The jet crashed east of Mount Rainier on October 15 during a routine training mission. The wreckage was found the next day on a steep mountainside.

The fighter jet was assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 130 (VAQ-130), known as the “Zappers,” based out of Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island north of Seattle.

The Navy identified the aviators as Lieutenant Commander Lyndsay P. Evans, 31, a Naval Flight Officer from California, and Lieutenant Serena N. Wileman, 31, a Naval aviator from California.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the loss of two beloved Zappers,” said Timothy Warburton, commanding officer of VAQ-130. “Our priority right now is taking care of the families of our fallen aviators and ensuring the well-being of our sailors and the Growler community. We are grateful for the ongoing teamwork to safely recover the deceased.”

There was no information as to whether their remains have been recovered.

The crash site is located in steep terrain inaccessible by ground vehicles. The recovery efforts are battling low visibility to recover the wreckage.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

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The fighter jet crashed Tuesday at 3:23 p.m. PDT during a routine training flight, according to Navy officials. The names of the flight crew have not been released.

Wednesday, the wreckage was found on a steep, heavily forested slope at an elevation of 6,000 feet east of Mount Rainier. The area is not accessible by roads, and search crews have been hampered by low visibility in the area.

Military authorities said that the status of the crew cannot be confirmed without a site assessment of the debris area. It is not known if the crew was able to eject before the crash.

• READ MORE: Crashed U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler Located near Mount Rainier

“Our priority is to locate our two aviators as quickly and as safely as possible,” said Captain David Ganci, commander, Electronic Attack Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet. “Adhering to Department of Defense procedure, we cannot identify or confirm the names of aircrew involved in a mishap until 24-hours after their next of kin have been notified of their status.”

Civilian law enforcement, mountain search and rescue teams, and military assets are being used in the search. Thursday, soldiers from the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, joined the search. They bring specialized skills in mountaineering, high-angle rescue, medical, and technical communication skills that are necessary to access the site in the Cascade Mountain Range.

“We appreciate the community support as experienced personnel respond around the crash site,” said Captain Nathan Gammache, commanding officer of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. “We are confident that we have the capability we need at this time and will request any additional capabilities, if needed, via official channels in coordination with the on-site incident commander.”

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

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The fighter jet crashed Tuesday at 3:23 p.m. PDT during a routine training flight, according to Navy officials. The names of the flight crew have not been released.

According to a Navy spokesperson, the wreckage of the jet was spotted on a mountainside east of Mount Rainier shortly after noon Wednesday. As of 10:30 a.m. PDT Thursday, the search continued for the two crewmen aboard the aircraft. 

The search teams include the U.S. Navy Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1), Patrol Squadron (VP-46), Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island Search and Rescue, and U.S. Army 4-6 Air Cavalry Squadron out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, along with Yakima County tribal and local authorities.

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy Search for Pilots Resumes After EA-18G Crash Near Mount Rainier

Terrain near the crash site is rugged and snow covered, and the search was hampered by low visibility. A temporary flight restriction was put in place over the area Tuesday afternoon and was expected to remain in place until Saturday. Wreckage is in an area so remote that it can only be accessed by air.

The aircraft, based out of NAS Whidbey Island north of Seattle, was assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ-130), known as the “Zappers.” 

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

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The fighter jet was assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 130 (VAQ-130), known as the “Zappers,” based out of Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island north of Seattle.

The aircraft crashed Tuesday at 3:23 p.m. PDT during a routine training flight, according to a statement released by NAS Whidbey. The names of the flight crew had not been released.

Following the incident, the Navy launched a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter to locate the crew and examine the crash site. As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, however, the status of the crew was unknown. 

Search Resumes 

Wednesday morning, the weather in the vicinity of the search area was reported as low clouds, precipitation, icing, and turbulence, according to Leidos Flight Service.

A temporary flight restriction was put in place over the search area from the surface to 10,000 feet to protect the aircraft participating in the efforts. Pilots in the area were advised to check NOTAMs for details.

The Boeing EA-18G Growler is an F/A-18 variant that integrates electronic attack technology, including tactical jamming pods and communication countermeasures.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. 

This is a developing story.

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Such a design did emerge in the late 1930s, but the designer, Charles Zimmerman, was not insane. On the contrary, his unconventional vision, which became the Vought V-173 and was nicknamed the “Flying Pancake,” did, in fact, come to fruition. Not only did it fly, but it demonstrated remarkable performance.

The overall concept was as unique as the design.

The U.S. Navy was intrigued by the idea of a fighter that could operate from ships other than massive aircraft carriers. This capability would enable the Navy to deploy fighters from nearly anywhere and in huge numbers. Motivated to explore this consent, the Navy solicited design proposals.

As it happened, Zimmerman had already been toying with a unique design that could provide the perfect blend of capabilities. When the request came in, he was working as a senior designer at Vought. Vought tasked him with designing and building a quarter-scale prototype of his concept to evaluate as the basis for the Navy’s request.

Enabling an aircraft to take off and land at such short distances requires a lot of lift. Fortunately, Zimmerman’s design was nearly all wing.

The V-173 prototype would ultimately weigh just over 3,000 pounds fully loaded, with a massive 427 square feet of wing area. By comparison, a 3,100-pound Cessna 182T has only 174 square feet of wing area. While the 182’s wing loading is approximately 14 pounds per square foot, the V-173’s was just over 5. The V-173 was kite-like by comparison. 

With such ample lift, only modest power would be required. Zimmerman chose two small and light 4-cylinder Continental A80 piston engines. Their small size enabled them to be buried within the saucer-like fuselage.

Zimmerman wasn’t finished. To further reduce takeoff and landing distances, two enormous propellers bathed the entire airframe in propwash, generating lift even at a standstill. The result? A landing speed of only 22 mph and the capability of taking off nearly vertically with typical wind over a ship’s deck.

One interesting challenge to operating such a unique aircraft was the forward visibility on the ground—or the lack thereof.

Compared to a typical taildragger’s resting deck angle of around 5 degrees, the V-173 sat at an extreme 22 degrees. This would eliminate all forward vision if not for the addition of windows on the underside of the nose by the pilot’s feet. When on the ground, the pilot simply looked downward, past his feet, and could see the path ahead.

The V-173 would go on to amass some 131 hours of flight time. A variety of pilots flew it, including Charles Lindbergh. At one point, a fuel issue resulted in a forced landing on a beach. While the airplane flipped over onto its back, neither the airplane nor test pilot were significantly harmed.

With a substantial amount of testing completed, Vought built the marginally larger and massively more powerful XF5U.

While the wingspan was only approximately 30 percent greater than the V-173, it was fitted with two 1,350 hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines, as found on the 44-passenger Douglas DC-4. The subsequent addition of F4U Corsair propellers and an ejection seat resulted in a max takeoff weight of nearly 19,000 pounds.

The XF5U would never truly take flight, however—it only ever conducted taxi tests and short hops in ground effect.

Both examples would ultimately be scrapped, and the V-173 placed into long-term storage. Charles Zimmerman went on to become a division chief for Project Mercury at NASA and was later named director of aeronautics, where he completed his 38 years of service with NASA.

Fortunately, the diminutive V-173 would not only survive but would later be resurrected.

In 2003, the Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation began a nearly 10-year-long restoration of the aircraft, stripping it down to its wooden airframe and replacing the fabric entirely. Today, the resplendent V-173 stands proudly on display at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas.

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The aircraft is owned by the Coulson Group in Port Alberni, British Columbia, and spent decades fighting wildfires up and down the west coast of North America. An earlier deal to send the aircraft to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, fell through but the airplane was painted in navy blue in anticipation of that move.

“We are pleased to have the Philippine Mars join our museum where we will preserve this World War II-era aircraft for decades to come,” said Scott Marchand, CEO of Pima Air and Space Museum.

• READ MORE: Inside the ‘Spruce Goose’

A sister ship, Hawaii Mars, which fought fires up until 2015, will be sent to the B.C. Aviation Museum in Sidney, B.C., near Victoria.

“As a fitting tribute to their years of service and years of hard work by many people in B.C. and the U.S., we are pleased to see both Mars aircraft landing to rest at world class institutions in 2024,” said Coulson Group CEO Wayne Coulson.

What’s not clear is how the massive flying boat will get to Tucson. It has no landing gear and operates only from water. It needs a relatively big body of water to take off and land, and there is no such open water in the immediate area of the museum.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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The aircraft will replace the T-44C Pegasus, an earlier version of a militarized King Air that has been in use since 1977. The T-44C is slated to be phased out over the next year.

• READ MORE: Navy to Explore Use of eSTOL Aircraft, Issues Contract to Electra

Last week the T-54As were flown from the factory in Wichita, Kansas, to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, where they will be used by Naval Air Training Command. They will be used to train the next generation of naval aviators who may go on to fly the P-8A Poseidon, E-2D Hawkeye and C-130 Hercules.

The Navy placed an order for the aircraft made by Textron Aviation in January 2023 as part of a 2023 METS contract. 

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy Awards Contract for Long-Range, Solar-Powered Stealth Drone

“The new METS aircraft will give us the ability to train pilots across the services with an advanced platform that better represents fleet aircraft,” Captain Holly Shoger, program manager of the Naval Undergraduate Flight Training Systems Program Office, said at the time. “The T-54A will include the latest avionics and navigational updates, such as virtual reality and augmented reality devices, to ensure pilots are ready to face any challenges that come their way in tomorrow’s battlespace.” 

The T-54A is a pressurized turboprop with state-of-the-art avionics, including multifunction displays with a digital moving map, an integrated GPS/inertial navigation system, ADS-B, a flight management system, weather radar, radar altimeter, and a cockpit data recorder. 

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy Signs Deal with Boeing for 17 F/A-18 Super Hornets

The T-54 is expected to meet advanced multi-engine and advanced tilt-rotor training requirements for the Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps through 2055.

According to NAVAIR, the T-54A will “provide advanced instrument and asymmetric engine handling training to student naval aviators selected for multi-engine fleet communities.”

Last year’s agreement initially ordered 10 King Air 260s and associated support. Deliveries for the first aircraft are scheduled between 2024 and 2026. Per the contract, the Navy may take delivery of up to 64 of the trainers.

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According to Electra, the aircraft is able to operate with ground rolls of 150 feet, capable of carrying up to nine passengers or 2,500 pounds of cargo, and sports a range of 500 nm.

The company did not announce the contract amount that was awarded under the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) but said it is expected to continue through the end of the year.

“The contract allows Electra to partner with the U.S. Navy and its stakeholders to explore the use cases for Electra’s eSTOL technology, as well as potential aircraft configuration extensions, to enhance the efficiency of delivering military logistics services in environments with minimal infrastructure or other operational challenges,” Electra spokesperson Barbara Zadina told FLYING.

• READ MORE: Electra.aero Nabs $1.9M Army Contract for Electric Aircraft Testing

The contract announcement comes days after the company reported the U.S. Army had issued a $1.9 million contract to experiment with the hybrid-electric aircraft to perform powered wind tunnel testing.

“With our differentiated combination of hybrid-electric propulsion and a blown fixed wing, we can offer Pacific theater-relevant payloads and ranges, and the ability to operate from rough, soccer-field-sized spaces as well as many naval vessels and adjacent assets, all from day one,”  Ben Marchionna, Electra’s director of technology and innovation, said in a statement. 

• READ MORE: Electra.aero Surpasses 2000 Orders for Hybrid-Electric Aircraft

In addition to logistic utility, the company said the eSTOL aircraft could also enable expeditionary power generation, mesh networking, and potentially serve as an essential node for Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) employment.

“These are all game changers for force modernization initiatives within the Navy and Marine Corps,” Marchionna said.

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Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, manufacturer of the solar-powered, ultralong-range K1000ULE uncrewed aircraft system (UAS), last week won a contract to provide the Navy with its first UAS capable of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL). The contract was agreed through PMA-263, the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Air Systems program office at Patuxent River, Maryland.

KHAero’s K1000ULE is a 100 percent electric, solar-powered, Group 2 UAS. The company claims the aircraft boasts a greater flight endurance than any eVTOL in its category, capable of remaining airborne for 26 hours during a single flight.

The U.S. Marine Corps Small Unit Remote Scouting System will field K1000ULE to enable what KHAero predicts will be simpler, faster, and more cost-effective intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations. The UAS will also enhance the Navy’s beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations in “denied or contested areas.” Operations are fully autonomous, relying on onboard artificial intelligence and autopilot technology.

“Today we live with the prospect of a new era of defense technology in which autonomy and artificial intelligence will become more important,” said Fatema Hamdani, CEO of KHAero. “The Navy wants to discover what’s possible. And we’re honored to give them the solutions they need.”

KHAero claims K1000ULE has the longest endurance of any fully electric, zero-emissions, autonomous UAS in its size and weight category. Its 26-hour flight time comes from a propulsion system that runs on lithium ion batteries and photovoltaics (or solar power), powering a brushless electric motor and folding propeller. The aircraft’s solar technology is licensed by the U.S. Department of Energy, per the company.

KL1000ULE is about 10 feet long with a 16.5-foot wingspan, capable of taking off at a weight of 42.5 pounds and reaching an altitude of 20,000 feet msl. The aircraft cruises at around 30-40 knots, giving it a 1,000 sm (867 nm) range. It can be equipped with electro-optical, infrared, communications and other payloads. In addition, KHAero says it can accommodate any Department of Defense MOD Payload compliant payload.

KHAero’s focus is largely on data, intelligence, and communication services, created using multidrone coordination systems. It aims to service customers in emergency and disaster relief, data and telecommunications, defense, agriculture, oil and gas, climate change, and wildlife preservation.

The company’s system additionally shares information across platforms to allocate aircraft on demand, based on sensor needs. In the case of the Navy, crews across operations will be able to keep informed on the UAS’ status.

A single Navy operator could operate a swarm of K1000ULE drones, creating a “self-aware constellation,” in KHAero’s words, that autonomously makes decisions and performs terrain and airspace deconfliction.

The system is controlled through a wearable tablet interface, which helps the user select a coverage area and launch the correct number of assets within 15 minutes. Operators can review or change the coverage area or mission objectives, view the position, flight time, and battery power of the aircraft, and track how many drones are in the sky.

Before awarding the contract to KHAero, the Navy made sure to vet the aircraft, requesting that the manufacturer demonstrate a range of capabilities. U.S. and international partners deployed it for the first time in March 2023,  conducting operations over Aqaba, Jordan, as part of the International Maritime Exercise 2023.

Further evaluations were performed at both KHAero and U.S. government test facilities and overseen by the UAS Research and Operations Center at the University of Maryland. Among the capabilities and technologies tested were flight endurance, vertical takeoff and landing without a runway, and operations in daytime, nighttime, and other environmental conditions.

Removing the runway requirement is a key component of KHAero’s offering. The company also aims to reduce the Navy’s UAS operational footprint from 120-150 to less than five people, performing testing on K1000ULE’s maneuverability. Further, KHAero expects these operations to be nearly undetectable, which it tested by having the Navy track the drone’s audio and visual signatures from the ground.

After gauging K1000ULE’s capabilities, the partners performed reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition tests. They evaluated the aircraft’s full motion video capabilities, which can identify and classify targets, among other mission systems packages.

The Navy could use the UAS to scout an unidentified vehicle, track enemy force movements, shadow friendly troops on the move, or perform other ISR tasks. KHAero is among several aircraft and technology manufacturers collaborating with the U.S. military—Archer Aviation, Pivotal, Xwing and many others are working with the Air Force via its innovation arm, AFWERX.

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The film chronicles a year in the lives of team members as they train for a new show season and fly a demanding schedule of performances. The story focuses on the latest class of Navy and Marine Corps pilots entering the team as well as veterans of the group who are finishing their tours of duty before returning to the fleet.

• READ MORE: Navy Blue Angels and Canadian Snowbirds to Perform in October Reno Air Show

The Blue Angels marks the first time the famous blue and yellow F/A-18 Super Hornets will be featured in the impressive IMAX format. The film also captures the team’s inner workings, including support staff on the ground and family members at home. As a unit, the Blue Angels include a total of 158 active duty Navy and Marine personnel. 

This year marks the 78th anniversary of the Blue Angels’ operation, which was designed to demonstrate the excitement and power of Naval aviation for audiences in the U.S. and abroad.

• READ MORE: Blue Angels Name First Female Fighter Jet Demonstration Pilot

“This fascinating and layered documentary is wholly representative of the kind of work ethic, teamwork, and perseverance that goes into being a Blue Angel,” Brianna Oh, head of documentary features at Amazon Studios, said last year when Amazon acquired worldwide rights to the film. “We are incredibly honored to join this talented filmmaking team in bringing their story to audiences around the world.”

Said John Turner, head of documentaries for IMAX: “The Blue Angels will be the theatrical documentary experience of the year, and we’re thrilled to share it with a global audience. Our partnership with Amazon Studios marks an exciting chapter for IMAX as we reimagine how to broaden our original documentaries for a streaming audience.”

Award-winning filmmaker Paul Crowder directed and edited the documentary, which was produced by Academy Award-winning producers Glen Zipper of Zipper Bros Films, Mark Monroe of Diamond Docs, and Sean Stuart with Sutter Road Picture Company. Bad Robot Productions’ J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella also produced, as did Glen Powell with Barnstorm Productions.

“One of the most remarkable aspects of the Blue Angels’ story is their relentless pursuit of excellence,” said Abrams. “It’s a message that I think will be as inspiring to the audience as it has been to the filmmakers.”

Watch the Trailer for ‘The Blue Angels’

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