How Things Work

How Things Work: Flying Upside Down

The tricks that keep the engine from knowing it’s not right side up.
May 2002 | By Patricia Trenner

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Infrared Countermeasures

The systems that cool the threat from heat-seeking missiles.
July 2003 | By Sam Goldberg

X-rays enter Chandra’s pairs of nested mirrors.

How Things Work: Chandra X-Ray

The Chandra X-Ray Telescope, explained.
January 2008 | By Damond Benningfield

All the shuttle

Shuttle Tiles

Why the space shuttle can withstand reentry temperatures up to 2,300 degrees.
May 2006 | By Damond Benningfield

Hush Kits

Engineer to airplane: Stifle
January 2005 | By Roger A. Mola

The IFLOLS aboard the USS George Washington.

The Meatball

Pilots who make it safely to the deck of an aircraft carrier have seen the light.
May 2005 | By Sam Goldberg

The Annotated Airport

A guide to the meaning of the myriad signs, lines, circles, arrows, numbers, letters, and lights on the airport grounds.
March 2005 | By Patricia Trenner

Even the wing tips and the midwing "super pods," which look like fuel tanks, are crammed with sensors and electronics. Its paint scheme makes it look stealthy, but a U-2 is detectable by radar.

The U-Deuce

The secret to a spyplane's eternal youth is a new suite of gadgets installed on a classic chassis.
March 2005 | By William E. Burrows

In the Icing Research Tunnel of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio, granular “rime ice” chunks obliterate an airfoil’s smooth surface.

Electro- mechanical Deicing

Ice kills. That's why engineers continue to invent new ways to keep it off airplane wings.
March 2004 | By Tim Wright

Supporting Cast

In which we survey the variety of objects to which a jet engine can be affixed.
May 2004 | By Roger A. Mola

First Church of Combustion

Never operate your airplane engine lean of peak exhaust gas temperature. These guys aren't buyin' it.
July 2004 | By George C. Larson

Installed in the cargo hold, the FAA’s onboard inert-gas generation system prototype made nine test flights in an Airbus A320 last year.

Safer Fuel Tanks

Once airliners implement this pending FAA rule, a spark will no longer become a flame.
July 2004 | By Damond Benningfield

The truth is that portable electronic devices can emit powerful electromagnetic radiation that can muck up an aircraft’s navigation and communication systems and actually endanger a flight.

Turn Off That Phone!

For those who've use portable electronic devices aboard airliners: Here's why they're dangerous.
September 2004 | By John Croft

Pointers and illuminators that project infrared light, invisible to the human eye, enable ground commanders and combat controllers in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify targets and designate them for pilots with NVGs.

Dancing in the Dark

Night vision goggles can save a pilot's life or, if he hasn't had adequate training, take it.
November 2004 | By John Croft

The SBX, shown here on a cargo vessel in Texas, practiced two days of "weather avoidance" when Hurricane Emily arrived in the Gulf of Mexico during 2005 testing. The range of the array inside the dome is limited only by Earth

How Things Work: Phased-Array Radar

It takes a big eye to see a missile coming.
July 2006 | By Sam Goldberg

A 1942 Fairchild PT-19 Army Air Forces trainer, now owned by Wayne Boggs in Plant City, Florida, wears a Sensenich wood prop, model W86RA-61, for authenticity, and the prop even has original Sensenich decals.

Good Wood

Wooden propellers are like Louisville Sluggers: The distance.
July 2003 | By Tom Harpole

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Air & Space Videos

Space Station Fly-Around

Space Station Fly-Around

Take a narrated tour of the station with the same animation astronauts use in training.

Lunar Run

How a plasma-powered rocket would shoot for the moon.
The First Lunar Landing

The First Lunar Landing

One of history's great voyages, captured on 16mm film.
Aviation Training in the United States, 1917-18

WW I Pilot Training

Rare footage of Army pilots learning to fly Jennies in 1917.
Armstrongs Close Call

Armstrong’s Close Call

A fiery bailout while training to land on the moon.
Mercury Astronauts Meet the Press, 1959

Mercury Astronauts Meet the Press, 1959

...and answer the question: "What was your least favorite test?"
Marines Test the Joint Strike Fighter

Marines Test the Joint Strike Fighter

A Marine takes the new F-35 for a spin.
On the Prowl

On the Prowl

Climb into the cockpit for a flight in an EA-6B Prowler.

Dodging Missiles

Dodging Missiles

F-105 pilots recall the dangers of flying over North Vietnam.
F-105 Walkaround

F-105 Walkaround

Get a close look at the National Air and Space Museum’s Thunderchief.
PTQ: Put Together Quickly

PTQ: Put Together Quickly

Watch Boeing technicians repair an airliner—in two minutes.
Operation Tumbler-Snapper

Operation Tumbler-Snapper

Atomic bombs versus airplanes in the Nevada desert.

Air & Space Interview

Chinese Test Pilot Yang Guoxiang

The H-bomb that almost backfired.

New Worlds

Confidence Booster

This little known Apollo artifact caused astronauts to rest a little easier.