Would you have spotted it? The writer and the CAP officers with him on his search flight kept missing this old aircraft wreck, one of six uncovered in the course of the Fossett search. The Nevada landscape is cruelly good at concealing wrecks.

The Search for Steve Fossett

One tough job for the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.

“They’ll never get off the ground,” warned detractors of Aero Spacelines’ Guppy series of colossal cargo airplanes.

Big Idea

Megalifters prove you’re never too fat to fly.

This 1928 Zenith biplane was a real people pleaser.

Postcard from Oshkosh

Air & Space picks the best of this year’s EAA Airventure.

NASAs IKHANA research craft is a modified Predator B.

Do Drones Get Vertigo, Too?

Up there or down here, it can be a struggle to maintain “situational awareness.”

Australian Gary Redman won first place in the international college category for his 24-seat OIONOS commuter airplane.

Inexperience Wanted

Student engineers answer NASA’s call to design the airplane of 2058.

The Big Gulp

The world’s largest seaplane fights wildfires in California.

Target date 2025: A pilotless, Mach 20 Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle.

Mach 20 or Bust

Weapons research may yet produce a true spaceplane.

Thanks to the wonders of computer animation, Gerry Merrills theoretical Cloudster airplane takes an imaginary spin over Bryce Canyon.

Who Says a Jet Can't Be Cheap?

Gerry Merrill says he can build you one for $150,000.

In the Dreamliners avant-garde cabin, one thing hasnt changed: Business class is better than coach.

How Boeing Put the Dream in Dreamliner

When aircraft designers wanted to make passengers feel happy, they turned to psychologists.

Commentary: Is Fatigue Fatal?

An accident blamed on the catch-all "pilot error" could have a single preventable cause.

Steve Truglia practices for his 120,000-foot jump with a shorter fall over<br />the countryside north of London, wearing a flight suit and helmet worn by<br />Russian fighter pilots for high altitude missions.

Super Jump

The race is on to be the next human meteor.

A NASA program that ended in 2005 generated little more than this artists conception of the perfect easy-to-fly personal air car.

My Other Car Is a Podcopter

Bumper sticker in the year 2015? 2025? Ever?

Art Scholls Chipmunk (center, with the red and white stripes and the leading edges of the wings painted blue) hangs in the Boeing Aviation Hangar at the National Air and Space Museums Steven F.Udvar-Hazy Center.

Airplanes of the Stars

Show performers talk about their favorite rides.

Beneath a replica Piper PA-12 wing, sits this Breezy pilot Matt Hlavac, near San Diego.

Out in the Breezy

With little fanfare (and less structure), the Breezy homebuilt spreads the message: Flying is fun.

Incoming correspondence is "triaged," says volunteer Guy Halford-MacLeod, who tracked down the 1963 Ozark Airline timetable to answer a recent query.

In the Museum: Mail Call

Viewport: Cool Moves

Carol Sugars and Doug Roodante in their green machine.

Fly Canola!

Doug Rodante plans to fly his L-29 cross-country using cooking oil for fuel.

How Things Work: Flying Upside Down

The tricks that keep the engine from knowing it’s not right side up.

Street Flight

Aviation meets urban sculpture in Arlington, Virginia.

Peggy Krainz and pilot David Potuznik go for a spin over Gmunden, Austria. Krainz is also a general aviation flight instructor and plans to train wingwalkers.

My Wingwalker

If you think it's nerve-wracking on the wing, try being the one in the cockpit.

Habersetzer operates out of Marabou Landing, a lodge about 230 miles southwest of Anchorage.

School of Hard Rocks

Loni Habersetzer teaches pilots how to land on the harshest terrain.

From the door and emergency exits of a China Eastern Airlines Airbus A330-300, evacuation slides are deployed. The fully inflated slide is 31 feet long.

How Things Work: Evacuation Slides

De-plane in the fast lane.

Ken Blackburn designs small, unmanned research craft for the military and small, unmanned paper airplanes for everybody.

Toy Story

How tossing paper airplanes guided the career of an aerospace engineer.

Need for Speed

Airplanes with a mission: Fly faster.

Walt Pierce helps Pat Trenner try on his Stearman wing at 1978’s Oshkosh, Wisconsin Fly-in.

Wingophobia

Just a few minutes outside the cockpit was enough for me.

Moments & Milestones: A Farewell to Radar

Produced in cooperation with the National Aeronautic Association

The British Army Parachute Regiment Freefall Team.

It's Show Time

Download our 2008 Airshow Guide.

Finding Fred McConnell

Aviation in the heartland has fewer than six degrees of separation.

A trio of Sport class racers skim the high desert.

Air Racing 101

A course in handling the course at the National Championship Air Races.

Fred Chadwick and Ron Beatty (foreground) install temporary fasterners that hold the skin in place for riveting.

Airliner Repair, 24/7

Boeing's traveling fix-it team has one goal: Get it airborne.

Radio-controlled models rest between rounds.

Radio Clash

Do model airplanes ever fight each other?

Rare Bear takes off for the Saturday Gold race. On Sunday, pilot John Penney finished first in the Unlimited class.

Notes from the Reno Races

Dispatches from the 2007 National Championship Air Races.

By 1927, airplanes were a national craze. At the original tour’s stop in Boston, crowds gathered for a closer look at the Ford 4-AT Tri-motor.

The Magical History Tour

Why are so many Golden Age airplanes traveling the country together this fall?

Jackson and his technicians recently refurbished a civilian transport that had been converted from a Douglas A-26 Invader.

Sticks for Hire

"Uh oh. Why is this piston rod left over?" Meet the pilots who are gutsy enough to fly freshly restored airplanes.

A pulse detonation engine, fueled by ethylene and air, fires on a test stand at a General Electric research center.

Son of a Buzz Bomb

An engine with a checkered past is the power of the future.

Researchers have been looking far and wide for biofuel sources, including switchgrass.

Fly Green!

Richard Branson and Boeing heap hope-and hype-on biofuels.

The developers of Cargolifter CL 160, a German design, used to say that their craft could carry 26,000 pounds of food to disaster victims. But the Cargolifter itself needs aid now; its parent company has declared bankruptcy.

Spy Blimps and Heavy Lifters

The latest thing in airships.

A four-place kitplane with a pusher propeller, the Velocity SE FG offered a sturdy off-the-shelf airframe for a rocket-engine modification.

X-Racers

Can aviation's newest spectator sport lead to routine space travel?

Paul DiMares illustration of the Mach 20 Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle starts with a wireframe skeleton.

Picturing the Future

How a skilled artist fast-forwards to the hypersonic airplanes of 2025.

Sport pilots who choose to build the SeaRey kitplane can take off from and set down on both land and water.

20 Hours to Solo

Will a new pilot category restore the glory days of general aviation?

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November 2008

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Air & Space Interview

Farouk El-Baz

A veteran scientist on the challenges of the 21st Century

New Worlds

Confidence Booster

This little known Apollo artifact caused astronauts to rest a little easier.