Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Air & Space Magazine

Where do you park a zeppelin (here, the Navy airship Los Angeles)? On a seven-story-high mooring mast.

Last One Out, Shut off the Helium

Fifty years ago, the Navy ended its lighter-than-air program.

Paul Mantz, circa 1928, fresh out of the Army Air Corps and headed for Hollywood.

Above & Beyond: Mantz Versus the Volcano

Filming for Cinerama with a fearless flyer

Visitors assemble space station elements in the Moving Beyond Earth gallery.

In the Museum: My Vostok Is Bigger Than Your Mercury

Launching two very different capsules—and a space race.

Michael Silvestro (foreground) runs Flight Options, the second largest fractional jet ownership company in the U.S.

The Competition

The Competition

An cutaway of the supersonic wind tunnel.

Know Which Way the Wind Blows

Know Which Way the Wind Blows

None

High-Speed Rail Won’t Fly Here

Ron Davies, former museum curator of air transport rallies for high-speed rail.

None

Visions Don’t Pass Away – A Tribute to John Marburger

Recently deceased John H. Marburger, former Science Advisor to President George W. Bush & Director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy

The SULSA: Taking homebuilts to a new level

Print Your Own Airplane

3-D printing ushers in a new era for making airplane parts

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter test flight

F-35 Catapult Test

Test flights continue despite budget struggles.

071025-F-5735S-100 Three-thousand gallons of fire retardant are deployed from a C-130 Hercules aircraft over the Witch fire in Northern San Diego, Calif., on Oct. 25, 2007. The C-130 and its crew are assigned to the 302nd Airlift Wing out of Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Roy A. Santana, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

Dousing the Flames

A C-130 Hercules chokes the blaze.

A KC-135R Stratotanker refueling an F-15C Eagle.

Saving Gas Over the Top

An Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker’s mission over the North Pole reveals the potential for saving $54,000 and 4.5 hours of flight time

None

Russians On Board

Cosmonauts will miss the space shuttle, too.

None

Sims A Lot

Virtual pilots log 20 million hours.

The Next 10 Americans in Space

The shuttle has retired, but the astronauts have not.

None

Stop That Stick Figure

The Transportation Security Administration has finally faced the naked truth

None

Expect Heavy Traffic

World War 2 student pilots grasp a lesson in landing. 

The Olympic flame arrives in London onboard a Sea King Helicopter on July 20.

Above the Games

Aircraft will be all over London during the Olympics, delivering visitors, filming the action, and patrolling the skies.

None

Canaveral Launches Its Business

The Bumper missile is first off the pad.

None

Drive Away the Blues

Bid on a Blue Angels Ford Mustang at AirVenture

None

Goodbye, Shuttle

Parting thoughts

Page 189 of 320