There aren’t many airborne hobbies you can get into for under 10 grand, in fact there’s only one that I can think of apart from bridge-based suicide attempts. It’s called Powered Paragliding and as the name suggests, it involves paragliding with power.
The Messerschmitt Me 323 D was the single largest fixed-wing aircraft of WWII, this behemoth had a maximum carrying capacity of 20 tonnes, was powered by…
The SR-71 Blackbird was so incredibly quick, that when it detected a surface to air missile launch, the pilot simply hit the throttle and accelerated to out run the missile, using raw speed as it’s primary defence mechanism.
The Vought F4U Corsair was originally built in 1940 and went on to see the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history. During WWII, the Japanese Zero pilots considered the Corsair to be formidable, with many fearing it far more than the P-51 Mustang.
The Bugatti 100P is a glimpse into what might have been, this groundbreaking and deeply revolutionary plane was developed by Ettore Bugatti and Louis de Monge in Paris in 1937, with…
Zenith Aircraft Co. builds some of the toughest kit aircraft in the world, they’re relied on by pilots from Alaska to Africa to Australia and have become known as the “Jeep of the Skies” by the pilots who fly them.
This is one of those photographs I can spend few minutes looking at, the sparks and the sense of motion carry through the lens so well in some images and this is a great example.
The B-17 Boeing Flying Fortress was notorious amongst the German Luftwaffe during the second world war, it’s ability to withstand staggering levels of damage and stay airborne still circulate over 70 years later.
Having your own plane is often a hobby left to the wealthy, although it doesn’t always need to be. This plane, the Kitfox, can be ordered as a kit plane for under $20,000 USD and built in your garage.
Powered parachutes are one of the safest ways of taking to the air, the parachute acts like a wing and provides lift but it also provides a huge safety benefit, if anything goes wrong you already have a deployed parachute overhead, so you just drift down to the ground.
This is the first time video was shot from an airborne aircraft, exactly how they mounted the camera to the flimsy Wright Flyer is anybody’s guess. The footage lasts just over 30 seconds and shows the take-off, climb and a bank before cutting out.
Kit planes have always held a certain fascination for me, the idea that a person can order a flat-pack kit on the internet, assemble it in their garage and then take to the skies like a modern day Howard Hughes is so cool it should probably be illegal.
