Aviation & Flying articles

The secret to combating jet lag, and arriving at your destination with little or no jet lag, lies in sound preparation well in advance of your date of travel. This, however, is only the foundation of your "anti jet lag" plan and all of your sound preparatory work will be wasted if you don't also ensure that you follow a sensible routine during your flight.Here are just five of the many things that you can do during your flight to... Read More

Ask any regular long-haul flyer about their experience of flying and you will soon discover that everyone has a different "magic" formula for overcoming or avoiding jet lag.In reality of course no magic formula exists ? and there is certainly no magic pill or tablet. There is, however, a great deal that you can do in preparation for your departure to help you overcome or eliminate jet lag and here are just a few tips:1. Maintain a consistent sleep pattern.If... Read More

DARPA has developed a small laser cannon, just like Star Wars to use as a weapon in a fighter plane for air to air combat, destroying enemy missiles or perhaps using a combination later on of Argon or CO2 (depending on altitude) for close air support. Recently it was announced that they would put this new airborne laser system onto fighter jets. The system, which will go onto a fighter jet would be called the; "HELLADS" or High Energy Liquid... Read More

Recently a new airborne laser system was announced to be put onto fighter jets, once this technology becomes more advanced we will no longer need missiles for air-to-air combat. The system, which will go onto a fighter jet would be called the; "HELLADS" or High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System, it is being tested now. It would be a system based on Israel's THEL system which is a mobile "Tactical High Energy Laser"I propose we have a set of... Read More

What is a Walrus Super Blimp? It is a giant heavy lift Blimp being evaluated by the United States Department of Defense's special research division; DARPA. What is DARPA? Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. You see they have been looking at how to move more for less? Imagine having to move millions of tons of fighting gear to the battle area? Well giant blimps may hold the key, because they are cheap to operate, can carry lots of weight and... Read More

There are many ways to evacuate people from disasters like Hurricane Katrina for instance. There are also many ways to move troops to the area of conflict. One way to move vast amounts of people, is to do so with large aircraft. Another idea, which has been kicked around, was lowering body functions to a near standstill through human hibernation techniques like what an anesthesiologist would do.The new paradigms of war are changing and sometimes it is more important to... Read More

Some new materials, types of plastics seem to be stronger than steel by quite a bit. Since they are made of polymer plastic blends it will be possible to add in some material memory manufacturing in the process. This would allow the rotor blades made out of this new plastic material to change shape. These materials are said to be ten times the strength of steel and three times lighter than aluminum. Such performance in materials has significant uses in... Read More

Burt Rutan and his team of designers, engineers and test pilots at Scaled Composites did something no private group had ever done. They proved that private space flight is feasible and safe. With the help of some Billionaire entrepreneurial investors they are poised to build an entire industry of Private Space Flight. This after other said it was impossible. And for their efforts and vision they won a 10-million dollar prize in doing so. This is a true testament to... Read More

It now looks certain that Hurricane Katrina will push fuel prices - and air fares - up through the roof.Hurricane Katrina has just killed hundreds of people, and it could well be thousands of people that we don't know about already. But now the awful diseases we've all heard of in Third World countries - Cholera and Typhoid - look all set to hit flood affected areas in Alabama, Louisiana and the Mississippi.Fuel costs are going to skyrocket...The chances of... Read More

One of the major perks of being a celebrity is the free stuff. Just ask the famous attendees of this week's VMA music works. Flying around with the entourage can get expensive, and don't except these kiddies to be sitting in coach. Private jets all the way. But are all these extravegences ruining them?M.C. Hammer was known to have a 40 person entourage which he flew around in his chartered private jet. If he needed more room, he'd get another... Read More

One of the more challenging aspects of being a flight attendant is providing in-flight service excellence to your customers. When operating out of familiar territory selecting a highly regarded caterer is usually not a problem. However, can that high level of service be found in Boise as well as in Beijing? And, if so, where can this information be found?According to, "THE INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY OF CORPORATE AVIATION CATERING SERVICES," you certainly can find a caterer in Boise, Beijing, and hundreds... Read More

Everyone wants to buy a cheap economy ticket and get bumped up to business or first class. I mean who doesn't want more comfort, more legroom, better service and lounge access? The new generation of flat seats makes flying long-haul more comfortable than ever before.Here are a few tips for maximising your likelihood of getting that elusive upgrade.1. Become a member of your airline's frequent flyer program. If you can reach 'elite status' then you will greatly improve your chances... Read More

Are you one of those people that has lots and lots of airline miles, so many that if you had a dollar for each one, you could stop working for a living? Do you know exactly where all the Auntie Anne's Pretzels are located at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport? Do you book your flights by typing in the 3-letter airport code instead of the city name into the "Destination" box on-line? If you answered yes to any of these questions,... Read More

A pet owner must research the many requirements before taking a dog on an airplane. Different airlines have slightly different regulations, but most airlines follow the same basic set of rules in regards to flying with a dog.One universal rule is that dogs cannot fly on a plane without the owner on board. Each airline that was contacted for this article has a rule that outlaws flying unaccompanied dogs from one point to another. Realize that the airline considers dogs... Read More

Most consumers feel the airline travel is very costly. We can end up spending a fortune when we add up the various costs, such as flights, accommodation, taxes and insurance, hotel services and car hire. There are so many ways to cut back these expenses without having compromise with the quality or the comfort of the travel and hotel stay.Cutting out the MiddlemanMost of the people prefer ready-made package holidays because the travel agents do all the work for them.... Read More

Airlines offer tickets at a fraction of the cost you buy tickets. These offers are given to wholesalers and agencies that bring good business to them. If you can trace out these wholesalers and agencies, you may get cheap airfares from them. These are seasonal and vary from time to time. You cannot expect the same price all the time. It could be cheaper or slightly higher than what you bought the previous time. Moreover, prices vary with the destination... Read More

One of the big pushes in aviation and military is to have common cockpit designs, which are ergonomically correct. The Common Cockpit Initiative (CCI) would mean all aircraft have basically the same cockpit; all the instruments would be in the same place, the seats in the same place, in fact nearly everything would be the same. This would make virtual Reality training easy in simulators and allow for maximum efficiency and save lives, as the human component would never be... Read More

As fighter aircraft get faster and faster there is a diminishing return on more aerodynamic streamlining in designs. You can only build the aircraft so "Aerodynamically Correct" once you have the best optimum design for speed, there is little you can do without changing the aircraft in-flight or the air itself. Of course both of those possibilities have been and are being looked at. Let's think on the many types of fighter aircraft, which change their configurations in-flight. You have... Read More

How can we keep aircraft and UAVs aloft longer and conserve fuel? How can we have a small MAV or UAV remain airborne for hours on end? Perhaps we should design a unit, which flies like a bird but uses the energy, which is all around us to do so. Electromagnetic Energy is everywhere. Can we design a light-weight vehicle which floats about and flaps every so often to remain airborne? Well as technology gets better with polymer muscles and... Read More

Aircraft designers have always tried to figure out the best compromise for the aircraft they build, trying to get maximum performance at both high and low airspeeds. Now with material memory components they will be able to do this. The camber of the leading edge can change to a nice fat round area for slow speeds when Short Take Off and Landing STOL is needed and back to a thin leading edge for the lowest coefficients of drag and optimal... Read More