James R. Chiles

James R. Chiles contributes frequently to Air & Space/Smithsonian. His book on the social history of helicopters and "helicoptrians" is The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks.

Helicopter pilots Clyde Romero, James Casher, Eldridge Johnson, and Bob Farris provided aerial support in 1971 for Operation Lam Son 719.

The Condors Quartet

Operation Lam Son 719 changed them. Then they waited for the world to catch up.

Life imitates art: The lighting at New York’s Idlewild Airport, which officials in the 1960s believed vulnerable to spies smuggling A-bombs, gave it the look of a film-noir set for a movie about spies smuggling bombs.

Block That Bomb: How Cold Warriors Stopped Nuclear Smuggling

With the dawn of the atomic age came a highly classified operation to intercept nuclear explosives at U.S. airports.

Last June a test model of the Space Launch System's 70-foot-long liquid oxygen tank was loaded on a barge called Pegasus for transfer from the Michoud facility in Louisiana to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. For the SLS core stage, NASA needed a bigger boat and added 50 feet to the Pegasus.

A Critical Test for NASA’s Monster Rocket

Facing immense challenges, the agency bulls ahead with its Space Launch System.

Throughout the Mekong Delta, a Slick’s mission was to deliver troops and supplies.

Easter Sunday at Vinh Long

From a long war, veterans of the 175th Assault Helicopter Company will never forget one awful day.

NASA’s Global Hawk aircraft deploys a dropsonde during a test flight over the Dryden Aeronautical Test Range in August 2015.

Dropsondes Go Where Even Hurricane Hunters Fear to Fly

What flying machine could withstand 230-mph winds?

An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper comes in for a landing after a mission over Afghanistan.

How Syrian No-Fly Zones Could Lead to the First Drone-vs-Drone War

When it comes to UAVs in contested airspace, we’re in uncharted territory.

A ground-based incerceptor launches from Vandenberg AFB in California on May 30.

Anti-Missile Test Scores a Hit, With Caveats

It’s no impenetrable shield, but it’s progress.

During his 1948 Senate campaign, Lyndon Johnson (hat raised) won voters with novelty—a new way to travel—and convention (posing for photos).

Lyndon Johnson’s Campaign by Helicopter

In 1948, “All the Way with LBJ” meant scooting around Texas in a Bell 47D.

The Bell UH-1 was the workhorse of the Vietnam War.

Where Huey Pilots Trained and Heroes Were Made

Basic training for a dangerous job.

A student practices a sling lift in the darkened pool at Survival Systems USA in Groton, Connecticut. Passengers who take an underwater escape training class—even for a day—can as much as triple their odds of surviving a helicopter crash.

How to Survive A Helicopter Crash

Specialized—and terrifying—training helps passengers prepare for the worst.

While commercial companies serve the International Space Station (upper left), NASA plans to use the heavy-lift Space Launch System for missions to the moon and asteroids—and eventually Mars.

Bigger Than Saturn, Bound for Deep Space

Part space shuttle, part Apollo, the Space Launch System will be the most powerful rocket ever built. Will it be the best?

An Israeli armored brigade approaches the Golan Heights to relieve forces under Syrian attack on day two of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. U.S. fears that the Soviet Union would send troops to assist Egypt and Syria sparked a DEFCON level increase.

Go To DEFCON 3

These are the steps to follow right before you hear "Incoming!"

A Florida conservation team uses a Nova, developed by the University of Florida, to help count endangered manatees.

AUSVI tested over 500 drones at their Las Vegas conference.

The newest eyes in the sky are drawing the attention of power companies, conservation groups, and the ACLU.

When John Glenn (here looking through a training device) became the first American to orbit Earth, a yaw thruster caused attitude control problems, so he flew the last leg manually. Half a century later, spaceflight still requires both automation and human skill.

The Astronaut Question

How long will humans remain better than robots at exploration?

Bell has built a Scorpion Too and an Executive, complete with trailer.

Build-It-Yourself Helicopters

If you have 700 hours to spare and can shim a rotor assembly to within .001 of an inch, here's a hobby for you

Half-breed: Piasecki Aircraft has taken a Sikorsky helicopter and bolted on airplane hardware — a propeller (ducted) and a fixed wing — hoping the resulting X-49A SpeedHawk (top) will bust through the constraints that have kept helicopters slow.

Hot-Rod Helicopters

There’s just no way to add 100 mph to the speed of a helicopter. Or is there?

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One More Second

The masters of time are about to give us a little extra. Use it wisely.

The Quiet One had a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera on its belly that helped the pilots navigate at night.

Air America's Black Helicopter

The secret aircraft that helped the CIA tap phones in North Vietnam

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High Tension

Helicopter pilots play chicken with high-voltage power lines so crews can work on live wires.

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