The Post-WWII years included a critical shift in aviation history—even more so than the war itself was. This point, starting in the mid-to-late-40s, saw the transition from propeller-driven warplanes to jets. The Vought F6U Pirate was one of the early ones. The F6U, the result of developmental work during WWII, was Vought’s first jet fighter. [...]
When it comes to crash testing, it’s not such a big deal for cars. This form of destructive testing is often performed by car companies to ensure safety design standards in both crashworthiness and crash compatibility. For road vehicles, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rates vehicles on how well they protect their occupants [...]
You might be familiar with Simba, Mufasa, the Cowardly Lion, and maybe even Aslan, but have you ever heard of Gilmore the Lion? Seeing a lion on an airplane is not exactly what you would consider a “usual” occurrence—in April 2016, though, 33 rescued circus lions were flown from Columbia and Peru to a sanctuary [...]
On November 8, 1957, a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser left San Francisco International Airport at 11:51 am (PST) for Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. It was a Friday and, for many people, it was probably a rather ordinary day. Pan Am Flight 7, registration N90944, Clipper Romance of The Skies was an around-the-world flight; its first leg [...]
The bearcat, also known as the binturong, is a viverrine mammal from Southeast Asia—it is closely related to neither bears nor cats. The Grumman F8F Bearcat, on the other hand, is a single-engine carrier-based fighter aircraft that was introduced late into WWII. The Bearcat aircraft concept was conceived when Battle of Midway veteran F4F Wildcat [...]
The evolution of Santa alongside the evolution of early flight ‘Twas the week before Christmas and some of us were wondering—hey, if Santa could fly for all this time, where was he when the rest of us were learning to fly? A man by any other name would still be jolly Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas. [...]
So, should I wait for a check engine light to go on, or what? If you have a car, you probably follow the manufacturer’s suggestion to have it serviced regularly. Or at least you should. For the most part, that’s up to your own discretion. You take it for regular inspections? Great! Not every state [...]
For the rest of The History of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles series, you can read Part 1: WWI here and Part 2: Interwar Years & WWII here. Post-WWII: Evolution of Target Drones and Reconnaissance The Cold War Immediately after World War II ended, the Cold War began. The Soviet Union and the United States were two global superpowers: [...]
The Fokker Dr.I triplane was introduced in 1917 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer, Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The WWI fighter aircraft saw widespread service in the spring of 1918. The Fokker Dr.I became famous through Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (the Red Baron), who used it during his last 19 victories. It was also the aircraft in which he was killed on [...]
45 years ago, on November 24, 1971, an unidentified man hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft somewhere in the airspace between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. The perpetrator has never been located or identified, despite an extensive manhunt and FBI Investigation. To this day, he is known only by his alias Dan Cooper—or, more popularly, “D.B. [...]
