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Editors' Picks

Area 51: Origins

America’s once-secret air base had humble beginnings.

Need for Speed

Airplanes with a mission: Fly faster.

Beyond the Moon

It’s not a place, exactly. But it could be NASA’s next destination.

The Invention of Flight

Inventors, dreamers, daredevils, charlatans: Aviation's early years had them all.

Vietnam Memoir

Stories from the war that shaped a generation.

Trending Topics

  1. Cold War Era
  2. Bombers
  3. Fighters
  4. Aerospace Inventions
  5. Aerospace Scientists and Engineers

Flight Today

Page 12 of 31

Cool-Headed Qantas Dudes

We're still pretty blown away by this story. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released its preliminary report on what happened shortly after takeoff on November 4, 2010, when the left inboard Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine of Qantas flight QF32, an Airbus A380 outbound from Singapore, went ...
January 05, 2011 | By Mike Klesius

Happy New Year!

I was in Stockholm for New Year's Day and I had never been in Sweden before. It's still kind of cool to visit a new place, and I think Stockholm is a city I'd like to see a lot more of.Knowing that it's located far to the north, I checked the times for local sunrise and sunset before leaving on my ...
January 04, 2011 | By Steve Satre

"Roger, Roger. What's our Vector, Victor?"

Proceed direct to National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The 1980 movie, "Airplane!" is one of 25 films judged to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" significant and therefore added to the Film Registry in 2010. The spoof of 1957's "Zero Hour" was named number 10 on the Amer...
December 29, 2010 | By Pat Trenner

Concorde: Flying Supersonic

For 27 years, the Concorde carried passengers across the Atlantic Ocean at twice the speed of sound, on the very edge of space. A flight from New York to London took a mere 3 ½ hours; the supersonic aircraft flew so high and so fast that American spyplanes were ordered to stay out of the Concorde’s...
December 27, 2010 | By Rebecca Maksel

Bella Luna

Some pilots hate flying the red-eye flights, but I kind of like them. There aren't as many planes in the air in the wee hours, and the controllers are quick to give us direct routing. Out of Las Vegas, we're often cleared direct to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, before we've even gotten to Bryce Canyo...
December 22, 2010 | By Steve Satre

Not Your Father's Blimp

What looks like Ronaldo's nightmare is in fact the world's largest soccer ball airship, built by E-Green Technologies of Kellyton, Alabama. Why, you ask? It seems everyone's crazy about airships these days, for everything from military surveillance to tourism. E-Green just signed a deal with NASA's...
December 17, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

It Doesn't Always Go Smoothly

There was some pretty good winter weather this past weekend, and it caused a lot of cancellations and delays. I arrived in Detroit Saturday night, flying in from São Paulo, Brazil and I was scheduled to fly right back to São Paulo at 7:30 on Sunday evening.The forecast in Detroit was for three to s...
December 15, 2010 | By Steve Satre

Skydiving Over Google Earth

Awesome.  I love the little blast of air they get at around the 48-second mark.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxM_CknSZw
December 14, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

The Big Sky

On a recent flight I was looking at my TCAS display and wondering how we ever did without this wonderful bit of equipment. TCAS stands for Traffic Collision Avoidance System, and I saw my first one in the early 90s. Prior to TCAS we had a three-prong approach to traffic avoidance: Air Traffic Contr...
December 10, 2010 | By Steve Satre

Windsocks and Checklists

When I'm taxiing around airports worldwide, I'm always amused to see that they still have windsocks. It's maybe the only thing from the first days of aviation that you'll still find at modern airports. It's low tech, but it gives a clear indication of wind strength and direction...at least to anyon...
November 30, 2010 | By Steve Satre

You Think You Have a Bad Commute?

I live in a suburb of Washington, D.C., and heavy rush hour traffic is a common source of complaint around here. Downtown office workers often have drives that are routinely in excess of an hour and sometimes far longer.A long commute is a fact of life for a large percentage of airline pilots and f...
November 24, 2010 | By Steve Satre

Engine Hiccups

Here's some interesting video taken by a passenger aboard the Quantas A380 that had a Trent 900 engine blow shortly after taking off on a flight from Singapore to Sydney on November 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4Pv9u_yHwIAnd later, the landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EimwaGXr6p0&f...
November 23, 2010 | By Mike Klesius

Over the North Atlantic

I'm writing this longhand as we fly back from Frankfurt, Germany. We're over the North Atlantic, a few hours from landing in New York. Out here there are no controllers to talk to, and not much to do except monitor the instruments and make the occasional position report.It's been a routine trip. Go...
November 19, 2010 | By Steve Satre

Canceling Flights for Low Loads? No Way.

I just had a nice stretch of days off and went on a five-day golf trip with my brother and 30 other guys. It was a little chilly on Amelia Island and I performed about like you'd expect a 15 handicapper to play. But it's not the golf that I want to talk about. Instead, I want to address a common mi...
November 18, 2010 | By Steve Satre

First Solo

It's been a long, long time since my first solo flight in an airplane and I still remember the mixed emotions of excitement and fear. Glancing over at the empty right seat during the takeoff roll, I realized what a huge commitment I was about to make. As the plane climbed out, I couldn't get out of...
November 17, 2010 | By Steve Satre

Flight and Fancy: How I Failed “Purdue’s Got Talent”

January 2011 | By Jeremy Davis

Writers covering the Iditarod race have the best seat in the house: a heated airplane cockpit.

Above and Beyond: The Iditarod Air Force

Not all the action in dogsled racing is on the ground.
January 2011 | By John Phillips

The Boeing behemoth on its first flight (with Lockheed T-33 chase plane), last February.

Moments and Milestones: Max Takeoff

January 2011 | By George C. Larson, Member, NAA

On display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia, are the twin-boom Northrop P-61 Black Widow and bright yellow Northrop N-1M flying wing.

From Kites to the Space Shuttle

A new photo-filled book is a diary of life at the National Air and Space Museum.
January 2011 | By The Editors

A Cirrus SR20 floats down during a late-1990s test of the Ballistic Recovery Systems chute. A Cirrus customer first used one in an emergency near Dallas, Texas, in 2002.

How Things Work: Whole-Airplane Parachute

When everything else fails, or fails all at once, pull the parachute that saves the whole airplane.
January 2011 | By Michael Klesius

« Previous 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Next »

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In the Magazine

July 2013

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  • The Pilots of Mount McKinley

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Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine has been delighting aerospace enthusiasts with the best writing about their favorite subject since April 1986. As an adjunct of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Air & Space matches the grand scope of the Museum, encompassing every era of aviation and space exploration. With stories that range from the Wright Brothers to the design of NASA's next lunar lander, Air & Space emphasizes the human stories as well as the technology of aviation and spaceflight.

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