September 8, 1993 • 25m
From Cierva's breakthrough in autogyro design, to the state-of-the-art BK-117, the heart of the helicopter story has been the roto...Read more
September 15, 1993 • 25m
By the 1930s, flying boats – massive, airborne ocean liners – opened up global routes for passenger service, while the floatplanes...Read more
September 22, 1993 • 25m
Conventional airplanes need large runways for takeoff and landing, a limitation that concerned defense planners. As turbine engine...Read more
September 29, 1993 • 25m
When the small tail surface wings which enable an airplane to go up or down are moved to the front, they are called canards. It is...Read more
October 6, 1993 • 25m
Many times in aviation history the ultimate test of aircraft and pilot was to fly around the world. Competition and showmanship al...Read more
October 20, 1993 • 25m
In the early days of flying, instrumentation was crude. A weighted silk stocking tied to a strut could help the pilot gauge his ai...Read more
October 27, 1993 • 25m
In their quest for flight efficiency, some designers thought the ideal shape would be just a wing, nothing else, flying through th...Read more
November 3, 1993 • 25m
Two years after the first manned flight, the Wrights mastered control sufficiently to fly the first circle – a major aviation adva...Read more
November 10, 1993 • 25m
During WWII, the Germans introduced the Messerschmitt 262, and the British the Gloster Meteor. With these first operational jet fi...Read more
November 17, 1993 • 25m
Airmail pioneers demonstrated to a public already infatuated with flying, that airplanes had a bright commercial future. They led ...Read more
November 24, 1993 • 25m
In the 1920s when just about anyone could afford a car, interest grew in a safe, inexpensive airplane that anyone could fly. Conve...Read more
December 1, 1993 • 25m
From the early years of flight until the late 1930s, air racing was the single most important testing ground for engineering advan...Read more
December 8, 1993 • 25m
The Wright brothers realized that a propeller was a rotating wing – giving it a twist made it practical. By the mid 1930s, variabl...Read more