Civilian Archives - Page 147 of 175

Video: The Southwest Swap

From The Dallas Morning News aviation writer Terry Maxon: I love to see videos that show how airplanes are built, modified, repaired or dismantled, and Southwest Airlines has put out a video showing an engine swap on a Boeing 737. Thanks to Southwest’s Mike Nutting, we know from the Nuts about Southwest blog that the changes take […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1910 – Paul Engelhard makes the first flight in Switzerland, flying a Wright biplane from a frozen lake at St. Moritz. 1914 – Edward O’Hare, American pilot, is born; he was an aviator of the U.S. Navy who became the service’s first flying ace in 1942 and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II. 1928 – The first Canadian woman to become a […]

Kansas B-29 Being Restored to Fly

A Boeing B-29 Superfortress is being restored back to flying condition in Kansas. “Doc” was moved to Wichita in 2000 from a California desert and a group called Doc’s Friends is now hoping to get the plane back in the air. “This was the place that it really needed to be and the fact that […]

FAA Approves Boeing Plan to Fix 787 Batteries

A Boeing plan to redesign the 787 Dreamliner’s fire-plagued lithium-ion batteries won approval Tuesday from the Federal Aviation Administration, moving the cutting-edge planes a step closer to flying passengers again. The plan includes changes to the internal battery components to minimize the possibility of short-circuiting, which can lead to overheating and cause a fire. Among […]

Aviation Bible: Whitehead First to Fly

The upcoming 100th anniversary edition of Jane’s All the World Aircraft will credit Connecticut’s Gustave Whitehead as the first man to build an operational heavier-than-air aircraft, a move that for many will shatter the widely held view that the Wright brothers were the first to fly. Jane’s has been long considered the bible of just about every human-made object […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1908 –Frederick W. Baldwin piloted the AEA Red Wing, a silk-winged aircraft powered by a V-8 engine, off the frozen Keuka Lake near Hammondsport, N.Y., in what would be the first public demonstration of a powered aircraft flight in the U.S. as well as the first flight by a Canadian pilot. 1930 – Death of Canadian World War I fighter ace and […]

Historic Flyover to Mark Historic Walk

As many as 200 aircraft will retrace trail of the first crossing of Australia’s Blue Mountains in what organisers say could be among the largest flyovers in Australian history. Scheduled for May 25, the event will be part of the Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary 2013-2015 program marking the first recognised European crossing of the mountains by […]

Military Pulls Out of Thunder in the Valley

The mandatory budget cuts in Washington, D.C., known as the sequester is taking its toll on air shows including Georgia’s Thunder in the Valley Air Show as the armed forces have pulled out. “All branches of the armed forces have informed us they cannot participate,” said Phaedra Childers, the show’s event coordinator, in a release […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1912 – U.S. Army Lt. Frank P. Lahm opened an Army air school at Fort William McKinley, Philippines, with two volunteer students, Lt. Moss L. Love and Cpl. Vernon L. Burge, who later became the first enlisted pilot. 1918 – The first regular international airmail service begins, with Hansa-Brandenburg C.I biplanes linking Vienna, Lviv, Proskurov, and Kiev. 1956 – Curtis L. Brown Jr., U.S. astronaut on […]

The Plot to Take Three Qantas 747 to Iran

In the summer of 2008-09, Qantas flew three of its ageing Boeing 747 jumbos to the U.S. to park them at a giant graveyard for commercial planes in the Arizona desert. Each more than two decades old, the workhorses of Qantas’ international fleet were near the end of their working lives for a full-service airline. The […]