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Webcast Alert: Southwest Airlines Co. Annual Meeting of Shareholders
16 May 2008 at 2:00pm
Alaska Airlines Delivers Season's First Copper River Salmon to Seattle at Day...
16 May 2008 at 1:41pm
Investigate Udom Alarmed By Reports of Poor Oversight of Thai Aviation - 4,30...
15 May 2008 at 6:05pm
United Airlines Offers Inter-Island Hawaii Flights with New Hawaiian Airlines...
15 May 2008 at 4:00pm
Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation Names New Director of Training and Develop...
15 May 2008 at 3:53pm
Singapore Airlines' Inaugural All-Business Class Service Takes Flight
15 May 2008 at 3:00pm
iPod & iPhone Connectivity Now Available on Singapore Airlines
15 May 2008 at 2:58pm

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Argonne Anti-Jet-Lag Diet Helps Summer Travelers Beat Jet Lag
16 May 2008 at 2:50pm
AirTran Airways and Bill Me Later Partner for Summer Travel Promotion
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Our Mission:
To create the most complete and definitive source of information about the past and present of Flying.

Our Goal:
To be your source for Flying related information. We will supply our visitors with up to date news, stories, and information in the Flying/Aviation News Links section above.

Flying/Aviation:
Flying or Aviation encompasses all the activities relating to airborne devices created by human ingenuity, generally known as aircraft. These activities include the organizations and regulatory bodies as well as the personnel related with the operation of aircraft and the industries involved in airplane manufacture, development, and design.

Many cultures have built devices that travel through the air, from the earliest projectiles such as stones and spears, to more sophisticated buoyant or aerodynamic devices such as the boomerang in Australia, the hot air Kongming lantern, and kites. There are early legends of human flight such as the story of Icarus, and later, more credible claims of short-distance human flights including a kite flight by Yuan Huangtou in China, and the parachute flight and controlled glider flight of Abbas Ibn Firnas (Armen Firman).

The modern age of aviation began with the first untethered human lighter-than-air flight on November 21, 1783, in a hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers.

The practicality of balloons was limited because they could only travel downwind. It was immediately recognized that a steerable, or dirigible, balloon was required. Although several airships, as steerable balloons came to be called, were built during the 1800s, the first aircraft to make routine flights were made by the Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. Santos-Dumont effectively combined an elongated balloon with an internal combustion engine. On October 19, 1901 he became world famous when he flew his airship "Number 6" over Paris to win the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize. Santos-Dumont's success with airships proved that controlled and sustained flight was possible.

On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers flew the first fully-documented, successful powered, heavier-than-air flight, though their aircraft was impractical to fly for more than a short distance because of control problems. The widespread adoption of ailerons made aircraft much easier to manage, and only a decade later, at the start of World War I, heavier-than-air powered aircraft had become practical for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and even attacks against ground positions.

Aircraft began to transport people and cargo as designs grew larger and more reliable. In contrast to small non-rigid blimps, giant rigid airships became the first aircraft to transport passengers and cargo over great distances. The best known aircraft of this type were manufactured by the German Zeppelin company.

The most successful Zeppelin was the Graf Zeppelin. It flew over one million miles, including an around-the-world flight in August of 1929. However, the dominance of the Zeppelins over the airplanes of the that period, which had a range of only a few hundred miles, was diminishing as airplane design advanced. The "Golden Age" of the airships ended on June 6, 1937 when the Hindenburg caught fire killing 36 people. Although there have been periodic initiatives to revive their use, airships have seen only niche application since that time.

Great progress was made in the field of aviation during the 1920s and 1930s, such as Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight in 1927. One of the most successful designs of this period was the Douglas DC-3 which became the first airliner that was profitable carrying passengers exclusively, starting the modern era of passenger airline service. By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports, and there were numerous qualified pilots available. The war brought many innovations to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets.

After WWII, especially in North America, there was a boom in general aviation, both private and commercial, as thousands of pilots were released from military service and many inexpensive war-surplus transport and training aircraft became available. Manufacturers such as Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft expanded production to provide light aircraft for the new middle class market.

Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel to space on April 12, 1961, while Neil Armstrong was the first to set foot on the moon on July 21, 1969.

Since the 1960s, composite airframes and quieter, more efficient engines have become available, but the most important innovations have taken place in instrumentation and control. The arrival of solid-state electronics, the Global Positioning System, satellite communications, and increasingly small and powerful computers and LED displays, have dramatically changed the cockpits of airliners and, increasingly, of smaller aircraft as well. Pilots can navigate much more accurately and view terrain, obstructions, and other nearby aircraft on a map or through synthetic vision, even at night or in low visibility.

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to make a spaceflight, opening the possibility of an aviation market outside the earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, flying prototypes of aircraft powered by alternative fuels, such as ethanol, electricity, and even solar energy, are becoming more common and may soon enter the mainstream, at least for light aircraft.

Civil Aviation:
Inludes all non-military flying, both general aviation and scheduled air transport.

General Aviation:
Includes all non-scheduled civil flying, both private and commercial. Because of the huge range of activities, it is difficult to cover general aviation with a simple description — general aviation may include business flights, private aviation, flight training, ballooning, parachuting, gliding, hang gliding, aerial photography, foot-launched powered hang gliders, air ambulance, crop dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting, police air patrols and forest fire fighting.

Each country regulates aviation differently, but general aviation usually falls under different regulations depending on whether it is private or commercial and on the type of equipment involved.

Many small aircraft manufacturers, including Cessna, Piper, Diamond, Mooney, Cirrus Design, Raytheon, and others serve the general aviation market, with a focus on private aviation and flight training.

The most important recent developments for small aircraft (which form the bulk of the GA fleet) have been the introduction of advanced avionics (including GPS) that were formerly found only in large airliners, and the introduction of composite materials to make small aircraft lighter and faster. Ultralight and homebuilt aircraft have also become increasingly popular for recreational use, since in most countries that allow private aviation, they are much less expensive and less heavily regulated than certified aircraft.

Military Aviation:
Simple balloons were used as surveillance aircraft as early as the 18th century. Over the years, military aircraft have been built to meet ever increasing capability requirements. Manufacturers of military aircraft compete for contracts to supply their government's arsenal. Aircraft are selected based on factors like cost, performance, and the speed of production.

Air Traffic Control (ATC):
Involves communication with aircraft to help maintain separation — that is, they ensure that aircraft are sufficiently far enough apart horizontally or vertically for no risk of collision. Controllers may co-ordinate position reports provided by pilots, or in high traffic areas (such as the United States) they may use RADAR to see aircraft positions.

There are generally three different types of ATC:

* Control Towers (including tower, ground control, clearance delivery, and other services), which control aircraft within a small distance (typically 10-15 km horizontal, and 1,000 m vertical) of an airport.
* Terminal Controllers, who control aircraft in a wider area (typically 50-80 km) around busy airports.
* Centre Controllers, who control aircraft enroute between airports.

ATC is especially important for aircraft flying under Instrument flight rules (IFR), where they may be in weather conditions that do not allow the pilots to see other aircraft. However, in very high-traffic areas, especially near major airports, aircraft flying under Visual flight rules (VFR) are also required to follow instructions from ATC.

In addition to separation from other aircraft, ATC may provide weather advisories, terrain separation, navigation assistance, and other services to pilots, depending on their workload.

ATC does not control all flights. The majority of VFR flights in North America are not required to talk to ATC (unless they are passing through a busy terminal area or using a major airport), and in many areas, such as northern Canada, ATC services are not available even for IFR flights at lower altitudes.

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