Articles

Flight Today

The Gold-Plated Cabin

There aren’t many companies that can make an airliner fit for a king.
By Roger A. Mola

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Engineers at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory pose with a backup Mars Exploration Rover. From left: Nimisha Mittal, Pauline Hwang, Sharon Laubach, and Alfonso Herrera.

Space Exploration

Creation of a Cover Shot

Photographer Eric Curry shows how he made our March 2010 cover.
By The Editors

Space Exploration

Our Favorite Martians

It’s the perfect long-distance relationship: Scientists need the Mars rovers in order to see; the rovers need the scientists in order to think.
By Michael Klesius

History of Flight

Restoration: Connecticut's State Warbird

What World War II fighter was a product of the Nutmeg State?
By James Wynbrandt

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Military Aviation

Legends of Vietnam: Bronco's Tale

One of the most versatile aircraft of the Vietnam War appears on the verge of a comeback.
By William E. Burrows

Flight Today

Don't Cross That Line

Would a fighter pilot shoot down a private airplane?
By Craig Mellow

Web Extra

The 2009 Class of NASA astronauts: All dressed up, but nowhere to go.

Space Exploration

No Stimulus Plan for Astronauts

For NASA's flying corps, it looks like 1975 all over again.
By Matthew Hersch

History of Flight

Head Skunk

Kelly Johnson was a giant in aircraft design. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, we find out how his legend grew.
By Peter Garrison

Web Extra

An F-15 Eagle heads out to the range over Nellis Air Force Base during a Red Flag exercise in 2006.

Military Aviation

Combat U.

Learning the art of the dogfight at Red Flag.
By Randy Gordon

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Cosmonauts (from right) Konstantin Feoktistov, Boris Yegorov, and Vladimir Komarov head to the launch pad for their Voskhod 1 flight, October 12, 1964.

Space Exploration

Feoktistov's Starship

The pioneering cosmonaut who dreamed of interstellar flight.
By Tony Reichhardt

Web Extra

Hawker Hurricane at the NASM Udvar-Hazy Center. Smithsonian NASM Udvar-Hazy Center Photo By Dane A. Penland

Flight Today

Sightings: Hazy's Hits

A photo gallery of airplanes at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.

Web Extra

Military Aviation

A & S Interview: Yang Guoxiang

One of China's top test pilots recalls the H-Bomb that almost backfired.
By Bob Bergin

Military Aviation

Ode on a Canadian Warbird

The author remembers childhood, with round engines.
By Bruce McCall

Cornelius Coffey was the first African-American to earn both pilots and mechanics licenses.

History of Flight

The Other Harlem

In 1930s Chicago, at the corner of 87th Street and Harlem Avenue, Cornelius Coffey made aviation history.
By Giles Lambertson

Web Extra

Trail of tears: Spirits camera looks down on tracks made by the rover when it backed into a Martian sand trap last April. Note the dragging of the gimpy right front wheel.

Space Exploration

No More A-Roving

NASA’s Spirit rover goes into survival mode on Mars.
By Michael Klesius

History of Flight

The Big Race of 1910

How the first U.S. air race launched an aviation tradition.
By Don Berliner

Web Extra

<b><i>Visit the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum,</b></i> and you’re guaranteed to see historic aircraft and spacecraft, including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress <i>Enola Gay</i>, the SR-71 <i>Blackbird</i>, and the Space Shuttle <i>Enterprise</i>. The Museum also boasts a multitude of artifacts large and small: engines, propellers, aerial cameras, more than 2 million technical drawings—even popular culture items such as Charles Lindbergh-emblazoned underwear.<br /><br /><br><br>But what people may <i>not</i> know is that part of the Museum’s mission is to tell the story of aerospace through art; during the Museum’s creation, Congress mandated that one gallery be specifically dedicated to aerospace artwork. <br /><br /><br><br>Which brings us to an important donation. Michael and Maureen Harrigan, of Kendall, New York, recently gave the Museum 42 prints by renowned aviation artist Robert Taylor, a collection acquired over some 20 years. <br /><br /><br><br>When Mike Harrigan’s firm, the Harrigan Brady Paper Company, moved to its new location in 1988, Harrigan asked his (mostly female) staff for suggestions on how to fill the empty wall space. “They wanted paintings of daisies,” he said, somewhat mournfully. Because of the company’s proximity to the Greater Rochester International Airport, Harrigan suggested an alternative: pictures of airplanes. <br /><br /><br><br>As senior aeronautics curator Tom Crouch reported in our March 2010 issue, the first Robert Taylor print Harrigan acquired was titled <i>Home at Dusk</i>. (The print depicts four P-51 Mustangs crossing the East Anglican coast on their way back to base.) Harrigan’s interest in aviation art grew from there; he eventually collected so many Robert Taylor’s prints that his staff took to calling him “Imelda Marcos.” When he ran out of available wall space, Harrigan wasn’t deterred in the least—he hung the remaining prints in the men’s room. <br /><br /><br><br>Harrigan’s art collection began to gain a bit of fame in the Rochester area, with customers, postal carriers, and the random citizen showing up during work hours asking for a tour. Visitors were so frequent that “the girls suggested I start charging a fee, and we could have a party with the money,” joked Harrigan.<br /><br /><br><br>As Tom Crouch wrote, “Someone once asked Mike if he would ever part with the collection. His answer: ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if the Smithsonian walked in, I’d have to consider it.’ To make a long story short, we did, and he did.”<br /><br /><br><br>When the Smithsonian crew came to package the collection for transport, Harrigan had one request: to wrap up <i>Home at Dusk</i> first, and to box up the final print he acquired, last. “There was a tear in my eye,” Harrigan said, as he watched the crew package his collection, piece by piece. “All of the girls were crying. They knew how much those prints meant to me.”<br /><br /><br><br>The Harrigans’ generous donation can currently be seen, in part, on the lower level of the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Once the new restoration wing is completed, in 2011, the collection will be displayed in its entirety. Click on the images at right to take a closer look at a few prints from the collection.<br /><br /><br><br>The painting shown here, <i>Morning Thunder</i>, includes a note from the artist, Robert Taylor: “Sunday, December 7, 1941<br /><br /><br><br>Having taken six torpedo hits and two bomb strikes in the first-wave attack on Battleship Row, the <i>West Virginia</i> is ablaze, her bows already low in the water and decks awash. Ignoring the risk, crews push the Navy tug <i>Hoga</i> alongside with fire-fighting equipment and to pick up survivors. Overhead, Japanese Zeros swoop through the smoke, aiming the second-wave attack at installations on Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island, to complete one of history’s most devastating unprovoked declarations of war.”<br />

History of Flight

The Gift of Art

A recent donation by Michael and Maureen Harrigan helps the Museum fulfill its mission.

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Air & Space Interview

Joe Chappell

Former Flight Engineer for Air Force One.

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Gil Cohen: Aviation Artist

A new book brings aviation history to life.

Need to Know

The Luftwaffe’s Flying Wing

The Horten Ho 229 is in line for restoration at the Air and Space Museum.

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