More than 65 years after flying fighter planes over Europe, the Red Tail pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen will have a monument designed to honor their World War II exploits while inspiring kids to seek careers in aviation. “It’s like a dream come true,” said retired Red Tail pilot Leo Gray on Tuesday during a groundbreaking ceremony [...]
The sequester won’t stop a beloved tradition after all. For a time, it was looking like this year’s U.S. Air Force Academy’s graduating cadets would not get to have a flyover at their commencement ceremony in Colorado Springs, Colo., due to the sequester grounding the Thunderbirds demonstration team. But now two museums, one local and one [...]
A Nigerian military helicopter has crashed in the country’s oil-rich southern delta, just days after one of its jets crashed. A statement from Nigeria’s Air Force said the crash happened Thursday morning at its base in Port Harcourt and that the crew escaped unharmed. Local witnesses described seeing a plume of smoke rise from the [...]
1891 – Birth of James Robert Smith, Canadian World War I flying ace. 1914 – A civilian pilot, René Caudron, makes the first French shipboard takeoff in an airplane from a ramp constructed over the foredeck of the seaplane carrier Foudre, using a Caudron G.3 amphibian floatplane. 1937 – Lt. Col. Mario Pezzi of Italy’s Regia Aeronautica [...]
A crew on Tuesday began recovering pieces of a Grumman G-44 Widgeon that crashed in the Hudson River near Germantown, N.Y., last Thursday. The crash killed the pilot and sole occupant, Michael Braunstein, 72, of Copake. Todd Gunther, the investigator in charge for the National Transportation Safety Board, said about one-quarter of the wreckage has been [...]
The design of the flying wing, an aircraft type with no distinct fuselage or tail, goes back to the early days of evolution. Joe Pappalardo of Popular Mechanics retraced the design’s flight path through history. For the complete story, click here.
Afghanistan’s fledgling air force is scrambling to prepare to take control of the country’s airspace. But while expectations are high, the force is having trouble getting off the ground. Air power has proved crucial in rugged Afghanistan, where road networks are poor and often mined by militants. Afghan and international ground forces have relied heavily [...]
1912 – An American Wright biplane, flown by U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Thomas De Witt Milling at College Park, Md., becomes the first aeroplane to be armed with a machine gun. 1917 – British ace Capt. Albert Ball (44 victories) of the Royal Flying Corps is killed in a crash following a dogfight with Lothar von Richthofen (younger brother [...]
