Aviation News

In a bit of sci-fi meets reality, the full-body scanner, as depicted in Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is becoming a reality. Testing of such systems has already begun in some US airports.

It looks like a plain old paper plane. But don't be fool by that. It is in fact the world-smallest unmanned flying robot help people to spy, especially for soldier to look ahead for any hidden danger.

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It seems kissing is no longer allowed on American Airlines.

In no naval action of World War 2 will you find a German aircraft carrier taking part. All the major navies in the war used them extensively, except for Nazi Germany. There were lots of German U-Boats, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, but no flattops. However, the Nazis had plans to build a total of four carriers and almost finished one...read more | digg story

Icebergs have recently been spotted off the coast of New Zealand. A cottage industry as emerged overnight as pilots fly tourists on sightseeing excursions to see the icebergs.

There is debate as to whether an increased prevalence of icebergs in warmer water could be an indication of global warming, a position held by Al Gore in his film An Inconvenient Truth. On the other hand, global warming skeptics here might say that these are merely chance occurrences due to certain weather conditions.

Foo Fighters

An interesting article about the history of CIA investigations of flying saucers. The picture above is of a supposed Foo Fighter, mysterious flying objects observed by military aircraft in World War II. An excellent repository of UFO sightings (many made from airplanes) can be found at this website.

A remote control plane is outfitted with a wireless video camera. The operator on the ground wears virtual reality goggles. With the help of a gyroscope in the goggles, the camera tilts in response to movement of the operator's head. The result is this uncanny experience of embodied flight.

Here's a nice article about flying kites. NASA has an amazing website with a variety of pages that explain how kites work.

There was a general interest article today in the New York Times business section about how to choose a flight school. It is curious to me how the editors have transposed the recent tragedy of Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle into an article about consumption and recreational flying in their "Spending" section.