Aircraft Structural Design and Build

There is no doubt that the cost of producing the “next generation” of transport aircraft has to be the lowest possible, so that the aircraft will sell at a price which enables profitable airline operation. Advanced design concepts need to be developed to achieve the goal of reduced manufacturing costs. […]

Acid Rain and Aircraft Corrosion

We have all heard about acid rain. It occurs when pollution mixes with normal airflows and then normal precipitation occurs. This mixture can cause water molecules to combine with the compounds within the pollution. The resultant causes many problems for mankind; for instance erosion of status, discolored paint on cars […]

Aircraft Rivets and Aerospace Fasteners

Aircraft rivets The two major types of rivets used in aircraft are the common solid shank rivets, which must be driven using an air-driven gun and bucking bar; and special (blind) rivets, which are installed with special installation tools. Solid shank rivets are used widely during assembly and repair work. […]

The Significance of College Park Airport in Maryland

Only one airport can claim the title of the “world’s oldest, continuously-operating” one. That title belongs to College Park Airport, located in Maryland, some 25 miles from the state’s major facility, Baltimore-Washington International Airport. College Park’s own origins can be directly traced to the Wright Brothers. Although their sustained, controlled, […]

Aviation Sights of Long Island

1. Long Island’s Aviation Seed The aviation seed planted on Long Island’s Hempstead Plains in 1909, when Glenn Curtiss had first flown above it in his Golden Flyer biplane, had sprouted and grown over a six-decade period until it had ultimately connected its own soil with that of its moon. […]

Reflections of Private Pilot Flight Training

It was on a mild, flawlessly-blue, September 29, 1995 day that I pulled into the modern State University of New York-College of Technology at Farmingdale Aviation Center on Long Island’s Route 110, experiencing a degree of trepidation, that I began my Private Pilot Flight Training Program. That it technically constituted […]