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 [...]
Aerion, which has been defining and refining its design for a supersonic business jet (SSBJ) for the past 11 years, is at EBACE, a major European business aviation trade show, this week still quietly confident that it will someday be able to add the word “producer” to its résumé. To that end, a NASA McDonnell Douglas F-15 [...]
It was a little after 6 a.m. on Sept. 9, 1942. A tiny seaplane with red balls painted on its wings was making its way through the skies over Brookings, Ore. At the controls was a young man named Nobuo Fujita; behind him, in the observer’s seat, looking intensely at the ground, was another, named [...]
The last remaining Avro Vulcan V bomber will be taking to the skies at the annual Weston-super-Mare Air Day on England’s Bristol Channel coast this summer. The iconic aircraft, used by the Royal Air Force between 1956 and 1984 and known as XH558, will take to the skies above the resort on June 22. The aircraft [...]
1883 – Birth of Jan Kašpar, first Czech aviator, aircraft constructor, designer and engineer. 1917 – A Curtiss H-12 Large America flying boat of the Royal Naval Air Service destroys the first hostile submarine to be sunk by an aircraft without any form of assistance. Flight Sub-Lieutenant C.R. Morrish on a patrol from Felixstowe sighted [...]
