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When I was growing up in the 1950s, those boring, golden years between the unmitigated glory of World War II and the current mass hysteria we call modern life, my father had a veritable library of succinct phrases to suit each child-rearing challenge. At the blink of an eye, he could lapse into Autophrase Select […]

I loathe puns and shun those who wield them in lieu of wit. If you could see me … well, it means my computer camera’s on again, and I won’t apologize for the kombucha-stained yoga pants. Still, you’d quiver at the intense disapproval my face exudes at this article’s title. That expression may have an […]

I usually write the weekly AVweb poll early on Sunday morning, sometimes before the caffeine jolt has fully engaged. Later in the day, I come back to it and test the poll plumbing by making my own selection. To this week’s Would You Fly a 737 MAX Now?, I answered an unconsidered yes. But before […]

The beauty of unfettered capitalism, especially American capitalism, is that it’s usually good at what it’s supposed to do: efficiently replicating capital in a consumption-driven economic system designed for infinite growth. Nice theory, but before you know it, the Chinese own half of your aviation industry even if investors have soured on what was once […]

As a kid relegated to the wayback in a 56 Plymouth wagon, I’d hang over the tailgate to watch the New Jersey Turnpike unroll beneath my imagination.  Inside my brain, permanently fogged with tetraethyly leaded exhaust fumes, the highway was a runway, and I was a B-17 tail gunner experiencing flight in reverse. Alone, I’d […]

America, America may God thy gold refine‘Til all success be noblenessAnd every gain divined –Katherine Lee Bates All flying machines have their own unique sound signatures. If you were blindfolded, you probably couldn’t tell the difference between a 737 and an A320. But unique in the world of aviation is the sound of a Bell […]

In the game of life and evolution there are three players at the table: human beings, nature and machines. I am firmly on the side of nature. But nature, I suspect, is on the side of the machines. –George Dyson, historian The other night I was watching an amusing program called James May: Our Man […]

I once made a landing that was so bad the Earth winced. At least that’s what I inferred from the tower when the controller drawled, “Cessna 72A, if able, taxi to parking.” ATC sarcasm is a thin gruel best served cold, but I admit it must’ve turned heads the way the nosewheel shimmied as I […]

Sometime around 1996, the aviation industry flipped a group-think switch and decided what the world really needed was some very light jets. A whole lot of very light jets. Fast forward and the story leads right through the development last week that the assets of one those companies—Eclipse Aerospace—may sell for the paltry sum of […]

My friend, Paul Bertorelli, recently produced the best line in aviation literature, even better than Lindbergh’s description of the North Atlantic on his historic 1927 solo flight: “Holy cow, that’s a lot of water! What was I thinking?!” Tough to top, but Paul encapsulated the thoughts of every pilot of a certain age when he […]