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.

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How Things Work: Laser Guide Stars

Adaptive optics and lasers are giving ground-based telescopes better-than-Hubble views.
February 2013 | By Heather Goss

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How do you maneuver a million-pound spacecraft?
August 2012 | By Roger Mola and Tony Reichhardt

NASA's Curiosity rover will try a new way of landing on another planet.
January 2012 | By Tony Reichhardt

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

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

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

An XC-35 in flight.

Why you remain conscious at 30,000 feet.
January 2002 | By George C. Larson

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

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

All the shuttle

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

The IFLOLS aboard the USS George Washington.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Prop, swept wings, a huge T-tail—the XF-84H was one of a kind.

That's the sound of the prop-driven XF-84H, and it brought grown men to their knees. It didn't fly all that great either.
July 2003 | By Stephan Wilkinson

Jackson and his technicians recently refurbished a civilian transport that had been converted from a Douglas A-26 Invader.

"Uh oh. Why is this piston rod left over?" Meet the pilots who are gutsy enough to fly freshly restored airplanes.
July 2003 | By Mark Huber

In the evolution of the airplane, Darwinian principles have applied unevenly.
May 2003 | By Bill Sweetman

Better technology is helping airline pilots keep a safe distance from terrain.
September 2003 | By Damond Benningfield

Jimmy Doolittle had a doctorate in aeronautical engineering.

Machines alone could not have pushed the airplane forward.
March 2003 | By Patricia Trenner

In a flash, military aircraft adopted the turbojet, and propellers were out. Favorites like the North American T-6 trainer were retired.

The inventions, institutions, gadgets, and lucky breaks that have shaped the story of the airplane.
March 2003 | By Roger Bilstein

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Bobby Braun

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