CURRENT ISSUE

September 2019

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine image Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine mobile image

Features

Sea Furys

Sea Fury Dynasty

The one-time fastest piston-powered fighter is the center of a family tradition.

RenoNAHI.2003(1).JPG

Which of These Will Win Your Vote for Airplane of the Year?

Behind every vintage airplane is a story. Pick your favorite and cast your ballot until September 14.

CH-47

Move It!

The many missions and sometimes startling cargo of the CH-47 Chinook.

Potsdam Gravity Potato

How to Measure a Planet

Tracking the effects of global change, down to the millimeter.

volunteer pilots

The Czech Knife

Battling for Israel, volunteers fought in an aircraft that should have been grounded.

Scottish Parliament building

Return of the Black Arrow

It was Britain’s one shot at a nuclear missile. It’s inspiring a new shot at a future in space.

Departments

Viewport

Forces That Lift

From the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Up to Speed

Lost and Almost Found

The team looking for the sunken wreck of the Samoan Clipper is not giving up.

Up to Speed

A New Old Trick

Shortened pit stop for F-35s.

Up to Speed

Dronebusters

The science of smashing UAVs.

I Was There

My Trips to the Moon

Sure, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins did it better. But I did it first.

At the Museum

Night Moves

One of the world’s most successful airliners makes a short trip to a temporary home.

At the Museum

The Flying Lawn Chair

A&S NEXT

The Value of Networks

Chris Gabriel Lara, Structural Analyst, The Boeing Company

A&S NEXT

Tried and Trusted

Unbelievable but true.

A&S NEXT

Satellite Antennas Inspired by Origami

At Florida International University, students help invent a new kind of communications device.

Q&A

Against All Odds

A new book recounts John Chapman’s one-man stand against enemy forces on a snow-covered mountain in Afghanistan.

Ideas That Defy

Goddard Hoopskirt Rocket

When purely functional looked somewhat fashionable.