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Air & Space Magazine

In May 1928, Navy Lieutenant Commander Philip V.H. Weems took Charles Lindbergh on a series of flights to teach him a new way to navigate. Clockwise from left: Lindbergh’s sun lines of position, plotted from Washington, D.C., to New York to Michigan; Weems’ personal log; the bubble sextant used in Lindbergh’s training; an article in Popular Science that documented the lessons; and Weems’ book on line of position.

In the 1920s, Only One Man Held the Key to Aerial Navigation

Even Lindbergh got lost.

Once a best-selling airliner, the 727 now hauls cargo rather than passengers (a Federal Express 727 approaches a runway in 2009).

The 727 Turns Fifty

Once a best-seller, the airliner’s pilots still swear by it.

The main gate of the Xichang launch center, after the accident. American visitors saw hundreds of people gathered here before the launch. Chinese officials claimed they were evacuated in time.

Disaster at Xichang

An eyewitness speaks publicly for the first time about history’s worst launch accident

The tall landing gear struts theoretically enabled the XH-17 to carry Army tanks to remote sites, but low range and high fuel consumption grounded that mission.

The Flying Crane

Test pilot Gale Moore rose to the challenge of the XH-17.

Redwing aircraft comprised a B-52 (lead), B-66s (flanking), a B-47 (following), F-84s (flanking), and an F-101A (in trail).

Nuke the Pilot

Operation Redwing tested aircraft vulnerabilities to atomic blasts.

Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Lab gave the Museum at Transit 5 navigational satellite (shown here) to replace the Oscar 17 satellite that was formerly on display. The Transit 5 can be seen in the Museum’s new exhibition “Time and Navigation,” which opens in March.

A Tale of Two Satellites

An artifact returns to service after being on display for eight years.

Satellite communications technicians conduct routine maintenance on a satellite dish at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.

Can the Pentagon Unbundle Its Behemoth Space Systems?

Support for “disaggregation” of military satellites is getting louder

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Not Cleared for Take-Off

A passenger waits out China’s smog problem.

Gladys Roy and Ivan Unger play tennis on the wing of a biplane in flight, 1925.

Tennis, Anyone?

When she wasn’t playing tennis on the wing of a biplane in flight, Gladys Roy was dancing the Charleston

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Fantastic Plastic

Dive bombers, fighters, and trainers, all hanging from a bedroom ceiling

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Through the Space Bubble

An astronaut plays around with microgravity.

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Geological mapping of another world

Thanks to geologic mapping, we understood the story of the Moon well before we actually went there

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The Experiment, Part One

Can an ordinary person take off and land an airplane on the first try, with only flight simulator experience? We put it to the test

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Under Scrutiny

Investigators zero in on the 787’s battery problems.

Charley Kohlhase’s Solar System

The images that awed Voyager’s mission designer

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Hazardous Mail

A simple scrap of paper reminds us of a time when delivering letters cross-country was risky business

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About Those Airliner Batteries

They’re not the same as the AAs from your hardware store, or even your car battery

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Throwing Light on Orion

A new image shows the dark dusty regions.

FDR inflight, with TWA pilot Otis Bryan.

The First Presidential Flight

Nowadays the U.S. President has his own airplane. But for Franklin Roosevelt in 1943, flying was still a big deal.

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Snow Hawk

An Army pilot prepares to take off in the snow. 

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