"We were having dinner about four months ago and I was showing Clelia some pictures I'd taken in the air, and she said, 'Oh, that's so beautiful. I want to do that,'" Ben said. Easier said than done when you're 95. [more inside]
posted by emelenjr on Jun 30, 2009 - 9 comments

Saturday Flash Hangover: Help a penguin Learn to Fly and scratch "flighless bird" from that stupid wikipedia article. [more inside]
posted by Decimask on Jun 20, 2009 - 11 comments

Ask the Pilot. Columnist Patrick Smith explains why you shouldn't be afraid of flying. [more inside]
posted by lalex on Jun 5, 2009 - 42 comments

Stories that Fly is a citizen media project that features a growing collection of digital stories about general aviation. The stories are contributed by student journalists, aviators, and interested community members and cover regional airports, events, and people in the Ohio aviation community.
posted by netbros on Mar 23, 2009 - 3 comments

Suffering from a bad case of cosmic dread? Have you voyaged too far into the midst of the black seas of infinity? Concerned about invisible abominations stalking you in the dead of night? Fortunately, there's help. (SLYT).
posted by clockworkjoe on Mar 17, 2009 - 20 comments

Hawkman of the Himalayas. British falconer Scott Mason and friends have combined paragliding and falconry into the art of parahawking. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jan 23, 2009 - 7 comments

Yes, it is that time of year again. When the ski's are filled with "Patang" and you have to do your best to keep yours up. [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy on Jan 13, 2009 - 15 comments

The Things He Carried. "Airport security in America is a sham—'security theater' designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease."
posted by chunking express on Oct 16, 2008 - 91 comments

Hurricanes, as seen from orbit. Flying straight into a Hurricane. The list of worldwide Hurricane names. The history of Hurricane names.
posted by clearly on Sep 8, 2008 - 11 comments

Above Enemy Lines (youtube 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) is a BBC Documentary about a RAF Chinook crew on their tour of duty in Afghanistan. Part 4 and 5 of the film deal with the crew attempting to rescue a wounded 19 year-old soldier from a combat zone.
posted by krautland on Sep 8, 2008 - 7 comments

Who is this Belgian man "fotoopa"? A nerd's nerd (and I say that with extreme admiration). Photopainting, Macro photography, 2004: Let's start with the simple stuff, moths (mostly at rest). Now, can you think of anything more difficult to photograph than insects in flight? 2005, 2006 (the 2006 equipment), 2008 (2008 equipment & more equipment). Images of the man working with the equipment. His Flickr photostream and new YouTube channel bears watching. (Previously)
posted by spock on Jul 24, 2008 - 13 comments

Fly high, little fish!
posted by Burhanistan on May 22, 2008 - 48 comments

BREAKING NEWS: Kasparov assailed by flying dong. Possible inspiration
posted by thirteenkiller on May 19, 2008 - 83 comments

Is solar-powered flight getting any nearer? As noted previously on Metafilter, solar powered aviation has travelled a long way since the heady days of the Gossamer Penguin. But could it actually one day power commerical flight? [more inside]
posted by MrMerlot on May 11, 2008 - 25 comments

The World's Scariest Runways. I'm sure I've seen St. Maarten highlighted on the blue before, but some of the other airport runways listed in the above article also look a little too hair-raising for my liking. At the top of the list is landing in Bhutan, but in my humble opinion, the most alarming one (albeit not used for commercial airliners), is the Matekane Airstrip in Lesotho.
posted by idiomatika on Apr 23, 2008 - 43 comments

Remember when air travel was viewed as glamorous and exciting? Of course you don't. So check out this collection of vintage flight attendant photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
posted by brain_drain on Nov 13, 2007 - 37 comments

Tired of waiting an hour for your luggage? Can't fit all your gear into a tiny suitcase? Struggling to find the perfect carry-on? OneBag can help.
posted by brain_drain on Oct 4, 2007 - 34 comments

Physicists have 'solved' mystery of levitation Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, have worked out a way of reversing ... the Casimir force, so that it repels instead of attracts. Their discovery could ultimately lead to frictionless micro-machines with moving parts that levitate. But they say that, in principle at least, the same effect could be used to levitate bigger objects too, even a person.
posted by MythMaker on Aug 19, 2007 - 30 comments

I now know what to do in case I ever got stuck on an airplane that's not going anywhere- organize and stage a revolt, like the passengers of Continental flight 1669.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Aug 16, 2007 - 82 comments

Acrobatic kite flying (Background music: Flower Duet from Lakmé’ by Delibes)
posted by growabrain on Aug 15, 2007 - 11 comments

Flying in the Alaska Bush. A photoessay of some bush flying in Alaska with a Piper Super Cub.
posted by exogenous on Aug 14, 2007 - 28 comments

Pilot tells of hairy near miss at Las Vegas airport A post on Airliners.net telling, in some detail, of a near miss between an America West Airbus A320 (piloted by the author) and an Air Canada plane at Las Vegas airport. And if that puts you off flying, to calm down, another pilot's account, of a less hair-raising flight.
posted by jontyjago on Jul 30, 2007 - 55 comments

9 Superpowers made real. [Via Digg.]
posted by homunculus on Jul 20, 2007 - 33 comments

Introducing the world’s first aircraft eco-labelling. While there are certainly several instances of other airlines doing something to off-set the carbon footprint of commercial flying, it is interesting to note that (according to the ATA) flying is the greenest form of mass transportation and ground transportation generates seven times the amount of greenhouse gases as air travel.
posted by analogue on Jun 4, 2007 - 20 comments

The Super Sky Cycle is a convertible gyrocopter that lets you fly at better than freeway speeds, land in 20 feet, be driven home as a motorcycle, and fit in your garage. It is available now for a mere $37K. Check out the flight vid, the cool MacGyver soundtrack is extra though.
Note, yes, "Super" and "Cycle" might be stretches in the name of this product. But it is still pretty damned cool. via
posted by fenriq on Apr 23, 2007 - 33 comments

The Indian Patang (pdf). Kite flying in India. Kite flying across the world. A link to the history of Kites resources. And India’s Kite flying effects on birds.
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 6, 2007 - 6 comments

Rocket Man. One three-meter wing + four model engines + one crazy Swiss dude = Yves Rossy, the world's first jet-powered flying man.
posted by gottabefunky on Jan 11, 2007 - 21 comments

Hovering in History
From the HZ-1 Aerocycle, which looks like someone standing on top of a blender, to the VZ-8P "Airgeep" to the WASP X-Jet aka The Flying Pulpit and the collapsible Rotorcycle as well as the Inspector Gadget-esque Hoppi-Copter, the Army has dropped a ton of R&D money on personal flight machines. Of course, the newer iterations of personal flying machines are no less fascinating, like the SoloTrek, but it seems the Dream of Personal Flight will remain a dream for a while longer.
posted by fenriq on Dec 3, 2006 - 22 comments

Bare naked travel? (Previously on MeFi: here, except now they're actually doing it, and here). The TSA wants to see you naked. Just don't paint "Kip Hawley Is An Idiot" on your torso in Pepto-Bismol before you go to the airport.
posted by bitter-girl.com on Dec 3, 2006 - 51 comments

Do you know how people will fly r/c planes in the future? Canadian enthusiast Dennis (aka VRFlyer) rigs up a camera and VR googles to view the flight in real time. To complete his dream of virtual flying, he then adds a gyroscope, allowing him to control the camera's pan and tilt with head movement. Dennis explains more about his method and passion for VR flying in this RC forum.
posted by MetaMonkey on Sep 26, 2006 - 32 comments

Veritas Airways , the airline that tells it like it is.
The Economist asks, "In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like?"
posted by thatwhichfalls on Sep 14, 2006 - 51 comments

New airline security regulations in the UK have taken their toll on the touring musicians who used to be able to take their delicate and/or rare instruments as carry-on luggage. Many are forced to either take their chances in the cargo hold or take ferries to countries with less restrictive security guidelines. Others contemplate staying home from touring completely. (via BBC)
posted by dr_dank on Aug 22, 2006 - 40 comments

Death of a birdman: the first man to fly in a hang glider over Everest, Siberia and Sahara, breaking altitude records, flying with eagles, cranes and condors born in captivity (Flash video), he lost his life today in a plane crash. Angelo D'Arrigo, 1961-2006.
posted by funambulist on Mar 26, 2006 - 12 comments

Safety of In-Flight Cell Phone Use Airlines are currently preparing to allow use of cell phones for in-flight calling. A Carnegie-Mellon study raises interesting questions about potential interference with critical avionics.
posted by docpops on Mar 14, 2006 - 43 comments

PIGS IN SPACE!!!! ok, well not actually in space. But flying pigs, er pig, old school. (Flickr photo set)
posted by edgeways on Feb 28, 2006 - 21 comments

David Lynch - Peace through Yogic "Flying" : Communication departments and film schools throughout the Midwest are currently being approached by representatives of David Lynch and the Marharishi School of Fairfield, Iowa. On the surface, they're out to publicize a seminar about filmmaking and the creative process. In actuality, it's part of an ongoing effort to (according to IMDb) raise $1 billion to build a world wide network of Transcendental Meditation "peace palaces". . . including head-quarters in India which will be capable of housing 40,000 followers - in the hope of bringing peace to the world through the practice of mass "yogic flying". The cost per student? $45. Related MeFi posts: 1, 2, 3
posted by aladfar on Feb 3, 2006 - 25 comments

Henri Giraud was the first to land a plane on Mont Aiguille [41.4 MB mpg], on August 27th 1957 and on Mont Blanc [32.2 MB mpg] on June 23rd 1960. [more inside]
posted by tellurian on Nov 23, 2005 - 6 comments

Gen H-4 The world smallest co-axial helicopter (Japanese site) with video here [wmv]. {via}
posted by tellurian on Oct 25, 2005 - 29 comments

Sucked in! MRI scanners are hungry for any metal objects in the nearby vicinity, with hilarious and sometimes tragic results. The roughly 10,000 scanners in the United States are found not just in hospitals, but in storefront clinics and even mounted on trucks, making rounds of small hospitals or parking at malls to do scans for a fee.
posted by asok on Aug 20, 2005 - 50 comments

Haute Voltage stunt flight (Direct .mpg. Bonus if you read Russian)
posted by growabrain on May 13, 2005 - 10 comments

No capes , no monoguing, and no ex machina. Brad Bird's 'The Incredibles' notched the clichés of the superhero genre - if not all action/adventure movies - with a thick red marker. These lists have apparently been circulating since 1994. Why do (bad) writers persist in using these plot devices?
posted by vhsiv on Mar 11, 2005 - 85 comments

A Confessional for Pilots - To improve aviation safety in America, NASA runs the ASRS, a service that collects voluntary, anonymous reports on aviation-related goofs in exchange for certain immunities and suggestions of clemency. Every month selected reports are published in the Callback newsletter, showcasing the full spectrum of factors that lead flyers to bad decisions: distraction, bad habits, overconfidence, poor planning, "get-home-itis", and on and on...
posted by tss on Feb 28, 2005 - 9 comments

French police on Sunday ended their practice of hiding plastic explosives in air passengers' luggage to train bomb-sniffing dogs after one such bag got lost, possibly ending up on a flight out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport.

WTF were they thinking? Isn't there a better way to train the dogs without making innocent people unwittingly carry plastique?
posted by Vidiot on Dec 5, 2004 - 34 comments

Want to fly free? Song may accommodate you. All you have to do is be nice.
posted by mr_crash_davis on May 19, 2004 - 5 comments

Aviation Explorer "Your online source for aviation information and media...aviation web resources for pilots and flight enthusiasts." I'm neither a pilot nor a flight enthusiast, but still found this site interesting (especially the accidents section, which reminded me of this previous thread on cockpit voice recorders).
posted by jdroth on Jan 21, 2004 - 5 comments

flying pig .. paper automatons you can make yourself.
posted by crunchland on Aug 22, 2003 - 8 comments

Mile High Dating: combining Internet dating with unlimited free flights is allowing America West employees to become jet setting bachelors (anyone can do it, but according to the story it's mostly men taking advantage of this combination). It costs them next to nothing for a weekend trip (if everything works out) but seems amazingly romantic to the women. [more inside]
posted by Irontom on Jul 9, 2003 - 15 comments

"A man can't just sit around." This summer marked the 20th anniversary of the guy tying balloons to a lawn chair and floating along two miles high, shivering and brandishing his pistol at bewildered passing airline pilots. Also this year, the historic lawn chair was finally found.
posted by luser on Nov 2, 2002 - 17 comments

The Energizer Bunny does Delta Next time you pack your adult toys, fully loaded, in your luggage, remember that they may discharge at the most inconvenient time...
posted by poorhouse on Jul 27, 2002 - 10 comments

Israel to launch flying casino Ah...there he goes again. No. This is not about middle east chaos. This is gambling for "high stakes"--casino in the air. Claimed to be a first, can this sort of thing "take off" and be established in other countries? Would you try this form of gambling?
posted by Postroad on May 28, 2002 - 10 comments