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Airplanes

In 2003, Air France donated Concorde F-BVFA to the Smithsonian. The aircraft was the first Air France Concorde to open service to Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C., and New York and had flown 17,824 hours.

When Concorde First Flew, It Was a Supersonic Sight to Behold

The aircraft was a technological masterpiece, but at one ton of fuel per passenger, it had a devastating ecological footprint

Metal microlattice

This Metal Is 99.9 Percent Air

A new metal “microlattice” is strong yet incredibly light, lending itself to a wide variety of aerospace, automotive and medical uses

High in the sky, aerosols from airplane exhaust become encased in ice and form the bright contrails seen in a plane’s wake.

Age of Humans

Airplane Contrails May Be Creating Accidental Geoengineering

Dissipating haze from plane exhaust alters how sunlight reaches the Earth and may be unintentionally affecting our climate

Cool Finds

Air Force One is Getting a Makeover

The best presidential perk is about to get even better

Powers with a model of his cold war-era U-2, known as the "Dragon Lady." He was freed in an exchange for a Soviety spy in Germany in 1962.

Gary Powers Kept a Secret Diary With Him After He Was Captured by the Soviets

The American fighter pilot who’s the focus of Bridge of Spies faced great challenges home and abroad

Cool Finds

JetBlue Goes Green with a Farm at JFK Airport

The airline hopes to produce herbs and around 1,000 pounds of blue potatoes each season

An Ercoupe flies over the nation's capital.

The Rise and Fall of the Plane “Anyone Could Fly”

It was billed as the “Model T” of airplanes. So what happened?

Nine American Airports for Art Lovers

Your layover just got better

Trending Today

The World’s Largest Aircraft Might Lose its Title to a Blimp

This despite having a wingspan almost as long as a football field

Cool Finds

Why Airplane Seats Come With Barf Bags

One of the last remaining luxuries of airplane travel

You Might Actually Want a Layover at These Seven Airports

From nap pods to real-time flight tracking, these airports have features that will surely please passengers

Past Imperfect

The Murderous Story of America’s First Hijacking

Earnest Pletch’s cold-blooded killing of Carl Bivens was just one chapter in the strange life of the mechanic, farmhand and erstwhile carnie

A vintage Antonov An-2 in Poland.

Trending Today

North Korea’s Military Still Uses Stealth Planes From the 1940s

The An-2 can hover and fly backwards

Trending Today

70 Years Ago, a B-25 Bomber Crashed Into the Empire State Building

14 people died in the accident

Cool Finds

Look Up: Clouds Could be the Next Movie Screens

An abandoned military strategy leads to the first “cloud movie”

Cool Finds

This Film Shows a Glimpse of Amelia Earhart Before Her Final Flight

After 70 years in storage, the footage shows the pilot posing for press photographs

Cool Finds

How Bug Guts Slow Down Planes and What Engineers are Doing About it

Designing the most fuel-efficient plane means keeping wings free of sticky exploded bugs

Maze-like landscaping has cut the decibel level of the ambient noise at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in half.

This Crazy Land Art Deflects Noise From Amsterdam’s Airport

To drown out flight noise, the Amsterdam Airport turned to large-scale landscaping

Tech Watch

Has a Finnish Company Found a Cure for Jet Lag?

Valkee is releasing the Human Charger, a new gadget that beams light through a user’s ears

Cool Finds

Paper Airplanes Flew Decades Before Real Ones Did

Kids have been folding paper so it flies since at least the mid-19th century

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