aviator

OMG! That's a 45-foot paper airplane soaring over the desert

Everyone likes a good paper airplane. But how much do you love a 45-foot paper airplane?

The answer is clear: A lot.

And your love doesn't have to be unrequited, because the good folks at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., have not only built but also flown a 45-footer, achieving the feat earlier this week. (See video below.)

"It's not every day that a giant paper airplane is released high over the Arizona desert. In fact, it's never been done. But that's exactly what the Pima Air and Space Museum did,&… Read more

Bonus for Apple shareholders

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Buying a 747 or 787 Dreamliner? You'll get it here

When your products cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, you probably want to give your customers the best possible buying experience.

Since the 1960s, airlines and others buying a brand-new Boeing airplane have picked up the 747, 757, 787 Dreamliner, and other models from the aviation giant's 60,000-square-foot Everett Delivery Center. But now, Boeing is building an all-new version of the facility (see video above), an 180,000-square-foot cathedral for picking up new airplanes that is expected to open some time next year.

When Boeing finishes building one of its well-known planes, it is towed to … Read more

Boeing's Dreamliner struggles despite tech superiority

A management swap at the top of Boeing's much-hyped 787 Dreamliner program is shining a spotlight on the airline industry's frustration at the slow pace of deliveries of the fuel-efficient and technically advanced plane.

Today, Boeing said that it's shuffling the leadership of the Dreamliner and 777 programs, with Larry Loftis, formerly vice president and general manager of the 777 program, moving into the Dreamliner program's top position. At the same time, Scott Fancher, formerly the VP and GM of the 787 program, is now taking over the 777 efforts.

While Boeing neither characterized the switch … Read more

U.S. Cellular pushing ahead with 4G LTE plans

Smaller carrier U.S. Cellular has designs to serve up 4G LTE to an additional 14 states this year.

By the second half of 2012, the wireless provider has said it will roll out cutting-edge 4G data infrastructure to "select" cities in multiple parts of the country: Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

In addition to offering high-speed wireless access to these areas, the company will also hawk a Samsung 4G LTE mobile hot spot in the spring designed to spread its 4G signal to up … Read more

How you, too, can ID that airliner

I live in a place that a lot of big airplanes fly over just after taking off from San Francisco International Airport. While I'm by no means perfect at it, I can often tell you what kind of jet is overhead, and even where it's going. There's a lot of people like me.

But there's also people who don't know anything about planes, and who can't tell the difference between very distinct behemoths like Boeing's 747 and Airbus' A380, let alone jets that on quick inspection look very similar, like Boeing's 737 … Read more

See Boeing's Etch A Sketch flight path

It's fair to say the planners at Boeing Test & Evaluation spiced up a recent extended operation test of the Boeing 787.

Spanning 9,000 nautical miles over 12 states, the 787's impressive route spells out "787" and the Boeing logo like a giant Etch A Sketch in the sky. The next-generation commercial airplane took off on February 9 at 1:33 p.m. from Boeing's airfield in Washington state, and landed this morning at 8:45 a.m. Some of the turns needed to create the numbers and logo seem like they'd send a stomach into a spin, but the zoomed-out map exaggerates the sharpness of the turns. … Read more

Vintage military planes fly high in art exhibit

If there's one medium that you wouldn't expect to see get taken on by graffiti and other contemporary artists, it's military airplanes.

But thanks to the folks behind the Round Trip: Art from the Boneyard Project exhibition, now on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., visitors can see just that.

Although only five full airplanes have been painted--out of dozens in the museum's full collection--the show also includes two cockpits and a large group of airplane sections, all reimagined with an artist's flair. The exhibition, which runs through May 31, &… Read more

U.S. Cellular launching 4G LTE in March with Galaxy Tab, Aviator

U.S. Cellular is getting into the 4G LTE network game, launching a tablet and a smartphone as its first LTE devices in March.

The nation's sixth-largest wireless provider will inaugurate its LTE network with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE tablet, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S Aviator smartphone.

Samsung's Galaxy S Aviator features a 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touch screen, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a front-facing camera for video chats. It runs Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread. For its part, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (reviewed) runs off the Android 3.… Read more

Don't fly this at home: Video of scary landings goes viral

When you're a passenger onboard an airplane, you have no choice but to put all your faith and trust in the pilots. And most of the time, there's nothing to worry about. But sometimes, it's probably better that you don't know exactly what those in the cockpit are dealing with.

For those flying into Dusseldorf, Germany during strong crosswinds, that seems especially true. A video (see below) put together by YouTube user Cargospotter that's making the rounds right now would seem likely to terrify anyone thinking of flying there: the video, a compilation of landings … Read more