CURRENT ISSUE

September 2017

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Features

Taking on the world’s longest paramotor

‘I Told Them It Was a Terrible Idea.’

A paramotor race over mountains and desert.

The F-35 helmet

Super Helmet

F-35 pilots get X-ray vision and other magic powers.

Mars on Earth

Fake Mars

Can we learn anything by pretending?

Connor Shields

I Love My Job, and Here’s How I Got It

Connor Shields, first officer, Southern Air.

Saturn V rocket

Space Camp May Be Habit Forming

When camp is a career path.

An Erickson Air-Crane

What Helicopter Climbs the Fastest?

This 1971 record still stands.

After his celebrated trans-Pacific flight, Charles Kingsford Smith flies the famed Southern Cross over Sydney Harbor.

The Real Risk Takers

In 1930s aviation, they weren’t adventurers or record setters. They were everyday passengers.

Dava Newman

In Pursuit of the Perfect Spacesuit

Choosing the right outfit is crucial when its job is to save your life.

U.S. Marine Corps

Robots to the Rescue

Your next 911 call may fetch a drone.

Pilot Clyde Romero

Snakes and Loaches

During the helicopter war, two vastly different aircraft relied on each other to fight the enemy.

Departments

Interview

Don Campbell

An expert on maintenance of the Lockheed SR-71 Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft, Campbell was the SR-71 Superintendent at both Kadena Air Base in Okinawa and later at Beale Air Force Base in California in the 1970s.

Above & Beyond

Reflections in a Greasy Spoon

Reflections in a greasy spoon.

Oldies and Oddities

The Great Soviet Crescent

A cold war mystery.

In the Museum

The “Hit and Git” Fighter

How the Grumman F4F Wildcat survived.

Books

The Luftwaffe’s Long Arm

Shadow Over the Atlantic: The Luftwaffe and the U-Boats: 1943–45