Airplanes

The Murderous Story of America’s First Hijacking

Earnest Pletch’s cold-blooded killing of Carl Bivens was just one chapter in the strange life of the mechanic, farmhand and erstwhile carnie

A vintage Antonov An-2 in Poland.

North Korea's Military Still Uses Stealth Planes From the 1940s

The An-2 can hover and fly backwards

70 Years Ago, a B-25 Bomber Crashed Into the Empire State Building

14 people died in the accident

Look Up: Clouds Could be the Next Movie Screens

An abandoned military strategy leads to the first “cloud movie”

This Film Shows a Glimpse of Amelia Earhart Before Her Final Flight

After 70 years in storage, the footage shows the pilot posing for press photographs

How Bug Guts Slow Down Planes and What Engineers are Doing About it

Designing the most fuel-efficient plane means keeping wings free of sticky exploded bugs

Maze-like landscaping has cut the decibel level of the ambient noise at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in half.

This Crazy Land Art Deflects Noise From Amsterdam's Airport

To drown out flight noise, the Amsterdam Airport turned to large-scale landscaping

Has a Finnish Company Found a Cure for Jet Lag?

Valkee is releasing the Human Charger, a new gadget that beams light through a user's ears

Paper Airplanes Flew Decades Before Real Ones Did

Kids have been folding paper so it flies since at least the mid-19th century

The flight deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier Hornet, some 800 miles off Tokyo Japan, where it shows some of 16 Billy Mitchell (B-25) Bombers, under the command of Major Jimmy Doolittle, just before they were guided off flight deck for historic raid on Tokyo, April of 1942.

The Untold Story of the Vengeful Japanese Attack After the Doolittle Raid

When the U.S. responded to Pearl Harbor with a surprise bombing of Tokyo, the Imperial Army took out its fury on the Chinese people

Army Avrocars depicted as "flying jeeps" in company literature

Early Flying Machines Were Just Weird

There’s a reason most designs didn’t stick around

From the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center

When Steve Fossett Became the Magellan of the Skies

Ten years ago, the pioneering adventurer took off in pursuit of a new record in circumnavigation

A windowless cabin design concept by Spike Aerospace.

Craziest Airplane Cabins of the Future

These airplane cabin designs—both real and conceptual—show what might await us on flights in the near future

On January 14, museum staff lowered the historic "Spirit of St. Louis" to the ground floor.

Wheels Down. Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" Has Landed

The historic aircraft—first to fly nonstop from New York to Paris—is lowered to the ground inside the Air and Space Museum

A new study shows that birds do not seem to recognize how fast a vehicle is approaching.

Planes Fly Too Fast for Birds to Dodge

New research shows that birds are not adept at avoiding obstacles at such high speeds

An Indonesian Air Force troops looks for AirAsia flight QZ8501 in the Karimata Strait.

2014 Was Actually One of the Safer Years to Fly

The year saw a few prominent disasters, but 2014 was, unfortunately, nothing out of the ordinary

Olympian and airman Louis Zamperini crouches in his starting position on a B-18 bomber.

"Unbroken"'s Louis Zamperini Crashed Into the Pacific on May 27, 1943. Here is the Missing Air Crew Report

The National Archives holds a record with details of the downing of the former Olympian's B-24 bomber that left him lost at sea for 47 days

Women, she said, “get more glory”—but “more notoriety when they crash.”

Will the Search for Amelia Earhart Ever End?

More than eight decades after she disappeared in the South Pacific, the aviator continues to spark intense passion—and controversy

A full-size Boeing 757 tail equipped with sweeping jets was tested in a wind tunnel at the Ames Research Center.

Designing a Smaller, Lighter Airplane Tail

With engineers from Caltech, Boeing and NASA, Israel Wygnanski is ushering in a new era of fuel-efficient airplane design

One third of an airline's operating costs go to fuel.

Holy Smokes! Tobacco May Fuel Planes in the Future

The seeds from a new type of tobacco plant grown in South Africa release an oil that can be made into biofuel

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