With the exotic name, the brilliant mind, the outlandish job title, and the handsome face, Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, may have briefly flirted with the idea of becoming a supervillain. Thankfully – on the surface – he seems to be a pretty stand-up guy. Everything Elon Musk does is huge; in [...]
The "Flying Pancake" Breakfast might be the most important meal of the day, but it's got nothing on the "sweet factor" of experimental aircraft. In other words: in a world of cold breakfast cereals, be a pancake. Charles H. Zimmerman believed in pancakes, or at least it appears that way. As a researcher at Langley Memorial Aeronautic Laboratory, [...]
Fatigue Testing How do you stress test an airplane? Well, you don’t make it run on a treadmill, that’s for sure. Fatigue testing aircraft is important in determining the structural integrity and quality of the airframe before they actually take flight (you know, with people travelling in them). This simulation testing allows [...]
Let it be said: every pilot knows all too well the name of Howard Hughes. In a time when the long-running, American trend of neglecting the notion of a singular job title was beginning to catch momentum, Howard Hughes was world-famous aviator, aerospace engineer, entrepreneur, filmmaker, and philanthropist. As a man who represented extreme wealth [...]
Teaching Dogs to Fly You might be familiar with the adynaton, “when pigs fly,” but how familiar are you with the notion of flying dogs? While Fido may not be sprouting wings any time soon, a select group of dogs in the UK have shed their limitations of four paws on the ground in exchange [...]
You might have heard that there’s a professional pilot shortage in the aviation industry. You also might have heard there is no shortage. Huh? There’s a bit of ambiguity on the subject, and even the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) confesses that there is “mixed evidence regarding the extent of a shortage of airline pilots,” [...]
. Extra EA-300L in flight Top speed: 213 mph Length: 22’9 1/2" Wingspan: 24’3" Height: 8' 7 1/4 " Empty Weight: Appox. 1,500 lbs Loadded Weight: 2095 lbs Capacity: 2 People First flight: May 1988 Introduction: 1987 Production: 1988-Current Powerplant: Lycoming AEIO-540-L1B5 Extra EA-300 The Extra EA-300 is an aerobatic monoplane made of an aluminum and fabric covered steel [...]
You may have always thought that a propeller is just a propeller, that it exists only to move an aircraft forward. However, there is so much complexity in the world of aircraft propellers, including their design and the various types of propellers in use. With that being said, let's take a look at some of the [...]
Boeing B-17E. (U.S. Air Force photo) Top speed: 287 mph Length: 74’ Wingspan: 104’0’ First flight: 28 July 1935 Introduction: April 1938 Production: 1936-1945 Retired: 1968 (Brazilian Air Force) "Flying Fortress" The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a four-engine heavy bomber, was built in response to a competition put forth by the U.S. Army [...]
90 years for United Airlines hardly seems like a long time. For thousands of years, humans have always been fascinated by the prospect of flight. During the Middle Ages, several…erm…optimistic individuals strapped large, winged contraptions to their torsos: jumping off of high structures in a futile attempt to break away from the largely inconvenient but [...]
