Aviation Eras
Periods of innovation in the history of aviation from early flight to the modern age
Brooklyn’s Jewel
A National Park Service project reclaims aviation history.
November 2010 |
By David Shaftel
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
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
For Sale: Potential Speed
Project 100 Communications is selling the car that Steve Fossett had hoped would set a land speed record. "Over $4 million is invested in this project," says the sales brochure, which translates: No aluminum wheel kickers.The vehicle is based on racing legend Craig Breedlove's late 1990s Spirit of ...
October 20, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
Alberto's Big Race
As prizes go, this was a big one. In 1901, French oil tycoon and aviation patron Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe put up 100,000 francs (equivalent to more than $500,000 today) for the first airman who could fly a 7-mile circuit starting from a park in Paris, rounding the Eiffel Tower, then returning to...
October 19, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
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
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
200 Pounds of Silk
It wasn't the most dramatic flight of 1910, but it left an important legacy. Phil Parmelee, a pilot with the Wright exhibition team, took off from Dayton, Ohio, with 200 pounds of silk loaded into his Wright B Flyer, to be delivered to a merchant in Columbus. Dry goods salesman Max Morehouse paid t...
October 01, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Bush Flying in Alaska
The former territory’s first pilots didn’t let snow, ice, and a lack of runways stop them from building a new industry.
September 28, 2010 |
By Jim Rearden
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
The Day(s) Nobody Flew
You hear it all the time, even from people who should know better: September 11, 2001 was the only time in history that all air traffic in the United States was halted.Wrong. Sigh.Air & Space researcher Roger Mola was the first to point out that it wasn't the first time. That distinction goes t...
September 10, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Glamour Boy
The day Claude Grahame-White thrilled the crowd at the Boston-Harvard meet.
September 08, 2010 |
By Gavin Mortimer
John Freeborn: 1919-2010
In a 2004 interview, an RAF hero recalled encounters with friends and enemies during the Battle of Britain.
September 03, 2010 |
By Gavin Mortimer
Pégoud Flies Upside Down, 1913
French aviator Adolphe Pégoud ranks as one of the best and bravest pilots in history, and he knew how to wow a crowd. On this day in 1913 he introduced a trick that scared even other pioneers of flight—he flew upside down, for an audience at the Juvisy aerodrome outside Paris.A correspondent descri...
September 01, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Curious Case of Edgar Mix
The celebrated aeronaut found Earth-bound life difficult to navigate.
September 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
