Civil Aviation

When the Antonov An-225 was destroyed in 2022 amidst the first flush of the Ukraine-Russia War, it was a devastating blow to many avgeeks around the world. After all, the An-225 with the multitude of aviation records it had set, was an iconic aircraft. It has been photographed various times, but one of its more…

Air travel is becoming one of the more accessible ways of transportation as many airports around the world are upping their efforts to accommodate travelers with disabilities and special needs. This was especially true of Melbourne Airport, which has an “Airport Assist program” dedicated to “people with both visible and non-visible disabilities, as well as…

Until the 1930s, passenger chairs on an aircraft used to be wicker chairs. This was a time when flying was luxury for a privileged few. The world wasn’t studded with as many aerodromes as it is, and some of the oldest US airports are from this era. Back then, in-flight entertainment system would have been…

Modern aircraft engines are strong, efficient, and can even propel aircraft to a speed greater than that of sound. The North American X-15 even hit hypersonic speed. However, such airplane (engines) have to undergo rigorous tests to study how they operate under different environments. After all, one of the aircraft in the North American X-15…

In 1977, a tragic collision between two Boeing 747 jets (one operated by KLM and the other by Pan Am) in the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife led to the death of 583 passengers. This accident is dubbed the deadliest accident in aviation. Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), which is now a standard feature in…

A bird strike is one of the most dangerous threats in aviation. Though precautions such as projecting dead birds (at the speed of sound) into engines during the testing phase, are taken into stride to ward off the most horrific effects of a bird striking a plane, a collision between a bird and a plane…

Sending rockets into space is expensive. The North American X-15, the hypersonic research program that was the first airplane to have touched space, cost $300 million in 1969 dollars, with each flight estimated to have cost $600,000. The cost of Ingenuity helicopter – the only chopper to have flown on a planet outside the Earth…

Air travel is one of the most convenient and popular modes of transportation, but sometimes conveniences also generate a significant amount of waste. Such is the case for paper cups that are used by various airlines. To help reduce such waste and protect our environment, some airlines are using reusable cups while flying. This small…

Ingenuity, a tiny helicopter with a mass of 1.8 kg (about 4 lbs) — weighing just 680 grams under Mars’s lighter gravity — made it to the surface of Mars, not only survived the frigidness of -85 degrees and the violent dust on the Martian surface, it fared surprisingly well on the planet that is…