Interesting Airplanes

The aircraft magneto is a cursed thing. Its technology seemingly dates to the discovery of fire, every engine needs at leasttwo and on a dark and stormy night over the Appalachians, the last thing you want to thinkabout is how many fragile moving parts are whirling around inside a mag at the speed ofheat. But […]

Cessnahas always been a marketing-driven company, and one of the company’s signature marketingstrategies has been to offer more aircraft models than any of its competitors. Back in thedays when GA was predominantly propelled by piston powerplants, Cessna started with fourbasic models in the 1950s (140, 170, 180, 310) and exploded to some 30 different pistonmodels […]

One of the many exciting parts of EAA AirVenture Oshkoshis the opportunity to get a ride in a special aircraft. I had the good fortune to catch aride in the jump seat of Dick Thurman’s P-51 Mustang, “Tender, Slender, andTall.” Dick offered the ride while he flew both individually and as a flight of threefor […]

What a monster. What a behemoth. What a ride! TheGrumman Albatross is the biggest in the line of a fleet of fabulousflying boats. The Widgeon, Goose, Mallard and Albatross make upthe Grumman line of flying boats in ascending order of size—andsize is what the Albatross has. You’d better bring your fortyfoot ladder to pre-flight this […]

The M-26 Airwolf is built by PZL Mielec in Poland andjoins a short list of FAA Certified airplanes in the Aerobatic and Standard categories.Mielec built MIGs as a government entity during the Cold War and is now functioning as aprivate company in the newly capitalistic regime. The aircraft is constructed of 51%American made parts which […]