December 13, 2022
Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’m going to be flying – and telling the story of – one of the most important airplanes in the history of aviation: the Piper J-3 Cub. The Piper Cub was designed in 1930 by Clarence G. Taylor. He and his brother Gordon formed Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corp. with the […]
December 13, 2022
Welcome back to Microsoft Flight Simulator for a ride in the US Navy’s main carrier fighter plane in the years just before World War II, the Grumman F3F-2. To set the scene, I’m onboard the USS Essex (CV-9), off the east coast of Oahu. It’s not a perfect match, but the Essex is a pretty […]
December 13, 2022
Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’ll be flying the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a Cold War airplane with a checkered history that demonstrated that speed isn’t everything. And to kick us off this morning, I’m at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert, with a reincarnation of the same plane that Chuck Yeager crashed trying […]
December 13, 2022
Today on Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’ll be flying the Boeing 247, considered by many the first modern airliner, but one that fatefully lost out to a rival that – had Boeing played its cards right – didn’t need to exist. I’m here at San Francisco International Airport, where on May 22, 1933, a 247 belonging […]
December 13, 2022
Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator I’m at Kitty Hawk to reenact the first-ever flight of the world’s very first airplane, the 1903 Wright Flyer. At first glance, the boxy Wright Flyer doesn’t look much our modern notion of an airplane. In fact, it possesses all the key features that still define an airplane to this […]