I only have a quick post for you this week (and I’m taking next week off to deal with life issues). But I hope you all will agree that this photograph is worth a million words. Isn’t that astounding? But when I called it unbelievable, I meant that many people honestly did not believe it…
Read more… 23 Sep 22
When I first saw this image, I assumed it was result of modern image manipulations, maybe even the poster for a film. It was too perfect and too modern to be what it claimed to be, which was a historical photograph of an aircraft over Edinburgh. I was half right. it is a composite photograph…
Read more… 18 Mar 22
This photograph is so remarkably perfectly timed, I thought it must be a still from an action movie or television series, done with special effects. It turns out it’s absolutely a case of impeccable photography by Mr Robert W Madden, who was at the right place at the right time and managed to frame the…
Read more… 12 Dec 14
The Lockheed SR-71 has broken every speed and altitude record held by aircraft: faster than a speeding bullet and able to fly in the top 1% of our atmosphere. The jet was designed in the 1960s, at the peak of the Cold War, as a reconnaissance jet that could operate at high speeds (Mach 3.5+)…
Read more… 27 Jun 14
A reader mailed me this amazing aviation photograph and I knew I wanted to know more. I was surprised at how much I discovered about the photo, which at first glance I thought might be a fake. But the story of who took the photograph and how he managed to get the shot is a…
Read more… 1 Nov 13
This week, the space shuttle Endeavour travelled across the U.S. to its final destination of Los Angeles, where it will be on display as a part of the California Science Center. The Endeavour completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit and orbited the Earth 4,671 times while travelling 122,883,151 statute miles. The fleet was…
Read more… 21 Sep 12
Last week, we looked at the sequence of events which led to Flash Airlines flight 604 crashing into the Red Sea a few minutes after take-off. This post assumes you’ve…
On the 3rd of January 2004, Flash Airlines flight 604 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh International in Egypt. The Boeing 737-300 registered in Egypt…
On Monday, two commercial aircraft had a near-miss on the runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The airport at Austin has two parallel concrete runways which run north-to-south: 18L/36R…
On the 11th of January 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US stopped all departing commercial flights, grounding aircraft all over the US. Hot on the heels of…
About a week ago, Marléne Aviation posted to Twitter in an attempt to find the oldest video footage of a flight. Marléne Aviation is run by a French aviation history…
On the 7th of December 1957, a Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer 1, registration G-AOEO, departed an airstrip at Anshan in Libya for a routine flight to Tripoli-Idris Airport. There were…
Long-term readings of Fear of Landing know that my favourite aerobatics show of all time is Kyle Franklin’s Ben Whabnoski Comedy act. Just in case some of you haven’t seen…
I didn’t expect to fall in love with the train. When I planned my trip to Germany, I expected that I would be able to keep up with my normal…