Force last week released this social media guidelines video reminding airmen that it’s easy to get pulled into political rhetoric on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites, which has bearing on their uniformed service. Defense Department regulations have long mandated that service members abstain from partisan political activities, such as marching in political parades, wearing the uniform to political campaign events or campaigning for a specific candidate. But in 2016, this includes…

Air Force pilots will be patrolling the skies above Levi’s Stadium Sunday as part of the security measures being put in place for this year’s Super Bowl. (U.S. Air Force photo by Roland Leach)

Super Bowl 50: F-15s to patrol skies after Blue Angels flyover

By Oriana Pawlyk on February 5, 2016 Air Combat Command, Air Force, Air National Guard, Football

Between the Navy’s Blue Angels, the Air Force’s Thunderbirds, and other various aircraft, flyovers for the Super Bowl have wowed audiences for decades. This year, the Blue Angels will open Super Bowl 50, at Levi’s Stadium, California, with their “signature six-jet Delta formation.” But during the game itself, there will be other aerial backup. Air Force F-15 Eagles from the California Air National Guard have been training for weeks leading up to the big game, the Air Force said. The fighter jets will be patrolling the skies for wandering aircraft who have flown into restricted airspaces (on Sunday, the skies…

#MissionConan, showing Conan's Al Udeid hijinks, airs on TBS Monday Jan. 25.

Conan’s Al Udeid trip to air on TBS Monday

By Stephen Losey on January 21, 2016 Offbeat

Remember when talk show host and funnyman Conan O’Brien paid a visit to the troops at Al Udeid Air Base last November? Monday night on TBS, everybody’s going to get a chance to see what he was up to during his trip to Qatar with First Lady Michelle Obama. The special episode will be called #MissionConan (which is how they’re promoting it on social media). Besides Michelle Obama — who, it seems, challenged Conan to drop and give her 50 — O’Brien was joined by comedians John Mulaney, Laurie Kilmartin and Brian Kiley and singer Grace Potter. Shortly after his…

Screenshot from the 45th Space Wing's Star Wars parody trailer. (45th Space Wing)

‘The Air Force Awakens’ in Star Wars parody trailer

By Stephen Losey on December 21, 2015 Offbeat

In case you haven’t been anywhere near the Internet for the last few weeks, a little movie called Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened this weekend. (Spoiler alert: It was a lot of fun.) Pretty much everybody jumped on the Star Wars bandwagon (including Military Times, with our “Pick your Star Wars battle buddy” poll). And as the movie entered theaters late last week, the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida also joined in the fun. The 45th has filmed a trailer parodying the first teaser for Force Awakens, using airmen to stand in for Stormtrooper deserter Finn, desert…