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 [...]
With Afghan troops increasingly leading combat operations on the ground, the Afghan Air Force’s fledgling helicopter fleet based in Kabul has learned new techniques to support them from the air. The U.S. Army’s 101st Combat Aviation Brigade started a new training program at Bagram Air Field for Afghan helicopter pilots to learn how to perform [...]
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is selling some of his abstract art, and buying a historic rocket. The eclectic Seattle billionaire has procured a rare Wernher von Braun-designed V-2 rocket, the first human-made object to fly into outer space. Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection — located at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. — is taking possession of the rocket on Monday. The Mittelwerk [...]
Patty Wagstaff is a Hollywood stunt pilot, three-time U.S. aerobatic champion, inductee to the National Aviation Hall of Fame and favorite on the air show circuit. One of her tricked-out planes is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. But this weekend, she’s grounded. Federal budget cuts that eliminated military flying acts [...]
1895 – Birth of Georg Wulf, German aviation pioneer, test pilot and aircraft designer. He was a co-founder of the Focke-Wulf aircraft company. 1924 – During its first aerial circumnavigation of the world, the westbound U.S. Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruisers arrive in northern Japan, completing the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by airplane. 1943 – Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress ”Memphis Belle” (shown above) of the [...]
China’s first jet-powered stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), the Lijian or “Sharp Sword,” was recently spotted undergoing taxiing tests in that country. Analysts interpreted the sighting as indicating that the Lijian’s maiden flight is imminent. The Lijian prototype rolled off the assembly line late last year after three years’ joint development by Hongdu Aviation Industry [...]
Any news photographer that has been in the business for a decent length of time may say to you that he or she has “seen it all and done it all” or that “there is nothing new that hasn’t been shot already.” Until this week, you could also paint me with that same brush. But [...]
The fuel was running perilously low, and the lubricating oil was nearly exhausted, but pioneering pilot Domingo Rosillo del Toro could see land ahead. While three guns were fired from the Havana, Cuba, fortress to announce his arrival, Rosillo coaxed his one-seat, bright yellow plane with an overheating engine past a flotilla of boats, over [...]
