SkyVector Conquers the World!

SkyVector is pleased to unveil its world wide charts. Years in development, these charts will be refreshed every 28 days with updated aeronautical data. The charts come in three styles. Because they are far from perfect, we're calling them Beta. We need your help to find and fix all the little things. World VFR: This chart is a "Sectional-style" VFR chart for use at low levels. For the United States, official FAA charts have been thoughtfully stitched together. For the rest of the… (skyvector.com) More...

Student Balloon Photographs Shuttle Launch From Edge of Space

A camera-toting balloon captured dramatic photos of NASA's shuttle Discovery streaking into orbit on its final flight yesterday (Feb. 24), snapping the images from the edge of space as part of a non-profit student project. (www.space.com) More...

NASA WB-57 Causes stir on 9/11 over Houston

Several Houstonians grew concerned after spotting a plane circling in the city on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But officials confirmed that the plane was simply a NASA test aircraft. The aircraft was flying at about 49,000 feet in a racetrack-like pattern near Hobby Airport, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford. (www.chron.com) More...

Second Super Secret X-37B Space Plane Blasts Into Orbit

A sister plane to the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle that returned from a month-long mission in December, was launched into the heavens Saturday atop an Atlas V rocket. (gizmodo.com) More...

NASA's 3rd WB-57 flies again after 41 years

NASA 926 and NASA 928 are the only two WB-57s still flying in the world today although this week NASA added a third aircraft. WB-57 serial number 63-13295 was removed from Davis Monthan AMARG ( 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group) for restoration in Colorado.Springs. It has been re-designated NASA 927 and flew for the first time in 41 years this past week. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NASA927 (globalaviationresource.com) More...

Search underway for 3 Canadians after plane missing in Antarctica

The Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand is leading the search after the Twin Otter aircraft’s emergency locator transmitter was activated about 10 p.m. Tuesday. Weather is said to be hampering efforts to locate the plane, which is equipped with cold-weather survival gear. “It’s a pretty inaccessible spot. It’s on a plateau about 13,000 feet high,” rescue centre spokesman Steve Rendle said. The plane was travelling from the South Pole to an Italian base at Terra Nova Bay. The three… (www.torontosun.com) More...

Realtime Tracking of Hurricane Hunter Flights & Data

Live in browser tracking of both NOAA and USAFR Hurricane Hunter missions and all associated dropsonde and instrument data. If equipped with the Google Earth plug-in, the link above provides in-browser tracking. A more functional Google Earth KMZ file for use in GE is here: http://tropicalatlantic.com/recon/ge/Recon_Data_for_the_Atlantic_Basin.kmz (tropicalatlantic.com) More...

Track a NOAA WP-3 Orion inside of Hurricane Irene

NOAA’s highly instrumented aircraft from the Aircraft Operations Center play an integral role in hurricane forecasting. Data collected during hurricanes by these airborne meteorological platforms and from a variety of other sources are fed into numerical computer models to provide better forecasts of how intense a hurricane will be, and when and where it will make landfall. These data, from the aircraft, fulfill two important purposes: to help forecasters make accurate predictions during a… (flightaware.com) More...

Pentagon delays F-35 JSF STOVL amid program setbacks, more F-18s bought for USMC

The Pentagon overhauled the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program for the second time in a year and said it would buy 41 Boeing Co F/A-18 warplanes over the next three years to offset slower production of the Lockheed plane. (www.reuters.com) More...

MQ-9 Reaper Upgrades Could Make It Fly for 2 Days Straight

The upgrade, which is just a company proposal so far, boosts what is already the MQ-9′s biggest advantage over traditional aircraft such as the F-16. Manned warplanes’ flight times are limited by a wide range of factors, but especially the endurance of their human pilots. A typical F-16 sortie lasts just a couple of hours. With no pilot on board, the $30 million MQ-9 can fly until it runs out of gas. In enhancing the Reaper, General Atomics focused on expanding and stretching the ‘bot’s fuel… (www.wired.com) More...