Aircraft Types
Powered and unpowered aircraft, including fixed-wing, hybrid, rotary and lighter-than-air
Monster Bomber
At the Pima Air and Space Museum, the B-36 is the largest U.S. warplane ever rebuilt.
August 2010 |
By The Editors
What Does An Emergency Flight Nurse Fear Most?
This summer, the Boy Scouts of America celebrate their 100th anniversary, and the U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a spiffy new stamp to honor the organization.One of my favorite Scouting quotes comes from Janice Hudson's Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse. Hudson worked for many y...
July 23, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Medevac From Luzon
A small band of helicopter pilots risked their lives to rescue wounded soldiers during World War II.
July 2010 |
By Roger Connor
Helicopter Drop Tests
Crashing test dummies into walls must not be enough fun for some people, so the engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center have upped the ante. These stoic mannequins were strapped inside an MD-500 helicopter last week and dropped from a height of 35 feet to test whether a honeycomb cushion shock ...
March 17, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The One-Dollar Pietenpol
Some airplanes, like some friendships, improve with age.
March 2010 |
By Linda Shiner
![<b><i>Writer and photographer Ed Darack</b></i> spent time in December 2009 with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 (VMM-261) in southern Afghanistan. In addition to Darack’s story, “Osprey at War,” featured in our April / May issue, we offer a slideshow of images taking during his stay.
<br><br>“The pilots put the tip lights on for safety during nighttime and at dawn and dusk,” says Darack. “They just started this one up—you can see the plume of white smoke.”
<br><br>Many of the Osprey pilots used to fly the Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight, known colloquially to the Marines as the “Phrog.” “Basically, coming from the CH-46, I felt safe in the Phrog because it had two .50-caliber machine guns,” says Captain Chris Meixell of VMM-261, “but with this airframe, we have triple-redundant flight controls, and those controls are routed in different parts of the airframe. The engines are 46 feet apart, which decreases the chances of both of them getting shot out by enemy fire, and [the MV-22] can climb to 9,000 feet in airplane mode on one engine. The fuel system is a suction type system, and if you take a round, it is just going to suck air, it is not going to spray fuel. The greatest safety advantage is the performance of the aircraft itself, which allows us to climb quickly out of small-arms and shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile range.”](http://media.airspacemag.com/images/200*133/Osprey--4.jpg)
A Tiltrotor Squadron in Afghanistan
Scenes of a Marine unit flying the incredible, versatile Osprey.
March 15, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
A Family Affair
Bernard Pietenpol’s happiest moments came when he was flying one of his homebuilt airplanes—with a child or two in tow.
March 15, 2010 |
By Diane Tedeschi
Legends of Vietnam: Bronco's Tale
One of the most versatile aircraft of the Vietnam War appears on the verge of a comeback.
March 2010 |
By William E. Burrows
Sky Snake
Flexible blimps are bending the rules on UAV design.
December 18, 2009 |
By Michael Klesius
Batstrike!
A loud thud. A shower of purple-white sparks. This can't be good.
December 14, 2009 |
By Randy Gordon
A Glimpse of Things to Come
A hundred years ago, the International Air Meet gave spectators a look into the future.
November 17, 2009 |
By Paul Hoversten
Sightings: Hazy's Hits
A photo gallery of airplanes at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.
November 17, 2009 |
By Michael Klesius
The Bear Is Back
The winning-est Bearcat in air racing steps up once more to the starting gate.
November 2009 |
By Preston Lerner
