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Air & Space Magazine

Lift off! A judge signals when Frank Knapp’s experimental L’il Cub leaves the runway.

The Bushplane Olympics

In Valdez, Alaska, the prize goes to the airplane that takes off and lands in the shortest distance.

Powerful events, like colliding black holes, produce waves in space-time.

The Search for Gravitational Waves

Astronomers built some of the most precise instruments on Earth to hear them.

Major Harry B. Bailey, an intelligence officer for the 98th Bomb Group, briefs a B-29 crew on hitting a target in Sinuiju, North Korea with conventional bombs. The city was heavily damaged but has since been rebuilt.

How the Korean War Almost Went Nuclear

In 1950, Harry Truman had to decide whether to use B-29s to drop atomic bombs.

Stay still...in style: Though they don’t fly anywhere, two retired Pan Am 747 fuselages were combined and obsessively restored. The interior is authentic Pan Am.

Pretend to Fly Pan Am — On a Hollywood Sound Stage

The Pan Am Experience aims to recreate a bygone era when airline food was good.

Air Shepherd uses a variety of virtually silent drones in African wildlife parks to catch poachers before they can act.

Can UAVs Save the Elephants?

Sentinels in the sky are hunting the poachers.

The B-17’s cockpit ages well, but the copilot needs both hands to start the engines, and taxiing can be tricky.

Learning to Fly the Fortress

Memorable flights and other adventures

For the first time in 22 years, the Spirit of St. Louis is lowered to the floor. In addition to minor preservation of the aircraft, staff are documenting all previous repairs.

The Spirit of St. Louis Lands Again

Charles Lindbergh’s iconic aircraft undergoes restoration.

On Their Own Steam

Navy carriers are only now breaking away from using 19th century tech to put jets in the air.

Even an Olympic sprinter couldn’t beat an F/A-18C Hornet. But as this aircraft touches down on the Nimitz, Boatswain’s Mate Vanzel Simmon, a hook runner, bolts alongside and then straight for the tail, ready to manually pull the hook off the arresting wire if it does not disengage on its own.

The Complex Choreography of Carrier Landings

“Hook and release” is not as simple as it sounds.

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Medusa Inspection

The European Southern Observatory released this image today of the Medusa Nebula. The formation is being created by old star in the center, which is sloughing off its layers; our sun will have a similar end. This is the most detailed image of the nebula, taken by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

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A hundred satellites, all talking at once. Here’s the intel.

This loggerhead sea turtle was the 746th rescued last winter and brought to the New England Aquarium. The aquarium normally treats about 90 hypothermic sea turtles each season.

How Do You Airlift 500 Sea Turtles?

One Piper Cub at a time

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Falcon Visits the Pyramids

An F-16 flies over Egypt, circa 1984.

The X-47B takes on fuel from a tanker on April 22, 2015

The X-47’s Missing Link

Did they skip a step in the UAV test program, or is somebody hiding something?

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International Exercise

For an exercise called Cope North 15, aircraft and crews came from the air forces in Japan, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, and the Philippines to work alongside the U.S. Air Force and Navy.

The surface of Pluto, as imagined by an artist in 2009. Soon we’ll have close-up photographs.

The Pluto of Science Fiction

For 85 years, Pluto has belonged to the SF writers. Now it’s about to get real.

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Arctic Convoys

During World War II, British convoys flew between the U.K. and Russia to deliver supplies in grueling conditions. The National Maritime Museum featured an exhibit on these missions in 2011, explaining: “Arctic Convoys 1941–1945 examines the challenges faced by the men on board, some of whom spoke of conditions so harsh that salt spray froze as it fell, waves so huge they tore at ships’ armour plating and pilots so numb with cold they had to be lifted out of their cockpits.”

Heather Penney during her time (from 2010 to 2012) as a racing pilot with the AirRace21 team.

The 9/11 Takedown That Never Happened

A former National Guard pilot recalls her dramatic scramble over Washington on September 11.

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Barge to Space

The Pegasus Barge, once completed, will be used carry the largest stage of the Space Launch System.

A B-17 flies over the National Mall.

Watch the Replay of the WWII Flyover

Dozens of warbirds flew over the Nation’s Capital Friday

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