Aviation Blog - Page 15

Kobe Bryant helicopter crash: the NTSB found no mechanical failure and no pressure from Bryant. What happened in the cloud over Calabasas and what changed.

An ekranoplan flies a few feet above the water on a cushion of air, yet US law and the IMO class it as a vessel. How ground effect works, and why.

The NORAD Santa tracker began with a 1955 wrong number, but not the way the legend tells it. Here is the real origin and the radar, satellites and jets.

Abandoned airports ranked by fame: Kai Tak, Tempelhof and Stapleton lead 16 closed airports, from city parks to ruins sealed in a UN buffer zone.

Saudi air force fleet in 2026: every fighter, tanker and spy plane the RSAF flies, ranked by fighting value, plus the 48 F-35s before Congress.

Types of flaps in aviation: plain, split, slotted and Fowler, plus Krueger, Junkers and Zap flaps. How each adds lift and which aircraft use them.

The smallest planes in the world, ranked by wingspan: the 5-foot-6 Bumble Bee II, the Baby Bird, the Cri-Cri, the BD-5J jet and the XF-85 Goblin.

The Boeing 737 MAX 10 gets 12 lie-flat Aurora Suites at Alaska in 2028, but the FAA paused the jet’s certification the day before the reveal.

Boeing won the Navy’s F/A-XX on September 29, 2026, on top of the F-47. The company that lost the F-35 in 2001 now builds both US sixth-gen fighters.

The best fighter pilots in the world, ranked: Erich Hartmann’s 352 victories, the Red Baron, Kozhedub, Richard Bong and 11 more aces, with records checked.