NASA breaks scientific boundaries… in ballooning.
Nature profiles the amazing new high-atmosphere vehicle for exploring space from Antarctica: If all continues smoothly, experts expect the flight to last for 100 days […]
aeronautics
New flying car has landed.
You probably know about the Moller SkyCar and you might have heard of the Terrafugia “roadable plane.” Well, now, The Guardian is reporting on a […]
Science Art: Fig. 2 from “Drawings, views and engine of the Levasseur transatlantic plane” in NACA Aircraft Circular #50, Levasseur 8 Transatlantic Airplane, 1927.
Click to embiggen This is from a government report – from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a precursor to NASA – on L’Oiseau Blanc, […]
Helium-filled planes take off.
New Scientist rises swiftly to break the news of hybrid aircraft that combine helicopters, planes, hovercrafts and blimps: The peculiar aircraft is currently undergoing feasibility […]
Science Art: First test flight with an aerostat at Annonay
From “Collection 476, 1re série” collector cards showing the history of ballooning. They were printed in France sometime before 1900. The Montgolfier Brothers flew their […]
Science Art: Plate 2527 Guarda (a mechanism for protecting airships), by Charles A.A. Dellschau, 1912.
Click to embiggen This may be an important historical record of the early days of aeronautics, or it may be a vivid fantasy by a […]
Newest new Zeppelin is taking test flights. And *landings*.
It’s the first rigid-body airship since the Hindenburg, says the Register. And the military is banking on Pelican to change the way we fly: The […]
We built a blimp to hunt Bigfoot….
Oh, yes we did. We’ve already used zeppelins to hunt for aliens (or at least meteorite strikes). And now, MSNBC tells us, we’ve got an […]
Science Art: Paillettes de glace eclairées par les rayons du soleil observées en ballon, by M. Albert Tissandier
Click to embiggen When you’re a pioneering aviator, it pays to have a brother who’s an illustrator. From the Tissandier collection in the Library of […]
A zeppelin for hunting space rocks.
No, McClatchy ain’t making this up. Members of SETI and NASA are using an airship to seek traces of meteorites – and, possibly, alien life: […]
Science Art: Bosch Magneto ad, Aeronautics, July, 1912
Click to embiggen In 1912, aeronautics was a sport. And the athletes had to start their engines somehow… so Bosch, now known mostly for their […]
Senators demand giant blimp. (No, really.)
Wired’s Danger Room takes a long look at the Blue Devil project – a 370-foot-long airship that, if some legislators have their way, will be […]
Happy birthday, zeppelin!
Wired celebrates the anniversary of that very special day, March 14, 1899, when Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin got the U.S. patent for his design for […]
Riding airships into orbit.
Discovery is looking up to a way to get satellites into orbit using balloons instead of rockets: …[T]he now-retired NASA space shuttle was the Hindenburg […]
Science Art: Aerostatic Cabriolet of Tomorrow, by Harry Grant Dart, c. 1905.
Click to embiggen Harry Grant Dart was an illustrator, newspaperman and creator of “The Explorigator” comic strip… and a man in the suffragette era who […]