Aerospace
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Pass the Remote
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...
March 25, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Voices of the Sky: Historic Sound Recordings
Cube life got you down? Download Voices of the Sky from Smithsonian Folkways and “tighten your safety belt, locate the nearest emergency exit, study the instructions for inflating your life jacket the courage—and the wattage—to turn up the sound to runway volume.”Besides offering terrific liner ...
March 24, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Dead Bat Tweeting
Combine instant celebrity with cute, furry (though slightly creepy) animals, and you have pretty much the perfect subject for Web 2.0. The ex-bat that clung to space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank during blast-off last week now has its own Twitter site, YouTube videos, web sites and Faceboo...
March 23, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The First Air Force Mission
In 1916, eight Curtiss biplanes from the U.S. Army’s 1st Aero Squadron—the country’s entire air force—flew into Mexico for their first military action.
March 19, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Giving the WASPs their due
You don’t see much bipartisanship in Washington these days, but yesterday all 17 female members of the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike, introduced a bill (S. 614) to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. The medal, previously given to groups...
March 18, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Family Formation
The son of famed airshow pilot Sean Tucker follows in his father’s smoke trails.
March 17, 2009 |
By Jill Michaels
Teacher-astronaut? Astronaut-teacher? Does it matter any more?
Should we be surprised that the first “Educator Astronauts” to fly in space won’t actually be teaching lessons from orbit? Maybe it’s a sign of progress. Ricky Arnold and Joe Acaba, who were both classroom teachers before joining NASA in 2004, will be plenty busy on their two-week STS-119 mission. ...
March 16, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Of Science and Cathedral-Building
The Daily Planet, my new companion blog here at Air & Space magazine, highlights a speech recently given by my good friend Dr. Neil Tyson at the Space Foundation breakfast. Noted is Neil’s oft-mentioned concept that historically, three drivers are responsible for societies or nations undertaki...
March 15, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Neil deGrasse Tyson's Broad Vision
Noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, famous for popularizing science in the tradition of Carl Sagan, was in the nation's capital yesterday, where he spoke with aerospace journalists at a Space Foundation breakfast. For 13 years, Tyson has been the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Amer...
March 13, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
High (really high) cuisine on the space station
Astronaut Sandy Magnus, who's been living on the International Space Station for four months, and whose ride home (space shuttle Discovery) is due to blast off from Cape Canaveral on March 15, is something of a cook, apparently. And she's been trying to jazz up the menus inside the orbiting outpost...
March 11, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Get your used astronaut eyeglasses here
If collecting space memorabilia is your thing, check out the 2009 April Signature Space Exploration Auction. Among the items up for bid from astronauts' personal collections are the bifocals John Young wore on the first Spacelab flight (right), a hand controller grip used by Gene Cernan during the...
March 09, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
What's in a Name?
In this case, a belly laugh. A recent issue of Rockets Magazine featured several stories on amateur rocketry conventions, one of which, "Balls-17," held last September in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, included the launch of a 322-pound homebuilt rocket named "Hold My Beer, Watch This."Just before lau...
March 04, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
The Rocketbelt Caper
A true tale of invention, obsession, and murder.
March 03, 2009 |
By Paul Brown
Bring Back the Brute
A GeeBee racer in flyable condition? Don’t do it.
March 2009 |
By ROBERT BERNIER
Oldies and Oddities: The Bonneville Jet Wars
A California hot-rodder took on the feuding Arfons brothers in the 1960s.
March 2009 |
By Preston Lerner
A Walk in the Airpark
Rest and renewal in a long-standing pilot community.
March 2009 |
By Del Wilber
Supersonic Sales Call
If you want a customer to spend $10 billion on your jet fighters, you gotta bust some Mach.
March 2009 |
By Jorge and Karen Escalona
