Charles E. Taylor joins Smithsonian’s aviation pioneers A bronze bust of Charles E. Taylor now sits proudly at the Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center. Dubbed the father of aircraft maintenance, Taylor was the Wright brothers’ mechanic. Kenneth MacTiernan, director of the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians Association, was the driving force behind raising both the awareness […]
Joining the jest set: VLJ’s take center stage
It was the year of the jets at last month’s National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention. Not just any jets, either. The big interest was in VLJs, the Very Light Jets just now starting deliveries to customers. Oh, there were other airplanes at the convention and a lot of buzz surrounded them, but nothing to […]
TBM gathering breaks records
Earlier this fall, the TBM Owners and Pilot Association (TBMOPA), made up of EADS Socata TBM 700 and TBM 850 owners, held a record-breaking annual convention in Cœur d’Alene, Idaho. More than 70 TBM aircraft — representing almost 24% of the privately owned TBM fleet — flew in for the event, making it the biggest […]
Traveling in style
If you’re going to make the rounds at Oshkosh — or any other airshow — follow Tyler Eldrup’s lead. Tyler, 4, from Deer Park, Wis., rode around the AirVenture grounds this summer in a stroller styled after an Air Force fighter. Tyler’s father built the stroller which, we were told, also can be converted into a […]
Knee jerks: The selling of fear in America
All the usual suspects have responded to the crash of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle’s Cirrus into a New York apartment building, Oct. 11. Politicians, newspaper reporters and editors, and television talking heads jumped right in with their standard anti-aviation paranoia. A notable exception was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a pilot. Bloomberg, who […]
In a class of its own: Diamond’s D-JET touted as a “personal time machine”
“Is this an elegant airplane or what?” With those words, Marion Blakey, FAA administrator, introduced Diamond Aircraft’s newest model, the D-JET, at this summer’s AirVenture. Those words must have been music to the ears of D-JET’s creator, Christian Dries, Diamond’s CEO and a 7,000-hour pilot who’s passion is creating the planes he wants to fly. […]
PiperJet steals the show at NBAA convention
Piper Aircraft’s newly announced PiperJet was the star of the show at this year’s National Business Aviation Association convention, held last month in Orlando. Revealed shortly before the convention to a public anticipating it eagerly, it quickly became the “must-see” airplane even though it was a mockup and not due for certification until 2009. Indeed, […]
“Mama Bird” grounded
Evelyn Bryan Johnson, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s highest-time pilot, was injured seriously in an automobile accident Sept. 10. Known far and wide as “Mama Bird,” she was on her way to Moore-Murrell Airport (MOR), which she has managed for 53 years at Morristown, Tenn. A tractor-trailer rig slowly pulled […]
Old School Flying: Of Cubs and CLippers and the way we were
The Wright brothers taught themselves to fly. So did other pioneers such as Glenn Curtiss, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Casey Baldwin and many whose names are barely noted in aviation history. Some, notably the Wrights and Curtiss, quickly decided to pass along their hard-earned knowledge and the first flight schools were established. Every flight instructor since then […]