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OK, maybe you can’t get to the beach just yet, but Miami International Airport is bringing a bit of the beach to you.

An exhibition of 25 large-scale luminous photographs of sea-shells by Iran Issa-Khan is on display along the moving skywalk on the 3rd level between concourses D-F.

Coming this fall: an exhibition of ceremonial hammocks from South America.

Photo courtesy: Miami International Airport. Copyright:Iran Issa-Khan

Categories: Art
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Former Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart has a message for us:

Duck!

Next Monday (June 30th) is the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event. On that day in 1908 an asteroid or maybe a comet – nobody really knows what – fell from the sky and devastated about 800 square miles of Siberian forest.

You can see photos and maps of the site and learn more about the ‘event’ here.

Can it happen again? You bet, says Schweickart. “Near-Earth objects have been impacting Earth episodically for the past 4.5 billion years. They don’t hit often, but when they do they are a serious threat to life and property. Ask the dinosaurs… they lost it all.”

Can the earth be saved? Schweickart is working on it. He’s the chair of the B612 Foundation, which plans to change the orbit of an asteroid by 2015 and prove that humankind can protect the Earth from future asteroid impacts.

It may sound like a Twilight Zone episode, but just in case, I’m heading over to Seattle’s Museum of Flight Saturday afternoon (June 28) to find out more. Schweickart will be there to talk about what astronauts, cosmonauts and experts from around the world are doing to make sure we are ready.

And while we’re talking about objects from outer space, earlier this week Dave Demerjian over at Wired’s Autopia wrote about the news that a police helicopter crew from Cardiff, Wales reported being chased recently by a “flying saucer-shaped vehicle.”

Categories: History
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While airlines are having well-publicized financial woes, many airports are doing quite well. One reason: travelers spend money when they’re stuck at the airport. Another: both general aviation and commercial airports figured out long ago that they need to diversify their income.

Leases for farming, hotels, and golf courses on airport-owned land are popular. But while doing research for an article on this topic, I discovered that some airports are far more creative.

Some airports earn money from auctioning off surplus equipment (snowplows, trucks, computers, etc.) and stuff left behind at the security checkpoints. Others are getting big bucks for the oil and gas and mineral rights on airport land. And then there are these two intriguing examples:

Since the mid-1950′s, the Sebring International Raceway has been operating on land owned by the Sebring Regional Airport in Florida. The racetrack is used year-round, for everything from automobile and tire testing to racing schools, corporate events, and the well-known Sebring endurance race.

And in Missouri, the new Branson Airport is set to open next spring. But it probably won’t be called that on opening day. The country’s first privately financed airport has put the naming rights for the entire airport up for sale.

Categories: Economy
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The folks at AASHTO, the American Assoc. of State Highway and Transportation Officials, remind us that on June 23, 1931, aviation pioneer Wiley Post and navigator Harold Gatty set out on a record-breaking flight. Traveling in Post’s single-engine monoplane, nicknamed Winnie Mae in honor of Post’s daughter, the daring duo left Roosevelt Field in New York and made a 15,474-mile trip around the world. They made 14 stops and ended up back in New York eight days and 16 hours later, setting a world record for air travel.

That record didn’t stand for long, though. In July, 1933 Post made a solo trip around the world in seven days and 19 hours.

Not content with just flying around this world, Post was thinking about supersonic transport and space travel. So in 1934, he designed a “Man from Mars” high-altitude pressure suit and tested it in an unofficial ascent to 49,000 feet.

Sadly, Post never did get to test his space suit on Mars. He died in an airplane takeoff crash with his friend Will Rogers near Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935.

Categories: History
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Now that summer travel is in full swing, I bet Gregg Rottler will be getting lots of e-mail.

Rottler gathers tales of air travel woe and posts them, neatly and without editorial comment, on his Web site: Flights from Hell.com.

He does it partly to give frustrated travelers someplace to share some truly outrageous stories, but he also offers readers lots of “Wow, I’m glad-it-wasn’t-me” entertainment.

Story categories run the gamut from animals and babies (separate topics) to odors, weird people, and the ever-popular ‘reclining seats.”

Looking to the future, Rottler recently posted a link to some of my recent MSNBC.com Well-Mannered Traveler columns about in-flight cell phone use: a topic that may someday earn a spot on the Flights from Hell top-ten list.

Categories: Cell Phones
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