Every publication begins with a purpose.
Ours began with a simple question.
Why should military aviation enthusiasts have to choose between exceptional photography and exceptional journalism?
For decades, aviation publications have often focused on one or the other. Some captured breathtaking images but offered only limited editorial depth. Others provided detailed reporting but struggled to convey the visual power that makes military aviation so extraordinary.
We believed readers deserved both.
That belief became CHECKSIX – The International Military Aviation Journal.
Today, every edition reflects the same commitment that inspired the project from the very beginning: to document military aviation through authentic photography, accurate journalism and genuine respect for the people behind every mission.
Every publication has an origin.
Ours did not begin in a newsroom or a publishing house.
It began on airfields, behind camera lenses and inside briefing rooms, where a lifelong fascination with military aviation gradually evolved into something much bigger than photography alone. During the mid-1990s, while contributing to the multilingual aviation magazine Top Gun, our founder recognised something that would shape the future of CHECKSIX.
The photography was outstanding.
Dynamic.
Exciting.
Visually unlike anything else available.
Yet something was missing.
The remarkable quality of the photography was not always matched by the depth of the editorial content.
At the same time, many traditional aviation magazines offered excellent research but lacked the visual impact capable of conveying the atmosphere, professionalism and emotion of military aviation.
One question continued to return.
Why should readers have to choose?
Why couldn’t a publication combine authentic photography with thoughtful journalism, giving equal importance to both? That idea never disappeared.
In 1997, long before digital publishing became commonplace, the first version of CHECKSIX appeared online. Although the vision already existed, turning that vision into the publication imagined from the very beginning would require many more years of experience, learning and international collaboration.
Some ideas simply need time before they are ready.
CHECKSIX was one of them.