Photos

Francis Melvin Rogallo is now known for the eponymous double-conical hang-glider wings that he developed for NASA in the 1960s. Long before that, and before NASA even came into being, he worked for the sainted National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics-NACA-and in the late 1930s conducted a wind-tunnel study of inlet and outlet designs. From this […]

Taxpayers pick up the tab for the FSS briefer to read you forecasts and weather reports prepared by the government’s weather bureau. It’s a great service that pilots have enjoyed for decades, but if you are willing to invest a few bucks a month, you can buy better weather, or at least better weather information, […]

A few things in this life are so fundamentally compelling that despite months of planning and anticipation the event itself is so overwhelming, so captivating, that memories become a blended blur of the real and the imagined. Having a child is such an experience. So is taking off in a brand new Boeing 737-700. Last […]

Text and Photography by Robert Goyer When Cirrus announced its latest single, the SR22-G2, the company from the get-go stressed that many of the changes were more than skin deep. While Cirrus pilots were excited about the claimed increase in cruise speed, their mechanics were equally psyched about the easier maintainability of the airplane, which […]

I’ve known and worked with Richard Collins for 28 years, and he has taught me much about flying. I can’t believe there is any general aviation pilot who has traveled more in the IFR system than he has. But I never really fully shared his enthusiasm for studying and understanding the big weather picture. My […]

The action is so simple, requiring such a small amount of effort. And yet I can’t quite seem to get myself to perform it. My hand is poised on the throttle knob. All I have to do is pull it back. And yet, in that move is the surrender of my own home and bed […]

The first “high-performance” airplane I flew was a brand-new 1975 Piper Arrow II. With its businesslike green-and-black-and-white paint scheme (the color of money, you know) and that certain air that all retractable-gear airplanes had in my mind, I was smitten. And it was a nice airplane, though now that I think about it, it wasn’t […]

In the reception area at Burt Rutan’s Mojave, California, skunk works, Scaled Composites, there sits on a corner table a small black tripod with a cup-shaped receptacle on top. Built by composites engineer Stan Stawski, who works at Scaled, it supported two tons before failing. It weighs less than four ounces. Getting the most strength […]