Here it comes again: the Great Who Flew First Debate. This time it is courtesy of Jane’s All the World Aircraft, considered to be one of the world’s encyclopedic, not-to-be-doubted sources of aviation information and their radical shift in which they de-throne the Wright Brothers and enshrine Gustav Whitehead as the first to achieve powered [...]
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force’s planned fourth building will now include aircraft from the Research and Development (R&D) Gallery, along with a new Presidential Gallery, an expanded Space Gallery and select global reach planes. The addition of many of the R&D aircraft will allow visitors to see the popular North American XB-70 [...]
1888 – Birth of Jacques Victor Sabattier de Vignolle, French World War I flying ace. 1918 – First flight of the Handley Page V/1500, a British night-flying heavy bomber. 1957 – A U.S. Air Force Convair B-36J Peacemaker (shown above), ferrying a Mark 17 nuclear bomb from Biggs AFB, Texas to Kirtland AFB, N.M., accidentally drops it through [...]
Shannon Airport welcomed the world’s largest aircraft on Tuesday as the Antonov An-225 Mriya (Dream) made a brief pit stop in Ireland en route from Bangor Airport to the Ukraine. The giant aircraft, which arrived in Shannon for a standard crew rest period, attracted large numbers of plane-spotters who learned of its arrival via social media [...]
Boeing has begun flight tests of a 747-8 passenger model powered by upgraded General Electric GEnx-2B engines, which are expected to improve fuel burn by a further 1.8 percent. The flight tests, using RC021, an aircraft formerly destined for Lufthansa, began on May 20 with a four-hour flight from Everett, Wash. The flight evaluated the [...]
Solar Impulse, the solar-powered airplane of Swiss pioneers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, departed Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport early Wednesday morning for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to complete the second leg of its historic, cross-country journey. Solar Impulse is set to arrive at DFW around 1 a.m. Thursday. After a successful first leg on May 3, [...]
A celebration honoring those who fought for our freedom will be held this Memorial Day, May 27, by the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) at its Midland (Texas) International Airport base. The event begins 11 a.m. where families can see the North American B-25 Mitchell Devil Dog and enjoy traditional ceremonies, Open Cockpit Day, and free admission [...]
1887 – Birth of Ruth Bancroft Law, pioneer American aviatrix and the first woman to loop the loop in an airplane as well as the first woman to make a night flight. 1927 – Charles A. Lindbergh lands his Ryan NYP monoplane Spirit of St. Louis (shown above) at Le Bourget, France; he is the [...]
