Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon prompted an apercu that is rather indelible (and perhaps wrongly quoted): “A Small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. , the nuances change]. The Apollo 11 crew that landed alongside Neil unveiled an engraved plaque bearing a lesser-known phrase: “We came in peace...

When the former Air France chairman, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, said, “Concorde will never really stop flying because she will live on in people’s imagination”, it encapsulated everyone’s feelings. Apart from hardcore environmentalists who have maintained that an aviation world full of Concordes would simply ruin the planet (for the aircraft was a gas guzzler)...

One of the most iconic pictures in all of space science and aviation is the photograph of Antonov An-225, one of the biggest aircraft ever constructed, taking the Buran space shuttle into the skies. One can also think of the photograph of the first untethered spacewalk. When the first American who flew to space compared...

Over the years, many aircraft disappearances have baffled the world of aviation. The most obvious, and perhaps the most harrowing of them was the disppearance of Malaysian Airlines MH 370. Another noteworthy incident is the disappearance of Uruguayan Airlines Flight 571, which was later discovered, only to leave the world in bewilderment, for the case...

The highest ever recorded bird strike (i.e., a collision of a bird and an aircraft) occurred over the West African coast when an Air Ivory Coast aircraft struck a vulture at a staggering height of 37,000 feet – an altitude which is almost 8,000 ft greater than the height of Mount Everest...

The word “Lukla” in the Sherpa language refers to an “abode of sheep”. Locals say that in the past, the region was rife with this creature, though one would find it next to impossible to locate it these days in the “most-dangerous airport” region. Before the construction of Lula’s iconic airport (LUA), which has been...

If one makes the effort of trying to simplify what the term Dutch Roll means in aviation, it wouldn’t be too far from the truth, if we imagine thought of it as “swaying”. But this simplification means that we wouldn’t be too far from falsehoods either. After all, the English word “swaying” has a lot...

The story of the Tupolev Tu-104, USSR’s first jetliner, goes hand in hand with its arch, or should we say, its only rival (albeit, only initially), the deHavilland Comet. In May 1952, Britain had introduced the de Havilland DH106 Comet – the world’s first jetliner – into passenger service. Amidst the elan, tragedy followed. A...

After the former Syrian leader was ousted from the government, he chose to fly to Russia on the Ilyushin Il-76. In addition to aiding a flailing ex-president, the this versatile Soviet strategic transport aircraft has c6.5 tons of supplies for constructing a new winter complex at the Vostok station near Russia’s Novolazarevskaya outpost in Antarctica...