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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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  5. Aerospace Inventions

Photos

Page 4 of 5
Rosetta views Earth, November 2009.

From Beyond

A new exhibition of awe-inspiring photos from the first 50 years of planetary exploration.
May 18, 2010 | By The Editors

The 1907 Gordon Bennett Race—In Stereo!

3-D photos of early balloons and aero meets, from the Smithsonian vaults.
August 17, 2010 | By The Editors

My Mother Had Wings

The daughter of a WASP tells her mother's tale.
June 16, 2010 | By The Editors

Inside the Enola Gay

Close-up photographs of the legendary World War II aircraft.
May 18, 2010 | By The Editors

History in Flight

Rare warbirds star in a California airshow.
May 11, 2010 | By Linda Shiner

<b><i>Writer and photographer Ed Darack</b></i> spent time in December 2009 with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 (VMM-261) in southern Afghanistan. In addition to Darack’s story, “Osprey at War,” featured in our April / May issue, we offer a slideshow of images taking during his stay. <br><br>“The pilots put the tip lights on for safety during nighttime and at dawn and dusk,” says Darack. “They just started this one up—you can see the plume of white smoke.” <br><br>Many of the Osprey pilots used to fly the Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight, known colloquially to the Marines as the “Phrog.” “Basically, coming from the CH-46, I felt safe in the Phrog because it had two .50-caliber machine guns,” says Captain Chris Meixell of VMM-261, “but with this airframe, we have triple-redundant flight controls, and those controls are routed in different parts of the airframe. The engines are 46 feet apart, which decreases the chances of both of them getting shot out by enemy fire, and [the MV-22] can climb to 9,000 feet in airplane mode on one engine. The fuel system is a suction type system, and if you take a round, it is just going to suck air, it is not going to spray fuel. The greatest safety advantage is the performance of the aircraft itself, which allows us to climb quickly out of small-arms and shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile range.”

A Tiltrotor Squadron in Afghanistan

Scenes of a Marine unit flying the incredible, versatile Osprey.
March 15, 2010 | By Rebecca Maksel

Airshows in 3D

Hey, if James Cameron can do it, so can we. What better subject to view in three dimensions than an airshow? So we asked our friends at LightSpeedMedia to capture airshow scenes with the 3D camera they’ve developed. Then we asked Vision III Imagery to process the photographs so you can see them in 3D without wearing special glasses.

Vision III’s process creates the illusion of depth by digitally combining the stereoscopic images and rapidly switching back and forth between them. Too much jiggle? Hit the off button. The airplanes are also cool in two dimensions.
March 16, 2010 | By airspacemag.com

Space Shuttle Endeavour

The Shuttle in a Different Light

The space shuttle glows in photographs taken by one of its own technicians.
July 13, 2009 | By The Editors

<b><i>Why fly solo</b></i> when you can bring along a passenger? That’s probably what Bernard Pietenpol was thinking when he designed and built the Air Camper, a two-seat monoplane.<br><br> Pietenpol lived a simple life in rural Minnesota. When he wasn’t working in his television repair shop in Cherry Grove, he almost always had an airplane under construction: wood airframe, fabric covering, and an engine lifted from an automobile. And when the airplane was finished, it was put to use flying low and slow over acres of farmland. Pietenpol’s two sons, Kermit and Don, and his six grandchildren all grew up seeing their world from above. For the Pietenpol family, airplanes weren’t really a mode of transportation—a way to get from one point to another. Flying was a pleasure all its own, and getting aloft in an open-cockpit airplane was the best way to enjoy a long summer day. Generations of Pietenpol homebuilders agree.<br><br> Pictured above: Don often sat alongside his father, who resorted to strapping his son in with a men’s belt because the no-frills Air Campers had no safety harnesses.

A Family Affair

Bernard Pietenpol’s happiest moments came when he was flying one of his homebuilt airplanes—with a child or two in tow.
March 15, 2010 | By Diane Tedeschi

Hubble Favorites

A National Air and Space Museum astronomer picks some of his favorite images from the storied telescope.
May 22, 2009 | By Rebecca Maksel

<b><i>Four years after NASA’s inception</b></i>, agency administrator James Webb saw Bruce Stevenson’s formal portrait of astronaut Alan Shepard, and came up with an unusual idea: to hire artists to be part of NASA’s staff, to illustrate and illuminate the agency’s missions. “Important events can be interpreted by artists to give a unique insight into significant aspects of our history-making advances into space,” Webb wrote in a 1963 press release. “An artistic record of this nation’s program of space exploration will have great value for future generations and may make a significant contribution to the history of American art.” <br><br>Since 1963, hundreds of artists (and musicians, poets—even one fashion designer) have interpreted NASA’s aeronautic and space projects. In celebration of NASA’s 50th anniversary in 2008, more than 70 diverse artworks from the program are touring the country as part of an exhibition titled <i>NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration</i>. Click on the images at right to take a closer look at some of the items in the traveling exhibit. Images and text are taken from the exhibition catalog of the same name, written by James Dean and Bertram Ulrich. <br><br>“In May 1963, NASA, with the help of the National Gallery of Art, selected eight artists to document the last Mercury flight, which would transport astronaut Gordon Cooper into the heavens,” write James Dean and Bertram Ulrich in the exhibition catalog. “Seven sketched and painted the subtropical fields around an imposing launchpad while the eighth enduring the pitching and rolling deck of a recovery ship in the Pacific Ocean. The paintings and drawings produced by these eight artists formed the cornerstone of an art collection that spans almost fifty years of American history and currently comprises nearly three thousand works.” <br><br><i>In Power</i>, by Paul Calle (oil on panel, 50 x 58 inches, 1963), “The Atlas launch vehicle, producing 360,000 pounds of thrust, lifts the last Mercury astronaut, Gordon Cooper, into Earth orbit for a thirty-four-hour flight on May 15, 1963—at the time, an American long-duration record.”

NASA Art on Tour

A traveling exhibit from the space agency's right brain.
March 09, 2010 | By Rebecca Maksel

Weightless Workouts

A new fitness machine on the space station brings astronaut exercise into the 21st century
December 31, 2008 | By airspacemag.com

<b><i>Visit the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum,</b></i> and you’re guaranteed to see historic aircraft and spacecraft, including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress <i>Enola Gay</i>, the SR-71 <i>Blackbird</i>, and the Space Shuttle <i>Enterprise</i>. The Museum also boasts a multitude of artifacts large and small: engines, propellers, aerial cameras, more than 2 million technical drawings—even popular culture items such as Charles Lindbergh-emblazoned underwear. <br><br>But what people may <i>not</i> know is that part of the Museum’s mission is to tell the story of aerospace through art; during the Museum’s creation, Congress mandated that one gallery be specifically dedicated to aerospace artwork. <br><br>Which brings us to an important donation. Michael and Maureen Harrigan, of Kendall, New York, recently gave the Museum 42 prints by renowned aviation artist Robert Taylor, a collection acquired over some 20 years. <br><br>When Mike Harrigan’s firm, the Harrigan Brady Paper Company, moved to its new location in 1988, Harrigan asked his (mostly female) staff for suggestions on how to fill the empty wall space. “They wanted paintings of daisies,” he said, somewhat mournfully. Because of the company’s proximity to the Greater Rochester International Airport, Harrigan suggested an alternative: pictures of airplanes. <br><br>As senior aeronautics curator Tom Crouch reported in our March 2010 issue, the first Robert Taylor print Harrigan acquired was titled <i>Home at Dusk</i>. (The print depicts four P-51 Mustangs crossing the East Anglican coast on their way back to base.) Harrigan’s interest in aviation art grew from there; he eventually collected so many Robert Taylor’s prints that his staff took to calling him “Imelda Marcos.” When he ran out of available wall space, Harrigan wasn’t deterred in the least—he hung the remaining prints in the men’s room. <br><br>Harrigan’s art collection began to gain a bit of fame in the Rochester area, with customers, postal carriers, and the random citizen showing up during work hours asking for a tour. Visitors were so frequent that “the girls suggested I start charging a fee, and we could have a party with the money,” joked Harrigan. <br><br>As Tom Crouch wrote, “Someone once asked Mike if he would ever part with the collection. His answer: ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if the Smithsonian walked in, I’d have to consider it.’ To make a long story short, we did, and he did.” <br><br>When the Smithsonian crew came to package the collection for transport, Harrigan had one request: to wrap up <i>Home at Dusk</i> first, and to box up the final print he acquired, last. “There was a tear in my eye,” Harrigan said, as he watched the crew package his collection, piece by piece. “All of the girls were crying. They knew how much those prints meant to me.” <br><br>The Harrigans’ generous donation can currently be seen, in part, on the lower level of the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Once the new restoration wing is completed, in 2011, the collection will be displayed in its entirety. Click on the images at right to take a closer look at a few prints from the collection. <br><br>The painting shown here, <i>Morning Thunder</i>, includes a note from the artist, Robert Taylor: “Sunday, December 7, 1941 <br><br>Having taken six torpedo hits and two bomb strikes in the first-wave attack on Battleship Row, the <i>West Virginia</i> is ablaze, her bows already low in the water and decks awash. Ignoring the risk, crews push the Navy tug <i>Hoga</i> alongside with fire-fighting equipment and to pick up survivors. Overhead, Japanese Zeros swoop through the smoke, aiming the second-wave attack at installations on Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island, to complete one of history’s most devastating unprovoked declarations of war.”

The Gift of Art

A recent donation by Michael and Maureen Harrigan helps the Museum fulfill its mission.
January 21, 2010 | By Rebecca Maksel

Hawker Hurricane at the NASM Udvar-Hazy Center. Smithsonian NASM Udvar-Hazy Center Photo By Dane A. Penland

Sightings: Hazy's Hits

A photo gallery of airplanes at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.
November 17, 2009 | By Michael Klesius

Gil Cohen: Aviation Artist

A new illustrated book brings aviation history to life.
November 17, 2009 | By Tom D. Crouch

Voices from the Moon

What it was like, in the astronauts’ own words. Excerpts from a new book by Andrew Chaikin.
May 20, 2009 | By Andrew Chaikin with Victoria Kohl

An Aerial View of Geology

Photographer Michael Collier and his Cessna 180 bring North America's coastal landscapes into focus.
November 17, 2009 | By Rebecca Maksel

Various Stages of painting the Aviation Heritage Park Panther F9F-2 as it starts to receive official Blue Angels paint. All work was done at the hanger and paint was donated by PPG Aerospace.

Panther Paint Job

Watch a 57-year-old warbird go from Winona rags to Blue Angel royalty.
November 17, 2009 | By Michael Klesius

Women Who Fly

Portraits of female pilots
December 19, 2008 | By Rebecca Maksel

Animals Aloft

Aviation can sometimes be downright inhuman.
November 20, 2008 | By Rebecca Maksel

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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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