When an astronaut takes over as director of an aviation museum, you can pretty much be assured that space exhibits will get more attention. That’s exactly what has happened at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. “The expanded space exhibit is something the staff really wanted to do for a long time,” says Seth! Leary, […]
The Coles’ flying station wagon
When the Cessna 190 series was introduced in the late 1940s, it was known as the Businessliner. Magazine advertisements for the four- to five-place airplane featured smiling, suit-clad men with chiseled features using the airplanes to travel across country to business meetings. The big Cessna quickly earned a reputation as a comfortable cross-country airplane. In […]
Travel back in time in Les Whittlesey’s Lockheed 12A
There’s something about a vintage airplane that just draws people to it at air shows and fly-ins. But if you want your winged beauty to take home awards, you have to make sure the airplane is more than clean – you have to make a good impression. For Les Whittlesey, a pilot and real estate […]
Arlington Fly-In on final approach
The Northwest EAA Fly-in is approaching faster than a heavily laden C-206 on short final. The fly-in is slated for July 11-15 in Arlington, Wash., north of Seattle. This year, getting to the event by ground might be more challenging, notes Executive Director Barbara Tolbert, due to roadwork in the area. “Because of this we […]
Work continues to get ‘Texas Raider” back in the air
It will be a busy summer maintenance season for members of the Gulf Coast Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. The group is the proud owner of a B-17G, “Texas Raider,” which it has spent the past several years restoring with the intent of getting it back into the air. The work was interrupted last […]
Flying into Colorado’s mountain airports soon will be easier: New system uses ADS-B to help during busy ski season
The Colorado Department of Transportation soon will provide radar-like surveillance to mountain airports in the Centennial State. The project, formally called the Colorado Air Traffic Control Beacon Interrogator (CO-ATCBI) Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) System, was undertaken because of the increase in air traffic at Colorado’s mountain airports during the ski season. During periods of inclement […]
Baffles essential to your engine’s performance
If necessity is the mother of invention, then experience is the father. Lee Budde, the owner of Airframes Inc. in Big Lake, Alaska, learned first-hand about the importance of engine baffles when the engine of his floatplane overheated during a takeoff. “It was a hot day and the aircraft I was flying had a rebuilt […]
Relocation of Florida’s Panama City Airport moves forward: State and federal grants so far total more than $139 million
The FAA has awarded a $72 million grant for the relocation of Panama City-Bay County International Airport (PFN) in Florida. Those funds will be added to $67 million in grants from the Florida Department of Transportation for the airport relocation project, which has been in the works since 1995, when a study indicated that the […]
A different kind of hangar dance
What do you get when you supply local celebrities with dance lessons and invite them to a hangar dance? You get an aviation museum fund raiser, of course. For the second year in a row, the Pearson Air Museum in Vancouver, Wash., is holding its Dancing with the Stars fund raiser. “We did it last […]