Flying Machines
Vehicles designed for air and space flightExplore Air & Space articles about types of air and spacecraft.
Stranded
Four aircraft, 12 airmen, 25 days, 40 below zero, in the middle of nowhere.
September 2011 |
By Edward Farmer
Distance Runners
Unmanned aerial vehicles redefine the term "nonstop flight."
September 2011 |
By Michael Milstein
Lieutenant Ivan Baranovsky’s P-39
An airacobra's journey to the eastern front...and back.
September 2011 |
By Tim Wright
In the Museum: A Fleet’s Final Flight
A civilian flight trainer enters the collections.
September 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Oldies and Oddities: Lying Down on the Job
Piloting in the prone position
September 2011 |
By Graham Chandler
Destination: Moon or Asteroid? Part I: Operational Considerations
Part I: Operational Considerations The current controversy over the direction of our national space program has many dimensions but most of the discourse has focused on the means (government vs. commercial launch vehicles) not the ends (destinations and activities). Near-Earth objects (NEO, i.e., asteroids) became the next destination for human exploration as an alternative to [...]
August 31, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Free Shuttle Artifacts!
The four orbiters are already taken, but thousands more shuttle-related items are still available—at no cost.
August 29, 2011 |
By Mark Betancourt
Storm Coming
These days, with so many satellite sensors looking down constantly from orbit, and so many ways to slice their data, it’s hard to remember that hurricanes used to arrive without much warning. Hurricane Irene is currently bearing down on the Turks and Caicos Islands, and may hit the east coast of the United States by [...]
August 23, 2011 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Are any of Northrop's "flying wings" from the 1940s still around?
What ever happened to the YB-49 and the XB-35?
August 16, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Coming Extractions
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 [...]
August 10, 2011 |
By Roger Mola
One Small Step for Boeing
The next pilots to fly a U.S. spacecraft may work for a private company.
August 05, 2011 |
By Paul Hoversten
Water (Really!) on Mars
Over the years, spacecraft have seen plenty of dried-up riverbeds on Mars, along with rocks that formed in watery environments eons ago. No question about it, the Red Planet used to be wet. NASA can stop sending press announcements about water in the Martian past. We got it. Now scientists are reporting something much more [...]
August 04, 2011 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Exotic volcanoes on the Moon
The flood of new data from the Moon continues to enlighten and puzzle lunar scientists. Members of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team have noticed an unusual landform on the far side of the Moon that was as unexpected as it might be significant. We’ve known for many years that early in its history, the [...]
August 03, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Last of the Few
The Battle of Britain in the words of the pilots who won it.
August 01, 2011 |
By The Editors
Ride-Sharing With the Rich
How fractional jet owners get out of flying coach.
August 2011 |
By David Freed
Loser X-Planes
Every research aircraft poses a question. Sometimes the answer is "forget it."
August 2011 |
By The Editors
I Was There: When the DC-8 Went Supersonic
The day a Douglas DC-8 busted Mach 1.
August 2011 |
By Bill Wasserzieher
Flights and Fancy: How I Bagged an F-4J
Who would think a kite could down a fighter?
August 2011 |
By Michael Barton
