Search Results for: incredible adventures

No other airplane I’ve flown can do what the SuperSTOL can. STOL, as you know, stands for “short takeoff and landing.” SuperSTOL, then, implies really short takeoffs and landings, made possible by the airplane’s huge 45-degree fowler flaps and self-deploying leading-edge slats, designs borrowed from the Helio Courier bush plane and scaled to fit this diminutive two-seat experimental amateur-built kitplane.

Jerrie Mock’s name should be spoken in the same breath as Charles Lindbergh and other aviation legends. Her circumnavigation remains an enduring achievement.

Throughout its history, aviation has generated some of the most remarkable figures that ever lived, including those brave pilots who made the first forays into the air and who courageously pushed the bounds of flight in ways previously unimaginable. At the same time, aviation has produced a number of people whose heroism rises above the […]

In honor of Aviation Day, August 19, celebrating Orville Wright’s birthday, we bring you a piece that explores the stories around the first powered, controlled flight–and inspires us all to go to Dayton where the brothers lived. Blame it on “alternative facts.” Or maybe it was “fake news” — the 1930s version, anyway. It turns […]

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 […]

I made my first trip to Oshkosh in 2007 to unveil the Redbird FMX simulator prototype at AirVenture. That was the start of what would become an annual tradition for me, a pilgrimage north from Austin, Texas, along with 500,000 fellow general aviation disciples, to take part in the “World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration.” Last year, […]

With 130,962 subscribers and counting, Steve Thorne is undoubtedly one of the most popular aviators on YouTube. Known to the aviation world as Flight Chops, he’s a self-described “weekend warrior pilot” who is basically living every pilot’s dream by flying a wide variety of airplanes and sharing his experiences with his fans. And while his […]

The flying Franklins started with Kyle’s grandfather, Oliver Gene “Zip” Franklin, who bought a 1929 Doyle Special at the age of 16. The eldest Franklin mainly used airplanes as farm equipment to fly between two family ranches, and he had his son Jimmy with him in the cockpit while still in diapers before the lad […]

As the Boeing 737 descends through 25,000 feet, we break through a thin overcast layer over the Columbia River and a stunning Cascades panorama appears before our eyes. It’s an unusually clear day for early spring, and from my jumpseat perch there are incredible views from Glacier Peak all the way south to the Three […]

I recently got the chance to go up in a T-6 Texan at a Breitling event in Pompano Beach, Florida, with Thom Richards, chief pilot and president of Warbird Adventures. This would be my first flight in a warbird and my first time flying aerobatics; I was jittery with nervous excitement. But while we taxied […]