MY HOME AIR SPACE: ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
IN REAL life and on my flight simulator, my home field is John Wayne Airport, officially SNA as in Santa Ana, California. (Its KSNA designation by the International Civil Aviation … Continue reading
REVE BLEU BUGATTI 100P AT THE MULLIN
COMMISSIONED BY Ettore Bugatti and designed by Belgian engineer Louis de Monge, the Bugatti 100P was considerably advanced in its 1937 conception. Features of the aircraft included a sandwich construction … Continue reading
NEW ZEALANDER RICHARD PEARSE—FIRST TO FLY?
WHO WAS the first person to fly? Do balloonists count? What about piloting a glider? Was it Icarus? Orville or Wilber Wright? And what about New Zealander Richard Pearse? There’s evidence … Continue reading
LESHER TEAL
ED LESHER was a can-do kind of guy. A professor of aeronautical engineering, he used breaks in his academic career to perform design work at Douglas, Stinson and Convair Aircraft. … Continue reading
FRANZ KAFKA AND THE BRESCIA AIR SHOW
FRANZ KAFKA is recognized as one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century—and certainly one of the more complex. He’s rarely thought of as a travel writer, and … Continue reading
CELEBRATING EUGENE BULLARD
THERE WERE two black pilots in World War I, both grandchildren of slaves, one on each side of the conflict. Ahmet Ali (Çelikten), of Somali Rumanian descent, served in the … Continue reading
AMERICAN HONDA TAKES TO THE AIR
THE HondaJet is one of the coolest Hondas in the world. With a little more than a decade in development, this light business jet is in its final stages of … Continue reading
ABRAMS P-1 EXPLORER
EARLY AVIATOR Talbert “Ted” Abrams was the father of aerial photography. Not only did he perfect the genre into a measurement-oriented photogrammetry, he also established an aircraft manufacturing company to … Continue reading
WORLD WAR I AVIATION
AVIATION ENTERED World War I as almost a curiosity, balloons and fledgling aeroplanes used for observation and little more. Within five years, 1914-1918, aircraft became deadly weapons bringing warfare to … Continue reading
LOUGHEAD AND THE ALCOR C-6-1 JR. TRANSPORT
AVIATION BUFFS may connect a fellow named Allan Loughead with an aircraft company named Lockheed. But I wonder how many recognize one of his aviation achievements, the svelte 1938 Alcor … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 