Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), is a

government contractor A government contractor is a company (privately owned, publicly traded or a state-owned enterprise)either for profit or non-profitthat produces goods or services under contract for the government. Some communities are largely sustained by governm ...

based in

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It operates Dassault Mirage F1, Mk-58 Hawker Hunter, Israeli F-21 Kfir, A-4 Skyhawk, and L-39 Albatros II military aircraft in tactical flight training roles for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Air National Guard. Its main air operations base is at

Naval Air Station Point Mugu Naval Air Station Point Mugu was a United States naval air station near Oxnard, California, which operated as an independent base from 1941 to 2000, when it merged with nearby Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme to form Naval Base V ...

, California. It sends aircraft as far away as

Naval Air Facility Atsugi is a joint Japan-US naval air base located in the cities of Yamato and Ayase in Kanagawa, Japan. It is the largest United States Navy (USN) air base in the Pacific Ocean and once housed the squadrons of Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5), which dep ...

in Japan. ATAC was acquired by

Textron Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft, and Cessna brands), and Lycoming Engines. ...

in 2016 and continues to operate as a subsidiary.

Fleet

The ATAC air fleet includes the following aircraft *20

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

s *6 IAI F-21 Kfirs *1

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed a ...

Aero L-39 Albatros The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer designed and produced in Czechoslovakia by Aero Vodochody. It is the most widely used jet trainer in the world; in addition to performing basic and advanced pilot training, it has also fl ...

es *63

Dassault Mirage F1 The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the popular Mirage III family. During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would ...

Accidents and incidents

F-21 KFIR aircraft taxis on the flight line aboard Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

;8 July 2010:

N132AT lost power during takeoff and crashed in a field near Naval Air Station Fallon. The pilot ejected safely. Investigations by the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

and

NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

were completed. ;6 March 2012:

IAI Kfir , abbreviated , is a Japanese martial art that emphasizes being aware and capable of quickly drawing the sword and responding to sudden attacks.Christensen, Karen and Allen Guttmann et.al (2001) ''International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports ...

N404AX crashed into a building near at Naval Air Station Fallon in inclement weather, killing the pilot. Investigations by the

and

were completed. ;18 May 2012:

N329AX crashed in a field on final approach to Naval Air Station Point Mugu, killing the pilot. Investigations by the

and

have been completed. ;29 October 2014:

N332AX crashed in a field near Naval Air Station Point Mugu, killing the pilot. Investigations by the

and

have been completed. ; 22 August 2017 :

crashed about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego. The pilot was able to eject and was recovered by a helicopter aboard the aircraft carrier USS ''Theodore Roosevelt''. ; 25 February 2021: Mirage F1B slid off the end of the runway at

Tyndall Air Force Base Tyndall Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located east of Panama City, Florida. The base was named in honor of World War I pilot 1st Lt. Frank Benjamin Tyndall. The base operating unit and host wing is the 325th Fighter Wing (325 ...

. Both pilots were transported to the local hospital.: ; 14 April 2021:

N331AX suffered a runway excursion incident at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station. ; 6 June 2022:

N337AX crashed approximately 41 nautical miles off the coast of

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina Wrightsville Beach is a town in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. Wrightsville Beach is just east of Wilmington and is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,477 at the 2010 census. The town c ...

. The pilot was able to eject, suffering a spinal injury upon ejection. Investigations by the

and

are in work.

References

{{Reflist

External links

ATAC- Airborne Tactical Advantage Company
Companies based in Newport News, Virginia Military education and training in the United States Flight training Aerospace companies of the United States Defense companies of the United States

Fleet

Accidents and incidents

See Also

References

External links