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Air & Space Magazine

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The Century Series: F-100

A portrait of the F-100 Super Sabre in action during the Vietnam War.

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Frozen in Time

Gloves? Check. Cockpit heater? Check. Engine insulator?

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Midnight Raiders

How zeppelin bombers during World War I terrorized the British-and their own German crews.

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The Invisible Killers

We have the technology to send astronauts to Mars. But can we return them safely to Earth?

Convair B-58A Hustler in flight.

Speed Freak

In the 1950s, the Mach 2+ B-58 Hustler seemed a safe bet to win the arms race

Titan’s orange haze, apparent even to cameras on the Saturnorbiting Cassini spacecraft, results from sunlight breaking down methane in the atmosphere.

219 Minutes on Titan

On an uncharted world, a little spacecraft saw a lot in a very short time.

Cessna’s T-37 was dubbed “Tweety Bird” for its shrill Teledyne CAE J-69s.

The Little Engine That Couldn’t

The new Eclipse 500 lightjet will no doubt make a lot of customers happy

View inside the cockpit of a U. S. Air Force Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, en route to Australia in 1982.

A Full Retaliatory Response

When President John Kennedy contemplated nuclear war, what went through the minds of the U.S. bomber crews?

The F-22 Raptor performing at the Fort Worth Alliance Air Show in 2010.

The Raptor Arrives

Debriefing the pilots who got the first crack at the F-22.

Air pressure changes, combined with just the right humidity levels, result in a condensation cloud as this F/A-18 passes through the sound barrier.

The Boom Stops Here

Hush, hush, sweet SST. Engineers are inventing a supersonic airplane that won’t bust windows.

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The People and Planes of Van Sant

Bucks County aviation fans found an ingenious way to preserve their grass-strip airport: They made it a county park

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The Rainmakers

Once a fire starts, these airplanes are the fastest way to slow it down. So why are they endangered?

Waiting inside the Gemini 3 capsule on March 23, 1965, John Young was about to embark on the first of six voyages into space——seven if you count Apollo 16's liftoff from the moon.

John Young, Spaceman

Sometimes an entire era is represented by a single career.

Fifty years ago, Metroliners plied short-haul routes around the world (above, a Swissair 440).

Planes, Trains, and Waterfalls

A South African company revives a 1950s airliner and the lost art of elegant travel.

Boeing’s 150-seat 7J7 concept (left) would meld prop-fan technology and lightweight composite structure to deliver big gains in fuel efficiency.

The Short, Happy Life of the Prop-fan

Meet the engine that became embroiled in round one of Boeing v. Airbus, a fight fueled by the cost of oil

Astronomers observed the ripples in space-time caused by gravitational waves from two black holes colliding.

When Stars Collide

Enter Einstein’s grand construct of gravitational wonders, and do not attempt to adjust your television set.

Ed Maloney (in checkered shirt) says the P-59 is “the Wright brothers airplane of the Jet Age.”

A Bell That Didn’t Ring

Turns out that jets are like waffles: The U.S. Army Air Forces was tempted to throw its first one away.

Excellent visibility helps T-38 pilots fly tight formations.

White Rocket

How all U.S. Air Force pilots since 1968 have met their Mach.

By war’s end, the French pilots had scored 129 victories against the Luftwaffe.

The French-Russian Connection

With Russian Yaks, a small group of French pilots fought like hell to drive the Germans out of the Soviet Union.

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The Notorious Flight of Mathias Rust

Ronald Reagan was president, there was still a Soviet Union, and a 19-year-old pilot set out to change the world

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