ACE OF ACES
AIR COMBAT simulations are fun. Here’s a classic approach that doesn’t require the Internet, or a computer, or even electricity. The Ace of Aces: WWI Air Combat Game series is … Continue reading
TATIN-PAULHAN AÉRO-TORPILLE
IMAGINE ATTENDING the 1911 Paris Salon de l’Aéronautique and coming upon the Tatin-Paulhan Aéro-Torpille! The two names would have been familiar. Louis Paulhan had just returned from a triumphal 7-month … Continue reading
DUNNE FLYING WINGS
WE’D CALL them “flying wings,” but the first of their type were termed “tailless aeroplanes.” British Lieutenant John William Dunne, ex-His Majesty’s Wiltshire Regiment, experimented with a tailless glider in … Continue reading
RENÉ COUZINET, AIRCRAFT DESIGNER
FRENCH AIRCRAFT designer René Couzinet was only 23 when, in 1928, he devised a three-engine low-wing monoplane specifically for transatlantic mail service. The effort was an early example of crowd-funding, … Continue reading
JEAN MERMOZ, AVIATOR
FRENCHMAN JEAN Mermoz was an extraordinary aviator in an extraordinary era of aviation. His flights crossing the South Atlantic and later the Andes were the first of their kind. Mermoz … Continue reading
HOUDINI—PIONEER AVIATOR
HARRY HOUDINI performed death-defying feats during the early years of the 20th Century. Flying through the air—in the earliest of aeroplanes—was one of these feats, an achievement that got him … Continue reading
THE RIGHT STUFF, THE WRONG WAY
AN IRASCIBLE Douglas Corrigan wanted to fly the Atlantic solo in the mid-1930s. However, federal officials looked at his clunker of an airplane and said no. The officials had good … Continue reading
AERIAL REFUELING, 1929
REFUELING AIRCRAFT in mid-air is now routine with air forces around the world. Its history, though, is a combination of military methodology and publicity stunt bravado. A Sirius XM “Radio … Continue reading
CARRIER OPPS, 100 YEARS AGO
IT WAS less than a decade after the Wright Bros. first flew that an aeroplane took off from and landed on a ship. These aviation firsts were accomplished by the … Continue reading
SAUNDERS-ROE PRINCESS
HISTORY HAS been known to repeat itself in a disconcertingly short interval. Two British aircraft, the Bristol Brabazon and Saunders-Roe Princess, had similarly ambitious plans—and were both failures, albeit brilliant … Continue reading
