Aviation history

All the latest articles about Aviation history

Wild photo: American Airlines plane lifted over highway

05/25/10
Take a good look at this photo of the MD-80 jet that American Airlines recently donated to the George T. Baker Aviation School in Miami.  The school is just across the highway from Miami International Airport, but they couldn’t just fly the plane over. So the airline partnered with the Odebrecht construction and engineering company →

Tidbits for travelers at MIA and PHL

05/17/10
This would be fun to watch:  American Airlines is donating a 140-passenger MD-80 aircraft to the George T. Baker Aviation School in Miami. To get the plane to the school they going to lift the 39-ton plane from a ramp at Miami International Airport up over a road using a 500-ton crane equipped with a →

Grimms’ Fairy Tales at Dane County Regional Airport

04/28/10
A National Geographic website about Grimms’ Fairy Tales offers these words of advice: “Looking for a sweet, soothing tale to waft you toward dreamland?  Look somewhere else.” That’s because the stories Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected in the early 1800’s don’t always have happy endings. There are witches. There are wolves. And there are creatures →

Bonus features on Oakland Int’l Airport website

03/22/10
Poke around on some airport websites and you’ll find some fun, surprising and educational stuff. Case in point: the Oakland International Airport (OAK) site, which has a link to the Exploratorium’s instructions on how to fold a paper airplane, information about the Oakland Aviation Museum, which sits on the airport’s North Field, and a great →

Souvenir Sunday: Amelia Earhart luggage

03/14/10
Earlier this week, while waiting for Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger’s presentation at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, I spent some time in the Amelia Earhart exhibit.  And while I don’t think I’ll take up flying my own plane anytime soon, I keep thinking about getting some new luggage. Amelia Earhart endorsed a long →

Oregon Curiosities: The Bomber in Milwaukie, OR

03/13/10
I love hanging around airports, of course, but I also find bliss when let loose in small museums filled with odd and unusual artifacts or if there’s a wacky roadside distraction somewhere and I’ve got the keys to the car. So I’m fortunate to be able to produce radio features and write books about my →

Capt. Sullenberger and Amelia Earhart at the Museum of Flight

03/09/10
Monday evening I was fortunate to be in the audience at Seattle’s Museum of Flight for a  presentation by the recently retired Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the now-legendary pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who was able to successfully land a plane in New York City’s Hudson River. He began the evening by showing the NTSB’s →

AeroTrain running at IAD; Mobile lounges still on duty

02/01/10
Last week the Dulles International Airport (IAD) started using its AeroTrain airport train system to replace some, but not all of the mobile lounges that have been taking passengers between the Main Terminal and the Midfield Concourses for years. I really like those kooky lounges. Riding on them always offers a unique view of the →
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