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Air & Space Magazine

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The Myth of Making Up Time

Unless your flight is over six hours, there’s usually not much the crew can do to shave off more than a few minutes.

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Space Blob Intriguing

Here’s a good look at Titan’s underside. 

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Strings Under Spacecraft

They don’t fly jets, they fly trombones.

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To the North Pole…by Balloon

115 years ago today, three Swedish explorers set off on the only attempt ever to reach the Pole by balloon

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Telstar Turns 50

The world’s first transatlantic TV broadcast included a quip from President Kennedy and folk dancing in Quebec.

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Does This Map Feel Hot to You?

Satellites monitor changes in land surface temperature. 

The last remaining Vulcan bomber flies with the Red Arrows over Farnborough on July 9.

Notes From Farnborough

Daily dispatches from one of the world’s great airshows.

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Runway Pause

A C-130 Hercules stops briefly during an exercise. 

A Long March rocket lifts off with the Shenzhou-9 crew on board.

Why China Doesn’t Have a Space Shuttle

The 1986 Challenger accident influenced the decision, but not in the way you might think

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Independence Day Racing

In 1914, aviator Albert Heinrich raced his monoplane over the Hudson River.

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Robot Fall, Robot Get Up

When the AirBurr flying robot crashes into an obstacle, it rights itself and keeps going

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A New Eye in the Sky

The Europeans are launching a weather satellite this week. 

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Failure to Launch, Failure to Lead

The Space Exploration Initiative and the Vision for Space Exploration — two proposals, two failures. Why?

The Tower of London from the Thames.

The Tower Ravens

During World War II, a raven helped alert the city to approaching bombers

The Shenzhou-9 crew shortly after landing in Inner Mongolia on June 29, 2012.

What’s driving China’s space program?

What’s driving China’s space program?

Piggyback Airplanes

Ten of aviation’s most famous hitch-hikers

My Other Vehicle Was a Spacecraft

Now that the space shuttle has retired, astronauts are rediscovering the joys of flying airplanes

Will Whiteside’s Yak-3U SteadFast, instrumented to send GPS-based data to a National Aeronautic Association ground station, climbs through 10,000 feet in pursuit of world records.

A New Time-to-Climb Record

A Yak 3U gets to 10,000 feet in 125 seconds.

Within months of its first flight, the Skyrocket II (designer August Bellanca with the prototype in Delaware, 2002) set five world speed records in its class.

Making a Smoother (and Speedier) Airplane

Within months of its first flight, August Bellanca’s Skyrocket II set five world speed records.

TacSat-2 launching in 2006.

Hurry-Up Satellites

These Pentagon mavericks want to launch spacecraft within a week of taking the order. Wish them luck.

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