Airplanes - Page 15

Can civilians own fighter jets? Yes: about 1,000 vintage jets are privately owned in the US. Where they come from, what they cost and who can fly them.

At the height of the Cold War, the strategic reconnaissance aircraft was a convenient piece of equipment. In the days before spy satellites and drones, one of the only ways to know what your enemy was doing was to fly over and have a look. But doing so was extremely dangerous. Several branches of the

People associate the Navy with ships and submarines. However, the Navy relies on a wide range of vehicles, including aircraft. In fact, the Navy has more planes compared to ships. The US Navy has over 3,700 operational aircraft and just 290 combat vessels, such as warships. The Navy’s fleet of planes consists of many different

Manufacturers dream about being the one to design the world’s largest, longest and heaviest airplane. Bigger is better, right? But where is the limit? And how big is too big? This is a list of 6 planes that turned out to be just that. Over history aerospace companies have battled to create the giant of

The average passenger airliner costs between $82 and $230 million. Even a single-engine plane costs upwards of $100,000. While airplanes are incredibly expensive, the average new car costs just $36,000. This leads many people to wonder why airplanes are so expensive to make. TLDR – The high cost of a passenger airliner is partly due

Several thousand airplanes are produced each year to accommodate airlines and airplane operators across the globe. From massive 747s to single-engine planes, there are close to 10,000 planes in the sky at any given time. TLDR – Most airplanes are delivered by flying the plane directly to its new destination, which may also involve refueling

Looking at a propeller airplane whilst the engines are on, it is impossible to tell the direction they spin. Do all propellers spin the same way? And what if there is more than one? Read on to find out… TLDR – The propellers on most airplanes spin clockwise, when viewed from behind the engine. This

Will planes fly in snow? Yes. What stops them is a dirty wing, a slick runway or low visibility, not inches. See the real limits, with data.

Do planes float on water? Most airliners do, for minutes, not hours. What keeps them up, how long real ditched jets floated, and why most then sink.

Like car, truck, or computer manufacturers, airplane makers struggle to come up with a recognizable brand for their products. Boeing has been incredibly successful at doing this since they carved out a niche in the passenger jet market in the 1960s. Today, Boeing planes are recognizable the world over just by the mention of their