The XB-70 Valkyrie: When a PR Photo Shoot Killed the Fastest Bomber Ever Built
Share this story The North American XB-70 Valkyrie was supposed to be the future of strategic bombing — a six-engine colossus that could outrun anything in the sky at three times the speed of sound. Instead, it became one of aviation’s most expensive...
$12 Billion Burned, Zero Passengers Carried: The eVTOL Cash Bonfire
Share this story Twelve billion dollars. Gone. The top ten eVTOL companies have collectively burned through $12 billion in investor capital — four times what was lost during the very light jet craze of the 2000s, and more than Boeing earned even in its most profitable...
The Fairey Rotodyne: Britain’s Helicopter Airliner That Was Killed by Noise
Share this story City to city, with no airports. Take off from a small concrete pad in central London, climb vertically, transition forward, cruise at 190 miles per hour, descend, land on a concrete pad in central Paris. No taxi, no train, no airport security. In June...
When a Helicopter Picks Up an Airliner: The Mi-26 Sling-Lift That Defies Belief
Share this story The photograph looks fake. A short-fuselage Soviet-era twin-engine airliner — a Tupolev Tu-134, the workhorse of Aeroflot domestic routes for thirty years — is hanging in midair beneath a single helicopter. The Tu-134 weighs about 28 tonnes empty. It...
The U.S. Navy Built Two Real Flying Aircraft Carriers — and Then Lost Them Both
Share this story The most ambitious naval aviation concept the United States ever fielded was not the nuclear-powered supercarrier. It was a 785-foot helium airship with an interior hangar bay full of biplane fighters that could be launched and recovered in flight....
80 Years Ago Today, the DHC-1 Chipmunk Took Off and Taught Half the World to Fly
Share this story On 22 May 1946, in a hangar at Downsview Airport just outside Toronto, a small all-metal trainer painted in pale yellow finished its last ground checks, taxied to the runway, and lifted off into Canadian spring weather. The pilot was Pat Fillingham, a...
Riyadh Air Will Fly Its First Passenger on 1 July — Saudi Arabia’s Boldest Bet
Share this story For three years, the world’s aviation press has watched Riyadh Air with the kind of attention usually reserved for a celebrity divorce. The airline has spent more on launch advertising than most mid-size carriers spend on a fleet. It has cut deals...
The Busiest Airport on Earth Wants to Fire the TSA
Share this story For decades, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International has been the busiest airport in the world. Over 100 million passengers a year. The single most important screening checkpoint in the United States. And throughout the recent government shutdown,...
30 Boeing 777-9s Are Rotting in Storage — and Airlines Are Refusing Them
Share this story The Boeing 777-9 was supposed to be the airliner that finally cemented Boeing’s widebody recovery after the 787 debacle and the 737 MAX disaster. It was going to be the world’s largest twin-engined jet, the most efficient on a per-seat basis, the only...
Why eVTOLs Need a Whole New Kind of Airport
Share this story The air taxi revolution has a problem, and it’s not the aircraft. Joby Aviation has flown from JFK to Manhattan in seven minutes. Archer Aviation has been named the official eVTOL provider for Belgrade’s Expo 2027. FAA type certification...
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