Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Air & Space Magazine

None

Airmail Odyssey

Three historic mailplanes commemorated the anniversary of U.S. airmail by tracing the original coast-to-coast route.

A century-old Wright Flyer comes to life this weekend in Virginia.

1908 All Over Again

A century-old Wright Flyer comes to life this weekend in Virginia.

Landing field at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, October 1935. Note the "large white circle" called out in the directions.

The Route: Long Island to Cleveland

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Aerial view of an airmail light beacon tower, somewhere along the New York to Chicago route, in the mid-1920s.

The Route: Cleveland to Iowa City

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

DH-4 mailplanes at Fort Crook airfield, Omaha, Nebraska, in the mid-1920s.

The Route: Iowa City to North Platte

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

A light beacon tower (used for night flying) on the airmail field in North Platte, Nebraska in the mid-1920s. The field boundary light is visible in the right foreground.

The Route: North Platte to Rock Springs

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

A Varney Air Lines Swallow outside the airmail hangar at Elko, Nevada in April 1926.

The Route: Rock Springs to Reno

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Reno, Nevada, Postmaster Austin Jackson (left) hands a mail bag to pilot Harry Huking in his DH-4 mailplane, July 1924.

From Reno to San Francisco

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Rosetta heads for a stony close encounter.

Deciphering an Asteroid

Rosetta heads for a stony close encounter.

None

The Shuttle Mission No One Wants

If STS-400 launches, be prepared for one of the most dramatic spaceflights ever.

The shadow of their lander dominates a mosaic of the numbered photos Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took out their window before leaving the moon.

Finding Apollo

Forty years later, we’re about to see what the moonwalkers left behind.

In You Only Live Twice, Sean Connery flies an autogyro souped up with missiles, machine guns, and flame-throwers.

Live and Let Fly

Real pilots rate the performance of the airplanes in James Bond flicks.

The Intrepid took part in every major Pacific battle in the last two years of World War II.

Restoration: USS Intrepid

Cleaning up an aircraft carrier.

At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, a study subject is wired for a spin in the Dynamic Environment Simulator, a centrifuge that excels in inducing spatial disorientation.

The Disorient Express

Despite the best training and technology, why do pilots still die from not knowing which end is up?

“They’ll never get off the ground,” warned detractors of Aero Spacelines’ Guppy series of colossal cargo airplanes.

Big Idea

Megalifters prove you’re never too fat to fly.

In Afghanistan, Marines and Afghan forces patrol under cover of an AH-64 Apache.

Control the Air

On the ground with Marines in Afghanistan, the author sees a different side of close air support.

Russian scientists have recently improved their probe by replacing the drill shown with a scoop device to collect soil in the weak gravity of Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons.

Mission Possible

A new probe to a Martian moon may win back respect for Russia’s unmanned space program.

The book that robbed the enemy of his secrets. A key to shapes shows a circle can be a haystack or a gun emplacement.

Portrait of the Enemy

Photographs taken from the world’s first warplanes changed the course of battle.

Early fighter helmets, like this 1950s-era Navy APH-5, were rugged but dumb.

Then & Now: Hard Hat Zone

Then & Now: Hard Hat Zone

The X-7 mounted on its B-29 carrier.

Moments and Milestones: Hits and Missiles

Produced in cooperation with the National Aeronautic Association

Page 262 of 320