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Air & Space Magazine

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The First Photographer in Space

Gherman Titov was the youngest person ever launched into space, the first to get space-sick, and the first to take along a camera.

The CST-100 capsule and service module approach the ISS in this artist’s concept—for a stay that could last up to six months.

One Small Step for Boeing

The next pilots to fly a U.S. spacecraft may work for a private company.

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Water (Really!) on Mars

Pictures taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show strong evidence of liquid water

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LEt’s GO to Jupiter

A trio of toy figurines take a trip to the outer solar system.

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Exotic volcanoes on the Moon

The flood of new data from the Moon continues to enlighten and puzzle lunar scientists

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D.B. Cooper (Still) Missing

A credible tip fizzles and the mystery continues

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Spirit of Tuskegee Tweets Into Town

A Stearman PT-13 that trained Tuskegee Airmen.

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As the Asteroid Turns

The unveiling of the first full closeup of the asteroid Vesta today.

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Sunset, Moonset

Inspiration from above.

Hurricane Mk1 at the Royal International Air Tattoo, Fairford, Gloucestershire, England, 2008.

Last of the Few

The Battle of Britain in the words of the pilots who won it

Patty Wagstaff’s latest mission: use the discipline of aerobatics to combat the chaos of California wildfires (photo-composite).

Patty Wagstaff’s Second Act

An airshow superstar adds firefighting to her repertoire.

A Dassault Falcon 2000, a Maybach luxury auto, and freshly swept stairs: NetJets set up this publicity shot in Switzerland, but for fractional jet owners, such fantasy is the reality.

Ride-Sharing With the Rich

How fractional jet owners get out of flying coach

Possibly the world’s pointiest jet, the X-3 Stiletto is described in the NASA Dryden photo collection as having “a high-fineness ratio and a low-aspect ratio; in other words, a long fuselage with short and stubby wings.”

Loser X-Planes

Every research aircraft poses a question. Sometimes the answer is “forget it.”

Located in Sweden’s isolated far north, the tiny town of Kiruna, with its Esrange rocket range, hopes to become a major space tourism attraction.

Spaceport at the Top of the World

How an ore-mining town in Sweden sees a new identity over the horizon.

Eight spoilers on each wing add aerodynamic brakes to the A380’s mechanical ones. The nacelle sleeve on this Rolls- Royce turbofan is beginning to slide aft for thrust reversal.

How Things Work: Stopping the A380

Hint: Plan ahead.

In a joking nod to George Abbey’s power over manned spaceflight, astronauts (like STS-5’s Bob Overmyer) sometimes carried his photo into orbit.

Mr. Inside

George Abbey had more influence on human spaceflight than almost anyone in history, but few outside the field know his name.

It takes a village to reach Mach 1.01. The flight and ground crews for the DC-8 supersonic run included flight test engineer Richard H. Edwards, third from left, and pilot Bill Magruder, in white shirt behind sign.

I Was There: When the DC-8 Went Supersonic

The day a Douglas DC-8 busted Mach 1

Giuseppe Genchi, who found a trove of engine parts at the University of Palermo, spent countless hours restoring an 11-cylinder rotary engine from World War I.

Genchi’s Obsession

A grad student in Italy salvages Germany’s rarest World War I airplane engines.

Just past the standing figure, a chamber with movable sidewalls controls the Mach number of air entering the diffuser.

The Perfect Wind Storm

In the 1950s, engineers at Cleveland’s brand-new supersonic wind tunnel battled shock waves, unstarts, and the local power company.

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Flights & Fancy: How I Bagged an F-4J

Who would think a kite could down a fighter?

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