First-hand observations on spaceflight, simulator missions and space suit tryouts mark Aviation Week coverage

Aviation and aerospace advanced rapidly in the first decades after the Wright brothers’ 1903 flight. Wind tunnels brought understanding of lift and drag, wood-and-wire biplanes gave way to the stressed-skin monoplanes, wing warping to hydraulic-boosted flight controls

Two technology thrusts that continue to reshape aerospace, materials and computers, began to have a major impact in the 1950s and 60s. Computer-aided design became crucial as airframes moved from bonded-metal structures to carbon-fiber composites. Computational fluid dynamics became the key to advances in aerodynamics.

The key to putting humans on Mars, developing supersonic and hypersonic commercial transports and introducing space tourism? Produce smarter humans. Learn how.

The head of Darpa’s Tactical Technology Office says the world is on the verge of leaps in supersonic travel, vertical takeoff and landing systems, flight proficiency and safety, space launch and awareness of space.

Five months before Apollo 11 astronauts set foot on the Moon, NASA was already pursuing some grandiose plans for the post-Apollo era.

Aviation Week’s foray into the new arena of digital imaging led to two scoops of high-level intrigue and bargaining with the U.S. military.

Future space exploration will raise issues that we can only begin to consider today. Are the societal benefits derived from human exploration, expansion of knowledge and scientific progress worth the risk to human life of what amounts to a one-way trip to Mars?