From a humble start (aren’t they all though?) Okanagan Helicopters has a remarkable history that includes, “the first unaccompanied commercial helicopter ferry flight from Canada to the UK, monitoring polar bears in the High Arctic, providing offshore oil rig support during monsoons, and, at the company’s high point, operations in over 33 countries with 600 […]
History
Book: The 25 Most Influential Aircraft of All Time
If you had to pick what you believed were the 25 most influential aircraft of all time, could you do it? Could you limit it to just 25? Are there 25? For that matter, what you believe to be influential might be vastly different from a list compiled by Bill Lear or Bill Boeing. A […]
Eight random facts about the Piper Cub
It is safe to say that hundreds of thousands of pilots learned to fly in a Piper Cub. For many non-pilots, the Piper Cub is the entirety of small aircraft aviation — like Kleenex is to facial tissue. 2017 marks the 80th anniversary of the J-3. As a tribute to that milestone, following are eight […]
Just released: ‘White Pearl, Red Sea’
Just released in time for the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor is “White Pearl, Red Sea: The Attack on Pearl Harbor — Two Sides to Every Battle” by Douglas Westfall and Ryozo Kimihira. Subtitled “The Memoirs of Sgt. Milton Verberg and Lt. Zenji Abe,” the story is told through the words of the two […]
New book looks at ‘Milestones of Flight’
The National Air and Space Museum has the preeminent collection of aircraft anywhere. A new book – Milestones of Flight – looks at 29 legendary aircraft from the 1903 Wright Flyer to the MQ-1L Predator drone. While powered flight has a relatively short history, the achievements made are remarkable. Milestones of Flight uses the National […]
All X-Bombers and X-Fighters in one place
Few things capture the aerospace imagination like experimental aircraft. And few went to the edge like the United States Air Force. Steve Pace’s new book, The Big Book of X-Bombers and X-Fighters, showcases all of the USAF jet-powered X-bombers and X-fighters that have flown since 1942. More than 90 aircraft, including a few “could have […]
Entertainment, education all around
What do the 1929 Powder Puff Derby, the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, the adventures of an airplane fanatic, the de Havilland Mosquito, and drones all have in common? All of these topics — and many more — have recently crossed my desk over the last few weeks. You see, general aviation is vast. Simply put, if it flies […]
‘Higher, Orville, higher!’
Spoiler Alert: The final paragraph of The Wright Brothers is my favorite. “They took off, soaring over Huffman Prairie at about 350 feet for a good six minutes, during which the Bishop’s only words were, “Higher, Orville, higher!” “They” were Orville Wright and his father Bishop Milton Wright. The Bishop was eighty-two years old at the […]
Senate passes CAP Congressional Gold Medal bill
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. – A bill to honor Civil Air Patrol’s World War II veterans with a Congressional Gold Medal passed the U.S. Senate Monday night under unanimous consent after gaining the necessary co-sponsors needed for consideration. The bill, S. 309, recognizes the contributions of CAP’s pilots and other members who served during the war. Predating the U.S. Air Force, […]