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Air & Space Magazine

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Hanging on the Rings

This image from Cassini shows Saturn’s A and F rings and its icy moon Tethys.

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Night Handling

The X-47B is a research drone that the Navy hopes to one day use in combat from its aircraft carriers. Last August it conducted its first night time taxi tests aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Paul Mirat’s gouache painting of World War I aviators includes several members of the Lafayette Escadrille.

For France and Civilization

The romance of the French Foreign Legion was taken aloft by pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille.

Picture-Perfect SR-71

A Blackbird pilot and photographer describes the day he took his favorite picture.

An SR-71 taxis on the ramp.

What a Blackbird Drinks

On the SR-71, Kelly Johnson once said, everything had to be invented—including the gas.

If cyanobacteria (pictured) could exist in a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, maybe higher plants could as well.

Plant Life May Thrive in Alien Atmospheres

It may not even require as much light as it does on Earth.

This is what a gecko-based robot would look like if it could use the gripping forces in its gecko toes to keep from floating away from the space station. The illustration is of a concept called LEMUR—Legged Excursion Mechanical Utility Rover.

Orbital Inspectors

If the space station gets smacked by a micrometeoroid, an array of devices can find—and fix—the damage.

Surrounding an SA-2 on its launcher, North Vietnamese missileers rally against an intimidating foe. Despite diminished effectiveness by the end of the war, the missiles and crews are still celebrated in Vietnam for protecting major cities against American air raids.

The Missile Men of North Vietnam

A look at the air war waged from the ground.

The octagonal 26-foot-tall MINOS detector is one of several experiments housed in a former iron mine in Minnesota; two others seek cosmic dark matter.

Dark Matter Detectives

The hunt for the most elusive particles in the universe is half a mile underground.

A Blackbird takes off from Beale AFB. The SR-71 was the last major aircraft designed with a slide rule.

Blackbird Diaries

Stories from the fastest jet ever flown.

The PA-48 was an almost-all-new airplane, but it bore a strong resemblance to its heroic ancestor, the P-51 Mustang.

The Cub’s Badass Big Brother

The Piper PA-48 Enforcer may have been called the “Super Mustang,” but it never found its mission.

Pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille whose names few Americans recognize (from left): Chouteau Johnson, Lawrence Rumsey, James McConnell, William Thaw, Raoul Lufbery, Kiffin Rockwell, Didier Masson, Norman Prince, Bert Hall.

America’s First Combat Pilots

Descendants of the volunteers who served in the famed Lafayette Escadrille shed light on why they chose to fight.

A student practices a sling lift in the darkened pool at Survival Systems USA in Groton, Connecticut. Passengers who take an underwater escape training class—even for a day—can as much as triple their odds of surviving a helicopter crash.

How to Survive A Helicopter Crash

Specialized—and terrifying—training helps passengers prepare for the worst.

The Cosmos Phase II ultralight was used to lead flocks of endangered birds along migration routes.

The Pioneering Age of Ultralights

Small-engine wonders in the Museum’s collection.

Searching for Moon Rocks in Iowa

In 1964, midwestern farmers and school kids got a jump on the Apollo astronauts.

In a photo he calls “The Sandwich,” John Newlin flies his Phantom between a Soviet Tu‑95 Bear and a Douglas A-3 tanker 150 miles west of Gibraltar, April 1, 1966.

Eye to Eye with a Bear

In 1966, a Naval aviator got an unforgettable look at an icon of the Cold War: the Soviet Tupolev Tu-95 bomber.

Dreams of Downtown Airports

The idea of connecting city centers with vertical take-off airports never quite took off.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association displayed hundreds of aircraft, like this Daher-Socata TBM 900, at its Frederick, Maryland headquarters.

AOPA Goes Back to Its Grassroots

On its 75th anniversary, the pilots association celebrates successes and looks to the future.

In 2013, jet artist Princess Tarinan von Anhalt used the exhaust from a Learjet 45 XR to splash company colors on a canvas to celebrate Learjet’s 50th anniversary.

Painting With a Learjet Engine

A German princess takes to the runway to produce “jet-art.”

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Spirit Testing

Charles Lindbergh flies over San Diego during a test flight of the Spirit of St. Louis in the spring of 1927.

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