Aviation

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Behind Enemy Lines: The Story Of Basher 52

14 May 2026 5 minute read 3 comments Investigator515

This shootdown would involve an intensive manhunt and eventually, a Hollywood movie. In this previous article, we explored the downing of Vega-31, an American F-117 Nighthawk that would be lost during NATO operations. This would not be the only aircr...

The Raspberry Pi SIGINT Station: Capturing ACARS Transmissions

6 May 2026 6 minute read 1 comment Investigator515

If you’ve been reading for a while, you already know that we are firm fans of the Raspberry Pi. While the value equation is different to what it was in the past, it’s still a great system for deploying projects quickly and easily. Despite this, with...

The Night Stealth Fell: The Story of Vega-31

7 Dec 2025 6 minute read 2 comments Investigator515

Stealth technology is here to stay. With nearly three decades of service under its belt, Stealth changed the way that aircraft would operate and increased survivability to new heights. However, stealth isn’t the only contributing factor, and while ma...

Exploring Esionage: The RC-135 Rivet Joint

16 Nov 2025 4 minute read 0 comments Investigator515

As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it” sometimes, things turn out that way with intelligence gathering aircraft as well. While some platforms are destined for a short life with an enduring legacy, some that have been featured have...

Spies In The Mud: The RF-111 Aardvark

30 Sep 2025 8 minute read 0 comments Investigator515

With the U-2 and SR-71 on its books, the United States Air Force wasn’t exactly lacking for a capable reconnaissance platform. However, some fast jet platforms were more valuable than others. In fact, in the 1980s, if you didn’t have a spy satellite...

The MiG-25 Foxbat (Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-25)

20 Sep 2025 5 minute read 0 comments Investigator515

The final design for Mikhail Gurevich would put the USSR in the history books   The reconnaissance aircraft would be the original, “eye in the sky” platform. In a world without satellites, these aircraft would play a key role in identifying military...

Exploring Espionage: The U-2 Dragon Lady

6 Sep 2025 7 minute read 2 comments Investigator515

The U-2 provided critical intelligence before the evolution of spy satellites. In times of war, much is made of the “high ground” advantage. There’s no denying that this is highly relevant to ground forces, and as such, it is a primary factor in asse...

Exploring Espionage: The EP-3 Aries

19 Aug 2025 5 minute read 1 comment Investigator515

The Aries has an interesting past and was involved in a noteworthy incident. Intelligence comes in all forms, and as such, we see all forms of intelligence gathering platforms as well. As we’ve explored espionage through this series, we’ve looked at...

5 Iconic Military Aviation Images.

26 Jul 2025 6 minute read 0 comments Investigator515

A picture says a thousand words, and these pictures say plenty. Aviation is pretty cool. In mere decades, we went from the biplane to the Jet Engine right through to the Saturn 5 rocket that would help land man on the moon. Over this time, we would s...

Exploring Espionage: The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

20 Jul 2025 6 minute read 0 comments Investigator515

Height was might thanks to the U-2, but the SR-71 had true speed. Sometimes, things become cultural icons without that ever being the intent. And while in today’s world, spy satellites have made the concept of a reconnaissance platform somewhat outda...