The Aviationist media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media places The Aviationist in the centre. We have seen it on 9 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is The Aviationist biased?
Ad Fontes Media places The Aviationist in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is The Aviationist left or right?
Ad Fontes Media places The Aviationist in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is The Aviationist reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for The Aviationist are Ad Fontes Media: Very high factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What The Aviationist has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with The Aviationist’s own report linked underneath.
Anduril Industries has released images of its FQ-44 Fury drone fitted with air-to-ground munitions, including guided bombs and cruise missiles. The U.S. Air Force plans to field at least 500 Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones by 2032.
The Aviationist reported it asAnduril’s YFQ-44A Fury Expands Its Weapons Options With Air-to-Ground Munitions (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly pressured two airmen, rescued after an F-15 was shot down over Iran, to appear on '60 Minutes'. Military officials allegedly raised concerns about classified information, which Hegseth's office is said to have ignored. The Pentagon has denied the claims.
The Aviationist reported it asNew Details About DUDE 44 Shootdown Emerge in First Interview of WSO (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
Jordan's armed forces stated that 18 out of 20 ballistic missiles launched from Iran were intercepted and destroyed by air defence systems. Two missiles landed in unpopulated areas without causing casualties. Iran's IRGC claimed to have targeted a US military base in Jordan.
The Aviationist reported it asIranian Missile Strike Damages U.S. Aircraft at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
USS Abraham Lincoln docks in Thailand after 200-day Middle East mission amid crew welfare concerns
Trust 78The USS Abraham Lincoln reached Thailand after a 200-day deployment in the Middle East, the longest continuous sea duty in modern US Navy history. Reports of supply shortages, morale problems, and a possible suicide attempt prompted a Senate inquiry and a replacement carrier dispatch.
The Aviationist reported it asUSS Abraham Lincoln Arrives in Thailand for First Full Port Stop Since November 2025 (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
Germany accused Russia of a drone attack at Leipzig airport on August 4-5. Russian President Vladimir Putin denied involvement, suggesting Germany fabricated evidence to address domestic political issues. Germany closed Russia's consulate and cultural center in Bonn and summoned its ambassador.
The Aviationist reported it asRussia Behind An-124 Drone Attack at Leipzig Airport, German Government Claims (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
CIA Director John Ratcliffe was reportedly in Moscow for meetings, according to US media. The Kremlin stated no talks with US envoys were scheduled for that week. A US military aircraft flew from Riga to Moscow.
The Aviationist reported it asCIA Director Rides Unmarked USAF C-17 to Moscow (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
Saildrone and Lockheed Martin successfully demonstrated launching missiles from an unmanned surface vessel during the RIMPAC 2026 exercise. The system integrated Saildrone's Surveyor vessel with Lockheed Martin's missile launcher and fire-control system, engaging a surrogate target.
The Aviationist reported it asU.S. Navy Reveals AIM-424 “Malice” Long-Range Air-to-Air Missile (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
US President Donald Trump flew secretly from Turkey on an alternate military aircraft last month after an Iranian assassination threat was detected, according to reports. The White House had stated he was aboard Air Force One, but the press was left on a decoy flight as part of an elaborate ruse to conceal his departure.
The Aviationist reported it asTrump Secretly Took C-32A Home from NATO Summit in an Elaborate Decoy Operation (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
NASA’s WB-57 research aircraft will fly at 50,000 feet on 12 August 2026 to observe the total solar eclipse over Greenland, Iceland, Spain and Portugal. The mission aims to capture high-resolution images of the solar corona and study atmospheric changes during the event.
The Aviationist reported it asNASA WB-57 Heads to Iceland to Observe Solar Eclipse (opens The Aviationist in a new tab)
Who says so
One organisation has published a rating for this outlet. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the useful part and it is left standing.
- Ad Fontes MediacenterCheck it
How reliably it reports fact
A rating of the newsroom in general, by others, and a different thing from the Trust score we publish on each story, which judges one piece of reporting.
Very high factuality
- Ad Fontes MediaveryHighCheck it
Who owns it
- David CenciottiBillionairedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy
- Official site
- theaviationist.com
- Seen publishing on
- theaviationist.com
- Access
- Free to read
What we have seen ourselves
Counted across the stories this site has published, which is the only denominator a reader can check: every one of them has a page, and every page lists the reports it was written from.
- Stories
- 9
- Reports listed
- 9
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 11 August 2026
9 of those reports were paywalled or blocked to us. Our reading of this outlet is built on the 0 we could open, not on everything it published.
A blindspot is measured against one side of the spectrum. The Aviationist is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 9 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of The Aviationist: its report arrived a median of 31 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 25 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 22 September 2026. Ratings pulled 11 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as The Aviationist, also publishing from Italy, ordered by how often we have seen them on a story. Sharing a rating is not the same as being alike.
Think this page is wrong?
The leanings above are published by AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check, and we republish them rather than make them. If you think one is misapplied, the strongest place to say so is with the organisation that made it, and every verdict here links to their page.
What we are responsible for is everything else: the ownership chain, where The Aviationist publishes from, which of our stories we have listed it on, and whether we have the right publisher at all. Tell us what is wrong and an editor reads it.
Report something wrong on this page
Anything we correct is written up in the public corrections log. We do not publish reader votes as a rating, because an unattributed rating is the thing this site exists to argue against.
Every rating on this page is a named third party’s published work, republished with its author and, where one exists, a link to it. Our own coverage record is the section we measure ourselves. Neither is a judgement of any individual report: those are scored story by story, and the reasoning is on our methodology page.