The Convair B-36 was so long that its crew lived in two separate pressurised cabins, with the unpressurised bomb bays in between. The only way across in flight was an 85-foot tube, two feet wide, travelled lying on your back on a wheeled cart.
How Starship’s Heat Shield Works, and What Flight 13 Showed
Starship hits the atmosphere at nearly orbital speed and the air in front of it turns to glowing plasma. A shell of hexagonal ceramic tiles keeps the stainless-steel hull alive. Flight 13 brought one back intact for the first time, but the tiles are still the hardest part of making Starship reusable.
“Dunno, We Ain’t Done Crashing Yet”
On 4 October 1989 a B-1B from Dyess AFB found its nose gear would not extend. Hours later, after a flight of more than 1,100 miles, the crew set it down on the Edwards lakebed on its main wheels and lowered the nose into the dust. Nobody was hurt. Here is what happened, and what to make of the most quoted line in the story.
The Day the X-15 Broke Its Back: Crossfield’s Rosamond Landing
Seconds after launch on 5 November 1959, one chamber of the X-15’s lower rocket engine exploded. Scott Crossfield shut down, dumped what propellant he could and put down on Rosamond Dry Lake. The rocket plane buckled behind the cockpit. It went on to become the fastest aircraft ever flown.
Tsar Bomba: The Bomber Crew Who Dropped 50 Megatons
On 30 October 1961 a specially modified Tu-95 bomber dropped the largest bomb ever detonated over the Soviet Arctic. A giant parachute slowed its fall so the crew could escape. Here is what happened, and which of the famous numbers hold up.
Suspected Unapproved Parts: How the FAA Hunts Bogus Aircraft Parts
A bogus aircraft part rarely looks fake. How suspected unapproved parts are spotted, quarantined, reported on FAA Form 8120-11 and chased, and what the AOG Technics case showed.
MSG-3 and the Maintenance Review Board: Who Sets Inspection Intervals
Before a new airliner carries a passenger, a committee of manufacturers, airlines and regulators has decided what gets inspected, and how often. Here is how MSG-3 and the MRB work.
SIAI-Marchetti SF-260: The Sports Car That Trained Air Forces
Stelio Frati drew it as a sporty three-seater. Air forces turned the SIAI-Marchetti SF-260 into a trainer and light attack aircraft flown on several continents.
Sport Pilot Certificate After MOSAIC: What You Can Fly Now
Twenty hours, a driver’s licence and, since October 2025, four-seat airplanes and night flying. What the sport pilot certificate allows after MOSAIC, and what it still does not.
Convair 880: The Fast Jetliner That Cost Convair a Fortune
Built to be faster than the 707 and DC-8, the Convair 880 sold just 65 copies, was tangled up in Howard Hughes’ TWA saga and became ‘the Flying Edsel’.
Safe-Life vs Fail-Safe Design: What the Comet and F-111 Taught
Safe-life, fail-safe and damage tolerance are three answers to one question: what happens when metal cracks? The Comet, the B-47 and the F-111 forced each change.
SIAI-Marchetti S.211: Italy’s Private-Venture Mini Jet Trainer
Built without a government contract, first flown in 1981 and sold to Singapore, the Philippines and Haiti, the little S.211 became the ancestor of today’s M-345.
Special VFR: The Clearance That Lets You Fly in One Mile
14 CFR 91.157 lets a VFR pilot work inside a surface area in one mile and clear of clouds, with a clearance. Here is what it allows, who can use it and where it is banned.
AutoFlight Formation Flight: Five Unmanned eVTOLs Fly Together
China’s AutoFlight says five uncrewed eVTOLs, led by its five-tonne V5000 Matrix, flew a 47-minute autonomous formation over Kunshan, a claimed world first.
Patrouille de France: From Étampes to the Alpha Jet
Born in 1931 as three monoplanes at Étampes and named on a whim in Algiers in 1953, the Patrouille de France has flown five jet types and still opens Bastille Day.
Australia Sends NSW RFS C-130 Air Tanker to Fight Borneo Fires
A Coulson-operated NSW Rural Fire Service C-130 air tanker and a Cessna Citation lead plane are water-bombing East Kalimantan from 6 to 12 November.
Yakovlev Yak-40: The Soviet Trijet Built for Grass Runways
The Yak-40 brought jets to the Soviet Union’s grass-strip towns, became the first Soviet airliner certified in Italy and West Germany, and passed 1,000 built.