Latest Posts   –  Page 120

Ferocious Frankie

This video is of a P-51D Mustang Ferocious Frankie owned by the Old Flying Machine Company, who fly aerobatic displays with the plane (and duos with a Spitfire) at airshows all over the the US. Ferocious Frankie is a 1944 Mustang with a 1760 horsepower Merlin engine and a maximum speed of 505mph. Their website…

Read more… 19 Aug 11

Near Miss

Alistair Mayer is a brilliant science fiction writer and all around nice guy whose stories regularly grace the pages of Analog magazine. He shared this story from his flying days in Canada and kindly allowed me to share it with you here as a part of my I learned from that series. You can find…

Read more… 12 Aug 11

Happy Days

It’s been beautiful sunny weather and I’ve seen a lot of GA planes flying past, which always cheers me up. Also, I’m hoping to go flying myself in the next couple weeks after an extended break. Hurray! So to celebrate, today’s post is full of good news and happy endings. I hope you enjoy it.…

Read more… 29 Jul 11

How to Drown a Jet

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about today and then I saw this unbelievable video posted on Golf Hotel Whiskey entitled Amazing video of how NOT to land a Cessna Citation 2. Although the incident was over five years ago, I’d never seen it before. The Citation, OY-JET, was coming into Atlantic…

Read more… 22 Jul 11

The Amazing Story of the B-17 Flying Fortress

The 398th was a B-17 bomb group in the 8th Air Force 1st Air Division during World War II. The US Eighth Air Force was the largest of the Army Air Forces, engaged in heavy bombing of enemy targets in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was a four-engine heavy…

Read more… 15 Jul 11

We’ve Lost the Cabin: Southwest Flight 812

On the 1st of April this year, Southwest Airlines flight 812 departed from Phoenix for Sacramento. There were five crew and 118 passengers on board. At 34,000 feet, climbing through to FL360, there was a loud sharp noise. The cabin experienced rapid decompression and the oxygen masks deployed. Shawna Malvini Redden, a passenger on the…

Read more… 8 Jul 11

Accident Reports

Hand on Thrust, Brain on Autopilot

On the 28th of June 2024 a Boeing 777-236, registered in the UK as G-VIIT, rejected a take-off after reaching V1 during the take-off roll on 26L at London Gatwick…

Challenger 300 Fatal Upset Wasn't Turbulence

On the 3rd of March 2023, a passenger in a private jet died after severe injuries in the cabin, which were originally reported as caused by severe turbulence. This was…

Demystifying

How to tell a Russian Su-27 from a British Typhoon

This is not an article that I ever thought I would feel compelled to write! However, given the confusion over a photograph chosen in a regional English paper, apparently it’s…

How to tell an F-16 Fighting Falcon from a Eurofighter Typhoon

There are a number of reasons why you might need to quickly point out the differences between a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon. You might…

History

Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?

This video of a mid-air wheel exchange goes viral once a year or so, but I never get tired of watching it. Last week, it showed up on Reddit and…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

This week, we have a guest post by J.B. Rivard who wrote an article for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and used one of my articles as a reference.…

Fun Stuff

Friday Lightness: A Short Respite from Crash Reports

It seems a good time for something a bit more lighthearted. After weeks of analyzing serious incidents and technical failures, I thought I could a moment to appreciate aviation humuor…

Flights of Fantasy: Aviation April Fools Worth Celebrating

I’m going to admit that I’m not a great fan of April Fools’ pranks, especially not attempts to trick people into believing something and then pulling the rug out from…