A temporary flight restriction (TFR) around Vice President Richard Cheney’s new house could end up being permanent – at least until the next election. Cheney recently bought an 18th century house named Mount Misery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. On Nov. 22, a TFR with a one-nautical-mile radius and a ceiling of 1,500 feet was established […]
Goodyear to launch new airship
A new blimp will take to the skies next Spring. The new airship has been in production for the past two years as a replacement for the Stars & Stripes, one of four Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. blimps. The new blimp will be based at Pompano Beach, Fla. The Goodyear blimps are celebrating their […]
NASA flying wing model soars in historic wind tunnel
Ask anyone what an airplane looks like and most will tell you a tube with wings. NASA researchers are trying to expand that image, testing a design for a flying wing called a blended wing body. Technicians have installed a 5% scale model of a blended wing body in the Langley Full-Scale Tunnel at NASA’s […]
Pole-topole flight scrubbed
A contaminant found in the fuel of Gus McLeod’s Firefly appears to be sabotage. The mysterious incident has forced further postponement of McLeod’s planned pole-to-pole solo flight around the world. “After an analysis of the contamination, and cutting the tanks open for inspection, the verdict is inescapable,” the Maryland pilot said. “The fuel was contaminated with a […]
Slick Goodin, 82
Chalmers H. “Slick” Goodlin, a Bell test pilot originally set to become the first man to exceed Mach 1, died of cancer at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., Oct. 20. He was 82. Goodlin made 26 subsonic flights in the rocket-powered Bell X-1-1 and X-1-2, reaching Bell’s contractual speed of Mach 0.8. When […]
Robert E. Bush, 79
Robert E. Bush died Nov. 8 near Olympia, Wash. He was 79. He earned the Medal of Honor during World War II fighting on Okinawa, where he lost an eye – and nearly his life – while treating a wounded Marine Corps officer and holding off charging Japanese troops at the same time. He was […]
One size does not fit all: Mineta says no to user fees
The FAA’s funding problems won’t be solved by user fees if Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has any say in the matter. “I can tell you right now, from my perspective, the solution will not be user fees,” Mineta told more than 1,000 pilots at the opening session of the AOPA Expo earlier this month. “The […]
Cirrus outsells Cessna — again
Year-to-date shipments released by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) confirm Cirrus Design Corp.’s “dominant position” as the market leader in high-performance, single-engine, four-place airplanes. “For the past three years the Cirrus SR22 has been the world’s best selling airplane,” said John M. Bingham, executive vice president of sales and marketing. “We’re pleased that our […]
Time to get real: Zealous regulators are hazards to aviation
In olden times – that’s 60 to 70 years ago – wrist watches with glow-in-the-dark radium numbers were popular. Whether we wore a Timex or a Rolex, that’s what we wanted. In those days, many aircraft instruments glowed in the dark. That, too, was accomplished with minute amounts of radium-226. Thousands of World War II […]