Air Travel
Commercial flight, including airlines and airports
Magellans of the Air
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...
October 21, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Pushing His Buttons
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...
October 04, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Here’s Looking at You, Floyd Bennett
New York City’s first municipal airport couldn’t take a bad picture.
September 14, 2010 |
By Diane Tedeschi
Amelia Earhart's Irish Sojourn
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...
July 12, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
The Immortal "Airplane!"
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 "...
June 22, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
Why They Stopped Flying
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...
May 27, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Back to Normal
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.
April 28, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Talking Trash
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 ...
March 26, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Are they lying...flat?
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...
February 03, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Are aft-facing airplane seats safer?
They may well be. But don't look for them anytime soon.
October 26, 2009 |
By Michael Klesius
What happens if an airliner suddenly loses cabin pressure?
Let's just say it's not like it is in the movies.
September 24, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Above It All
It took a maze of valves and venturis—and a trio
of tycoons—to whisk passengers into the stratosphere.
September 2009 |
By Nick D'Alto
Anatomy of an Airliner
Our maxim: The airlines giveth, and the airlines taketh away.
September 2009 |
By The Editors
Is bracing for impact really helpful in an airline crash?
Or is it just meant to make us feel like we're doing something?
August 26, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
The Airport That Wouldn’t Die
An embattled Florida field had more than history on its side.
August 2009 |
By Carl Posey
Fire Hazard
Where there’s smoke, there’s pollution. How can airport firefighters green it up?
July 2009 |
By Sam Goldberg
