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Air & Space Magazine

Voyager 1, still outbound.

Happy (Late) Birthday, Voyager

A message to humanity’s farthest-flung artifact.

Artist's concept of Mars samples on their way to Earth.

A Faster, Leaner Mars Sample Return Isn’t the Good Idea It Appears to Be

In this case, savings don’t equal better science.

Astrobotic's Peregrine Lander.

One Small Step for Lunar Commerce

Onetime Google XPRIZE contender Astrobotic inks a deal with United Launch Alliance.

How the U.S. Air Force trains drone pilots. Not so different from a Playstation, is it?

Do Gamers Make Better Drone Operators Than Pilots?

Video gamers’ psychology might be better-suited to flying drones.

This is the end, beautiful friend.

Cassini’s Last Moments, in Gory Detail

For NASA’s Saturn explorer, the end will come quickly.

From Lot #4: The Lilienthal glider in the National Air and Space Museum was built by Lilienthal in late 1895 to early 1896, and was purchased from him by the American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst in the spring of 1896. Hearst eventually gave the glider to John Brisben Walker, the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, who donated it to the Smithsonian in 1906. It is one of five Lilienthal gliders remaining in the world.

What Were the First 10 Items In the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum?

Hint: It started with a purchase from Frederick Stringfellow in 1889.

There’s no lack of ice and snow near the Martian south pole, where it can be 3,500 meters thick.

Nightly Snow Storms on Mars

It may not be important for Martian life, but it makes us wonder.

An Erickson Air-Crane above a powerline tower it helped erect in British Columbia. Each section of the tower weighed about 17,000 pounds.

What Helicopter Climbs the Fastest?

This 1971 record still stands.

Beneath the giant Saturn V rocket (an authentic dynamic test vehicle) at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, astronauts-to-be hear stories of pioneering rocketeers.

Space Camp May Be Habit Forming

When camp is a career path.

Crank the volume down from 11, please: The U.S. Air Force combat exercises over the northern plains are rattling cows and children alike.

The War on Noisy Aircraft

U-boats like this one had help from Junkers Ju 290 reconnaissance airplanes.

The Luftwaffe’s Long Arm

German U-boats terrorized Allied ships during World War II, with the help of aerial scouts.

Taking on the world’s longest paramotor race requires practice—here, above the Glemis Dunes in southern California—although novices are welcome to enter.

The Icarus Race: Into the Wild With a Fan on Your Back

Paramotor competitors cross 1,000 miles of mountains and desert, in search of freedom, adventure, and a trophy.

The National Air and Space Museum’s F4F-4/FM-1—the 400th FM-1 built by the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors—is currently on display in the Sea-Air Operations exhibition.

The “Hit and Git” Fighter

How the Grumman F4F Wildcat survived.

Can we really grasp Mars on Earth? In Vincent Fournier’s 2008 photograph of Utah’s San Rafael Swell, a visitor to Mars Desert Research Station #4 tries.

Mars Fakers

Can we learn anything by pretending?

The F-35 helmet is an information-display device, showing targeting data, status of the aircraft systems, and visual and infrared views of the world outside the airplane. The blue circle on the helmet is its night-vision camera.

Super Helmet

F-35 pilots get X-ray vision and other magic powers.

Pilot Clyde Romero, 19, rests between flights at Khe Sanh in February 1971. His unit was flying in support of South Vietnamese troops fighting in Laos.

In Vietnam, These Helicopter Scouts Saw Combat Up Close

Cobras and Loaches, two vastly different aircraft, relied on each other to fight the enemy.

The Soviet nuclear missiles that produced the crescents lost the element of surprise when U.S. early-warning satellites appeared.

The Great Soviet Crescent In the Sky

A cold war mystery.

Dava Newman models her fashionable BioSuit, which would provide life-sustaining pressure via compression threads woven into the fabric.

In Pursuit of the Perfect Spacesuit

Choosing the right outfit is crucial when its job is to save your life.

After his celebrated trans-Pacific flight, Charles Kingsford Smith flies the famed Southern Cross over Sydney Harbor.

The First Airliner to Vanish

In 1930s aviation, airline passengers took the same risks as record-setting adventurers.

Ramapo Valley Airport shuttered in 1985; its office looked quiet before that.

Remembering the Iconic Airport Diner

Reflections in a greasy spoon.

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