Cheyenne Matthews wants to be a pilot. So, naturally, the 16-year-old junior at St. Augustine High School in Florida was thrilled to be part of a group of 31 girls from her school’s Aerospace Academy who got to meet acclaimed aerobatic pilot Patty Wagstaff on Tuesday at Northeast Florida Regional Airport. “She’s definitely a huge inspiration,” [...]
1923 – Aeronautical pioneer Igor Sikorsky sets up the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corp. in the U.S. Sikorsky left Russia in 1917 when revolution threatened his work and his life. 1936 – First flight of the Supermarine Spitfire (shown above). The single-seat fighter would play a major role in World War II, with more than 20,300 being built over the following [...]
A Lincoln, R.I., teacher made history Saturday, flying the first ever biodiesel-fueled airplane in U.S. history. Ross McCurdy, a local teacher and pilot pioneered the flight to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the destination of the Wright Brothers historic flight back in 1903. “I think this is the shape of the future,” he said. McCurdy has taken [...]
Despite the winter weather, activity at the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum in Geneseo, N.Y., is in full swing with a pair of fundraising campaign, including one that seeks to raise $2 million for a new hanger. The museum is also developing a second campaign to help get one of its planes to France for the [...]
As the Air Force braces for potential sequester, leadership has cancelled all aviation support to public events for at least the remainder of the fiscal year and is standing down the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team beginning April 1 to save flying hours to support readiness needs. Active-duty, Reserve and Guard units ceased all aviation support [...]
1921 – Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot, was born. Colstermann was a French flying ace, author, engineer and politician. 1937 – First flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-30 (Allied reporting name “Ann”). It is the first Japanese aircraft to be powered by a modern two-row radial engine. 1947 – U. S. Army Air Forces Captain Robert E. Thacker (pilot) and Lieutenant [...]
Greatest Generation Aircraft, a Fort Worth, Texas-based foundation that operates a pair of World War II aircraft, will host a charity auction this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, at the Vintage Flying Museum hangar at 505 NW 38th Street. Among the many unique items set to roll across the auction block is a Cyclone radial [...]
Now, he’s flying with the angels. Tom Griffin, one of just five surviving Doolittle Raiders, died Tuesday night in his sleep at the Fort Thomas VA hospital in Kentucky. He navigated one of 16 North American B-25 Mitchell bombers from an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific during the early dark days of [...]
