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Editors' Picks

Printed in Space

If your star tracker breaks on the way to the moon, just hit Command P.

Area 51: Origins

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

Need for Speed

Airplanes with a mission: Fly faster.

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

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History of Flight

Page 18 of 30

Viewport: July 20, 2009

July 2009 | By J.R. Dailey

John Glenn’s transcontinental F8U flight led to his selection as an astronaut.

John Glenn's Project Bullet

July 2009 | By George C. Larson, member, NAA

Victory Through Air Power proved no victory for Walt Disney, but at least Seversky (right) got some screen time.

Oldies and Oddities: The Disney War Plan

July 2009 | By Stephen Joiner

The YB-49 demonstrated that putting jet engines on an airframe designed for piston engines made the aircraft faster but not better.

Too Much, Too Soon

July 2009 | By General Robert L. Cardenas, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) As told to James P. Busha

Boeing B-47

The Dawn of Discipline

A B-47 pilot remembers when an airplane—and Curtis LeMay—stiffened the spine of the Strategic Air Command
July 2009 | By Walter J. Boyne

Fear of Floating

Fear of Floating

Diagnosis: Collective Panic Attack. Cause: Count von Zeppelin.
July 2009 | By Dan Vergano

“Efforts to keep down our air power were begun as soon as the sound of the cannon had ceased on the Western Front in 1919,” said Mitchell (second from right).

The Billy Mitchell Court-Martial

Courtroom sketches from aviation's Trial of the Century.
July 2009 | By Rebecca Maksel

Crew members Russ Holmes, Jack Ruggles, William Vanderkloot, Ron Williams, and John Affleck (left to right) stealthily flew Churchill and other VIPs to crucial meetings around the globe.

Travels with Churchill

A World War II flight engineer dishes on the most “I” of the VIPs he flew with.
July 2009 | By Graham Chandler

At a 2008 motorcar and aircraft show in West Sussex, England, The Six and its pilot, Julian Firth (in white flightsuit), greet dignitaries such as Norman Turnball (left), the aircraft’s flight engineer from 1959 to 1964.

The Six

If Lockheed’s Constellation was the hare, the Douglas DC-6 was the oh-so-reliable tortoise.
July 2009 | By Kara Platoni

Amy Johnson's excellent adventure

Reading the stories of early aviators always makes me shake my head with admiration. Consider, for example, Amy Johnson, who on this day in 1930, set out from Croydon, England, bent on becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia—which she did, in 19 days, alone in a de Havilland Gi...
May 05, 2009 | By Tony Reichhardt

The 1935 Explorer II mission was a daring ascent into the stratosphere by Captain Albert Stevens (second from left). Edward Dawson Cochley of Wabash, Indiana, sent this photo of his grandfather, great-grandmother, grandmother, and uncle, who was involved with the flight.

Photos from the Attic

From the collections of Air & Space readers, personal moments in the history of flight.
November 2007 | By airspacemag.com

Vietnam: Reconciliation II

Might Dan Cherry have a third career as an ambassador to Vietnam? The retired Air Force Brigadier General met the Vietnamese pilot he shot down in 1972 about a year ago. When Cherry returned home, he set about arranging for Hong My to visit the U.S. The two made presentations at the Sun & Fun f...
April 27, 2009 | By Pat Trenner

Former Foe Welcomes New Friend

 The "Above & Beyond" department in our April/May issue chronicles the search by a retired Air Force Brigadier General for the Vietnamese pilot he shot down in 1972. After an emotional reunion, Dan Cherry arranged for Hong My and his son to come to the United States, where the two pilots will p...
April 15, 2009 | By Pat Trenner

George Lucas to film Tuskegee Airmen story

The director of Star Wars says he's been waiting 20 years to film the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American pilots who distinguished themselves in the skies over Europe during World War II. Now he'll get the chance. George Lucas's company, Lucasfilm, will begin shooting in Europe this ...
April 09, 2009 | By Tony Reichhardt

Spitfire Sees Wartime Service Again—A Bidding War

On April 20, put in your bid for a 1944 two-seat, airworthy Supermarine Spitfire at a Bonhams auction at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, Britain. Bonhams officials expect a sale price of $2.2 million.
April 07, 2009 | By Pat Trenner

Across the South Atlantic in 1922

On this day in 1922, a pair of Portuguese aviators, Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, set off on the first flight across the southern Atlantic, from Lisbon to Recife, Brazil. They made it, but with plenty of down time for repairs and waiting on replacement aircraft. They finally finished the 5,100...
March 30, 2009 | By Tony Reichhardt

Urban Legendinski

Photos of this Soviet behemoth, posing as a K-7 designed by Konstantin Kalinin, have been zinging around the Internet lately, eventually landing on the desktops of National Air and Space Museum curators. “If it’s on the Internet, it must be true,” goes the saying.No dice, says curator Von Hardesty,...
March 27, 2009 | By Pat Trenner

Voices of the Sky: Historic Sound Recordings

Cube life got you down? Download Voices of the Sky from Smithsonian Folkways and “tighten your safety belt, locate the nearest emergency exit, study the instructions for inflating your life jacket the courage—and the wattage—to turn up the sound to runway volume.”Besides offering terrific liner ...
March 24, 2009 | By Rebecca Maksel

Remembering an Early G-Man

Earl Wood, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic Aero Medical Unit who pioneered the study of G-forces on pilots in the early jet age, died on March 18 at the age of 97. The Mayo Clinic has a short sketch of his career and a documentary film in two parts.
March 24, 2009 | By Tony Reichhardt

An Earhart Souvenir?

This summer, the PBS History Detectives series will air an episode that investigates the provenance of a metal airplane part owned by a San Jose, California man. Jon Ott says his grandfather recovered the part from Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E after she dragged a wing on the ground during ...
March 20, 2009 | By Pat Trenner

« Previous 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Next »

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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

Need to Know

Why do NASA launch times depend on lighting conditions?

It's all about the solar beta angle.

In the Magazine

July 2013

  • Where Have All the Shuttle Engineers Gone?
  • Panthers At Sea
  • Earth-Like Planets Could be Right Next Door
  • Alaska and the Airplane
  • 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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