Search Results for: Lockheed

I have never thought of myself as much of a warbird guy — at least until I went back in time to the summer I was unsuspectingly infected with a love for old military airplanes. It was during a summer volunteer job at the EAA Airshow in Rockford, Illinois, the precursor to AirVenture. I worked […]

The growing need to launch satellites, scientific experiments, International Space Station supplies and other goods into orbit is fueling demand for payload integration specialists, technicians who install cargo on board and ensure it deploys from the rocket as designed. “It truly is a mechanic’s job. It’s turning wrenches, working with high-pressure fluids and gases, and […]

The Los Angeles County Airshow will be back this weekend March 24 and 25, at General William J. Fox Airfield about 50 miles north of the City of the Angels, and this show is special for a a few good reasons. This year’s theme is “First, Fastest and Farthest” will honor the Antelope Valley’s role […]

Swarm intelligence, or swarm theory, refers to decentralized, self-organizing systems, such as flocks of birds, whose actions “enable relatively simple individual entities to produce complex behavior when operating with other simple entities,” says Michael Campobasso, CEO of Embedded Control Designs (ECD). The field is quickly moving from theory to practice as specialists like Campobasso seek […]

Its easy to look at controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents as the kind youll never get into. Sure; you may suffer an engine failure from contaminated fuel, or scrape a wingtip while landing in a stiff crosswind or even forget to put down the gear before landing. But flying a perfectly good airplane into the side of a mountain? Never happen. The thing is, Im relatively certain every pilot who was ever involved in a CFIT accident said the same thing at one point or another, perhaps right up until the moment a tree trunk came through the windshield.

As a requirement for our upcoming flying safari trip in New Zealand, I had to produce evidence of a “type rating” in a Cessna 172. The type rating was part of the qualifications necessary to obtain the equivalent of a Private Pilot license. Although I have flown a C-172 periodically throughout my flying lifetime, I […]

Schweizer RSG, a newly formed company affiliated with Rotorcraft Services Group in Fort Worth, Texas, plans to restart production of the Schweizer 300 by the end of the year after purchasing the product line from Sikorsky. Sikorsky’s exit from the light helicopter market brings some clarity after years of ambiguity surrounding the S-300’s fate following […]

Another year has passed, and, by all measures, 2017 provided a lot of terrific aviation news as seen in our Top 25 Aviation Stories of 2017. But there is a lot of exciting development going on this year, too. Here are some new airplanes that we are looking forward to hearing more about. Bend, Oregon-based […]

When I earned my private ticket in 1960, jet aircraft were still rather rare, even in the San Fernando Valley. My home field, Whiteman Air Park in Pacoima, California, was near Van Nuys and Lockheed airports, both of which were busy commercial fields. The local landing and departing traffic was mainly at piston-engine airspeeds, which […]

When Boeing tweeted an eight-second clip of a mysterious aircraft last week with the idea that it might be “changing future air power,” speculation ran wild that this was either some sort of space airplane or perhaps a new VTOL aircraft with a “hairdryer-type engine.” Close, but no cigar. Instead, as Boeing revealed this week, […]