General

Aerial firefighting plays a crucial role in helping ground crews combat the most dangerous and violent wildfires. On more than one occasion, it has been the difference between successfully containing a wildfire and letting it endanger huge swathes of the population. Though indispensable now, throughout the history of aerial firefighting, it hasn’t always been so. […]

Since Neil Armstrong first landed on the Moon back in 1969, science fiction has often depicted a future where humans not only set foot on the Moon and other extraterrestrial bodies, but actively travel to them. This is a perfect example of what’s called space tourism, and thanks to recent flights that have taken place, it’s […]

Have you ever looked up to the sky to see a message or shape left there by an aircraft? This is known as skywriting and is something of an art form among certain groups of pilots. But what exactly is it? As the name would imply, skywriting is writing left in the sky. This is […]

If you’ve ever been to an airport, or airfield of any kind, you’ve probably noticed how clean they are. But it’s not that way by accident – there are people whose entire job is to clean up the airfield – and you’ll find it’s like this almost everywhere you go. Indeed, no matter what aircraft fly […]

If you’ve ever looked at chartering an aircraft of any kind, or have hung around pilots for long enough, you’ve probably come across or heard a fair amount of aviation jargon. But whilst a lot of pilot jargon is rather simple and easy to work out, the concept of a dead leg flight is a […]

The story of the Spruce Goose is a part of aviation lore that everyone should know. Like the story of the ill-fated HMS Titanic, it’s a story of the problems with making something that holds the title of “world’s largest.” If you were alive in the mid-1940s, you would know the name Spruce Goose. It […]

When it comes to jobs in aviation, most people tend to think pilot. But with nearly 100 million people employed in the aviation industry in some form or another, not all of them can be pilots. So what are the best jobs in aviation that aren’t a pilot? As what could be considered the “best” […]

Ethics, the moral principles that govern our behavior, play a key role in every individual’s and organization’s actions. As a result, aviation is not immune. Aviation is certainly more heavily regulated than other industries. But at its core, ethics studies why those regulations matter. Ethics is also applied much more broadly than simply following set […]

Flight attendants sometimes feel like a small buzzing army on the plane. Whatever your need, there is a smiling face ready to help, whether that is with a soothing voice, a snack, or an air sickness bag. If you’ve ever been on a flight and lost count of how many friendly flight attendants you noticed, […]

Being a smokejumper is a tough and unique job that only very few people are able to do. There are currently about 400 smokejumpers in the US alone as it is a job that comes with a lot of resilience, mental and physical strength, and solid devotion to protecting forests. Smokejumpers are practically firefighters who […]