Aircraft
Military, commercial and experimental vehicles designed for flight in the Earth’s atmosphere
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
Last One Out, Shut off the Helium
Fifty years ago, the Navy ended its lighter-than-air program.
August 2011 |
By George C. Larson, Member, NAA
Two Days in the Life of a B-24 Crew
Take a fantasy flight in a real, live Liberator.
July 2011 |
By Stephen Joiner
Pilot Cam
A remote-controlled airplane, a camera, and a pair of goggles can put you in the (virtual) pilot's seat for as little as $500.
July 2011 |
By Mark Betancourt
That Old Crate
From Minnesota cratemakers, a new CG-4 glider like the ones they built in World War II.
July 2011 |
By Lynn Keillor
The Bombing of Waziristan
In this rugged hiding place, outlaws like Osama bin Laden are rarely run to ground. The British learned that lesson in 1939.
July 2011 |
By Graham Chandler
In the Museum: Wanted: TLC for Misunderstood Warbird
Challenging the Helldiver’s bad reputation.
July 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Above and Beyond: Warner and the Whale
How we turned the A3D into a tanker.
July 2011 |
By Hadley Dixon
From Zero to 250
Sikorsky’s X2 is more hot rod than helicopter.
July 2011 |
By George C. Larson, Member, NAA
The Akron and Macon’s Hail Mary Pass
“One of the interesting things about airships,” says Tom Crouch, a senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, who gave a lecture on the subject this week as part of the Museum’s Ask an Expert series, is that they were “transitional technology. They were capable of doing a great many things before airplanes [...]
June 17, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Helicopter Missions: Vietnam Firefight
In 1966, Second Lieutenant Larry Liss was on the Czech-German border during a snowstorm, freezing his varlata off, when he saw something beautiful. It was a Bell UH-1 helicopter, still on the ground. The pilot—who was wearing short sleeves and drinking a cup of coffee—took one look at Liss and shook his head. “He said, [...]
May 31, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
The Turtle Flies!
Gamera, you'll recall from Japanese horror movies, was a giant, fire-breathing, flying turtle that used to terrorize Tokyo (and battle Godzilla) back in the 1960s.So what else would students at the University of Maryland—whose mascot is a terrapin—name their flying contraption, which yesterday appe...
May 13, 2011 |
By Tony Reichhardt
