airplanes

What it’s like to be inside the cockpit of an A-10 Thunderbolt when it flies over the desert

Here’s a video from inside the A-10 Thunderbolt as it flies through Arizona. The perspective is really cool because you get to see how the world looks from inside the aircraft and see things flip and turn sideways too. It also totally looks like it’s flying over Mars or something. The Aviationist says that the…

Awesome photo of a V-22 Osprey inside a rainbow

Just a perfect photo of a Marines MV-22 Osprey landing on the flight deck of the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry. The timing is lovely because it’s landing right through a rainbow, making the color of the aircraft (or at least the part that’s inside the rainbow) just a little more shimmery and different.…

Here’s what it’s like to rent a MiG-29 to fly you above the clouds in the stratosphere

It’s good to be rich. Because when you’re rich you can easily justify the $18,000 necessary to rent—yes, rent—a MiG-29 fighter jet that will take you on the flight of your life to the edge of space. You fly above the clouds in the stratosphere at 70,000 feet in the air, you reach supersonic speeds,…

FAA Is Doing Nothing About Continued Boeing Dreamliner Battery Failures

In 2013, the troubled Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded for nearly four months because the plane’s lithium-ion batteries caught fire. It’s had at least three more cell failures since the plane was allowed to resume flying. While the Federal Aviation Administration dismisses these new failures, the fact that these battery malfunctions continue to happen is…

Cool photo of fighter jets flying over an aircraft carrier

This photo shows US Navy fighter jets flying side-by-side with Chilean Air Force fighter jets next to the USS George Washington aircraft carrier. It’s like seeing little ducklings follow the big mama duck, only these are sophisticated weapons worth millions of dollars. U.S. Naval aircraft and aircraft from the Chilean Air Force participate in a…

Watch a part of an airplane wing horrifyingly fall off during take off

No matter how many times you’ve flown or how many years you’ve lived, it’s always fun to peer out the window of an airplane and watch it take off. It’s flying, man. However, the worst thing is if you look out and see parts of the plane falling off. Like in this video from Chile.…

FAA Says You Must Not Pack Lithium Batteries in Your Hold Luggage

If you squirrel away batteries in hold luggage ready to power your kit through a trip, you may need to rethink: the Federal Aviation Administration is making a push to ensure you don’t. CNBC reports that the FAA is warning that lithium batteries“present a risk of both igniting and fueling fires in aircraft cargo/baggage compartments.”…

Grandpa had a horse. Father, a horseless carriage. Today —and tomorrow— you will have wings. — Print ad circa 1946 for Alcoa Aluminum via X-Ray Delta Too bad many of those postwar dreams — from personal flying machines to miracle houses — weren’t delivered on.

MH17 Crash Report: The Airplane Was Shot Down By a BUK Missile

In July 2014, flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed over the Ukraine. Today, the Dutch Safety Board has issued its report on what happened. At a press conference, the chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, Tjibbe Joustra, has explained that “it was definitely a BUK missile that hit flight MH17,” writes the BBC.…

Watch Teddy Roosevelt’s First Aeroplane Flight, 105 Years Ago Today

On October 11, 1910 Teddy Roosevelt became the first president to fly in an airplane. Well, technically he was an ex-president at the time. But that somehow makes it even more badass. Roosevelt was known for his badassery, of course. And his flight with Arch Hoxsey in St. Louis, Missouri was no different. He reportedly…

How the USAF pilots and chase cars land the U-2 Dragon Lady

The Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady is a beautiful spy plane that flies at high altitudes (70,000 feet in the air) to provide reconnaissance for the military. It’s also a pain in the ass to land too, requiring an actual chase car on the ground to tell the pilot how far the U-2 is from the…

F-18s against a wall of fire totally look like they’re escaping explosions

Oh, nothing to see here. Just two F-18 fighter jets sitting there, looking cool… while a giant wall of fire blazes on behind them. The photo was taken at the 2015 Air Show at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, California. It also looks like it could have been taken from explosions. Or…

Watch a fighter jet land on the middle of a highway road

Here’s really cool footage of a Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen fighter jet landing on a road in Finland. The Aviationist says both Finnish and Swedish aircraft were conducting a military force exercise at the Rovaniemi Air Base and on the strip of road. There are also pictures of the planes taking off from the road…

This Interactive Web App Lets Your Play at Being an Air Traffic Analyst

If you’ve ever wondered what it must be like to study the movement of airplanes as they take off and land across the entire world, then this interactive app let’s you do just that. It’s not the first time we’ve seen air traffic data visualized, but it is the first time we’ve seen an interactive…

Cargo plane makes a crazy low pass over fighter jets at an air base

Here’s a role reversal of sorts: an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane does a low pass right over some SU-25 fighter jets on a Ukrainian air field. Seeing the big boy plane delicately flying close to the ground over the nimble little planes makes for a pretty hilarious visual. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us…

This Photo of an Airplane Flying Over the Bahamas Was Shot From the ISS 

Earlier this week, NASA’s Earth Observatory shared a beautiful photo of the Bahamas. While the landscape is majestic and all, PetaPixel points out that the coolest thing about the photo wasn’t immediately evident. The Bahamas’ Great Exuma is a series of cays, and if you look closely at one of the turquoise-green channels between one…

Boeing Wants To Harvest Electricity From the Roar of Your Plane Taking Off 

Jet engines are extraordinarily loud at roughly 140 decibels–and airports have struggled with mitigating their roar since the early days of commercial flight. An engineer at Boeing wants to make the cacophony more useful, if not silence it for good. For Boeing, patents seem like a way to publicize the company’s most futuristic R&D; recent…

Awesome view of a sunset through the nose of an old B-25 bomber

What. A. View. The nose of the B-25 bomber offers up such a fantastic view that it’s probably the perfect place to be for a sunset because not only do you get to see the entire world in a clear bubble, you get to see the old rickety steering wheel of a plane used since…

These photos of F-22 Arctic Raptors in Alaska are so striking they look unreal

Taken by photographer John Dibbs for Lockheed Martin’s Code One magazine, these two F-22 Raptors are flying against the snowy picturesque backdrop of Alaska and they look absolutely stunning. So stunning and pristine and impressive that the pictures almost look fake. Code One writes: In addition, Alaska’s strategic location allows the Arctic Raptors to deploy…

FAA Warned Boeing About the Flaw That Caused a 777 to Explode in Las Vegas [Updated]

When a jetliner’s engine explodes moments before take off, people ask questions. Now, less than a week after that very thing happened to a British Airways 777, answers are starting to emerge—and they’re scary. (See update below.) Turns out the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned both Boeing and General Electric, the 777’s engine-maker, about a…