Morgan Freeman, Pilot: From Air Force Radar Tech to His Own Jet
Share this story A post doing the rounds on Instagram tells a neat story: Morgan Freeman wanted to be a fighter pilot, gave it up for acting, and then, at 84, finally bought himself a jet. The first part is close to the truth. The last part is off by seven years, and...
NASA X-57 Maxwell: The All-Electric X-Plane That Never Flew
Share this story On paper, the X-57 Maxwell was one of the most exciting aircraft NASA had drawn in decades: a small, all-electric airplane with fourteen propellers strung along a skinny wing, promising to cruise five times more efficiently than the twin it was based...
Tecnam P2008JC NG Trainer Launches in the US for Flight Schools
Share this story If you take your first flying lesson in America a couple of years from now, there is a growing chance it will be in an Italian two-seater with a carbon-fibre fuselage. Tecnam announced on 5 October 2026 that it is bringing its P2008JC NG trainer to...
The 100 ml Rule: From the 2006 Liquid Bomb Plot to CT Scanners
Share this story In the small hours of 10 August 2006, British police arrested around two dozen people. By the time most of the country woke up, hand baggage had effectively been abolished. Passengers at Heathrow were told to carry their documents in a clear plastic...
Power Bank Flight Rules: ICAO’s Two-Bank Limit and mAh vs Wh
Share this story The gate agent turns the power bank over in her hand, looking for a number. The passenger already knows the one printed on the case in the largest type: 20,000 mAh. It is the number the shop advertised, the number on the box, the number in the Amazon...
British Airways BA295: 777 Drops 27,000 Feet Over Irish Sea
Share this story About half an hour after leaving Heathrow on Monday, 5 October 2026, British Airways flight BA295 to Chicago was cruising at around 36,000 feet over the Irish Sea when the oxygen masks dropped. Minutes later the Boeing 777 was at 9,000 feet, squawking...
Airspeed Explained: IAS, TAS, Groundspeed and Mach
Share this story Ask a pilot how fast the aircraft is going and you may get a question back: which speed do you mean? The cockpit of a jet can show four or five different numbers that all claim to be its speed, and at cruising altitude they can differ by hundreds of...
FAA Controller Schedules: The 2-2-1 Rattler and the 40-Hour Week
Share this story Ask an American air traffic controller whether they work a forty-hour week and you will get a straight answer: yes. Five shifts, eight hours each, exactly as the contract says.Then ask when those forty hours happen. The common answer is that all five...
B-58 Escape Capsule to B-2 Ejection Seat: How Bomber Crews Get Out
Share this story On 8 December 1964, at Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana, a Convair B-58 Hustler sat on the ramp going nowhere. Cranes were rigged alongside it. Then one of its three crew stations fired itself off the aeroplane on a rocket, climbed away on a...
Jimmy Doolittle’s Blind Flight: The 1929 Landing Made on Instruments
Share this story On 24 September 1929, Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle climbed into the rear cockpit of a biplane at Mitchel Field on Long Island, and somebody pulled a canvas hood over his head. From that moment he could see nothing outside. He could see only a handful of...
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