Share this story On 29 July 1950, fourteen paying passengers boarded an aircraft at RAF Northolt, west of London, and flew to Paris Le Bourget. Nothing about the trip was unusual except the engines. It was the first scheduled airline flight by any turbine-powered...
Share this story Most pilots today learn on aeroplanes with a nosewheel. They taxi like a shopping trolley that wants to go straight. Then one day they climb into a Piper Cub, a Super Decathlon or a P-51 Mustang, and discover that the little wheel at the back changes...
Share this story An aeroplane has it easy. Point it down a runway, let the wings do the work, and a few simple controls take care of the rest. A helicopter has to make its own wind. Its wings are the rotor blades, whirling overhead at a few hundred revolutions per...
Share this story Airliners are usually broken up for parts when they are old, tired and worth more as spares than as aeroplanes. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is none of those things. It is one of the two most in-demand narrowbodies on the planet, with airlines waiting years...
Share this story The car drove up a ramp that curled over until it was hanging upside down, stuck to the concrete by its own suction. Then it ran off the end into thin air, fired its thrusters, flipped itself upright and settled onto its wheels. That was the opening...
Share this story Few test pilots have had a take-off like Tom Morgenfeld’s on 27 January 1982. As the third full-scale development F-117 lifted off from the secret test site at Groom Lake, better known as Area 51, its nosewheel came off and bounced down the...
Share this story A Reaper does not sneak. It orbits. For twenty hours at a stretch it flies long, patient racetracks over somebody else’s country at the speed of a fast train, hauling a sensor turret and a pair of Hellfires, in full view of anything with a radar...
Share this story On 14 October 2026, SWISS flew its Airbus A340 HB-JMB for the last time: one hour from Zurich to Twente in the Netherlands, where it will be taken apart. It is one of hundreds of airliners that reach the end of their lives every year. Most passengers...
Share this story A modern fighter is fast, stealthy and deadly in the air. On the ground it is a very expensive sitting duck. A few cruise missiles or a handful of cheap drones can wreck a squadron parked on one airfield before it ever takes off, as Russia learned at...
Share this story On 1 June 2025, trucks parked near Russian air bases thousands of kilometres from Ukraine suddenly opened their roofs. Out of wooden cabins on their flatbeds rose swarms of small quadcopter drones. Minutes later, Russian strategic bombers that had...
Share this story There was no press release and no farewell party. On Wednesday, 14 October, SWISS Airbus A340-300 HB-JMB took off from Zurich as flight LX5202, rocked its wings three times in salute, and flew for about an hour to Twente airport near Enschede in the...
Share this story On every carrier landing, a small group of pilots stands on a platform at the back left edge of the flight deck, inches from the landing area. One holds a radio handset and a small switch box. If the approaching jet is drifting low, he tells the...
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