Search Results for: wright

The way I see it, Angelina Jolie and I have a lot in common. We’re both women pilots who own our own airplanes. We’ve both flown with Air Serv International in Africa. We’ve both spent time with Darfur refugees. And, as of one recent Friday evening, I can say with all truthfulness that we’ve both […]

In 1991, Bobby Bishop and his father were operating a skydiving operation out of Celina, Texas. They had a Cessna 182, a Pilatus PC-6 Porter, a DC-3 and a de Havilland Caribou. But they wanted something in between the Porter and the DC-3/Caribou size aircraft. A de Havilland Twin Otter didn’t seem cost-effective, and the […]

With everybody enamored of machines that aviate without the interference of humans, “Unmanned Air Vehicles” are currently a hot topic. Like that Airbus with a cabin full of passengers bound for Minneapolis that flew itself so well it just kept going … 150 miles beyond Minneapolis. See, I just can’t buy that story about two […]

After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles forbade the defeated Germans to build any military aircraft. Nevertheless, perhaps because something forbidden — even a mere apple — becomes irresistibly desirable, Germany in the 1930s surpassed all other nations in aeronautical technology. Two of Germany’s most talented and ambitious designers were Willy Messerschmitt and Ernst […]

Solar Impulse, a Swiss-designed aircraft, made its first flight last week. Its developers hope to eventually fly the Solar Impulse around the world, but for now are satisfied with a “flea hop” of around 1,150 feet at an altitude of about three feet. Still, their first flight traveled almost 10 times as far as the […]

Ed Stimpson, who succumbed last week to lung cancer (despite the fact that he never smoked), stood tall as an advocate for general aviation. Equally important, he was a remarkably effective coalition builder, a skilled negotiator and a pragmatic problem solver. His career record paints that picture. Stimpson was hired to handle public affairs by […]

Let’s be frank. We don’t really need airfoils. Model planes with flat sheets of balsa wood for wings fly nicely; so do airplanes made of folded paper, and bumblebees and butterflies. A flat sheet makes a perfectly serviceable wing. That flat surfaces in the wind could produce the sideways force that we now call lift […]

The Fowler flap was invented around 1920 by one Harlan Davey Fowler, an engineer who was then in the employ of the U.S. Army. An internet search for his name turns up, in addition to various references to his accomplishments in aeronautical engineering, a volume on the use of camels — the two-humped variety — […]

His FJ44 and FJ33 series engines spawned an entire class of light jets, and his ambition was to promote a generation of even smaller turbofans for four- to six-place aircraft. Dr. Sam Williams died Monday at the age of 88. His son Gregg, the current president, will now assume the added role of Chairman at […]

In the mid-60s I was posted to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, home of Headquarters Strategic Air Command. I was not in the HQ, however, but in the Operations Squadron of Offutt’s Air Base Wing. The ABW ran all the base’s goods and services, we in the ops squadron provided support for all the aviators […]