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It must be a perennial embarrassment to high school physics teachers that cheap balsa gliders — to say nothing of folded-up pieces of paper, or butterflies — can fly. After all, it says right here in the official textbook that airplanes fly because air has to go a longer distance over the top of the […]

When Beech developed its big T-tailed King Air 200 in 1973 it named it the Super King Air, and using the word super has proved to be right on target 35 years later. More than 2,000 King Air 200s have been delivered, making it the most popular turbine-powered business airplane of all time. And over […]

It was the simple, declarative tone of the statement that caught me. I’d volunteered to judge applications for the Ninety-Nines’ Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Fund, so I was spending a Saturday reading applicant essays. Read 10 or 20 pilot essays over a couple of hours-all from creative, motivated and deserving candidates who have wonderful career […]

Getting a type rating or passing a check ride are certainly satisfying and, most often, fun exercises, but they don’t make a pilot out of you. It is true of all technical pursuits, I suppose, that excellence comes from an admixture of talent, effort, practice and love. Three out of four of these qualities probably […]

In March Gulfstream announced development of a new model, the 650, the first clean sheet Gulfstream business jet since the G-II laid the foundation for the most successful line of large cabin business jets in the 1960s. The 650 is a response to Gulfstream customers who want more cabin space, longer range and more cruise […]

The fuel filler caps on the new Cessna Skyhawk 172TD aren’t your garden-variety flip-lid 100LL caps like I’d pried (or twisted) open countless times before. These babies are industrial, overbuilt Teutonic-looking things, placarded in bold letters to make it clear what kind of fuel to use: “Jet-A Only.” They seem emblematic of this new breed […]