The Airplanes of James Bond

After 46 hours watching all 22 films, our list numbers more than 150.

Also see: Live and Let Fly

In <i>You Only Live Twice</i>, Sean Connery flies an autogyro souped up with missiles, machine guns, and flame-throwers.

Live and Let Fly

Real pilots rate the performance of the airplanes in James Bond flicks.

1908: The Year the Airplane Went Public

Five years after Kitty Hawk, the Wrights finally showed the world their invention.

The book that robbed the enemy of his secrets. A key to shapes shows a circle can be a haystack or a gun emplacement.

Portrait of the Enemy

Photographs taken from the world’s first warplanes changed the course of battle.

Pilots of the Sopwith Camel complained that the engine, guns, fuel tank, and pilot were clustered too close. They didnt know the airplanes very shape generated drag that hampered its performance.

What the Red Baron Never Knew

Computer analysis of World War I aircraft shows precisely why some were deadly and others, death traps.

Oldies & Oddities: Zeppo’s Gizmo

Feng and assistants with the Feng Ru 2 in Guangdong, China

The Father of Chinese Aviation

Feng Ru made history on the California coast, then introduced airplanes to his native land.

The Junkers J-13 had an enclosed cabin, all-metal structure, and a high degree of streamlining.

Airplanes that Transformed Aviation

Sixteen historic designs that changed the game.

A pilot and gunner inspect the Handley.

The Few, the Brave, the Lucky

To face the enemy in World War I, pilots first had to survive flight training.

Amercan idol: Earhart first crossed the Atlantic in 1928, as a passenger. Four years later, she flew solo from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Lockheed Vega. Here, the beaming villagers of Culmore, North Ireland, pay homage to the rising star.

An American Obsession

When she vanished-70 years ago this July-she was as big a star as Greta Garbo. Is that why some are still driven to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart?

Jimmy Doolittle had a doctorate in aeronautical engineering.

10 Great Pilots

Machines alone could not have pushed the airplane forward.

Inconel X, a ferociously strong nickel alloy, gives the X-15 its gun-metal black color. Inconel was chosen for the airplanes skin because it retained its strength up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature the X-15 would routinely experience at high speeds.

Why We Miss the X-15

Not only was it the fastest. It may have been the best flight research program ever.

The X-15 that hangs in the Smithsonian Institutions National Air Space Museum is the first of three built by North American Aviation. It was rolled out on October 15, 1958, 15 days after its original sponsor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, became NASA. Half of its 51-foot fuselage is devoted to propellant tanks for its rocket motor. X-15 number 56-6670 flew 81 missions, including the last eight of the program. It reached a speed of 4,104 mph (Mach 6.06), and an altitude of 266,500 feet.

X-15 Walkaround

A short guide to the fastest airplane ever.

Mach Match

Did an XP-86 beat Yeager to the punch?

The X-7 mounted on its B-29 carrier.

Moments & Milestones: Hits and Missiles

Produced in cooperation with the National Aeronautic Association

Fighter pilots today need look no farther than their visors for key flight data.

Then & Now: Hard Hat Zone

Lee Ya-Ching with her Stinson Reliant SR-9B, <i>Spirit of New China.</i>

China’s First Lady of Flight

In an era when Chinese women weren’t allowed to drive cars, Lee Ya-Ching flew the globe.

Addison Pemberton pilots his restored Boeing 40C earlier this year. On the September 10 flight, the author rode in the compartment beneath the upper wing.

A Ride in the Boeing 40C

Onboard “Airmail 1” for the first leg of the trip, from New York to Bellefonte.

Fifty years ago, an aircraft hangar at Ohios Lewis Research Center (now Glenn) changed markings, from NACA to NASA. But aeronautical research continues at NASA centers to this day.

Moments & Milestones: The First “A” in NASA

Aerial view of an airmail light beacon tower, somewhere along the New York to Chicago route, in the mid-1920s.

The Route: Cleveland to Iowa City

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Otto Praeger

The Father of Airmail Looks Back

On the 20th anniversary of airmail service, three key players recalled the early days.

San Dimas, California, a suburb of Lost Angeles, boasts a population of 36,200.

A Flying Success

For an entire week in 1938, the country celebrated airmail.

The 1984 open house at Tempelhof.

Above & Beyond: The Village of Tempelhof

Airmail pilots (from left) Jack Knight, Harvey Lange, Lawrence Garrison, “Wild Bill” Hopson, and Andrew Dunphy pose for photographer Nathaniel Dewell in 1922.

The Image Maker

During the 1920s, photographer Nathaniel Dewell produced iconic portraits of airmail’s finest.

In 1923, U.S. Air Mail DH-4s were equipped with lights on the nose and on wingtips for night flying.

No Longer Afraid of the Dark

The civil engineering project that got the airmail through the night.

With mops and a hose, a crew scrubs a Martin B-26 Marauder bomber in 1944.

Then & Now: Wash Day

In the 1930s, a group of air-minded Oregonians started one of the first homebuilding clubs. Here, the pilots and builders banded together against a new threat: federal regulation.

The Resistance

A hub of creativity for early airplane builders: North Carolina? Ohio? Nope—Oregon. And these Oregonians had an independent streak.

So popular is the Navion that airplane lvoers consider a complete restoration, like David Peters, the provervial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Accidental Classic

From the designers who brought you the P-51 Mustang, an airplane with a complicated past…and a controversial present.

DH-4 mailplanes at Fort Crook airfield, Omaha, Nebraska, in the mid-1920s.

The Route: Iowa City to North Platte

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Curtiss on Curtiss

The aviation pioneer chronicled his life and work in a once rare (but now freely downloadable) 1912 book.

Reno, Nevada, Postmaster Austin Jackson (left) hands a mail bag to pilot Harry Huking in his DH-4 mailplane, July 1924.

The Route: Reno to San Francisco

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

A light beacon tower (used for night flying) on the airmail field in North Platte, Nebraska in the mid-1920s. The field boundary light is visible in the right foreground.

The Route: North Platte to Rock Springs

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Seeing a Zero in the air is a rare treat, but if collectors have their way, more like this one could take wing in coming years.

Hunting Zeros

Finding an airworthy Zero is not easy these days. In fact, you can count them on one hand.

A crashed Martin MB-1 mailplane, one of many in the services first decade.

Crash Course

Finding an airplane to deliver the mail should have been easy.

Eleven years after restoration began, it’s now a regular at fly-ins throughout the Midwest (above, the Blakesburg, Iowa antique aircraft fly-in).

Restoration: Fleet Model 8

Three brothers, an inspiring teacher, and the airplane in the barn.

A Varney Air Lines Swallow outside the airmail hangar at Elko, Nevada in April 1926.

The Route: Rock Springs to Reno

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Wilbur (holding onto the tail boom, suit wrinkled by prop blast) and Orville Wright (standing at front, cap backward) had high hopes that the <i>Baby Grand</i> would win the speed contest at Belmont. But the little racer never made it to the final event.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Aeroplane!

In 1910, showmen flew death-defying stunts in Wright airplanes. Sometimes, death won.

Sleeping Beauty

A last, longing look at the Concorde.

Here, the Spitfire leads; World War II statistics say otherwise.

Best of the Battle of Britain

In this corner, the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire; across the ring, the Hawker Hurricane. Which is the more valuable restoration?

A bridge overpass in the bucolic East German countryside would have been the primary target for a flight of four Fairchild anti-tank A-10s on a 1987 cold war mission. The bridge still stands.

Above & Beyond: The Bridge that Did Not Fall

Memorable flights and other adventures

Reader Scrapbook

Snapshot

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In the Magazine

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.