Aviation Week was a favorite conduit for defense-related companies and labs to leak information to the public as part of their policy by press release efforts.

Starting in August 1943, McGraw-Hill published a weekly magazine called Aviation News to accompany the standard monthly issue.

The magazine is headquartered in New York City, and its main editorial office is in Washington, D.C. Its longest run of ownership came when it was owned by McGraw-Hill.

The magazine claimed that the aircraft was real beyond a doubt, stating that "A nuclear-powered bomber is being flight tested in the Soviet Union.

After finding a December 1976 Titan IIID launch was for a secret KH-11 spy satellite, Aviation Week & Space Technology editor Craig Covault agreed with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David C. Jones to hold on the story, but received details on the Buran programme which were published on March 20, 1978.

There were unconfirmed rumors about the SR-72 dating back to 2007, when various sources disclosed that Lockheed Martin was developing a Mach 6 plane for the US Air Force.

[14] In a December 9, 2013 cover story, Aviation Week & Space Technology revealed[15] details about a highly classified intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance stealth unmanned aircraft – the RQ-180 – that has been developed in secret by Northrop Grumman.

[16] In October 2014, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works research lab gave Aviation Week editor Guy Norris access to a previously secret initiative to develop a compact fusion reactor[17] that is small enough to power interplanetary spacecraft, ships and ultimately large aircraft that would virtually never require refueling.