Planes

Inaccessible airplane lavatories are just one of the many challenges travelers with disabilities face while flying.

Airlines Will Be Required to Make Bathrooms More Accessible

Single-aisle planes will face new rules from the U.S. Department of Transportation—but they won’t go into effect for more than a decade

The convertible seat folds down to make room for a wheelchair to be secured in place.

Could This Convertible Seat Improve Air Travel for Wheelchair Users?

If adopted, a new prototype would allow passengers to remain in their own wheelchairs on flights

Travelers flying out of Denver's airport can now make a reservation for the A-Bridge security checkpoint.

You Can Now Make a Reservation to Go Through Security at These Airports

Denver and Minneapolis are the latest airports to roll out the service—just in time for the busy summer travel season

The French government is pushing travelers on certain routes to use high-speed rail.

France Just Banned Short-Haul Flights. Why Are So Few Routes Affected?

To reduce carbon emissions, lawmakers want travelers to opt for trains on shorter journeys

The Big Four Bridge crosses the Ohio River between Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Airbnb Names the Top Trending Destinations for Summer 2023

From relaxing beach towns to historic European cities, these popular spots will soon be bustling with vacationers

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg listens as President Joe Biden delivers remarks about requiring airlines to compensate passengers for extensive flight delays and cancellations.

Biden Wants Airlines to Compensate Travelers for Delayed and Canceled Flights

Proposed regulations would require airlines to do more when they are at fault for major disruptions

Gordon Lightfoot performing in Beverly Hills, California, in 2019

Gordon Lightfoot, Legendary Folk Musician, Dies at 84

The Canadian singer-songwriter is known for hits like "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Early Morning Rain"

Neal V. Loving in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1954

In 1946, a Black Pilot Returned to the Cockpit After a Double Amputation

Neal V. Loving, whose memoir will soon be released by Smithsonian Books, built his own planes, ran a flight school and conducted research for the Air Force

With the door open to give the telescope a clear view, SOFIA cruised through the Earth's stratosphere at 38,000 to 45,000 feet.

Unique NASA Observatory Will Make a Final Flight—to a Museum

SOFIA, a 38,000-pound telescope inside an airplane, spent eight years observing the universe in infrared

The dilapidated jet has been sitting at the Roswell Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico, for decades.

Elvis Presley's Private Jet Is Going Up for Auction

The famous singer bought the JetStar in 1976, a year before his death

Ontario International Airport in southern California

You Can Now Meet Friends and Family at the Gate at This California Airport

Ontario International Airport's new program allows non-ticketed individuals to venture beyond security

Heart Aerospace's ES-30, a regional electric airplane with seats for 30 passengers

Electric Planes Are Taking Flight

More airlines are ordering battery-powered aircraft to help reduce their environmental impact

In the aftermath of the disaster and for decades to follow, numerous theories emerged. The men had been captured by the Japanese. They had been murdered by a stowaway. They had killed each other in a fight over a woman. They had simply fallen out of the blimp.

The 80-Year Mystery of the U.S. Navy's 'Ghost Blimp'

The L-8 returned from patrolling the California coast for Japanese subs in August 1942, but its two-man crew was nowhere to be found

Amelia Earhart sitting in her cockpit

Amelia Earhart Statue Finally Arrives at U.S. Capitol

After a 23-year delay, the statue will represent Kansas in the Statuary Hall Collection

In a 1929 column, Amelia Earhart name-checked Keating as an example of a woman in aviation who had beaten the odds, writing, "She photographs from the air and helps make the beautifully accurate maps which compose aerial surveys."

In 1920s New York, This Woman Typist Became a Pioneering Aerial Photographer

Edith Keating survived the Halifax Explosion and eventually took to the skies, marking a path for other women to fly in her wake

The massive aircraft was initially built as part of the Soviet aeronautical program in the 1960s and 70s while the Soviet Union was undergoing a space race with the United States.  

Ukrainian Officials Say the World's Largest Aircraft, Antonov AN-225, Has Been Destroyed

The plane was undergoing maintenance in an airfield near Kyiv

Flight attendant Lorraine Bay carefully recorded every flight she worked in this log book, found near the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Thirty-One Smithsonian Artifacts That Tell the Story of 9/11

From a Pentagon rescuer's uniform to a Flight 93 crew log, these objects commemorate the 20th anniversary of a national tragedy

An undated photograph shows Wally Funk standing with a U.S. Air Force jet.

Trailblazing Pilot Wally Funk Will Go to Space 60 Years After Passing Her Astronaut Tests

Wally Funk, the youngest of the 'Mercury 13,' will join the inaugural crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule

Stratolaunch's large aircraft, nicknamed 'Roc,' flew for three hours and 14 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 14,000 feet.

World's Widest Airplane Completes Successful Second Test Flight

Stratolaunch's "Roc" aircraft has two fuselages and a wingspan of 385 feet

U.S. Air Force Captain Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in this airplane, the Bell X-1, on October 14, 1947. The aircraft is currently housed at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

Remember Chuck Yeager by Exploring the Plane He Flew to Break the Sound Barrier

In 1947, the pilot—who died Monday at age 97—made history by flying the Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound

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