Photos

It’s official. With the introduction of the G3 version, the seminal Cirrus SR20 piston single is all grown up. I hadn’t fully realized that until recently, when I had the lucky chance to fly a pair of SR20s, one really old one (well, as old as they get) and one brand spanking new one, in […]

I had no preconceived notions or expectations as I rolled into the parking lot at the northern end of Lake Washington. The Seattle sky was a typical mixture of grey confusion, the clouds in various meteorological forms. A small swath of orange glowed in the distant northwest, a feeble reminder that the earth still revolved […]

Hangar wits at a loss for an original joke sometimes fall back on the time-tested quip that a liquid-cooled airplane makes as much sense as an air-cooled submarine. When several of them (wits, not submarines) are present, the observation that the problem with electric airplanes is that the extension cord gets twisted cannot be far […]

In aviation we admire fat logbooks of experience for both pilots and airplanes. New technology offers promise, but a successful history breeds confidence. And that’s what the new Learjet 60 XR exudes — confidence that you are getting the best of more than 40 years of Learjet heritage. The 60 XR is a refined version […]

The price of gas, the price of gas. The shaky stock market and the hammered housing industry. These are the circling vultures of today. Suddenly, after years and years of moving up, making more, having more, feeling wealthier, I’m sensing the roller coaster slipping out from under me. On the internet, my trolling activity for […]

It must be a perennial embarrassment to high school physics teachers that cheap balsa gliders — to say nothing of folded-up pieces of paper, or butterflies — can fly. After all, it says right here in the official textbook that airplanes fly because air has to go a longer distance over the top of the […]