Search Results for: wright

Witnesses told the Outer Banks News that the Allegro 2000 light sport aircraft (LSA) appeared to be on approach to land at First Flight Airport at the Wright Brothers National Memorial when it crashed into trees. The pilot and passenger were able to walk away, though the pilot suffered a head injury and was airlifted […]

We pilots love engines and with good reason. We rely on their continued trouble-free operation to keep us flying safely. Perhaps more to the point, without engines, flight would never have gone far, and it can be argued that every noteworthy advance in aircraft performance was preceded by a noteworthy advance in power-plant design. There […]

Unless you’re someone we’d really like to get to know better, it’s likely you’re not flying around in your own personal jet. Which means you probably are flying behind, between, below or in front of at least one propeller. They’re marvelous devices, often subjected to substantial forces as they unceasingly (we hope) spin thousands of times per minute. They also can be a bit mysterious, even the fixed-pitch variety.

(function(d, s, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) return; var js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = ‘//cdn4.wibbitz.com/static.js’; d.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0].appendChild(js); }(document, ‘script’, ‘wibbitz-static-embed’)); We as pilots love airplane types. Most of us, in fact, have a favorite airplane, be it a Piper Cub or a Lockheed SR-71. There are plane types, and then there are planes. Specific […]

We pilots love engines and with good reason. We rely on their continued trouble-free operation to keep us flying safely. Perhaps more to the point, without engines, flight would never have gone far, and it can be argued that every noteworthy advance in aircraft performance was preceded by a noteworthy advance in power-plant design. There […]

The other week when we published our latest Flying list, 50 Amazing Aircraft Engines, we knew we’d get some heat for engines we left off the list, and we were right. There were, in fact, a few engines that we considered but ultimately left off the list that readers took us to task for. So, […]

As pilots, we spend a lot of time focusing on obvious hazards to our flight operations: convective activity, icing, low ceilings and other conditions. Pilots who fail to manage such risks constitute a disproportionate share of fatal accidents. These flight conditions, however, are not the only potential hazards that we should consider for the purposes of managing risk. Tasks and procedures required on every flight are also potential hazard sources and should be viewed through the risk management lens. These include such routine and necessary tasks as takeoffs and landings, even under benign conditions, as well as operations under calm skies in VMC conditions when there is still other traffic to avoid.

Flying behind air-cooled powerplants, free of radiators or coolant tanks, it’s easy to forget most aircraft still need liquids of some type to operate safely and reliably. When those fluids are put under pressure to actuate a mechanism, we’ve created a hydraulic system, sometimes defined as something “using pressurized fluid to drive machinery or move mechanical components.” It also can be defined as transferring “energy by pressurizing fluid to force movement of a slave to produce the action sought.”

Some intriguing names are on the short list for the 2013 Robert J. Collier Trophy after the National Aeronautic Association this week announced a field of nine contenders for the coveted prize. The nominees include Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower geared turbofan engine, the P-8A Poseidon airplane in development by Boeing for the U.S. Navy, the […]

The volunteers in Wichita, Kansas, have been hard at work restoring Doc, a B-29 Superfortress, since the project resumed nearly one year ago. “We have made significant progress recently hanging the first engine on the airplane,” said Jeff Turner, chairman of the board of Doc’s Friends, the non-profit organization set up to restore the Superfortress. […]