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Editors' Picks

What the astronauts really said

Apollo "onboard voice" recordings captured the moon astronauts' conversations -- cussing and all -- when no one else was listening.

Drones for Hire

The newest eyes in the sky are drawing the attention of power companies, conservation groups, and the ACLU.

Five Reasons to Like NASA’s Asteroid Retrieval Mission

So it's not the Moon or Mars. Get over it.

The Invention of Flight

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

Disaster at Xichang

An eyewitness speaks publicly for the first time about history’s worst launch accident.

Flight Today

Page 8 of 31

Time to Renew my CFI

Why go to the trouble to renew a certificate I don’t use? The bottom line is that I just worked too hard to get it.
October 24, 2011 | By Steve Satre

Stop Stall-ing

When pilots make a bad landing they don’t blame their bankers. So why do bankers, hacks, and Capitol Hill flaks use a beloved aviation term to malign the national economy?
October 20, 2011 | By Roger Mola

The Irritations of Airline-Speak

I fly a lot. OK, no surprise, but I'm talking about flying as a passenger, sitting in back, getting to and from work. And I find myself cringing at the canned phrases I hear from my own co-workers.
October 14, 2011 | By Steve Satre

“Smithsonian’s Stars” at the Museum

Volcanic activity on the moon, traveling to asteroids, and crashing galaxies are a few of the topics covered in free lectures at the National Air & Space Museum.
October 05, 2011 | By Heather Goss

Green Light for Fuel-Efficiency Races in California

Teams gathered their experimental planes in Santa Rosa, California last week for a competition of their environmental industriousness.
October 03, 2011 | By Heather Goss

Tragedy at Reno

What it was like in the pits that day.
September 19, 2011 | By Linda Shiner

Staff Sergeant Michelle Torrey, right, with Master Sergeant Brett Kitzman load an AIM-120 missile onto an F-16.

The Changing of the Guard

Ten years after 9/11, what life is like in an Air National Guard unit.
September 2011 | By Ed Darack

The TWA terminal was the architectural high point at Kennedy airport — and dream city for young aircrew.

Confessions of a Flight Engineer

Flashlights, timers, and breath mints required.
November 2011 | By Andrea Eldridge

When a Super Cub ran out of fuel and had to land on uninhabited Kayak lsland in Alaska last May, the pilot and passenger tried both low- and high-tech alerts. In addition to the “SOS,” they activated a SPOT beacon, and were rescued by the Coast Guard.

Lost in America

Airplanes that go missing are often untraceable. Why is effective tracking technology being ignored?
November 2011 | By Michael Behar

Bush flying has unique challenges. This Quest Kodiak gets a little extra thrust on takeoff from the slope of a dirt airstrip carved out of a hill in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Rough Riders

Five bushplanes and the places only they can fly.
November 2011 | By Tom LeCompte

X-47 on Deck, Kind Of

This summer the X-47B unmanned combat aircraft made its first arrested landing on the USS Eisenhower. Well, actually it was an F/A-18D Hornet (left) operating as a surrogate, using the software and [...]
September 12, 2011 | By Roger Mola

Remembering 9/11 at American History

Each day this week until September 11, the National Museum of American History is displaying artifacts recovered from the horrific crash of United Airlines Flight 93 a decade ago...
September 07, 2011 | By Roger Mola

Duck!

Even helping Jeb Corliss looks scary. Here’s the master of the wingsuit doing his thing in close proximity to canyon walls, as seen from multiple camera angles.
September 05, 2011 | By Tony Reichhardt

Going Once….The 1920 Pulitzer Race Trophy

From the Chicago Daily Tribune, November 28, 1920: "At last the pride of the Army air service, the Verville-Packard chasse biplane, has established its worth by romping ahead of thirty-four starters in the first Pulitzer...
September 02, 2011 | By Rebecca Maksel

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

With Hurricane Irene safely behind us, I thought I’d share a story from my pre-airline days, about one of my scariest experiences as a pilot. From my logbook, here are my entries for a flight in November 1985. There is only a small space for remarks, so they’re not detailed. But they’re enough to remind [...]
August 31, 2011 | By Steve Satre

Streaking Along at Mach 20

Initial reports from an August 11 test of DARPA’s Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic research vehicle were mixed. The glider launched successfully and separated from its Minotaur IV rocket over the Pacific, but engineers lost contact with the vehicle nine minutes into the flight, and the test ended prematurely with the vehicle self-destructing according to safety procedures. [...]
August 29, 2011 | By Tony Reichhardt

It’s Alive!

Robonaut 2—the humanoid robot soon to be tested as an astronaut’s helper on the International Space Station—is being powered up for the first time this morning (screen shot at left). Since arriving on the space shuttle last February, the robot has been sitting on its pedestal, lifeless. It won’t be commanded to move for a [...]
August 22, 2011 | By Tony Reichhardt

Orville Mugs For His Birthday

You may have noticed the U.S. flag flying on a federal building today, but chances are it was on the pole yesterday, too. Or perhaps you woke feeling the need for “appropriate exercises to further stimulate interest in aviation,” which many of us consider part of our routine. At least today, though, you’ve got President [...]
August 19, 2011 | By Roger Mola

A Dassault Falcon 2000, a Maybach luxury auto, and freshly swept stairs: NetJets set up this publicity shot in Switzerland, but for fractional jet owners, such fantasy is the reality.

Ride-Sharing With the Rich

How fractional jet owners get out of flying coach.
August 2011 | By David Freed

Two things you will find every July in Oshkosh Wisconsin The DC 3 Duggy and planeloads of international tourists

The United Nations of Oshkosh

Flying. The other universal language.
July 2011 | By James Wynbrandt

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Need to Know

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It's all about the solar beta angle.

Air & Space Interview

NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun talks about technology and innovation to attendees at the AARP "Orlando @50+" Conference in Orlando, Fl., Oct. 1, 2010.  Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Bobby Braun

NASA's outgoing Chief Technologist talks about what's in the R&D pipeline

In the Magazine

May 2013

  • Beyond the Moon
  • The Man Who Invented the Predator
  • Cancelled: Britain’s High-Mach Heartbreak
  • Earth’s Mirror
  • The Galileo Project

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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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