Air & Space Magazine

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Operation IceBridge

Had you heard about it? It's a NASA mission, the largest airborne survey ever carried out to measure Earth's polar ice. Scientists plan to build a three-dimensional model of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves, and sea ice in an effort to bridge the gap in polar observations by one NASA sa...

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Kepler-10b

<p>The smallest extrasolar planet yet found.</p>

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The Long Ride Home

I had a nice trip over Christmas, which ended with the red-eye flight back from Las Vegas on Christmas night.

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The Budget News From 1911

As in any year, there are winners and losers in the 2012 Pentagon budget announced yesterday. The Defense Department plans to buy more Reaper unmanned drones, but the Marine Corps' short takeoff and landing version of the F-35 was put on two-year "probation," and may not happen at all. Pretty stand...

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Rocket Borealis

<p>Piercing northern nights and northern lights.</p>

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Regolith, The “Other” Lunar Resource

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Cool-Headed Qantas Dudes

We're still pretty blown away by this story. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released its preliminary report on what happened shortly after takeoff on November 4, 2010, when the left inboard Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine of Qantas flight QF32, an Airbus A380 outbound from Singapore, went ...

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John Glenn

<p>With a &quot;Twilight Zone&quot; feel.</p>

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Happy New Year!

The holiday in Swedan.

Richard Altman admires a North American F-100A and a Pratt & Whitney J-57 engine at the New England Air Museum.

The Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative

Meet Richard Altman, the Executive Director

The crews of the first and last shuttle missions. From left: Doug Hurley, Bob Crippen and John Young of STS-1, STS-135 commander Chris Ferguson, Sandy Magnus, and Rex Walheim.

Shuttlenauts

The faces behind the visors

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How I Failed “Purdue’s Got Talent”

Aerospace student at Purdue University anticipates graduation

Writers covering the Iditarod race have the best seat in the house: a heated airplane cockpit.

Above & Beyond: The Iditarod Air Force

Not all the action in dogsled racing is on the ground

The Boeing behemoth on its first flight (with Lockheed T-33 chase plane), last February.

Moments and Milestones: Max Takeoff

Moments and Milestones: Max Takeoff

CargoLifter built the world’s largest free-standing building, big enough to hold 14 Boeing 747s, for its prototype CL-75 airship.

Then & Now: From Airships to Waterslides

The world's largest free-standing building gets a second lease on life

In the Museum’s newly renovated Pioneers of Flight Gallery.

In the Museum: Flying Outside the Boundaries

In the Museum: Flying Outside the Boundaries

The U.S. Navy’s Curtiss NC-4 became the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, in May 1919. In 1926, Paul Garber persuaded the Navy to preserve the aircraft. The Aircraft Building was too small to house the massive flying boat, so the wings went to Alexandria, Virginia, for storage; the engines and propellers went to Norfolk, while the fuselage remained at the Smithsonian. In 1969, on the 50th anniversary of the flight, the aircraft was restored and placed on temporary display on the National Mall. Today, the NC-4 is on indefinite loan to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

From Kites to the Space Shuttle

A new photo-filled book is a diary of life at the National Air and Space Museum.

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How Things Work: Whole-Airplane Parachute

When everything else fails, or fails all at once, pull the parachute that saves the whole airplane.

Operation Halyard was managed by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services’ Nick Lalich (front row, third from left) and radio operator Arthur Jibilian (back row, second from left).

The Great Escape

For U.S. airmen trapped in Yugoslavia during World War II, building a secret airstrip was their only way out

Blended wing-body visionary James McDonnell sculpted the XP-67 in the early 1940s, promising a speed of more than 400 mph.

Too Hot to Handle: McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat

Man cannot zoom by blended wing alone; he must have an engine that, well, works.

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