In the October 1928 issue of Popular Aviation magazine, the editor penned a thoughtful and surprisingly skeptical editorial titled “An Outsider Looks at Aviation.” Though he claimed to be no expert, his observations read like those of someone who understood that aviation wasn’t just a marvel of engineering—it was about to challenge the entire structure…
In 1928, long before modern ejection seats or ballistic parachutes, the U.S. War Department tried something wildly ambitious: saving an entire airplane with a single, giant parachute. Now, I know what you’re thinking—was this for cargo drops? Maybe a Jeep or a supply crate? That’s what I thought too when I first saw the headline…
Aviation history is full of bold firsts, but what often gets overlooked is the simple act of getting off the ground—something that proved deadly in the early days of long-distance flying. In this story, I explore the perils of takeoff during aviation’s golden age, when overloaded planes, muddy runways, and experimental designs pushed both pilots…
Imagine it’s 1958. You’re hanging out in your favorite airport lean-to, surrounded by pilots who just yesterday felt pretty cool bragging about their latest cross-country trip in a fabric-covered plane. But today, everyone’s buzzing about something else entirely—the Moon. Yep, humanity is seriously considering landing there, and all your pilot buddies are scratching their heads,…
Have you ever looked at an airplane and thought, “Wait, haven’t I seen that one before?” You’re not alone. Back in 1939, Popular Aviation magazine ran a two-part series that took a closer look at a fascinating phenomenon in aviation: aircraft that looked strikingly similar to each other—despite being built by different manufacturers, often in…
Published in the October 1937 issue of Popular Aviation, the article “Popping Them From the Air” by Spencer Eddy offers a glimpse into a bygone era when hunting from airplanes was not only accepted but even celebrated. The story details the aerial exploits of E.L. Torrey, a hunter who used his aircraft to target hawks,…
Alright, let’s dive into today’s story! Imagine soaring high above Manhattan, the city skyline stretching out beneath you, when suddenly—silence. The engine quits. No warning, no sputtering—just a deafening, unnatural stillness. For most people, that would be the start of a nightmare. But for Giovanni Cirillino, it was the answer to a question that had…
Alright, let’s dive into today’s story! Imagine a vast, untamed wilderness—an expanse of snow and ice stretching as far as the eye can see. The wind howls through the endless pines, whispering tales of explorers and frontiersmen who dared to brave the unknown. Somewhere in this frozen expanse, a lone aircraft cuts through the sky,…
Alright, let’s dive into today’s story! Imagine a time when private aviation was on the rise, but pilots faced a surprising challenge—finding a place to park their planes. Hangars were scarce, expensive, and often out of reach for the average pilot. Yet, during World War II, the military managed to maintain massive fleets of aircraft…
Let me tell you about a story I just read in the February 1945 issue of Flying magazine. It’s about this wild World War II mission called the “Beer Bottle Blitz,” where a lone B-17 Flying Fortress crew turned a desperate situation into an unconventional night raid over Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. The story is…
