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I don't know if it counts, but the Messerschmitt Me-262 has seen a second production run of five aircraft being finished earlier this century after approx. 1500 had been built before the middle of the …

In a way, he did. But he had little control about all axes. Derisory comments even suggested he only took to the air thanks to his bumpy runway. But there were plenty more before him. The first flyin …

First follow @Jim's advice for getting the plane set up and the engine running. A biplane is most likely a taildragger, which means that it has two main wheels and a third all the way in the back. Th …

50 years before, in 1855, not even the Lenoir engine, a two-stroke combustion engine which ran on natural gas (saving Lenoir from inventing the carburettor after having invented the spark plug already …

Psychologists know that some people are more leaders than others. Case in point: When the ferry Estonia sunk in 1994, some people went down to sit in their cars (because they felt safe there), others …

The first airplane with a cabin big enough for walking around was indeed a Sikorsky. This was the Sikorsky Russky Vityas, also sometimes named "Le Grand", a name which was given to an earlier, two-eng …

Of course there has! No air bridge involved, however. This picture shows one of several such performances made for movies or at airshows in the 1920s. The earliest I could find was done by Jim Hester …

Airships are much more susceptible to bad weather. With an airplane you can pretty much count on it taking off on time and arriving within a couple of minutes of the scheduled time. This allows operat …

Mainly, the optimum cruise altitude is where thrust and lift requirements for both take-off and cruise balance well. An additional benefit is the colder air which increases the efficiency of heat engi …

The number cited by Orville looks quite reasonable. The crow is just cruising along, not banking, accelerating or climbing. Now add a climb speed of just 1 meter (3.3 feet) per second, and the additi …

The Boeing 727 acquired a reputation for shedding engines. The process was ice buildup on the right side due to leaking lavatory plumbing, the ice falling off and into the No. 3 engine where it caused …

As you present it, you are right and Whitehead's numbers are impossible. I doubt that he could measure engine power with enough precision, and who knows what definition for horsepower he used. Power …

No, it would not have helped by itself. What could prevent a stall or recover the aircraft from an incipient stall would be a counteracting movement of that canard surface, but that would need to be …

The Shuttleworth Collection, at Old Warden aerodrome in Great Britain, has a flyable Bleriot XI which was built in 1909 and served at a flight school into the Thirties. It is still regularly displayed …

Radio was not widely used until the 1930s, before that, mostly light signals were used. Early ground support aircraft in WW I could drop little notes which were pencilled by the observer, stuffed in a …