The Rise and Fall and Rise of Iridium

Iridium's constellation of 66 comsats was a technological triumph but a business disaster-until an executive and a computer geek found salvation in the Pentagon.
September 2004 | By Craig Mellow

Safer Fuel Tanks

Once airliners implement this pending FAA rule, a spark will no longer become a flame.
July 2004 | By Damond Benningfield

First Church of Combustion

Never operate your airplane engine lean of peak exhaust gas temperature. These guys aren't buyin' it.
July 2004 | By George C. Larson

Supporting Cast

In which we survey the variety of objects to which a jet engine can be affixed.
May 2004 | By Roger A. Mola

Night Stalkers

U.S. soldiers in Vietnam heard rumors of ghosts; the Viet Cong chalked it up to bad luck.
May 2004 | By Roger Warner

Electro- mechanical Deicing

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

Star Power

The plasma rocket, says U.S. astronaut Franklin Chang-Díaz, is the propulsion technology of the future.
March 2004 | By Beth Dickey

'It's All About Fire, Smoke, and Noise'

You know those little rockets made of wood and glue that you can stuff a motor in and launch from the field next door? These aren't them.
January 2004 | By Preston Lerner

100 years on

Magazine Within a Magazine. Celebrating 200 Years of Flight
January 2004 | By the Editors

Ground Proximity Warnings

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

The Rest of the Rocket Scientists

Some went west. This is the story of the ones who went east.
September 2003 | By Anatoly Zak

Infrared Countermeasures

The systems that cool the threat from heat-seeking missiles.
July 2003 | By Sam Goldberg

NASA Goes Nuclear

When your batteries are dead and solar power is only a distant memory, you're going to need something else in your power pack.
July 2003 | By Ben Iannotta

Good Wood

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

Exit Strategy

Target: Soviet weapons plant. Mission: Low-altitude bombing. Payload: Nuclear. Problem: Getting back.
May 2003 | By Marshall Michel

What's a Scud?

The Scud missiles causing so much anxiety in the world today are Soviet designs that originated in a weapon developed by the Nazis.
May 2003 | By Bruce Berkowitz

Miracle: A view of flight as it turns 100

Inventions seldom resemble the refined devices that evolve from them
March 2003 | By The Editors

Defining Moments

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

Wrong Turns

When's the last time you caught a ride in an autogiro?
March 2003 | By T.A. Heppenheimer

White Elephant

How the Soviet Buran space shuttle helped the United States win the cold war.
January 2003 | By Tom Harpole

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