Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Air & Space Magazine

A NASA sensor maps the worldwide distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Global Carbon Dioxide

A NASA sensor maps the worldwide distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere.

An F/A-18 in flight over Switzerland.

Alpine Flight

An F/A-18 in flight over Switzerland.

A trio of A-10s heads for a new home in Arkansas.

A Line of Thunderbolts

A trio of A-10s heads for a new home in Arkansas.

The Tuskegee Airmen's new Congressional Gold Medal goes on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

Pure Gold

The Tuskegee Airmen’s new Congressional Gold Medal goes on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

If astronomers are right, Eta Carinae may be ready to blow.

Keep an Eye on This One

If astronomers are right, Eta Carinae may be ready to blow.

A view of Jupiter's moon wins the people's choice award.

Europa Rising

A view of Jupiter’s moon wins the people’s choice award.

Schirra during his Apollo 7 flight in October 1968.

Wally Schirra, 1923-2007

One of the original seven astronauts, he was the only one to fly all three NASA spacecraft in the 1960s.

None

Book Excerpt: “Snowbirds”

An ex-member of the Canadian team recalls his time on the tour.

None

Concerto for Merlin and Double Wasp

John Altmann thinks airplane engines make beautiful music, and has sold thousands of CDs to prove it.

Photos of scale model channel Wing aircraft were found in the National Air and Space Museum archives, with no caption information available. Volunteer Pete D'Anna, however, had seen them before—in the hands of legendary designer Willard Custer.

Lunch With Willard

How a meeting 50 years ago solved a photographic mystery.

Spaceport Singapore, envisioned by Space Adventures, Ltd., would cost $115 million. A Singapore-based consortium and the Crown Prince of Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates are backing the venture.

Fields of Dreams

Will starry-eyed entrepreneurs transform today’s wide-open spaces into tomorrow’s spaceports?

"The AeroShell Aerobatic Team is an act not to miss. This formation team flies the venerable AT-6G Texan and is a perennial favorite on the airshow circuit. With skill, grace and coordination this is precision formation flying at its best. And who does't like watching big honking radial engines, belching clouds of smoke, whip the sky into submission? Photographically, the AeroShell Team fills your viewfinder with a little bit of history, a lot of energy and loads of color against a azure sky. Now go eat some smoke and take some pictures."

Airshows 2007: Photographer’s Choice

Three pros pick their favorite acts to shoot.

Erik Hildebrandt

Guide to the Great

A performer searches the airshow circuit for this season’s top acts.

To test human responses to G forces, the Navy put subjects in a 10- by six-foot oblate steel sphere at the end of a 50-foot arm.

The G Machine

Riding an Atlas into space was a piece of cake compared to pulling 32 Gs on the Johnsville centrifuge.

None

Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places

Weird space critters could be right beneath our planetary probes.

None

In the Museum: Model Employee

In the Museum: Model Employee

Launch of a Ground-Based Interceptor from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2013.

Can We Stop a Nuke?

From the impossible dream of a space-based shield, missile defense has come down to Earth. But will it work?

The Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds fly in formation in front of a passing storm in 2015.

The Moose Jaw Nine

What the Canadian Snowbirds have that the Navy’s Blue Angels don’t.

Overhead lights at a factory in Santa Monica, California, are reflected in row upon row of Plexiglas noses destined for Douglas A-20 attack bombers.

300,000 Airplanes

Individual effort and mass production are equally represented in a new book celebrating World War II aircraft factories.

Bob Englar revived the Custer Channel Wing for wind tunnel experiments directing airflow.

That Extra Little Lift

Willard Custer’s Channel Wing looked like a mistake. Turns out his critics were the ones who were wrong.

Page 282 of 320