The de Havilland Comet: The Beautiful Jet That Taught Us How Aircraft Break
Share this story The de Havilland Comet was the most beautiful airliner ever built. It was also the most deadly — and its failures saved more lives than any single aircraft in history. We’ve written about the Comet before — see our earlier piece on its legacy....
How Ejection Seats Actually Work
Share this story A pilot pulls the handle. Two and a half seconds later, they are floating under a parachute. In between, they have been subjected to forces that would kill an unrestrained human being — and the engineering that makes it survivable is among the most...
XB-70 vs. Sukhoi T-4: The Mach 3 Race Nobody Won
Share this story In the late 1950s, both superpowers reached the same conclusion: the future of strategic bombing was speed. Build a bomber that flies at Mach 3 and nothing can catch it. No interceptor, no missile, no air defence system could touch an aircraft...
The A321XLR Changes Everything for Transatlantic Flying
Share this story United Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A321XLR — and with it, the promise that crossing the Atlantic in a narrowbody jet does not have to mean suffering through it. The aircraft, registered N64321, left Airbus’s...
NASA’s X-59 Breaks the Sound Barrier for the First Time
Share this story At 43,400 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, the needle crossed Mach 1.1. No bang. No boom. Just a soft thump that most people on the ground wouldn’t notice. On 5 June 2026, NASA’s X-59 QueSST did what 53 years of regulation said commercial...
Azul Doubles Down on the A330neo
Share this story While American carriers agonise over whether to order Airbus widebodies, a Brazilian airline has quietly answered the question for itself. Azul has signed for four more Airbus A330-900neos — doubling down on the jet that has become the backbone of its...
China’s Three-Engined Stealth Giant Breaks Cover
Share this story It has no tail, three engines, and a planform like a stingray crossed with a stealth bomber. It is the most radical-looking combat aircraft on Earth — and it is Chinese. Grainy photographs of Chengdu’s tailless giant, widely dubbed the J-36, keep...
American May Ditch Boeing for an Airbus Surprise
Share this story American Airlines flies more aircraft than almost anyone on Earth, yet it has quietly backed itself into a corner over the ocean. Its long-haul order book has dwindled to just 19 jets. Now the airline is preparing to fix that — and the most...
The Strangest Aircraft Graveyards on Earth
Share this story Somewhere in the Arizona desert, 4,000 aircraft are parked in perfect rows under a sun that never stops shining. F-16s with their canopies sealed in white latex. B-52s guillotined into pieces under arms-reduction treaties, left in the open for...
The Rutan Voyager: Nine Days Without Landing
Share this story On 14 December 1986, a spindly aircraft made almost entirely of paper, glue, and carbon fibre wobbled down the runway at Edwards Air Force Base with so much fuel aboard that its wingtips dragged on the concrete, damaging the winglets. Nine days, three...
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