Aviation Blog - Page 95

One of the mystical things about airplanes is autopilot. We hear about it in movies, and we know it’s there, but what does it do and how does it do it? When you’re on an airliner, how much of the time is the pilot flying the plane? What is Autopilot? Autopilots are pretty simple devices

The elevator on a plane controls pitch: pull back and the tail goes down, so the nose comes up. Trim tabs, stabilators, canards and V-tails explained.

There are more than a hundred different types of clouds. Luckily, they aren’t hard to learn because they are categorized in a very logical order. Once you learn a few basic definitions, you’ll be identifying every cloud in the sky with no problems. Clouds are classified based on their physical characteristics, and further on where

The airplane rudder controls yaw, swinging the nose left or right. How it works, why it does not turn the plane, and the moments pilots need it most.

Have you ever sat on an airliner and wondered where the power comes from? Everything is electric, from the reading lights to the entertainment screens. It’s relatively easy to see how the enormous turbine engines produce thrust. But the power and hot air produced by those Jet-A guzzling monsters are used to power many onboard

For years fighter jets were required to have two engines. That recently changed with the development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The most advanced fighter jet in the world is a single engine plane again. Is one engine better after all? The first fighter jets were powered by single engines designed for air-to-air combat

Aeromedical factors are the study of how the human body works when flying a plane. Quite a few things change for our bodies once our feet leave the ground. Perhaps one of the most apparent challenges we face at altitude is the reduced amount of oxygen. What is Hypoxia? Hypoxia is simply the medical term

Low-cost budget airlines can be tricky to maintain. You somehow need to maintain a balance between profitability and profit. From 1981 to 1987, People Express tried to walk that tightrope before teetering into bankruptcy. Of course, it’s what happened in between either end of that high wire economic balancing act that makes their story live

If there is one name that’s been dominating military aircraft development the last few decades, it is Lockheed Martin. Surprisingly though, the list of fighter jets made by the company is not all that long. Only 9 aircraft made it onto this list. Lockheed Martin is an aerospace, military support, security, and advanced technologies company

What is a contrail? A cloud of ice crystals made from jet exhaust. Why only some planes leave one, the three types, and their real climate effect.