The damage to the Boeing 737 caused rapid, violent depressurization. Passengers described a chaotic scene but Captain Shults’ “nerves of steel” allowed her to calmly land the aircraft. At the controls, Captain Shults relied on her fighter pilot training — and her history of defying the odds. Captain Shults is heard calmly telling air traffic […]
Charles Lindbergh Became the Chief Pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corporation
Lindbergh and his team completed survey flights around this date before officially inaugurating the mail service on April 15, 1926. In his chief pilot role, Lindbergh oversaw the preparations and in a de Haviland DH-4 flew the route connecting Lambert Field, in St. Louis, to Maywood Field, in Chicago, with stops in Springfield and Peoria. Lindbergh […]
Amelia Earhart’s Second Leg of Her Around-the-World Flight
On March 20, 1937, at 5:30 a.m. Earhart restarted the engines. At 5:40 a.m., she began to taxi to the northeast corner of the runway. At 5:53 a.m. with good weather and visibility 3,500 feet in pre-dawn darkness, Earhart accelerated for takeoff. The twin-engine airplane gained momentum but suddenly, at the 1,000 foot mark the […]
Rudolph W. “Shorty” Schroeder Reached World-Record Height of 33,114 Feet
On February 27, 1920,U.S. Major Rudolph W. “Shorty” Schroeder reached a world-record height of 33,114 feet in a LePere airplane fitted with a General Electric turbo-supercharger. When he removed his goggles to change oxygen flasks in order to continue breathing in the rarified atmosphere, the minus 63 degree air temperature immediately froze his eyeballs. Schroeder […]
Washington National Airport Renamed
Gulfstream G280 Set Overwater Record
“Operation Power Flite”: The First Nonstop Around-the-World Flight Completed by Three U.S. Air Force B-52 Bombers
The 52Bs launched from Castle AFB, California at 1:00 PM, and landed at March AFB, California. The flights were completed at an average speed of 534 miles per hour (859 kilometers per hour) and required multiple in-flight aerial refuelings to stay airborne. In-flight aerial refueling (AAR) transfers fuel between two aircraft mid-air, extending range and […]
First Anniversary of the Gulfstream G280’S Entry into Service
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp first announced the G280 on Oct. 5, 2008, and its first flight took place on Dec. 11, 2009. The flight lasted 3 hours and 21 minutes and the aircraft flew to 32,000 feet or 9,754 meters. The G280 earned its type certificate from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Aug. 30, […]
Airline Deregulation Act of 1978
Post World War II, the then federal Civil Aviation Board (CAB) regulated all interstate flight routes, schedules, and fares. The Act allowed existing regulations from the CAB and state governments to be gradually eliminated, benefiting the airlines and consumers. New airlines entered the market with improved business models that offered new routes at competitive fares […]
The First Omnirange Airways
Before Global Positioning System (GPS), airplanes in the United States relied on VORs to fly and in poor weather pilots would navigate from one VOR to another. Each VOR is a small radio station that broadcasts on an assigned frequency. For instance, the Canarsie VOR near the JFK airport covers New York; the Robert’s VOR […]