Aviation Blog - Page 62

To most people, a pilot’s license is a pilot’s license. To pilots, however, it’s somewhat different, with different pilot ratings allowing pilots to fly different types of aircraft under different circumstances and conditions. It should be noted that the types of pilot ratings that exist differ from country to country, with some licenses simply not

If there’s one thing aviation’s full of, it’s acronyms. Pretty much everything has one. But arguably none are more important, to both pilots and non pilots alike, than GSE. That’s because they are arguably what keeps the airfield – no matter if it’s one of the world’s largest or one of the smallest – running

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 Spruce Goose flew once, on November 2, 1947. Here are the H-4 Hercules specs, why it never flew again, and where Howard Hughes’ flying boat sits today.

Many people realize that drag is a factor in how something looks or how sleek it is. But aircraft make many different kinds of drag. So to design a plane, or even just to operate one, you have to have an idea of what makes each type of drag better or worse. What is Drag

Everyone knows that pilots speak a language all their own, full of jargon and acronyms for everything. Weather reports are one of the worst offenders. Many of these codes and abbreviations are holdouts from the days of faxed text-only weather reports between air traffic controllers and forecasters. A SIGMET is a weather report of hazardous

Push-pull aircraft are supposedly the best of both worlds. They have the increased reliability and peace of mind of multi-engines whilst often maintaining the aerodynamic qualities and efficiencies of single engine aircraft when the engines are set out in a “centerline thrust” configuration. Most aircraft built up until this point have been powered by a

Ever since Igor Sikorsky invented the first helicopter back in 1939, literally hundreds of helicopters have been produced. Some of the helicopters have become wildly famous, whilst others are barely footnotes in the pages of history. The world’s most famous helicopters are so for many different, yet often interrelated, reasons, including: Our list includes both

It’s no secret that aircraft are loud. Over the last few decades, we’ve seen governments attempt to limit how loud aircraft can be at airports, especially those close to highly built-up areas. Whilst most modern commercial jet aircraft easily comply with these regulations, many older jets do not, and as such, risk being banned from

“We have clearance, Clarence. Roger, Roger. What’s our vector, Victor?” You might be a pilot if you’ve heard that line from the 1980 movie Airplane! repeated a million times. Like all great laugh-out-loud lines, there’s some truth in the humor–pilots really do speak in their own language sometimes. A vector in aviation is simply a