Air

With wildfire season upon us, use this handy texting tool to find out what the air quality is in your area. Simply text your zip code to (415) 212-4229 for air quality updates. You can also add “map” to the text to be sent an image of your region. This service isn’t just useful for individuals with limited access to smartphones or the Internet. It also alleviates the load put on air quality sites like AirNow, which are often overloaded and unavailable during wildfire season due to the spike in traffic. Texting this number instead is a great way to get the same information without bogging down those sites, helping them to stay up for others who need to access them. ...

One-hundred-seventeen days. Almost four months. What could you build in one-hundred-seventeen days? Perhaps I should rephrase that: what could you build in one-hundred-seventeen days on a government contract? Certainly not an entire aircraft, from the ground up, from scratch-paper to rolling it out of the hanger? But it has been done. The North American P-51 Mustang was ordered just one-hundred-seventeen days before the first prototype was rolled out. That’s an incredible achievement right there. Before the aircraft even got off the ground, putting all of its air superiority aside, the entire plane was designed and put together in less than four months. It was flying less than two months after that. ...

The Fighter/Attack series is one most people are familiar with, and probably the most well-know set of aircraft the Unites States Navy and Air Force produce. Unfortunately, the understood distinctions between each aircraft are not that well known. Most commonly, all fighter aircraft are referred to as an F-16. If you don’t believe me, just look up a few YouTube videos; you’ll be able to see variances in the details of the aircraft, but most of the videos are will call the aircraft an F-16 … it’s sad, really. ...

Has there ever been a moment in your life in which you’ve seen something and your thought has been, “This is it … I’m about to die.” Perhaps you’ve been out hiking and you’ve seen some form of wildlife. Maybe it’s been when you stood on the edge of a massive cliff (I felt this way when I went to the Grand Canyon). If you’re like Jess, it’s probably been when you’ve seen a spider. ...

My brother and I have always had an obsession with airplanes, spacecraft, and NASA that borders on the unhealthy. Our obsessive endeavors have taken us annually to the Quad City Air Show, where we have drooled at our magnificent dreams hovering just before our eyes. This year’s edition of the Quad City Air Show is just around the corner—June 18-19. And as a tribute to those momentous dates, I have decided to release a special on each of the aircraft that will (cross your fingers) be present or performing at the Quad City Air Show this year. Today’s installment is the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, an enormous transport aircraft built for the United States Air Force during the Korean War. ...