Aviation Week & Space Technology

The 1 December 1958 issue of Aviation Week included an article, "Soviets Flight Testing Nuclear Bomber", that claimed that the Soviets had made great progress in their own nuclear aircraft program.[9] This was accompanied by an editorial on the topic as well. The magazine claimed that the aircraft was real beyond a doubt, stating that "A nuclear-powered bomber is being flight tested in the Soviet Union. ... It has been observed both in flight and on the ground by a wide variety of foreign observers from Communist and non-Communist countries." In reality, however, the article was a hoax.[10] The aircraft in the photographs was later revealed to be an M-50 bomber and not a nuclear-powered plane at all.

After finding a December 1976 Titan IIID launch was for a secret KH-11 spy satellite, Aviation Week & Space Technology editor Craig Covault agreed with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David C. Jones to hold on the story, but received details on the Buran programme which were published on March 20, 1978. It revealed progressively the KeyHole Story after William Kampiles sold the KH-11 manual to a Soviet spy.[11]

The SR-72[12] is the proposed successor to the SR-71 Blackbird. There were unconfirmed rumors about the SR-72 dating back to 2007, when various sources disclosed that Lockheed Martin was developing a Mach 6 plane for the US Air Force. Such a development was confirmed on 1 November 2013, when the Skunk Works revelations were published about the development work on the SR-72 exclusively in Aviation Week & Space Technology.[13] The magazine dubbed it 'The Son of Blackbird'. Public attention to the news was large enough to overwhelm the Aviation Week servers.[14]

In a December 9, 2013 cover story, Aviation Week & Space Technology revealed[15] details about a highly classified intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance stealth unmanned aircraft – the RQ-180 – that has been developed in secret by Northrop Grumman. The aircraft is currently flying at Area 51 in the Nevada desert and will become operational by 2015.[16]

In October 2014, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works research lab gave Aviation Week editor Guy Norris access to a previously secret initiative to develop a compact fusion reactor[17] that is small enough to power interplanetary spacecraft, ships and ultimately large aircraft that would virtually never require refueling. If successful, the groundbreaking project could shake up the global energy industry.[18]

On its January 16, 2015 cover, Aviation Week & Space Technology named Russian President Vladimir Putin "The Notorious Mr. Putin - Person Of The Year." On its website, the magazine said [19] that "no other person has had a more sweeping impact on aerospace and aviation—for better or worse—than Russian President Vladimir Putin. And for all but the most cynical of observers, Putin's far-reaching impact has definitely been for the worse. Because of this, he is Aviation Week's 2014 Person of the Year." The controversial issue caused a backlash among readers on its comments section and on social media.