Governmental Aerospace Programs
The Federal Aviation Administration, air mail, space programs and military aviationT-bird Low Show
Are the United States Air Force Thunderbirds offering a new "low show" when cloud cover is below minimums?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUdHAx6gZqg&NR=1
We contacted the demonstration squadron and asked. Their reply: "Thank you for your interest in the USAF Thunderbirds and for taking the tim...
November 24, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Keeping an eye on NASA
Credible rumor has it that NASA has initiated a “lessons learned” postmortem of Project Constellation in order to camouflage their failure to implement the 2004 Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) and to justify their new direction. I had originally intended to expand on the agency’s postmortem pur...
November 21, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
In the Age of Spaceplanes
Stories from the shuttle astronauts, in their own words.
November 18, 2010 |
By The Editors
Space Specs
It's no secret that the astronaut corps today, with an average age between 47 and 48, is a bit older than the in-their-primers of Mercury and Gemini. And eyesight, it turns out, is one measure of age. Approximately 80 percent of the current astronaut corps wears eye correction (i.e. glasses or cont...
November 12, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Happy Veterans Day
It's not often that you get to see a Boeing C-17 Globemaster make a flyover down a palm-tree-lined street, but it happened one recent Veterans Day in Long Beach, California. Enjoy. Gotta love the car alarm going off in the background at the end of the video—no flyover's complete without one.
http:/...
November 11, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Air Force Sloganizing
The U.S. Air Force recently announced its new motto: "Aim High...Fly-Fight-Win," which generals chose out of five contenders suggested by airmen and the general public: Fly Fight Win, Aim High, Above and Beyond, Air Power, and Wings of Freedom.
This from the same people who named the Boeing C-17 ...
November 09, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
Western Low-Fly Zones: Not in My Sky
The Air Force is looking for places in the American West where pilots can practice flying special operations missions over terrain similar to the rugged mountains of Afghanistan. One proposal would call for a new Low Altitude Tactical Navigation area straddling the border of Colorado and New Mexico...
November 08, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Can NASA Get Its Groove Back?
Remember when space exploration was “groovy” and excitement about seeing humans explore the Solar System within our lifetimes was palpable? What happened to NASA and America’s dream to boldly go? The pathway that assured us that space exploration is cool, amazing and pushes excellence has disap...
November 06, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Air Force Drones Cut to Wide Angle
U.S. Air Force drones that serve as the aerial eyes of American combat troops in Afghanistan are about to widen their view.A multi-camera system called "Gorgon Stare" (named for the Medusa's deadly gaze, which turns onlookers to stone) will be installed on unmanned Reaper aircraft and deployed t...
November 05, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
A Piece of Lafayette Escadrille History
On November 15, 2010, Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco will auction this dark grey-green canvas fuselage insignia panel from a Spad VII flown by the Lafayette Escadrille, featuring the familiar Indian-head insignia. The panel, says the company's press release, was collected by Sergeant E...
November 03, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Too Many Astronauts?
As the space shuttle program winds down, an obvious question faces NASA: How many astronauts will it need in an era of drastically reduced flights? Only three Americans live on the space station at any one time, typically, and those slots come open just twice a year. As for a moon base or Mars miss...
November 01, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Throttle Down
How Florida’s Space Coast is bracing for the end of the space shuttle program.
November 2010 |
By Tom Harpole
Just Shoot Me
Late in World War II, the Bell P-63 became an aerial gunner's easiest target.
November 2010 |
By James Dunaway
The Autobots Are Coming!
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 ...
October 25, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Strange Lunar Brew
A year ago, the LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission team announced the detection of water in the impact plume produced after the Centaur separated from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and crashed into the Moon. We now have more detailed information on the water a...
October 22, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
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
Top Gun 2.0?
The Hollywood grapevine and other gossip networks are all atwitter over the news that Paramount Pictures is reportedly in talks with producer Jerry "Blow It Up" Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott about a sequel to their 1986 movie, "Top Gun," which made a megastar of the Grumman F-14 (and some o...
October 15, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
You've Got (Balloon) Mail
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...
October 13, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
