In the 1960s the Cold War was heating up and after the shot down of Gary Powers by a Soviet missile, while he was flying in the U-2, the USA needed a new kind of airplane. The SR-71 was developed as a black project, a highly classified project by Lockheed Corporation from the Lockheed A-12…
Tag: plane
A story of espionage in the Cold War era
The single-seat, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft Lockheed U2 that took of for the first time 66 years ago is one of the aircraft that drones and satellites were intended to replace but is still flying missions in an environment no other aircraft can operate in. This single-engine aircraft was operated by Central Intelligence Agency, NASA, Republic…
How do airlines schedule flights?
Have you ever wondered why does your flight departs at certain time of the day? Do you think there’s a reason why when you take a transatlantic flight, it departs in the morning in Europe or in the afternoon in America? It’s all part of a complex scheme called “Airline scheduling”. The time a flight…
The engineering behind the Sr71 Blackbird
It’s the higher flier, the fastest and most slippery, it’s the Blackbird. But have you ever wondered what’s behind its records? Have you ever thought about the insane engineering behind one of those engines? The Sr-71 Blackbird, known between its pilots as Habu, is the conventional plane with higher flight roof, higher top speed and…
What is Sustainable Aviation Fuel?
The aviation industry is a big polluter of our World, accounting for approximately 2-3% of the manmade global carbon emissions and that means we need to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions in the following years. This is an urgent situation because of the growth of air traffic in the past years and the predicted…
James H. Doolittle
Today’s turn its for one of that people that deserves his own Hollywood movie, meet James H. Doolittle. Born in California in 1896, Doolittle was a short kid, such thing made him being bullied by his classmates till he started boxing, turning de odds and giving him a strong personality but his first contact with…
How do airlines afford new aircraft?
One thing is for sure, planes are expensive, so how airlines afford to own such big fleets? Some companies are buying the plane but usually, companies are leasing the aircraft from leasers all over the World. This happens for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them and to provide…
Zeppelin, a throwback to the past
Imagine you could lift from the floor just attaching yourself to some balloons, even that this sounds fantastic, something like this was in fashion during the first third of the 20th century, let me tell you about Zeppelins. Most of you could remember these flying crafts with the dark aura of the Great War or…
Post pandemic recovery of airlines
As we know, 2020 was a tough year for the travel industry, the hospitality sector is still struggling to get back on track, cruise ships are still in harbors with very few of them starting to sail and many airplanes are still grounded due to the lack of demand. In 2020 after COVID-19 struck the…
The danger of volcanic ash in air traffic
As some of you may probably know, a volcano erupted in the Canary island of La Palma, causing its airport to be closed and many planes and routes to be redirected as the ashes reach the atmosphere. But why is it dangerous? For this article, I will be analyzing from lower hazard to higher. First,…