Air & Space Magazine

During Desert Storm, most fighters packed Sidewinders: F-16s armed with the missiles await the next mission.

Sidewinder

The missile that has rattled enemy pilots since 1958

Bundled against temperatures as low as –60° F, aerial gunners struggled to protect their B-17s from German fighters.

Just Shoot Me

Late in World War II, the Bell P-63 became an aerial gunner's easiest target

Space shuttle Atlantis was poised for its final mission in May as photographers jostled for position.

Throttle Down

How Florida’s Space Coast is bracing for the end of the space shuttle program.

On July 14, 1938, thousands gathered for the return of Howard Hughes, who in four days had flown a Lockheed Super Electra around the world.

Brooklyn’s Jewel

A National Park Service project reclaims aviation history.

The postwar 11AC Chief (with a side of cheesecake) had 75 percent of parts in common with the Champion.

Flying Bathtubs Sell Like Hotcakes

The nation's first mass-produced lightplane started as a homely, humble homebuilt.

A wing suit he calls Stealth 2 gives Jeb Corliss (in May 2010 over southern California) enough lift for a three-minute flight from 12,000 feet.

Jump. Fly. Land.

Jeb Corliss says if the birds can do it, so can he

KSC-2010-5339 (10/27/2010) --- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crawler-transporter moves a mobile launcher platform with two solid rocket boosters perched on top from the Vehicle Assembly Building's (VAB) High Bay 1 to High Bay 3. Inside the VAB, the boosters will be joined to an external fuel tank next month in preparation for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International Space Station targeted to launch in February, 2011. For more information visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts134/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Ben Cooper

Shuttle Me

<p>Did we forget something?</p>

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Data Clippers

Now this is a charming idea, and maybe a handy one too – fleets of solar sails delivering pictures of distant worlds back to the home planet.Data is a valuable commodity in the Information Age, just as spices and silk were in centuries past. So Joel Poncy and his team at Thales Alenia Space have im...

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Aboriginal Astronomers Saw Stellar Blowup in 1843

The idea that ancient cultures were keen observers of the night sky is neither surprising nor new: think of the Druids, the Mayans, and the Babylonians. But most examples from the annals of archaeoastronomy seem to come from the northern hemisphere.Now a team of researchers from Macquarie Universit...

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How Good Are You?

<p>As in, what was the Mustang's prototype called?</p>

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The Autobots Are Coming!

The defense research agency DARPA recently selected six companies to participate in a year-long program to transform a Humvee-like vehicle into an aircraft. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corporation are asked to supply something that can “avoid traditional and asymmetrical threats while avoiding road ...

An F-16 Fighting Falcon explodes, sending debris and shrapnel into the air Aug. 19, 2010, on the range at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The explosion was a static test of the flight termination system to be used in the QF-16, a supersonic reusable full-scale aerial target drone modified from an F-16. The purpose of the test was to demonstrate that the FTS design will be sufficient to immediately terminate the flight of a QF-16, as well as to determine a range safety debris footprint. (U.S. Air Force photo/Samuel King Jr.)

Love the F-16?

<p>Then don't click here...</p>

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Strange Lunar Brew

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The Nedelin Disaster

A rush job ended with nearly 100 lives lost when a fully-fueled rocket ignited on the launchpad during testing.

Gregory Olsen was the third private citizen to visit the space station, after Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth.

Three Million Miles in Ten Days

Floating off to sleep, Earthgazing, making sure the capsule doesn't depressurize: all standard on a space vacation.

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Magellans of the Air

On September 28, 1924, crowds cheered and sirens shrieked as the Army Service pilots known as "the Magellans of the Air" landed at Sand Point Field in Seattle, Washington, after completing the first round-the-world flight.They had set off on April 6, some six months earlier, determined to circumnav...

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Grounded

<p>But up and running.</p>

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For Sale: Potential Speed

Project 100 Communications is selling the car that Steve Fossett had hoped would set a land speed record. "Over $4 million is invested in this project," says the sales brochure, which translates: No aluminum wheel kickers.The vehicle is based on racing legend Craig Breedlove's late 1990s Spirit of ...

Santos-Dumont rounding the Eiffel Tower during an earlier flight in July 1901.

Alberto's Big Race

Around the Eiffel Tower in 1901.

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A Graphic Reminder of Cost

Can government-funded human spaceflight be cheaper?

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