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Air & Space Magazine

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Stratofortress Piloting

Lt. Col. Wade Karren, the 11th Bomb Squadron commander, copilots a B-52 Stratofortress.

The RATAN-600 radio telescope in southern Russia.

So You’ve Heard a Potential Alien Signal. How Do You Tell the World?

The hazards of going public in the face of uncertainty.

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Kazakh Lakes from Space

Lake Tengiz and the surrounding semi-desert grasslands in Kazakhstan as seen from space.

Oh, and she also does spacewalks—Rubins preparing for her August 19 EVA.

‘That’s What Happens When You Send Up a Microbiologist’

Scientist-turned-astronaut Kate Rubins brings her lab experience to orbit.

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Wright Flyer Demo

The Wright brothers demonstrate their Flyer at Fort Myer, Virginia on September 3, 1908.

Artist's conception of the surface of Proxima b.

Is the New Planet Proxima b Really Habitable?

It depends on water, radiation, and other factors still unknown.

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager poses in cockpit of the Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" on October 14, 1997—the 50th anniversary of his historic piercing of the sound barrier.

Chuck Yeager’s Wild Week on Twitter

The 93-year-old sound-barrier-breaker and aviation legend tamed the sky. Now he’s ruling Twitter.

Jamie Mitchell at the office, a B-24 cockpit: She often gets publicity for the Collings Foundation tour by inviting local TV reporters to broadcast the weather from one of the aircraft.

A&S / NEXT

Love aviation? Pass it on!

How the “Hanoi Hilton” prison looked just before William Reeder’s release in 1973. Reeder is being held behind the middle window.

Shot Down in Vietnam

A former U.S. Army pilot’s memoir of combat and captivity.

Three years after the 1955 dedication, cadets transferred to a newly built academy (the academy chapel is shown here).

Class of ’59

No buildings, no flight lessons, no problem. Some 60 years later, the first Air Force Academy cadets look back.

Artist's impression of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the picture.

An Earthlike (Maybe) Planet Around the Nearest Star

Proxima b is the first exoplanet we can actually contemplate visiting.

Marc Okrand was hired in 1982 to write dialogue in Vulcan for this already-shot-in-English scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan featuring Kirstie Alley and Leonard Nimoy.

The Man Who Taught Mr. Spock to Speak Vulcan

Linguist Marc Okrand had to invent whole new languages for Star Trek’s non-Earthlings.

Each pin is a miniature work of art, bearing the brand logo and rich with symbolism in engraved detail.

Little Gems of Aviation History

A collector finds a company’s identity in its service pins.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 searches the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia for debris after the Malaysian airliner vanished.

What Went Wrong on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?

Two years later, its disappearance is still unsolved. A new book reconstructs the last minutes in the cockpit.

How can we ensure drones don’t collide with airliners? NASA and the FAA are working to find the best collision avoidance systems for UAVs in the United States, soon to number in the millions.

Drones in a Busy Sky

Can technology protect airplanes from the new threat?

It flew, it worked as advertised, it was patented, but, during the Great Depression, J.P. Sellmer’s flivver just didn’t sell.

The Flying Men of Marin

In 1929, Jacob Sellmer and son came up with a better way to get to San Francisco.

One day it happened. A signal was sent through space and picked up by a telescope tucked in the West Virginia mountains. The author’s colleagues analyzed the data. Was it a signal from intelligent life on another planet?

Aliens on Line 1

For one evening, it looked like we finally had an extraterrestrial signal.

The center section of one of the most unusual aircraft of World War II.

Restoring Germany’s Captured “Bat Wing”

A team of conservators works to preserve the innovative Horten Ho 229 V3.

Please make sure you have all personal items before leaving the aircraft. Lindbergh in the Spirit, shortly before his solo flight.

Look What Lindbergh Left Inside the Spirit of St. Louis

Ninety years later, a restoration team makes an unexpected find.

For a brief time, Lockheed’s L-1649 Starliners ruled international routes.

Lufthansa Brings Back a Superstar From the 1950s

The Starliner was stylish, but became obsolete in the jet age. Now it’s being restored.

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