Aviation Eras
Periods of innovation in the history of aviation from early flight to the modern age
Holiday Sampler
For the Memorial Day weekend, an assortment of news from the world of air and space:► The field of hypersonic flight has a new record: The Air Force's X-51A Waverider reached Mach 5 in a 200-second scramjet engine burn over the Pacific on Wednesday. Video below:► What looked at first like a sma...
May 28, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
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
A&S Interview: Ray Puffer
The former Air Force historian asks, "Can anyone dispute that I had the most interesting job in the entire Air Force?"
May 2010 |
By Perry Turner
Inside the Enola Gay
Close-up photographs of the legendary World War II aircraft.
May 18, 2010 |
By The Editors
Book Club July 2010: Fighter Pilot
The memoirs of legendary ace Robin Olds.
May 17, 2010 |
By The Editors
Last of the Invaders
A reader tips us off to the restoration of a rare bird.
May 17, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Breaking the Sound Barrier: Yer Doin' It Wrong
Attention, turbojet-heads: Turner Classic Movies airs "The Sound Barrier" at 8 p.m. EST Friday, May 7. The 1952 film, directed by David Lean, plays fast and loose with aerodynamics and aviation history, but it offers fine footage of a de Havilland Comet and a Supermarine Swift interceptor, a number...
May 07, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
Grab the Airplane and Go
How to repossess an airliner without getting shot, or thrown in jail, or beat up, or slammed into a wall, or...
May 2010 |
By Stephen Joiner
Super Fly: Celebrities and Airplanes
Kitty Kelley's recent tell-all biography of Oprah Winfrey revealed that the talk-show diva owns a $47 million Bombardier BD-700 Global Express high-speed jet. According to biographer Kelley, when Winfrey upgraded from a $40 million Gulfstream in 2006, she also spent $1 million refurbishing her hang...
April 30, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Give This Steco a Home
Dennis Eggert, president of the Minnesota Air & Space Museum, is in desperate need of storage space for a 1911 Steco Aerohydroplane. “God forbid if it comes to calling a trash truck or Dumpster,” he says, “but it’s got to be moved.” The aircraft had been disassembled and stored in various site...
April 28, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
Stealth: Flying Invisible
In March 1999, during the Kosovo War, as Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko piloted his F-117, he saw two missiles punch through the bottom of the clouds. The unbelievable had happened: A Serbian surface-to-air missile had locked on to his aircraft. Zelko was able to eject, and was rescued shortly after...
April 19, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
240,000-mile Filing Extension
"Dear Mr. Taxman: I'm sorry I missed the deadline. I was, uh, hmm, in a spaceship flying to the moon?"On the evening of April 15, 2010, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's John H. Glenn lecture series honored four legendary men of Apollo 13 on the 40th anniversary of their hair-raising ...
April 16, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Not Your Average Seagull
On April 13, Bonhams auction house will offer a 1917 Curtiss MF "Seagull" Flying Boat for sale. The MF (which stands for "Modernised F-boat") was developed in 1917 from the original F model, a design the U.S. Navy had been using since 1912/1913. (The F model was the most successful of the pre-war C...
April 09, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Solar Impulse Takes Flight
Solar Impulse, the prototype of an airplane meant to fly around the world powered only by sunlight in 2012, made its maiden flight from Payerne, Switzerland yesterday. According to flight test leader (and former astronaut) Claude Nicollier, “We reached all objectives, especially the safe landing, w...
April 08, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
