Transportation
Saab Reinvents Air Traffic Control With a Digital Panorama
With Saab's new digital panorama, the local air traffic controller may soon go the way of the technical support specialist.
June 04, 2012 |
By Jimmy Stamp
Don’t Let Your Money Fly Away: A 1909 Warning to Airship Investors
Flying aboard aircraft? Just a passing fad
May 31, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
How a Federally-Regulated Safety Message Distinguished a Brand
If you've flown Virgin America, you've seen its distinctive safety video. But what's the story behind it?
May 31, 2012 |
By Sarah C. Rich
Travelers’ Tales in Utah’s Canyonlands
The trail is rough and hard to follow, marked chiefly by cairns; water is intermittent; and if something bad happens help is not at hand
May 30, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
Big Things Ahead… But Keep Your Shirt On
Americans in the 1940s had wondrous expectations about the post-war world. Meet one author who advised them to curb their enthusiasm
May 25, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Take a Vacation on Volvo
Once you get your car you’re free to hit the road along the west coast of Sweden with its fishing villages, traditional folkways and islands
May 23, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
The 86-Year-Old Company that Still Designs Your In-Flight Experience
Seattle-based design firm Teague has designed every Boeing aircraft interior since the 1940s, from the post-WWII Stratocruiser to the 2009 Dreamliner.
May 22, 2012 |
By Sarah C. Rich
Maps of the Future
A 1989 prediction about portable GPS devices was right on the money
May 22, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
A Medieval Castle in the Making
The construction of a medieval fortress in France is answering important questions about 13th-century building techniques
May 21, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
A More Efficient Airline Meal Tray
A recent innovation in the design of the airline meal tray has resulted in massive savings. Maybe the next innovation should focus on the actual food.
May 17, 2012 |
By Sarah C. Rich
The Snows of…Tenerife?
The white stuff can fall at any time and almost anywhere, from the streets of Rome to the subtropical Canary Islands
May 02, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
Document Deep Dive: A Firsthand Account of the Hindenburg Disaster
Frank Ward was a 17-year-old crewman when he saw the infamous disaster, but his memories of that day are still strong, 75 years later
May 02, 2012 |
By Megan Gambino
Found: Letters from the Hindenburg
A new addition to the Smithsonian collections tells a new story about the legendary disaster
May 2012 |
By Abigail Tucker
Hand-fishing for Swamp Monsters
"It's the most exhilarating thing I've ever done," says filmmaker Bradley Beesley, whose documentaries have popularized the ancient art of noodling
April 19, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Plus Ça Change in France
The nation says au revoir to the franc and to "mademoiselle" and bonjour
to a proposed new theme park—Napoleonland
April 19, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
The Most Dangerous Game: Chasing a Sea Snail?
Abalone divers die of exhaustion, heart attacks, or becoming entangled in kelp. The fear of being eaten by a great white shark is persistent and haunting
April 11, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
The Flying Ambulance of Tomorrow
In the 1920s, a French inventor devised an ingenious way to provide emergency medical assistance
April 10, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Secretary Clough on Discovery’s Next Mission
The retired space shuttle will fly one last time – to the Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center
April 2012 |
By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
A Short Trip to Coal Country
In eastern Pennsylvania, learn more than you ever imagined about flammable carbon at the Anthracite Coal Museum, and marvel at the virtual ghost town of Centralia
March 30, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
