AirSpaceMag-Flight Today

A New Dawn, Partially Realized

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:20:38 GMT

In 1969, Pan Am was promising both the jumbo jet and the SST. In the end, we only got one of them.

The Pilots of Mount McKinley

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

For 50 years, the world has reached the mountain on airplanes from one small town.

Alaska’s Crash Epidemic

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

How technology and an FAA regional office ended it.

A New Way to Navigate

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

This video, filmed by cameras on the tail and a wing of a Piper Navaho Chieftain, shows how ADS-B Technologies of Anchorage, Alaska, tested a system last year to help pilots fly through rugged terrain, where they cannot be seen by air traffic control radar. The GPS-based navigation and weather information system transmits position tracking to pilots and to control towers. The first segment shows how the pilot and ground controller can follow the airplane’s course in real time as it flies through a narrow canyon. The second segment (at 0:54) shows how the system helps pilots maintain a safe separation from other aircraft. Finally (1:32), the system helps the Piper’s pilot track another airplane’s rate of closure as it flew past at high speed. The system also works for airplanes over open water or in other locations beyond the reach of ground stations.

Flightseeing on Mount McKinley

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

In Talkeetna, Alaska, 60 miles from Mount McKinley, four flying services have the National Park Service’s permission to land on the glaciers in Denali National Park. Although more climbers than ever are flying to Mount McKinley, most of the trips to the mountain today are flown to give tourists a look at the majesty at high elevations, with scenes like those in this video.

Water World

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Where Airplanes have floats, and everybody flies.

The X-51 Ends on a High Note

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:45:58 GMT

The Waverider soars, thanks to the longest scramjet burn ever.

In the Age of Stratojets

Wed, 01 May 2013 01:54:11 GMT

A former B-47 crew chief looks back at one of the great airplanes of the 20th century.

Joe Sutter and the Rough Riders

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:13:09 GMT

The Father of the 747 takes his inspiration from Teddy Roosevelt.

Airshow Guide 2012 Redirect

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:04:35 GMT

Use our interactive map to link to events around the country, then share your airshow experiences.

Raiding the Trust Fund

Fri, 03 May 2013 04:04:33 GMT

To keep from laying off Air Traffic Controllers, Congress grabbed money intended to improve airport safety.

FOQA is Watching

Thu, 02 May 2013 02:06:44 GMT

The little black box that looks over our shoulder.

Sex and the Airlines

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:35:47 GMT

The evolution of the stewardess, from airborne homemaker to aerial sex kitten.

Lost, Not Forgotten

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:08:30 GMT

Wrecked aircraft from around the world are showcased in Dietmar Eckell's forthcoming book.

Life on Reserve

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:35:05 GMT

Being on call means never knowing where you'll fly from one day to the next.

Plane Spotting

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:01:06 GMT

You'll find them at most any airport. Some spotters try to see every type of jet flown by a given airline, while others are on the lookout for special liveries.

In a Throw-Away Culture, What Lasts?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:44:22 GMT

Airplanes.

Docking on the Empire State Building

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:56:59 GMT

Despite plans for a mooring station, only one airship ever docked at the Empire State Building.

On Those FAA Tower Closures

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:45:46 GMT

Bad news for air traffic controllers, but the traveling public and small aircraft pilots should see little impact.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:16:52 GMT

Our photo editor offers 12 tips to make your airshow album a work of art.

Knives on Planes

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 05:53:41 GMT

Is a minor speed-up of security lines worth the extra risk?

Parkour Among the Planes

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:32:56 GMT

Ever wanted to play in an airplane graveyard? Watch how the pros do it.

Rescued

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:00:00 GMT

Five daring helicopter crews on five very bad days.

In Museum: For Safe Landings On Two Planets

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:00:00 GMT

The 2013 National Air and Space Museum Trophy Winners.

The Man Who Invented the Predator

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:00:00 GMT

Before he designed the world’s most feared drone, Abraham Karem was just trying to get a robot to stay in the air.

Trigger Pullers and Mouse Clickers

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:05:35 GMT

Do drone pilots deserve medals?

Wing Suit In Flight

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:03:05 GMT

“I learned about it last winter and decided I was going to jump it the second I found out it existed,” says Jeb Corliss, speaking of The Crack. It’s a code name for a fissure in the Earth somewhere outside Zurich, Switzerland where he’s spent much of the summer BASE jumping (Buildings, Antennas, Spans, and Earth) in his custom wing suit. From the top of a peak whose name also remains guarded by the wing suit cognoscenti, he jumped and flew forward for a minute and 20 seconds, dropping only a foot for every three feet forward. Not content to fly above The Crack, he dropped in deep for some Star Wars style groove cruising that should make your head spin. Hang on to the arms of your desk chair.

“Items may shift during flight…”

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:08:45 GMT

...and may cause a (minor) medical emergency.

The Hotter the Better

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:28:26 GMT

Make an engine that can run hotter and still survive, and you can get more thrust from the same amount of fuel.

Rescue, James Bond Style

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:08:06 GMT

Some of 007's imaginative toys were based on actual inventions.

Hidden Treasures

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:59:13 GMT

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is a wonderland for the aviation enthusiast.

Fantastic Plastic

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:16:16 GMT

Dive bombers, fighters, and trainers, all hanging from a bedroom ceiling.

Hersman for DOT

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:34:53 GMT

NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman's mix of intellectual curiosity and fearlessness make her a good choice for Transportation Secretary.

The Experiment, Part Two

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 03:16:33 GMT

Can someone with only flight simulator experience take off and land an airplane on the first try? I wanted to find out.

The Experiment, Part One

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 04:07:30 GMT

Can an ordinary person take off and land an airplane on the first try, with only flight simulator experience? We put it to the test.

Who Inspects the Navy’s Aircraft Carriers?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 02:27:51 GMT

It takes a (uniformed) village.

The-World-From-Your-Airplane-Window

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:53:12 GMT

A science writer's guide for the inquisitive air traveler.

Some Thing on the Wing

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:45:45 GMT

Quite a shock out my airplane window.

Hazardous Mail

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:17:44 GMT

A simple scrap of paper reminds us of a time when delivering letters cross-country was risky business.

About Those Airliner Batteries

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:40:44 GMT

They're not the same as the AAs from your hardware store, or even your car battery.

Moments & Milestones: The 727 Turns Fifty

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Once a best-seller, the airliner’s pilots still swear by it.

The Gosh of Oshkosh

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:54:54 GMT

Scenes from aviation's annual pilgrimage.

Reno Wrap-up

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:00:52 GMT

What was hot—and what was not—at the 2009 National Championship Air Races.

First Around the World

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:07:22 GMT

For balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, the end of one journey marked the beginning of another.

Jumping Ship

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:56:39 GMT

No, it's not a disaster. It's a world record.

An Aerial View of Geology

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:59:44 GMT

Photographer Michael Collier and his Cessna 180 bring North America's coastal landscapes into focus.

Sightings: Hazy's Hits

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:53:48 GMT

A photo gallery of airplanes at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.

Why Do Airliners Have Teething Problems?

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 05:47:35 GMT

If they're introducing new technology, problems are almost guaranteed.

The Blakesburg Fly-In

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:06:25 GMT

Antique airplanes—the cream of the crop—fluttered around corn country to celebrate an air mail birthday.

Women Who Fly

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:42:02 GMT

Portraits of female pilots

Stratomouse!

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:05:33 GMT

In the 1950s, balloons carried live mice to near-space to study how the trip might affect astronauts.

Tucker’s Teardown

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:35:24 GMT

The final act of the airshow season, in time-lapse.

Spy Pigeons

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:59:46 GMT

Unlikely soldiers during World War II: More than 250,000 pigeons deployed by the British.

Judgment Day

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Inventive design or fatal flaw? On a homebuilt airplane, one person makes the call.

Lunar History For Sale

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 04:26:11 GMT

A 16th-century telescope, Lunar Orbiter mission documents, early views of deep space, and more go on auction this week.

Pippo: A World War II Mystery

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:03:21 GMT

Why does the solitary night fighter call out for a nickname?

Made in Mexico

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 04:51:29 GMT

Aerospace jobs south of the border? Yes, and it's been that way for a long time.

Crocodiles on a Plane

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:04:49 GMT

Sometimes passengers and crew are downright inhuman.

Pedal Power

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

University of Maryland students close in on the human-powered helicopter prize.

The Air Force Survival Guide (Don’t Leave Home Without it)

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:44:51 GMT

Find yourself in a hostile environment? The Air Force knows what to do.

Drones for Hire

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

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

Above and Beyond: Fear Factor

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Panic attacks in an airliner? Try a smaller airplane, with a friend as your pilot.

Robot Reporters

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 02:42:52 GMT

Will UAVs become as indispensable for journalists as notepads and digital recorders?

Is Denzel’s Upside-Down Flying Trick Plausible?

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:16:07 GMT

When it comes to accuracy, Flight lost me at the walkaround.

Asleep at the Wheel

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:15:07 GMT

Driving a drone is (apparently) nothing like playing World of Warcraft.

Fly or Drive?

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:24:06 GMT

How far does a trip have to be to travel by air? Answer our poll.

Dragonflies for Sale

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:28:56 GMT

Robot insects are about to go commercial.

What Are You Wearing?

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 06:45:42 GMT

In the airplane business, clothes make the salesman.

Fly-Powered Planes and Other Oddities

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 06:25:59 GMT

Oddball items at the National Air and Space Museum.

“Get Us Off This Plane!”

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 03:48:12 GMT

When you’re trapped on an airliner, Kate Hanni wants to help.

Pilots, Look Down

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:42:03 GMT

To find their way home, aviators used to be able to read the rooftops.

The Eye of the Beholder

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:51:30 GMT

For its innovation and emphasis on inner beauty, the Hondajet deserves a recent design award.

Bullet Man

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Can space-diver Felix Baumgartner break the sound barrier without breaking his neck?

Ace of Clubs

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 02:25:54 GMT

Flying clubs can bring the costs of operating an airplane within the reach of mid-income pilots.

Crash Test TV

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 12:34:14 GMT

Destroying a 727 in the name of science, and entertainment.

The Resilience of Air Race Fans

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:01:27 GMT

The real stars at Reno this year were in the stands.

Back in the Race at Reno

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 04:57:56 GMT

Not all the new safety measures are welcome, but the teams are upbeat, and happy to be racing again.

The Hemingways Go Flying

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:47:13 GMT

The macho man of American Letters was a nervous flier. His wife was another story.

One Giant Leap for Spider-kind

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:31:08 GMT

A jumping spider finds that hunting in zero-g is not a problem.

Flutter: Fast and Fatal

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 04:36:39 GMT

Aerodynamic flutter can be deadly, but it wasn't until recently that it was even understood.

750 Meters Later

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:32:43 GMT

Masten Space System's test vehicle, Xombie, took a nice ride this week.

Carlotta, the Lady Aeronaut

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 05:07:15 GMT

An 1880 balloon jaunt ends with our heroine up a tree.

Secret Pete - How Reno Racers Keep Their Cool

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 GMT

At the Reno air races, pilots know that to go fast, you have to stay cool. That’s where Pete Law comes in.

Burt Rutan's Favorite Ride

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 GMT

The Boomerang could be the safest twin ever built.

How Do You Name an Aircraft Carrier?

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 04:26:53 GMT

It's not as straightforward as you think.

Let George Fly the Plane

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 02:04:14 GMT

Autopilot is one of the greatest inventions ever for pilots. But have we paid a price?

Thanks for the Lift

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:02:53 GMT

Riding on a Marine Corps C-130 in Iraq had its risks, not all of them expected.

Security for Life

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:18:42 GMT

Is the TSA forever? We're interested in your opinion.

Divert? Stick to the Plan?

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:59:01 GMT

The decision to divert to an alternate airport requires a close watch on the fuel gauge.

Above the Games

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:18:44 GMT

Aircraft will be all over London during the Olympics, delivering visitors, filming the action, and patrolling the skies.

475,000 Takeoffs and Landings a Year

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:28:17 GMT

The Summer Games will bring 4,000 additional aircraft to London's airports. Find out what it takes to keep Heathrow running smoothly on a normal day.

Choreographing Olympic Airspace

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:43:42 GMT

Flying into London for the Olympics? Get in line.

Busy British Airports Rely on Virtual Assistants

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 05:09:44 GMT

Holographic help: Holly and Graham are available to assist confused travelers.

The Verdict on Air France 447

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:26:16 GMT

One big factor in the accident: uncertainty as to who was flying the plane.

Antonovs in America

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:00:00 GMT

Where the world’s biggest biplane is under-employed.

The East is Red (or at Least a Kind of Pinkish Color)

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 04:24:07 GMT

China is making inroads in the aerospace business, but it’s difficult to think of an industry that’s harder to break into.

The Myth of Making Up Time

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:17:21 GMT

Unless your flight is over six hours, there's usually not much the crew can do to shave off more than a few minutes.

Notes From Farnborough

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 03:15:00 GMT

Daily dispatches from one of the world's great airshows.

To the North Pole…by Balloon

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:03:48 GMT

115 years ago today, three Swedish explorers set off on the only attempt ever to reach the Pole by balloon.

Robot Fall, Robot Get Up

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:03:12 GMT

When the AirBurr flying robot crashes into an obstacle, it rights itself and keeps going.

Spot the Crazy Passenger

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 07:33:35 GMT

Do you ask for exactly three, not four ice cubes in your beverage? Flight attendants might think of you as a problem passenger.

Human-Powered Helicopter Team Goes for Record

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 03:05:17 GMT

Can Gamera II stay airborne for 60 seconds? Tune in on Friday.

“Mayday, This is Death 23”

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 06:30:29 GMT

The call that makes every Apache pilot freeze.

Flying an 80-Year-Old Plane

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:51:15 GMT

A rare chance to take the controls of a 1931 Stinson Tri-Motor.

The Master of “Good Enough”

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:07:43 GMT

Pilots will always remember Ed King as the man who built their radios.

Not Your Father’s Safety Board

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 06:30:46 GMT

Smart and experienced, the National Transportation Safety Board will delve into issues facing General Aviation in a forum to be held next week.

The Original

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:24 GMT

How the 1903 Flyer got where it is today.

World’s Biggest Billboard

Tue, 08 May 2012 05:14:44 GMT

Want to get your message across in letters as tall as the Empire State Building and stretching across eight miles of sky? Call The Geico Skytypers.

Hug an Aircraft Mechanic Today

Thu, 24 May 2012 06:10:49 GMT

And remember Charley Taylor, the Wright Brothers' mechanic, born on this day in 1868.

My Other Vehicle Was a Spacecraft

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Now that the space shuttle has retired, astronauts are rediscovering the joys of flying airplanes.

Rod Hightower: Build, Volunteer, Fly

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

An interview with the President and CEO of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Time To Climb

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

A Yak 3U gets to 10,000 feet in 125 seconds.

The Quiet Revolution

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The Dreamliner’s quiet revolution.

Soundings - Gyroplanes Swarm in Florida

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The Annual Bensen Days fly-in welcomes rotorheads.

Flights & Fancy - Short Strips and Flying Pigs

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

When flying in Papua, be prepared for surprises.

In the Museum - Summer at the Smithsonian

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Planning a visit to the Museum? We provide some helpful hints.

He Saved Navy Fliers from Spam

Thu, 17 May 2012 04:31:14 GMT

Long before Swanson's TV dinner, there was the Maxson Sky Plate.

F-22: The Other Shoe Drops

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:39:02 GMT

Not grounded, but close.

Spinning a Dream

Wed, 16 May 2012 04:12:08 GMT

Forget the Boeing 787's fuel economy. It's all about the spinning cupholders.

Titanic’s Wireless Operators: The Original Texters

Mon, 14 May 2012 06:11:22 GMT

Text messaging, from 1912 to 2012.

Raptor in the Doghouse

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:53:29 GMT

The Air Force's most sophisticated fighter, the F-22, has a problem with its oxygen system, and increasingly, with its image.

Student Rocketry Challenge Blasts Off

Fri, 11 May 2012 04:17:01 GMT

Winners take home big prizes (and compete to be the next generation of aerospace leadership) in the Team America Rocketry Challenge.

Get Me to the Derby On Time

Fri, 04 May 2012 01:50:10 GMT

The Run for the Roses starts with a flight to Churchill Downs.

Space History Items Bring $1 Million

Thu, 03 May 2012 07:18:58 GMT

To buy a piece of space history, you need plenty of cash.

Learning to Love Props–Again

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:13:13 GMT

Regional airliners powered by turboprop engines may be making a comeback.

Personal Jetpacks of the Future, Today

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:37:08 GMT

Watch Yves Rossy fly his jet-powered wing above the Swiss countryside.

Howard Hughes’ Robot

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:25:59 GMT

On his record-setting flight in 1938, the billionaire had two navigators, only one of which was human.

Air & Space Airshow Spotter's Guide

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:21:36 GMT

Fun facts about the airplanes you'll see on the 2012 circuit.

Changes at the Reno Race Track?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:55:59 GMT

The National Safety Board’s recommendations may be only the beginning.

A World Without Helium?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:24:49 GMT

The second most plentiful element in the universe is rapidly running out here on earth.

Need for Speed

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:16:03 GMT

Vincent Bendix wanted his trophy to spur better and faster airplanes, and he got his wish.

Out of Work? Keep Training—For Free

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:57:32 GMT

One company's attempt to help out in hard times.

Why the Skies Will Not Be Full of Flying Cars

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:33:19 GMT

There's a reason why we don't already have them.

What’s Flying Where?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:16:19 GMT

This Boeing air traffic map can show you.

Buzz Lightyear’s New Home

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:08:02 GMT

A well-traveled toy enters the Smithsonian collection.

A Rough Ride

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 05:20:48 GMT

The Captain assured the passengers that everything was under control, but I'm sure some of them thought this was the end. I would have, if I had been in back.

Air Rangers

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The wild flights of Park Service pilots.

Sikorsky Wants to Pick Your Brain

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:34:25 GMT

AND the company will pay you for the privilege.

Dr. Noise

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:35:35 GMT

Want your luxury jet to be just a little quieter than your competitor’s? Otto Pobanz is your man.

Like a Seabee on a Diet…

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:28:34 GMT

Let's hope Icon's A5 fares better in the marketplace.

The End of the Plain Plane

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:11:22 GMT

When wild liveries and outrageous uniforms were the norm.

416 MPH

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:46:57 GMT

Not all speed records look fast on video, but this one does.

Hardest to Fly?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:08:02 GMT

Piloting an Apache helicopter almost always meant both hands and feet doing four different things at once.

High-Speed Helicopters Come of Age

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:25:54 GMT

By adding a little push, compound helicopters push the speed limit up to 300 mph.

Hollywood Air

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:36:41 GMT

The first Hollywood movie showcasing airline travel, Three Guys Named Mike, came out in 1951.

Do Something

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:55:03 GMT

Washington struggles for a response to last year’s Reno Air Races crash.

Post-holiday Diet Starts at the Airport

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:03:26 GMT

Detroit flyers can get a head-start on resolution dieting at their top ranking healthiest airport.

New Rest Rules for Pilots

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:19:04 GMT

You can lead a pilot to a rest period, but you can’t make him sleep.

No Escaping Death and (Carbon) Taxes

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:42:52 GMT

North American airlines lost their bid to throw out a carbon tax on aircraft flying to Europe. Expect transatlantic fares to go up.

No Way to Treat a Hero

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:35:35 GMT

Would Chesley Sullenberger really want to be FAA Administrator?

Pointer and Shooter

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:00:00 GMT

To nail the air-to-air shot, pilot and photographer have to work together like, well, this pair.

Mind if I Smoke?

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:11:28 GMT

Remember when passengers used to toss lit cigarettes out the airplane window? Honest.

Design by Rutan

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:00:00 GMT

A retrospective of Burt Rutan's high-performance art.

The Hurricane Hunters

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:37:05 GMT

When Atlantic storms threaten, NOAA pilots answer the call.

The Kids Are Trying to Crash

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:00:00 GMT

Remote-control models face off in the Extreme Flight Championships.

Moments and Milestones: From Point A to Point A

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:00:00 GMT

Twenty-five years ago, Burt Rutan’s Voyager became the first aircraft to make an around-the-world flight without refueling.

Gremlin On the Wing

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:10:13 GMT

How do you define the fear of flying? Scientists think it might be the sum of other fears.

Stay Tuned

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:21:07 GMT

A new emergency warning system will be tested on Wednesday -- 60 years after another radio network warned Americans of Cold War air raids.

New York to Mumbai, By Way of Amsterdam

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:13:15 GMT

A flight of firsts.

Following the Race to the Moon

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:50:03 GMT

In their efforts to "ignite a new era of lunar exploration," the Google Lunar X Prize wants competitors to reach out through social media so the rest of us can follow along.

Time to Renew my CFI

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:33:21 GMT

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.

Stop Stall-ing

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:27:02 GMT

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?

The Irritations of Airline-Speak

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:00:09 GMT

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.

Tragedy at Reno

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:28:53 GMT

What it was like in the pits that day.

“Smithsonian’s Stars” at the Museum

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:26:27 GMT

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.

Green Light for Fuel-Efficiency Races in California

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:04:42 GMT

Teams gathered their experimental planes in Santa Rosa, California last week for a competition of their environmental industriousness.

Above and Beyond: Confessions of a Flight Engineer

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

Flashlights, timers, and breath mints required.

Flight Today

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:25:32 GMT

Flashlights, timers, and breath mints required.

X-47 on Deck, Kind Of

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 02:32:12 GMT

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 [...]

Lost in America

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

Airplanes that go missing are often untraceable. Why is effective tracking technology being ignored?

Rough Riders

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

Five bushplanes and the places only they can fly.

A and S Interview: Andy Chiavetta

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

The Reno Kid, raceplane builder par excellence.

Remembering 9/11 at American History

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:22:10 GMT

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...

Going Once….The 1920 Pulitzer Race Trophy

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:10:46 GMT

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...

Duck!

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:57:09 GMT

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.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:44:26 GMT

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 [...]

Streaking Along at Mach 20

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:16:58 GMT

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. [...]

It’s Alive!

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:16:05 GMT

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 [...]

Orville Mugs For His Birthday

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:51:34 GMT

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 [...]

Heroes in the Tower

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Stories about air traffic controllers that you probably didn’t see on the evening news.

Distance Runners

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Unmanned aerial vehicles redefine the term "nonstop flight."

The Changing of the Guard

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Ten years after 9/11, what life is like in an Air National Guard unit.

Coming Extractions

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:53:14 GMT

The Army’s CH-47 Chinook helicopter has flown a stunning but standard maneuver—the aft-wheel pinnacle landing—since 1962. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the move has reached its peak. This month as many as 5,000 pairs of boots will leave the ground, with a goal to extract 33,000 by next September. Many will exit the same way they [...]

F-16s Don’t Think You’re Cute

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:40:06 GMT

As reported on AOL: “Myrtle Rose, a 75-year-old grandmother of nine and pilot, was intercepted by two F-16 fighter jets over suburban Illinois on Thursday when her small airplane crossed into airspace that had been restricted because of President Obama’s arrival in the Windy City.” A few days later, AvWeb reported that Rose’ first thought upon [...]

Rural Airport Subsidies: How Far Is Too Far?

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 01:12:11 GMT

As the crow flies, the Hagerstown Regional Airport (HGR) in Maryland is 64 miles from the much busier runways of Baltimore Washington International (BWI), to its east. How far a drive is it, though? And more importantly, how far is it in political terms? Under the Essential Air Service program enacted in 1978, federal subsidies [...]

D.B. Cooper (Still) Missing

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:26:57 GMT

After investigating a thousand suspects since a person who called himself (or herself) D.B. Cooper skyjacked a Boeing 727 on November 24, 1971, the FBI thought it finally had a “credible” tip. Until last night, that is, when CBS News reported that the Cooper lead had fizzled and the FBI was expected to formally rule [...]

Print Your Own Airplane

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 06:38:08 GMT

According to some tech-watchers, 3-D printing will be the Next Big Thing. Load a bunch of raw material into your home mini-factory, download a 3-D CAD file, fire up the machine, and voilà, out comes a replacement part for your refrigerator or a copy of your door key (running to the hardware store is so [...]

Saving Gas Over the Top

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:15:18 GMT

An Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker may haul more than 31,000 gallons to refuel other aircraft, but for long-haul missions, it needs to watch every drop of its own fuel. That’s why, when a KC-135 crew flew from Washington state to Kyrgyzstan over the North Pole last month, the Air Force brass was pumped. It wasn’t [...]

Stop That Stick Figure

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 02:34:36 GMT

The Transportation Security Administration has finally faced the naked truth. After the agency’s advanced imaging technology (AIT) airport scanners stirred controversy by exposing too much of a passenger’s human form, the TSA will switch to new software that makes the images less realistic. Screening agents—who had been isolated in a remote closet to view the [...]

Rutan’s Last Project: What The…?

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:05:32 GMT

Today I read, with some head-scratching, about Burt Rutan’s latest creation, a “roadable aircraft” called Bipod. Flying cars have been built, flown, driven, and failed to sell since dinosaurs roamed the earth, yet here was the monumentally gifted designer and his company, Scaled Composites, introducing a particularly homely vehicle (twin fuselages simply make it twice [...]

The Not-So-Friendly Skies

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:33:07 GMT

Escalating baggage fees. No more in-flight meals. Delayed flights. Loud cell-phone talkers. And let’s not forget the drunks. It may be that intoxicated passengers are the most dangerous of all. AvWeb recently reported that drunk passengers caused the crash of a Cessna 185 in 2010. (“The [Transportation Safety Board] postulates that a rear-seat passenger pushed [...]

Ride-Sharing With the Rich

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

How fractional jet owners get out of flying coach.

Passenger Rights and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:55:08 GMT

I recently had an extensive delay on a flight from New York to Las Vegas. We pushed back from the gate on time, and as I went to start the engines I could see the dark skies to the west, our intended direction of flight. As we waited on the ramp for clearance to taxi, [...]

The Competition - sidebar - Flights on Demand

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Patty Wagstaff’s Second Act

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

An airshow superstar adds firefighting to her repertoire.

How Things Work: Stopping the A380

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Hint: Plan ahead.

From Zero to 250

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Sikorsky’s X2 is more hot rod than helicopter.

Pressing Your Flight Attendant’s Buttons

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:42:06 GMT

With a sunny and hopefully unmistakable new design for its flight attendant call button, Boeing illuminated passengers on which button to press but in the dark as to when to press it at all

Top Gun: Polar Bears Need Not Apply

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:17:51 GMT

How did he ever pass flight school, much less become a top gun pilot? I’m talking about the mascot from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, of course. That’s right, the insane polar bear that hijacks an F-16 and rockets into space before each of the team’s hockey games (video below). Consider the facts: An [...]

A Fleet’s Last Lesson

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:36:59 GMT

Gene Breiner got a little choked up when he handed over his 1929 Fleet Model 2 to the National Air and Space Museum at “Become a Pilot” Day on Saturday. He dedicated it to “all the people who learned to fly in her, and all the people I took for their first and last airplane [...]

The Akron and Macon’s Hail Mary Pass

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 03:54:57 GMT

“One of the interesting things about airships,” says Tom Crouch, a senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, who gave a lecture on the subject this week as part of the Museum’s Ask an Expert series, is that they were “transitional technology. They were capable of doing a great many things before airplanes [...]

Air Travel 2050: Panoramic Views With a Wave of the Hand

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:16:27 GMT

Airbus calls its Concept Plane for 2050 an aircraft “inspired by nature.” But it sure includes a lot of technology. “The idea is to move out from the old-fashioned class system—first class, business class, economy class—and think more about the experience,” says Airbus chief engineer Charles Champion in an interview with The (London) Telegraph. “So [...]

Mile-High Jetpack

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:56:33 GMT

If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this video of the Martin Aircraft Company’s recent mile-high test of its personal jetpack and safety parachute system. The flight topped out at 5,000 feet, but could have gone higher. While a dummy was on board for this test, the New Zealand-based company is marketing [...]

NASA Art Returns to Washington

Fri, 27 May 2011 01:17:13 GMT

Since 1963, hundreds of artists (and musicians, poets—even one fashion designer) have interpreted NASA’s aeronautic and space projects. The artists were given carte blanche to create what they wanted, in any medium, on any subject. In celebration of NASA’s 50th anniversary in 2008, more than 70 diverse artworks from the program began touring the country [...]

Helicopter Missions: Vietnam Firefight

Tue, 31 May 2011 07:02:25 GMT

In 1966, Second Lieutenant Larry Liss was on the Czech-German border during a snowstorm, freezing his varlata off, when he saw something beautiful. It was a Bell UH-1 helicopter, still on the ground. The pilot—who was wearing short sleeves and drinking a cup of coffee—took one look at Liss and shook his head. “He said, [...]

Miracle on I-95

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 05:45:33 GMT

The US Airways Airbus A320 that figured in the January 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson” is headed (via highway) from New Jersey to its new home at the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The route will take it through Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Follow the airplane’s progress on Facebook or [...]

How Things Work: Whole-Airplane Parachute

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

When everything else fails, or fails all at once, pull the parachute that saves the whole airplane.

Pilot Cam

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A remote-controlled airplane, a camera, and a pair of goggles can put you in the (virtual) pilot's seat for as little as $500.

The Winds of Dublin

Fri, 27 May 2011 11:23:01 GMT

Like a lot of airline pilots, I’m always on the lookout for a good trip to pick up, either to add to my schedule or trade for a less desirable trip. “Open time” is what we call the list of trips with no current pilot assignment. The list is dynamic, and trips pop up throughout [...]

Explanation: They Were Drunk

Tue, 17 May 2011 07:55:26 GMT

In the history of aviation, there were ideas that didn’t quite work out. Take the Avro VZ-9-AV Avrocar, one of ten odd aircraft profiled in the Smithsonian Channel film “Unbelievable Flying Objects.” (It’s number 5). The U.S. Air Force became interested in the Avrocar as an early “stealth” aircraft that could hover beneath radar, then [...]

About Those Sleeping Air Traffic Controllers

Mon, 02 May 2011 08:58:06 GMT

Air traffic controllers have been in the news several times in the past month. First came the "asleep in the tower" stories at Washington National Airport and Reno, Nevada. Then the First Lady's airplane had to go around at Andrews AFB because it was too close to other traffic. The 24-hour news mon...

The Night I Owned Dulles

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:15:44 GMT

Washington Dulles International Airport opened in 1962 and serves over a million passengers per month today. But it wasn't always that way. For the first couple of decades of its existence, Dulles was a virtual ghost town when compared to other major airports in the country.I clearly remember the t...

Time for a Check-Up

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 04:56:44 GMT

I'm just back from recurrent training — two days of fun and games in the simulator. It's kind of like a trip to the dentist: not something you look forward to, but it feels pretty good when it's over. And it's definitely worthwhile.Each day we showed up at 5 a.m. for the briefing, then went into th...

Running Out of Time...

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:00:13 GMT

I should be in Stockholm right now, but instead I'm sitting at home typing this. We had several delays last night and ultimately timed out —i.e., we couldn't make the flight to Stockholm because we would have been on duty more than 16 hours by the time we landed, which is against the rules.The firs...

Meeting a Legend

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 08:58:45 GMT

When I first started flying, I bought half interest in a Cherokee 180, N7728N. My partner was a veterinarian who had owned his half for several years already. He only flew on Thursdays, and then only if the weather was beautiful. What a great deal for me — I had the plane available to me six days a...

The Long Ride Home

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:46:44 GMT

I had a nice trip over Christmas, which ended with the red-eye flight back from Las Vegas on Christmas night. We arrived in New York where the forecast was for blizzard conditions later in the day. I was happy to see that not one flake had yet fallen when we landed early on the morning of the 26th....

Happy New Year!

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:25:16 GMT

I was in Stockholm for New Year's Day and I had never been in Sweden before. It's still kind of cool to visit a new place, and I think Stockholm is a city I'd like to see a lot more of.Knowing that it's located far to the north, I checked the times for local sunrise and sunset before leaving on my ...

Bella Luna

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 03:30:38 GMT

Some pilots hate flying the red-eye flights, but I kind of like them. There aren't as many planes in the air in the wee hours, and the controllers are quick to give us direct routing. Out of Las Vegas, we're often cleared direct to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, before we've even gotten to Bryce Canyo...

It Doesn't Always Go Smoothly

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 02:16:28 GMT

There was some pretty good winter weather this past weekend, and it caused a lot of cancellations and delays. I arrived in Detroit Saturday night, flying in from São Paulo, Brazil and I was scheduled to fly right back to São Paulo at 7:30 on Sunday evening.The forecast in Detroit was for three to s...

The Big Sky

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:19:24 GMT

On a recent flight I was looking at my TCAS display and wondering how we ever did without this wonderful bit of equipment. TCAS stands for Traffic Collision Avoidance System, and I saw my first one in the early 90s. Prior to TCAS we had a three-prong approach to traffic avoidance: Air Traffic Contr...

Windsocks and Checklists

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:28:14 GMT

When I'm taxiing around airports worldwide, I'm always amused to see that they still have windsocks. It's maybe the only thing from the first days of aviation that you'll still find at modern airports. It's low tech, but it gives a clear indication of wind strength and direction...at least to anyon...

Canceling Flights for Low Loads? No Way.

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:08:49 GMT

I just had a nice stretch of days off and went on a five-day golf trip with my brother and 30 other guys. It was a little chilly on Amelia Island and I performed about like you'd expect a 15 handicapper to play. But it's not the golf that I want to talk about. Instead, I want to address a common mi...

Over the North Atlantic

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:30:51 GMT

I'm writing this longhand as we fly back from Frankfurt, Germany. We're over the North Atlantic, a few hours from landing in New York. Out here there are no controllers to talk to, and not much to do except monitor the instruments and make the occasional position report.It's been a routine trip. Go...

You Think You Have a Bad Commute?

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:22:24 GMT

I live in a suburb of Washington, D.C., and heavy rush hour traffic is a common source of complaint around here. Downtown office workers often have drives that are routinely in excess of an hour and sometimes far longer.A long commute is a fact of life for a large percentage of airline pilots and f...

First Solo

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:22:53 GMT

It's been a long, long time since my first solo flight in an airplane and I still remember the mixed emotions of excitement and fear. Glancing over at the empty right seat during the takeoff roll, I realized what a huge commitment I was about to make. As the plane climbed out, I couldn't get out of...

The Turtle Flies!

Fri, 13 May 2011 09:20:05 GMT

Gamera, you'll recall from Japanese horror movies, was a giant, fire-breathing, flying turtle that used to terrorize Tokyo (and battle Godzilla) back in the 1960s.So what else would students at the University of Maryland—whose mascot is a terrapin—name their flying contraption, which yesterday appe...

Senior Aviatrix

Mon, 16 May 2011 12:20:36 GMT

She thought she'd like to fly again. And so she flew. Helene Dax, 87, a former pilot, had filled out a survey form at the Brookdale Senior Living center where she lives in Denver. Brookdale, which caters to people challenged with Alzheimer's and dementia, and Jeremy Bloom's Wish of a Lifetime found...

Crossing the Atlantic by Balloon (and Other Means)

Thu, 12 May 2011 05:54:09 GMT

When Jules Verne's novel Five Weeks in a Balloon: or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen was translated into English in 1869, it appeared with this publisher's note: "So far as the geography, the inhabitants, the animals, and the features of the countries the travellers pass ove...

Helo With a Halo

Fri, 06 May 2011 11:32:45 GMT

Plenty of buzz going around about the mysterious stealth chopper left behind by U.S. Navy SEALs after they shot and killed Osama bin Laden last Monday morning, local time, in Pakistan.Having suffered technical problems and a hard landing, the helo apparently couldn't fly back out of bin Laden's com...

Thunderbirds Are Go!

Thu, 05 May 2011 09:13:16 GMT

Who can forget billionaire ex-spaceman Jeff Tracy and his five sons (Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon, and John), each named after a Mercury astronaut? Remember how they—through their organization (International Rescue)—um...rescued people...internationally? Ok, so they were puppets. Deal with it, peop...

Helicopter Missions: The Taliban Gambit

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:30:44 GMT

It's summer 2005. In Afghanistan, a four-man U.S. Navy SEAL team has been ambushed by the Taliban. A Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter is immediately sent to extract them, but as it approaches the rescue site, the Taliban fire a rocket-propelled grenade, hitting the Chinook's fuel tanks. All 16 crew ...

Parachuteless Freaks

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:01:29 GMT

On March 23, 1944, a British Lancaster bomber over Germany's Ruhr River took heavy flak and exploded. As his oxygen mask and goggles began to melt, and his flight suit burned, tail gunner Nick Alkemade heard the pilot ordering the crew to bail out.The aircraft was at 18,000 feet, and while Alkemade...

Young Artists and the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:32:25 GMT

Each year, the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) and the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) organize an art contest meant to encourage young people to become familiar with (and participate in) aeronautics, engineering, and science."The quality of the art we see is unbeliev...

Inside Joke

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 07:02:09 GMT

Admit it: Sometimes you want to skip all the technical hoo-hah and get straight to the jokes. For your enjoyment, today we're resurrecting a bit of aircraft maintenance humor that has been roaming the Internet since 1997, and circulating on hard copies before that. The jokes have been attributed to...

Kinect to the Universe

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:06:45 GMT

I became fascinated by the Xbox 360 Kinect system long before it hit the stores—back when Microsoft was still developing it under the name Project Natal. The commercial product hasn't yet delivered on the full promise of this demo, but I expect that it will, and fairly soon. Kinect is already the f...

Surviving the Hindenburg

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:17:35 GMT

When the Hindenburg flew toward the the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937, it was the airship's eleventh voyage to the United States. The nearly 804-foot-long ship, the pride of Nazi Germany, had been carrying passengers on excursion flights since 1910 without a single injur...

Found: Air France Flight 447

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:02:00 GMT

You've heard of the UAV (unmanned air vehicle). Now check out the AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle): The REMUS 6000. It looks like a yellow torpedo. It's a lot smarter. And it dives a lot deeper.Yesterday, the tenacious underwater 'bot located at long last the remains of Air France flight 447, w...

Robo-Gull

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 02:26:27 GMT

Wow. Aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal would have loved this. German automation company Festo has built a "SmartBird" modeled on the herring gull that, according to the company, can take off, fly, and land autonomously—just by flapping its wings.The design features a number of innovations, including...

One of the "Intrepid Birdwomen"

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:57:07 GMT

"Here is a group of feminine flyers who don't just fool around with flying," reported the Los Angeles Times in January 1934. "They hardly ever powder their noses. They don't even carry mirrors. They'd rather poke their not unhandsome little noses into a balky carburetor than riffle up a pack of bri...

Tankers Away

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:12:37 GMT

And the winner is: The Boeing Company.Michael Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, announced today that Boeing will supply the U.S. Air Force with 179 tankers derived from the company's 767 widebody to replace the aging KC-135 refueler fleet. The contract is estimated at $35 billion and is expected ...

Getting Up

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:22:43 GMT

Ever wonder what kind of takeoff a Viking Twin Otter can achieve with a stiff headwind and no sumo wrestlers on board? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG6eJP7SBQI&feature=related

Working the Ramp

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:18:02 GMT

They work in all weather loading and unloading your suitcases, the mail, freight, even dead bodies and wild and domestic animals. They deice the airplane in winter, and clean it between each flight. So spare a thought for the airline industry's baggage handlers.Liesl Miller Orenic, an associate pro...

Junk Mail From Above

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:58:37 GMT

Once you get used to the slightly overcaffeinated host, this is a pretty cool project —to drop a bunch of paper airplanes from a high-altitude balloon and see where they land. The team launched their balloon earlier this month, as the video shows. But, from what I can tell on their website and Twit...

Coaxial Cruising

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:34:34 GMT

Pretty cool video here of Sikorsky's latest whirlybird, the X2 demonstrator, which has hit 262 knots, or 300 miles an hour, a record for a helo. Nice acceleration too. The coaxial rotors spin in opposite directions to keep the aircraft from stalling at high speeds. It's no easy feat, as this articl...

Cool-Headed Qantas Dudes

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 04:32:12 GMT

We're still pretty blown away by this story. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released its preliminary report on what happened shortly after takeoff on November 4, 2010, when the left inboard Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine of Qantas flight QF32, an Airbus A380 outbound from Singapore, went ...

"Roger, Roger. What's our Vector, Victor?"

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:58:16 GMT

Proceed direct to National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The 1980 movie, "Airplane!" is one of 25 films judged to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" significant and therefore added to the Film Registry in 2010. The spoof of 1957's "Zero Hour" was named number 10 on the Amer...

Concorde: Flying Supersonic

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:45:41 GMT

For 27 years, the Concorde carried passengers across the Atlantic Ocean at twice the speed of sound, on the very edge of space. A flight from New York to London took a mere 3 ½ hours; the supersonic aircraft flew so high and so fast that American spyplanes were ordered to stay out of the Concorde’s...

Not Your Father's Blimp

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:45:41 GMT

What looks like Ronaldo's nightmare is in fact the world's largest soccer ball airship, built by E-Green Technologies of Kellyton, Alabama. Why, you ask? It seems everyone's crazy about airships these days, for everything from military surveillance to tourism. E-Green just signed a deal with NASA's...

Skydiving Over Google Earth

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:06:53 GMT

Awesome. I love the little blast of air they get at around the 48-second mark.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxM_CknSZw

Engine Hiccups

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:45:55 GMT

Here's some interesting video taken by a passenger aboard the Quantas A380 that had a Trent 900 engine blow shortly after taking off on a flight from Singapore to Sydney on November 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4Pv9u_yHwIAnd later, the landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EimwaGXr6p0&f...

The Autobots Are Coming!

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:35:55 GMT

The defense research agency DARPA recently selected six companies to participate in a year-long program to transform a Humvee-like vehicle into an aircraft. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corporation are asked to supply something that can “avoid traditional and asymmetrical threats while avoiding road ...

Magellans of the Air

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:26:15 GMT

On September 28, 1924, crowds cheered and sirens shrieked as the Army Service pilots known as "the Magellans of the Air" landed at Sand Point Field in Seattle, Washington, after completing the first round-the-world flight.They had set off on April 6, some six months earlier, determined to circumnav...

Alberto's Big Race

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:48:20 GMT

As prizes go, this was a big one. In 1901, French oil tycoon and aviation patron Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe put up 100,000 francs (equivalent to more than $500,000 today) for the first airman who could fly a 7-mile circuit starting from a park in Paris, rounding the Eiffel Tower, then returning to...

For Sale: Potential Speed

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:09:04 GMT

Project 100 Communications is selling the car that Steve Fossett had hoped would set a land speed record. "Over $4 million is invested in this project," says the sales brochure, which translates: No aluminum wheel kickers.The vehicle is based on racing legend Craig Breedlove's late 1990s Spirit of ...

You've Got (Balloon) Mail

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 03:21:53 GMT

In September 1870, not long after the start of the Franco-Prussian War, the city of Paris was under siege by Prussian soldiers. By the 19th, the German army had blocked all communication into or out of the city. There was nothing worse, wrote French journalist Francisque Sarcey, than to "live cut o...

Red Bull Jump Takes Giant Step Backward

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 07:49:52 GMT

On Tuesday, the energy drink giant Red Bull said it was postponing its Stratos effort, in which Felix Baumgartener will try to break Joe Kittinger's 1960 free-fall record, until a lawsuit is settled. Courthouse News Service reported in April that Daniel Hogan was suing Red Bull for stealing his Spa...

Looking for the High Life

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:36:36 GMT

In the wake of several misleading news headlines, researchers at Cranfield University in the U.K. have had to set the record straight: No, they're not looking for aliens in Earth's atmosphere.But they are looking for microbes floating around in the stratosphere, at altitudes up to 22 miles. The...

Pushing His Buttons

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:18:03 GMT

Alex Spencer, curator of British aircraft and military flight materiél at the National Air and Space Museum, started his career some 20 years ago as a lowly intern. One morning, as he was riding the shuttle out to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryl...

Landing Like an Owl

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 04:30:39 GMT

This MIT researcher's work is cool enough—he's trying to develop a small UAV that can land on a perch like a bird.But this slow-mo video of an owl coming in for a landing is what really wowed me:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA6XSrM0V_0

UAVs for Congress

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 02:34:54 GMT

The bumper stickers available at the door read, "My other vehicle is unmanned."More and more, that's becoming true for a variety of government agencies—and not just the defense department—as was evident at the UAV Technology Fair held yesterday at the Rayburn House office building in Washington, D....

Swarming Over Switzerland

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 05:46:00 GMT

This looks like fun work.And the people on the SMAVNET Project think they set a record for the largest number of flying robots (10) deployed at a single time outdoors.

"Totally Way Illegal Anywhere Else"

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:40:39 GMT

Where do old astronauts go? Some of them simply can't shake that need for speed, so they strap on exotic aircraft and sign up for the Reno National Championship Air Races. Of the three astronauts who have taken up air racing -- Hoot Gibson, Bill Anders, and Curt Brown -- Brown, a two-time Reno cham...

Stand up, sit down, fall off

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:06:31 GMT

It's not new material, but if you haven't seen this, you owe it to yourself to take a couple minutes to watch. Austrian skydiver Paul Steiner did some ambitious wing walking earlier this year in this Red Bull video, with a pair of Blanix gliders flown by Ewald Roithner and Kurt Tippi high above the...

Zephyr Goes for the Record

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:31:11 GMT

With UAVs becoming more capable and taking on more missions each day, military users are clamoring for one feature in particular: longer dwell time in the air.DARPA's Vulture program aims to build an unmanned vehicle that could stay up for five years. That's still quite a stretch, considering that ...

Product Placement Worth its Salt

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:15:28 GMT

Of all the high-end executive transports to choose from -- Gulfstream, Lear, Cessna Citation, Beech Super King Air, Sikorsky, Eurocopter -- Sony opted for the Piaggio Avanti for its summer blockbuster, "Salt," starring Angelina Jolie as a battering ram.The catfish-shaped turboprop makes a cameo app...

What Does An Emergency Flight Nurse Fear Most?

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:07:50 GMT

This summer, the Boy Scouts of America celebrate their 100th anniversary, and the U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a spiffy new stamp to honor the organization.One of my favorite Scouting quotes comes from Janice Hudson's Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse. Hudson worked for many y...

Amelia Earhart's Irish Sojourn

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:01:27 GMT

On May 20, 1932 Amelia Earhart set off in her Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland intending to fly to Paris. Nearly 15 hours later, she landed in Robert Gallagher's cow pasture in Ballyarnott, in Derry, Northern Ireland, instead, thereby becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.Mrs. Gal...

The Sun Also Sets

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:52:01 GMT

...which is why any solar-powered airplane designed to circle the globe has to be able to fly at night, too.Switzerland's Solar Impulse team checked that off their to-do list yesterday.Next up in 2012: an Atlantic crossing in a more advanced prototype to be built next year.

The Immortal "Airplane!"

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:29:40 GMT

CNN.com readers responded enthusiastically to a report of a flight attendant sitting in for an ill co-pilot with quotes from Airplane!musishun Timmy, have you ever seen a grown man naked?Zykman Get me Rex Kramer!DBCOOPER1 you're Kareem Abdul Jubbar! .....no I'm not , I'm Roger Murdock!MadCityBabe "...

Batman (well, Squirrelman)

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:37:18 GMT

Skydiving is turning into skygliding—who wants to fall like a stone when you can fly like a bird? Or, we should say, a bat...well, most accurately, a flying squirrel.In recent years, with the help of special suits that incorporate webbing from the wrists to the ankles and between the legs, skydiver...

Admit It, You Want One of These

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:25:55 GMT

Engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have built a "Distributed Flight Array"—self-assembling, yet—that could someday be used to airlift objects. See it in action:

Holiday Sampler

Fri, 28 May 2010 08:53:30 GMT

For the Memorial Day weekend, an assortment of news from the world of air and space:► The field of hypersonic flight has a new record: The Air Force's X-51A Waverider reached Mach 5 in a 200-second scramjet engine burn over the Pacific on Wednesday. Video below:► What looked at first like a sma...

Why They Stopped Flying

Thu, 27 May 2010 02:03:24 GMT

The risk to airplanes from the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland was more than just the danger of jet engines shutting down in flight. The ash could also have led to long-term damage that's harder to spot. After a NASA DC-8 flew through a volcanic ash cloud in 2000, researchers...

Waverider Gears Up for First Flight

Fri, 21 May 2010 06:52:37 GMT

The Air Force's X-51A Waverider is being readied for its first hypersonic test flight on Tuesday, May 25. If all goes well, the scramjet-powered vehicle will fly for five minutes and hit Mach 6 before coming down into the ocean off the California coast. Project engineers hope to collect lots of dat...

"Do these long wings make me look fat?"

Wed, 19 May 2010 07:35:54 GMT

At an "Ask An Expert" lecture by John Anderson, National Air and Space Museum curator of aeronautics, I learned that although Howard Hughes' H-1 racer is displayed wearing its cross-country "long" wings, the high-speed-dash wings, which are shorter, are in storage at the Museum's Garber facility in...

A New Arm for the Space Station

Thu, 13 May 2010 09:14:39 GMT

As the space station gets its finishing touches (Atlantis carries up a new Russian storage module on tomorrow's STS-132 mission), we'll see some new gadgets come into play. One is the European Robotic Arm, due to be installed on the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module in 2012. A spare elbow for ...

Robonaut Gets His Mission

Mon, 03 May 2010 09:08:58 GMT

So we thought the last of NASA's rookie astronauts had flown, leaving only veterans on the final few space shuttle flights.Not so fast.One last rookie will be on board space shuttle Discovery when it blasts off in September for the STS-133 mission.After years languishing as a laboratory-only projec...

The Aerodynamic Properties of the Humvee

Tue, 04 May 2010 08:06:56 GMT

What springs to mind when thinking of the Humvee? Its sleek, aerodynamic lines? Well, no. But that didn't stop DARPA from announcing (in a 58-page proposal) its plans for combining an SUV-type ground vehicle with Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) capabilities. In other words, a flying Humvee.DAR...

Super Fly: Celebrities and Airplanes

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:48:20 GMT

Kitty Kelley's recent tell-all biography of Oprah Winfrey revealed that the talk-show diva owns a $47 million Bombardier BD-700 Global Express high-speed jet. According to biographer Kelley, when Winfrey upgraded from a $40 million Gulfstream in 2006, she also spent $1 million refurbishing her hang...

Back to Normal

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:35:04 GMT

After being shut down due to worries about volcanic ash choking jet engines, air traffic resumed over Europe last week, as seen in this visualization produced by the folks at ITO World.

Going Hypersonic

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:40:47 GMT

The field of hypersonic flight research is about to get a boost—actually, two boosts. DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, or HTV-2, is due to launch Thursday on a Minotaur rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California (after two days of weather delays).The unpowered glider will be r...

Solar Impulse Takes Flight

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:34:05 GMT

Solar Impulse, the prototype of an airplane meant to fly around the world powered only by sunlight in 2012, made its maiden flight from Payerne, Switzerland yesterday. According to flight test leader (and former astronaut) Claude Nicollier, “We reached all objectives, especially the safe landing, w...

Why I Love Trade-A-Plane

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:41:48 GMT

The yellow broadsheet, published three times a month out of Crossville, Tennessee, is the go-to paper for all things aircraft. Warning: can be habit-forming. It's like picking up a map: you get blissfully lost in the details. Here's a sample of the latest classifieds.Under Help Wanted:"Need 1 g...

Talking Trash

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:18:00 GMT

Green America's February 2010 report, What Goes Up Must Come Down: The Sorry State of Recycling in the Airline Industry, takes the study of garbage to new heights. It seems that the average passenger generates 1.3 pounds of refuse per flight, which doesn't sound like a lot, until you consider that ...

Helicopter Drop Tests

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:11:49 GMT

Crashing test dummies into walls must not be enough fun for some people, so the engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center have upped the ante. These stoic mannequins were strapped inside an MD-500 helicopter last week and dropped from a height of 35 feet to test whether a honeycomb cushion shock ...

Norm!

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:57:50 GMT

Okay, I date myself to the 80s with that one. But those of us born prior to the last two decades will remember the verbal welcome that Norm Peterson received each time he entered the bar, Cheers, on the TV show of the same name.Well, Norm Augustine gets almost that welcome wherever he shows up. On ...

A Diving Rate

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:49:46 GMT

The United States Parachute Association has released the good news that 2009 marked the lowest skydiving fatality rate for one year in almost half a century: 16 deaths in nearly three million jumps by over 32,000 USPA members at 220 drop zones across the U.S. Of those three million, 400,000 were by...

Are they lying...flat?

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:27:48 GMT

Last week, Air New Zealand announced in breathless language that they had finally solved the problem of sleeping in economy class. "Air New Zealand will transform international air travel later this year when it introduces revolutionary, Kiwi-designed lie-flat economy" seats, read a company press r...

"No tire-kickers"

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:50:11 GMT

So warns Pride Aircraft in its advertisement offering a pair of Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker Cs for sale. No "aircraft dreamers," either. So you'll have to be content to just read it and weep, or drool, but please, not on your moisture-adverse keyboard. Pride, which restores and sells what you might call "...

"How Can We Help?"

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:12:30 GMT

The aviation community has responded to the Haiti earthquake with tremendous resolve, so much so that the National Business Aviation Association and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association have established on their Web sites ongoing advisories on how pilots and aircraft owners can best serve the...

What's In a Name?

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:38:50 GMT

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet wrote Shakespeare in 1594, but he wasn’t naming airlines, was he? Coming up with a catchy company name is hard, but it’s not that hard. The name can convey the romance of early air travel, much like “Pan American World Airways,” or “Trans World Airline...

Plane Art

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:24:50 GMT

In late 2001, as a cost-cutting measure, Delta Air Lines decided to replace its first-class linen tray cloths with paper placemats. As flight attendant Jewel Van Valin told the Los Angeles Times in July 2008, the first time she set down a paper mat, a disgruntled passenger “stared at it and then ro...

Boeing's Christmas Tradition

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:43:03 GMT

Frequent contributor Stephen Joiner writes: “The 737 runway overshoot in Jamaica on December 8 reminds me of our Boeing Aircraft On Ground article (“Airliner Repair 24/7,” Oct./Nov. 2008), where Boeing’s Jim Testin told me gravely, “Something will ALWAYS happen on Christmas eve” (and then it did.) ...

Virtual Flight Over Mont Blanc

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:28:56 GMT

More coolness in Google Earth: A virtual helicopter flight over the Chamonix Valley in France, including Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe. Take the whole tour at this site (you'll need the Google Earth plug-in, which is easy to install) or watch a short YouTube video below:

The Dream is Aloft

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:12:08 GMT

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner made its long-awaited first flight yesterday. The Seattle Times has full coverage here.Watch Boeing's video here (click on Webcast), or see just the takeoff (below) courtesy of the Everett (Washington) Daily Herald.

Googling Mars

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:25:35 GMT

Real Mars exploration has been at an impasse lately, what with the Spirit rover stuck in the sand, and the Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft both experiencing service interruptions.But virtual Mars exploration is going gangbusters. Google Mars, if you haven't tried it yet, is...

Designing a Better Torch

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:39:19 GMT

Think of Bombardier Aerospace, and one of the company's business airplanes—they build Learjet aircraft—might come to mind. But the well-known transportation and aerospace firm also designed the torch for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.The torch, which will twist and turn its way across Canada’s wintry...

Down-Under Numbers

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:55:30 GMT

The September 2009 issue of Australian Aviation magazine contains the country’s Aircraft Census as of July 21. Some random selections:1 Airbus A319 38 Rotorway Exec 162Fs 4 Beech 17 Staggerwings 1 Bell 206A JetRanger 1 Boeing 707 111 Boeing 737s 207 de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moths 1 Douglas C-54 1 ...

NORAD's 54-year-old Tradition

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:24:26 GMT

NORAD, according to this history, has been tracking Santa since 1955, when a child's call to Sears Roebuck was mistakenly directed to the Continental Air Defense Command instead.Inevitable, I suppose, that in 2009 you can follow Santa on Facebook, YouTube, Google Earth and Twitter.

Solar Airplane Takes Off

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:41:18 GMT

A Swiss-built solar-powered airplane made its first short "flea hop" flight yesterday, in anticipation of initial test flights next year. The Solar Impulse HB-S1A, a project of Swiss aeronautical adventurer Bertrand Piccard, flew 1,150 feet, skimming along a military runway in Zurich just a meter a...

Spoiler Alert

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:11:05 GMT

A shame that Cessna doesn’t seem to recognize a potential PR gold mine. Remember when Mathias Rust landed a rented Cessna 172 near Red Square in 1987? Not a peep from Cessna headquarters. Now the company appears to have missed out again: In the mega-apocalyptic move 2012, a lowly Cessna 340A saves ...

Little, Big

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:46:32 GMT

Size matters. (Well, at least in the surveillance world.)And three projects under way take dimensions to whole new lengths. The LEMV (it stands for Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle) is a mammoth hybrid airship championed by the U.S. Army as part of a future fleet of reconnaissance vehicles...

India's Reincarnated Aircraft Carrier

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:20:38 GMT

According to a report in Flight International, India’s defense ministry is buying Russian-built MiG-29K fighters as "part of a 2004 order...that was incorporated into a deal for the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.”Wait—India has an aircraft carrier?That navy workhorse, the aircraft carrier, has ...

Strike Out

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:02:40 GMT

Yes, our avian brothers committed feathered mayhem in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic The Birds, but is that any reason they should continue to be chucked into aircraft engines?Here’s the deal: All aircraft have to pass certification tests proving that the airplane can continue operating in the eve...

Video: Indoor Helicopter

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:55:04 GMT

Robot aircraft keep getting smaller and smarter. This one, built by a team at MIT, won the International Aerial Robotics Competition 5th mission challenge, which required that it enter a building, find its way around (through hallways and open windows), and send video back to home base. All autonom...

Carrying the Fire

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:54:49 GMT

While there are still 105 days until the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the Olympic Torch Relay has already begun.Some 12,000 people will participate in the relay, which runs from October 30, 2009 to February 12, 2010 (the longest relay in Olympic history). The relay part...

Happy Birthday, Jane's!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:25:19 GMT

Remember the Dewoitine D 26, the single-seat, single-engine parasol fighter trainer? Wondering how many were ever built? Open your trusty Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, and you’ll learn that 11 were produced for the Swiss Air Force.Jane’s will also tell you the first flight of the Douglas B-66 De...

Pilot Survey Was Flawed, Says Report

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:34:59 GMT

Two years ago, then-NASA Administrator Mike Griffin got into trouble by appearing to censor the results of a pilot survey that reportedly showed a higher than expected number of airplane accidents and near-accidents. Some accused NASA of squelching the truth to protect the airline industry. Congres...

The First Parachute Jump

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:36:23 GMT

On this day in 1797, André-Jacques Garnerin made the first high-altitude jump using a parachute, over Parc Monceau in Paris. Garnerin's contraption—a basket suspended from a silk parachute—was cut loose from a balloon at an altitude of 2,000 feet. An eyewitness recalled: He made a dreadful lurch i...

Wasser von Braun

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:57:12 GMT

Old Wernher the rocket scientist, if he were alive, would want one of these babies on holiday. It's a water-powered jet pack conceived in Canada by JetLev and licensed to German company MS Watersports GmbH, and it appears to address at least two major problems of jet packs: If the engine quits, you...

Live! From Reno! It's Air Racing!

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:00:55 GMT

For the first time in the 100-year history of air racing, fans can watch a live broadcast of the sport from the aerial race course in Reno, Nevada. This Sunday, September 20, the final races in all six categories will appear at LiveAirshowTV. With cameras in the grandstands and in the control tower...

To Paraphrase Bette Davis, It's Going To Be a Bumpy Ride

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:33:02 GMT

Today’s Washington Post reports that a passenger on United Airlines flight 236 was injured on Tuesday when the Boeing 757 encountered severe turbulence en route from Los Angeles to Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. The report notes that an Accuweather .com meteorologist said tha...

Back across the water

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:50:55 GMT

Weather permitting, a World War II-era B25D Mitchell bomber nicknamed "Grumpy" will take off tomorrow from Duxford, England and retrace (in reverse) the historic lend-lease route by which U.S. airplanes were delivered to Europe in the 1940s. The airplane, which saw its first duty with the Royal ...

Virtual Blue Yonder

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:24:16 GMT

You might have the right stuff to be a Blue Angel pilot: a computer and a broadband connection. That's what the Virtual Blue Angels use to fly formation and dazzle online crowds.Established five years ago by former (and real) Marine Corps pilot Bob "Kato" Tyler, currently the number four (slot) vir...

Wild New Yonder

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:21:28 GMT

The avatar who's giving me a guided tour of MyBase—the first virtual Air Force base—is wearing wings. And I don't mean the kind you pin on your shirt. Real ones, protruding from her back. Because she can fly. Of course, so can I. Or rather, my avatar can. Which makes me wonder why I should bother t...

Swine Flew

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:10:38 GMT

The 11-17 August issue of Flight International, a global aerospace weekly published in the United Kingdom, noted the results of a poll that asked if the Boeing 787, Airbus 400M, or another slowly evolving work in progress would be the first to make a maiden flight: 787 33% A400M ...

Let's Fly the Hudson Corridor

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:08:23 GMT

After the August 8 mid-air collision of a sightseeing helicopter and a Piper Lance over New York City that killed nine people, politicians have been calling for a shut-down or at least a vigorous revamping of the Hudson Corridor, the Visual Flight Rules scenic route up and down the Hudson River. Wh...

Dog Is My Co-pilot

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:12:20 GMT

Debi Boies had finally found the perfect Doberman. Unfortunately, the rescue dog was in Florida, and Boies couldn’t figure out an easy way to get him to her home in South Carolina. Based on her experience with a Doberman rescue group, she knew the animal would have to be transported by car, chang...

Costly photos of Air Force One

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:09:46 GMT

Back in April, the White House thought it would be a good idea to take new photos of the President's airplane, Air Force One (actually a backup), flying over New York city. The photo-op backfired, though, when some New Yorkers were spooked by the sight of what looked like a passenger jet being e...

Barnstorming at Oshkosh

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:57:57 GMT

On a summer day ten years ago, pilots Andrew King and Frank Pavliga were flying their vintage single-engine airplanes over eastern Indiana when they spotted an inviting field on which to land. The farm, as it turned out, belonged to Matt Dirksen and family, who, after some initial skepticism, struc...

The hunt for Flight 447's black box

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:32:16 GMT

Hope is running out that searchers will locate the flight data recorder from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic for reasons unknown on June 1. The black box is only made to send out signals for 30 days; four ships equipped with acoustic sensors have been searching the ocean nor...

Good news for flying-phobes

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:32:05 GMT

It’s often said that flying is one of the safest ways to travel, and the numbers bear it out. According to the most recent statistics from the International Air Transport Association, there were only 0.13 fatalities per million airplane passengers last year.That means air travel was about eight tim...

Ploughshares Into Swords

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:31:24 GMT

Air Tractor of Olney, Texas, a legend-in-its-own-time builder of cropdusters, or agricultural aircraft, has converted its popular AT-802 Air Truck into a counter-insurgency, close-air support, and surveillance warbird-wannabee. The armored AT-802U, which debuted at the June Paris Air Show, was arme...

Pundamentals of flight

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:21:57 GMT

If Broadway entrepreneurs were to adapt Wolfgang Langewiesche's classic tutorial for the stage, it would be retitled...."Shtick and Rudder."Posted in honor of the late Master Punner Donald S. Lopez

"Miracle on the Hudson" hearings this week

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:21:27 GMT

The National Transportation Safety Board is holding three days of public hearings this week on the ditching of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson last January. The hearings will be webcast live here.

Flight 447: Small airplane, big ocean

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:28:18 GMT

Now that searchers have found wreckage from Air France Flight 447, we can hope they’ll also locate the data recorders and solve the mystery of what happened, which could lead to safety improvements on future flights.But earlier this week, it appeared that just locating the downed airliner in thousa...

Flight 447: Was it turbulence?

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:36:49 GMT

We're still in that spooked stage following the disappearance of Air France flight 447 off the coast of Brazil in the early morning hours of June 1, UTC. What's so spooky is that airplanes don't just fall out of the sky. Why this one did is far from being solved. According to a recent Boeing study,...

Sullymania

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:51:58 GMT

Captain Chesley Sullenberger was thrust into the media spotlight in January, when he landed his stricken Airbus in the Hudson River and the aircrew evacuated all passengers, largely uninjured, to safety within minutes. A remarkable piece of airmanship by the entire crew, to be sure. But since then,...

The Great North Dakota Dash

Thu, 14 May 2009 04:29:31 GMT

I just read the manuscript for a book to be published in the spring of 2010 by the University of Nebraska Press. Never Land: Adventures, Wonder, and One World Record in a Very Small Plane is written by Scott Olsen, whose most recent book is Hard Air: Adventures from the Edge of Flying. (Disclosure...

Cracking down on "laser losers"

Thu, 07 May 2009 01:37:37 GMT

The advent of cheap, powerful hand-held lasers has become a real problem for aviation, with daily reports of pranksters (or, according to various headlines, "thugs," "idiots" and "laser losers") shining laser penlights into cockpits and temporarily blinding pilots. The number of incidents is on the...

FAA relents, will make bird strike data public

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:40:35 GMT

Bowing to outside pressure, most recently from the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration has decided to make public its full database on airplane birdstrikes. The information will be online beginning Friday morning, although the database won't be fully searchable...

Le Airbag de Moi

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:06:47 GMT

Zut! Don't look for it on the fashion runways of Paris just yet. Perhaps on the autoroute first. See, it's not always aviation stuff that grabs me. It's the occasional diversion. Such as the wearable airbag.I was perusing www.helite.com because this little French company outside Dijon, city of mout...

Johns Hopkins tops aero research schools

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:18:33 GMT

What's the top aerospace engineering school in the country? Depends on how you measure it, of course, but if you're ranking on the basis of who spends the most on research and development (as the National Science Foundation does each year), then first place goes to Johns Hopkins University in Balti...

How is a volcano like a jet engine?

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:56:28 GMT

Answer: In the sound it makes when erupting. Or rather, the infrasound—the low-frequency rumble just below the range of human hearing.Robin Matoza, a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, and his colleagues used infrasound arrays to record eruptions at...

And the Top-Ranked Airline Is...

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:28:25 GMT

The 19th annual Airline Quality Rating has just been released by researchers at St. Louis University and Wichita State University, and the news is...pick your adjective: encouraging, surprising, suspect, generous, exaggerrated, overdue, no-way-this-can-be-true, whatever. This is because the report ...

"Dude, you both went 'Whoaaah!' and I was like 'Nooooo!!' "

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:09:57 GMT

Never mind that the guy in this video sounds like the turtle in Finding Nemo ("He was killin' it, and you were killin' it, I was comin' down, and Dude, you both went 'Whoaaah!' and I was like 'Nooooo!!'") This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time: wingsuit flyers Jeff Nebelkopf and...

Pass the Remote

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:47:18 GMT

That is, the remote control for my "RC" airplane (it actually stands for radio controlled). The first time I watched this video of Belgian armchair pilot extraordinaire Benoit Dierickx (who flies 737s for a living) putting a super-light model F3A aerobatic airplane through its paces inside a gymnas...

Future Engineers of America

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:33:00 GMT

As a woman, I hate to report that the team that won a U.S. Department of Energy engineering competition last weekend was all girls, as if to say, “Check out the girls! They can be engineers, just like boys!” I mean of course they can. But I have to admit that in a historically guy-dominated field ...

Help wanted in the aerospace industry

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:32:14 GMT

There's little that scares George Muellner, who has bragging rights to 690 combat missions in Vietnam. During three decades in the U.S. Air Force, he accumulated 5,300 hours in the F-4, A-7, F-15, and F-16 as a fighter pilot, fighter weapons instructor, and test pilot. He even flew 50 combat sortie...

TXT-Speak at the FAA

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:41:04 GMT

The Web site of the Federal Aviation Administration, like most government sites, is pretty tame, but can be an interesting browse for prop-heads. For instance, clicking around the Flight Delay Information map, you’ll learn that at New York’s JFK International, “Disabled Aircraft…causing departure d...

The first solo flight

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:29:13 GMT

Wondering who wrote the first description of flying over a landscape, I came across this charming passage by Jacques Charles, French scientist and inventor of the hydrogen balloon. Charles wasn't the first to fly—that honor goes to Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, who fle...

Your flight to Titan is delayed

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:51:29 GMT

Jupiter’s moon Europa is a worthy target for exploration, so don’t get me wrong. It’s good news that NASA and the European Space Agency are going forward with plans for a dual-spacecraft mission to Europa, Ganymede and Jupiter's other moons in 2020. It just means we won’t see balloons flying over S...

He's Got A Point

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:19:49 GMT

Chesley Sullenberger and his crew have been duly credited for their successful ditching in the Hudson River. But a British pilot writes in a recent issue of Flight International: "The crew that carried out the Hudson ditching are testimony to the fact that training pays." Well, I've only been doing...

Pay-Per-Loo

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:22:24 GMT

Michael O'Leary, head of Ireland's low-cost airline Ryanair, let slip on Friday that he was considering charging passengers to use the onboard lavoratories. "We are looking at...putting a coin slot on the toilet door," O'Leary told reporters, suggesting a British pound coin per restroom visit.Other...

The United Nations of Oshkosh

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Flying. The other universal language.

How Things Work: Lightning Protection

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:54 GMT

Air travelers, fear not.

Flying the Gusmobile

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:15:35 GMT

It didn't look remotely like a fighter plane. So why did astronauts who flew the Gemini spacecraft compare it to one?

"That's Professor Global Hawk"

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A remote-piloted warrior starts flying for science.

Airshows in 3D

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:55:50 GMT

And no need for special glasses.

From Kites to the Space Shuttle

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

A new photo-filled book is a diary of life at the National Air and Space Museum.

Z2

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:00:00 GMT

The latest in sightseeing tours, brought to you by Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin.

It's Show Time

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:34:27 GMT

Download our 2008 Airshow Guide.

Shape Shifters

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:30:21 GMT

Shape-memory polymers and other technologies may create an airplane for all missions.

Model Behavior

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:30:18 GMT

In the age of computer design, why do engineers still send airplane models to the wind tunnel?

Family Formation

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:30:59 GMT

The son of famed airshow pilot Sean Tucker follows in his father’s smoke trails.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:32:50 GMT

Blinding us with science: the next generation of stealth.

Sweet 17

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:32:52 GMT

When a Staggerwing casts its spell, it can surprise even Olive Ann Beech.

A&S Interview: Sully’s Tale

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:54:52 GMT

Chesley Sullenberger talks about That Day, his advice for young pilots, and hitting the ditch button (or not).

Inexperience Wanted

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:04:23 GMT

Student engineers answer NASA’s call to design the airplane of 2058.

Sky Snake

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:47:14 GMT

Flexible blimps are bending the rules on UAV design.

Street Flight

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:18:08 GMT

Aviation meets urban sculpture in Arlington, Virginia.

Life of a Salesman

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:16 GMT

Guys who sell airplanes don't always make the deal, but they always have the funniest stories to tell.

The Rocketbelt Caper

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:00:33 GMT

A true tale of invention, obsession, and murder.

A & S Interview: Frank Robinson

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:29:55 GMT

The world's most prolific builder of civilian helicopters.

The Physics of Winning

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:27:25 GMT

What Reno air race winners know that losers don't.

We Recycle

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:30:39 GMT

Used airplane parts can appear in the strangest places.

Air Racing 101

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:42:41 GMT

A course in handling the course at the National Championship Air Races.

My Other Car Is a Podcopter

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:32:32 GMT

Bumper sticker in the year 2015? 2025? Ever?

Postcard from Oshkosh

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:38:21 GMT

Air & Space picks the best of this year’s EAA Airventure.

The Smithsonian’s Hollywood Moment

Thu, 07 May 2009 08:21:44 GMT

The makers of Night at the Museum took great pains to get it right.

Extreme Airshow

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:28:28 GMT

A fellow performer remembers the act that pushed too far.

The Big Gulp

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:13:08 GMT

The world’s largest seaplane fights wildfires in California.

Super Jump

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:26:37 GMT

The race is on to be the next human meteor.

Jump. Fly. Land.

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Jeb Corliss says if the birds can do it, so can he.

How Good Is Your Airline?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:50:29 GMT

Two professors analyze the stats.

The Search for Steve Fossett

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:10:32 GMT

One tough job for the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.

Where to See a Concorde

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:51:58 GMT

There are just three on display in the United States. Here's where to find them.

Who Says a Jet Can't Be Cheap?

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:44:34 GMT

Gerry Merrill says he can build you one for $150,000.

Out in the Breezy

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:43:02 GMT

With little fanfare (and less structure), the Breezy homebuilt spreads the message: Flying is fun.

Big Idea

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:34:20 GMT

Megalifters prove you’re never too fat to fly.

Airliner Repair, 24/7

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:14:33 GMT

Boeing's traveling fix-it team has one goal: Get it airborne.

Build This Airplane for 10 Grand

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:29:13 GMT

How to get from the dollar store to the runway.

The Other Gulf War

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

After the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 200 aircraft took up the fight to save the coast.

Above and Beyond: The Iditarod Air Force

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Not all the action in dogsled racing is on the ground.

Moments and Milestones: Max Takeoff

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Not all the action in dogsled racing is on the ground.

Flight and Fancy: How I Failed “Purdue’s Got Talent”

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Not all the action in dogsled racing is on the ground.

A&S Interview: Richard Altman

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:50:00 GMT

Executive Director, Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative

Flights and Fancy: How to Degauss a Cat

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:23:32 GMT

Executive Director, Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative

Baikonur

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:17:27 GMT

It ain't pretty, but it sure does work.

A&S Interview: Mike Carriker

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:56:04 GMT

Chief Pilot, Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Don't Cross That Line

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:06:19 GMT

Would a fighter pilot shoot down a private airplane?

How Things Work: Evacuation Slides

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:27:40 GMT

De-plane in the fast lane.

Barfology

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:50:01 GMT

What scientists haven't solved and hot-shot pilots won't talk about.

Tiltrotors for the Rest of Us

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:36:27 GMT

An Osprey for commuters? Bring it on. Can we get a quiet car too?

Extreme Machine

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:15:46 GMT

The U.S. Marine Corps' sword gets a brand-new edge.

The Perfect Airplane

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:36:26 GMT

Fast, green, and quiet. Come on, brainiacs, you can do it.

Fly Green!

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:38:11 GMT

Richard Branson and Boeing heap hope-and hype-on biofuels.

Fly Canola!

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:47:47 GMT

Doug Rodante plans to fly his L-29 cross-country using cooking oil for fuel.

Moments & Milestones: Nobody’s Fuel...Yet

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:23:05 GMT

Doug Rodante plans to fly his L-29 cross-country using cooking oil for fuel.

In the Museum: Mail Call

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:57:17 GMT

Doug Rodante plans to fly his L-29 cross-country using cooking oil for fuel.

I Came, I Saw, I Lost

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:18:01 GMT

At Oshkosh, pride goeth before a fall.

Uncommon Force

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:20:27 GMT

All the action of Red Flag air combat exercises comes to movie screens through the magic of IMAX(r)

Sightings: Water Striders

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:08:07 GMT

South African pilots go lake-skiing in their AT-6s.

The Drifters

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:23:39 GMT

Of wind, helium, and hope — plus the occasional disaster.

Build-It-Yourself Helicopters

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:23:35 GMT

If you have 700 hours to spare and can shim a rotor assembly to within .001 of an inch, here's a hobby for you.

Barnstorming in the Blood

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:23:35 GMT

One of the world's most inventive pilots makes everything old look new again.

All That Remains

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:46:17 GMT

Old aircraft crash scenes are littered with story fragments.

Is Winning Everything?

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:32:32 GMT

For an air racing legend named Rare Bear, yes.

How Things Work: Aircraft Identiﬁcation

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:23:45 GMT

A digital communications system could put the control tower in the cockpit.

By Stars, Beacons, and Satellites

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:22:25 GMT

The lost art-and intimidating science-of aerial navigation.

How Things Work: Celestial Navigation

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:02:20 GMT

Knowing where you are going in space.

Unmanned Traffic Jam

Wed, 20 May 2009 03:47:01 GMT

To the Federal Aviation Administration, civilian UAVs are the new barbarians at the gate.

Don't Mess With Switzerland

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:17:23 GMT

To the world's most formidable natural defenses, the Swiss have added F/A-18 Hornets and a new slant on neutrality.

Moments & Milestones: Proteus Maximus

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:47:44 GMT

To the world's most formidable natural defenses, the Swiss have added F/A-18 Hornets and a new slant on neutrality.

Moments and Milestones: A Day at the Races

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:18:02 GMT

To the world's most formidable natural defenses, the Swiss have added F/A-18 Hornets and a new slant on neutrality.

The Gold-Plated Cabin

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:26:24 GMT

There aren’t many companies that can make an airliner fit for a king.

Flights and Fancy: Like Father, Like Daughter

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:36 GMT

There aren’t many companies that can make an airliner fit for a king.

Moments and Milestones: Swept Forward

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:37 GMT

There aren’t many companies that can make an airliner fit for a king.

The Hoot List

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:14:52 GMT

All the aircraft the legendary pilot has ever flown.

The Man Who’s Flown Everything

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:47:14 GMT

Robert “Hoot” Gibson’s priorities: (1) Fly. (2) Fly some more.

A Walk in the Airpark

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:24:53 GMT

Rest and renewal in a long-standing pilot community.

Supersonic Sales Call

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:24:40 GMT

If you want a customer to spend $10 billion on your jet fighters, you gotta bust some Mach.

How Things Work: Flying Fuel Cells

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:24:24 GMT

Out of gas? Not a problem.

Welcome to Cyberairspace

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:48:00 GMT

Where you can fly from Chicago to Atlanta without leaving your living room.

Then & Now: Less Haste, More Flying

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:42:45 GMT

Less Haste, More Flying

How Things Work: Ground Resonance

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:20:26 GMT

When is a helicopter like a Patsy Cline song? When it falls to pieces.

One More Second

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:46:23 GMT

The masters of time are about to give us a little extra. Use it wisely.

Moments & Milestones: Giddyup 409

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:46:12 GMT

Giddyup 409

Tuning In

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:25:16 GMT

What to listen to when you're pretending to be a pilot.

Toy Story

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:51:52 GMT

How tossing paper airplanes guided the career of an aerospace engineer.

How Things Work: Thrust Vectoring

Thu, 08 May 2008 05:45:07 GMT

In a tight spot, you need zoom to maneuver.

Do Drones Get Vertigo, Too?

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:21:11 GMT

Up there or down here, it can be a struggle to maintain “situational awareness.”

Restoration: Arrow Sport

Thu, 08 May 2008 05:42:34 GMT

Swen Swanson's Sportster

Flights & Fancy: The El Toro Follies

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:24:12 GMT

Whimsy, nostalgia, and just plain mischief

Then & Now: Towering Achievement

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:26:21 GMT

Frozen moments as time marches on

Moments & Milestones: A Farewell to Radar

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:14:27 GMT

Produced in cooperation with the National Aeronautic Association

A & S Interview: Brian Norris

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:40:41 GMT

A talk with an airshow operations coordinator.

My Wingwalker

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:41:45 GMT

If you think it's nerve-wracking on the wing, try being the one in the cockpit.

Airplanes of the Stars

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:31:12 GMT

Show performers talk about their favorite rides.

In the Museum: Second, But Still Up

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:27:55 GMT

Fifty years after launch, Vanguard 1 remains in orbit.

School of Hard Rocks

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:38:36 GMT

Loni Habersetzer teaches pilots how to land on the harshest terrain.

Wingophobia

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:35:01 GMT