On the map it is Rainbow Canyon, west of Death Valley in California’s starkly beautiful desert. To fighter pilots and aviation photographers, it is called Star Wars Canyon, or the Jedi Transition. This is where military pilots in the western United States hone their low-level evasion tactics. Frederick A. Johnsen visited the canyon in May […]
Feature
Through the eyes of a child
By CALEB MUNDT When I took my first flight lesson over four years ago, I remember feeling a wonder at the miracle of flight. There is nothing quite like the feeling of an airplane finally reaching rotation speed and breaking contact with the ground. Over time, though, it can be easy for such experiences to […]
A great place to fly
A friendly gathering of pilots at KONX produced the consensus that the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. is a great place to fly.
Virginia helicopter hangar wins building of the year award
A helicopter hangar in Purcellville, Virginia, won the 2017 Building of the Year award for commercial buildings under 5,000 square feet from the National Frame Building Association. Hangar owner Chuck Kuhn worked with Fuog/InterBuild to design the barn-style hangar. The hangar boasts a Schweiss Doors hydraulic one-piece 55′ by 16′ designer door. The exterior Hardie Plank […]
Terrific twin T-34s
In 1987, Reid Garrison bought a shell of a T-34A Beechcraft Mentor that had been languishing in a hangar in Memphis to restore with his sons Brett and Jeff. It had no canopy, no engine, no instrument panel, and no control surfaces. This did not faze Reid. He had already restored two T-6s. And his […]
The deadly flight risk that’s often ignored
Hypoxia is a killer, robbing our blood of much-needed oxygen — and the resulting effects can be deadly.
Air Racing from the Sidelines: The rest of the (engine) story
Dispatch from Jose’s Bar and Grill on Route 66: Iconic radio broadcaster Paul Harvey was famous for his “The Rest of the Story” reports, which dug deeper into headline stories or found little known and forgotten gems of modern history. He liked to end the broadcast segment, which reached 24 million people on 1,200 radio stations, […]
A journey in the future to honor the past
Imagine more than a squadron of Douglas C-47s winging across the Atlantic in three-ship formations, joining up with 15 more from Europe and as far away as South Africa. The armada will sweep across France 75 years after the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944. That dream is the goal that animates Moreno “Mo” Aguiari, […]
Video: The debut of the Yak 110
Of Wings & Things columnist Frederick A. Johnsen sent in this video of the much-anticipated air show debut of the “Yak-110” — two Yak-55s plus a jet engine merged into one trimotor aircraft — at the Mountain Home Air Force Base airshow on June 3, 2018. “The aircraft’s air show performance is impressive,” he reports. […]