Speak to any pilot for long enough, and you’ll eventually hear a variation of the same lament — “There’s a shortage.” That shortage, as it turns out, has stubbornly persisted for more than a decade, though it’s ebbed and flowed in severity. Then, the pandemic happened.

Boeing has had a tumultuous several years after a pair of its signature 737s crashed in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Concerns about the safety of the plans have gotten worse in recent months after a door panel blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Nothing lasts forever, and that's certainly true of airplanes. Most contemporary aircraft have a lifespan of at least 30 years, but when their time is up, where do they go?

Nothing lasts forever, and that's certainly true of airplanes. Most contemporary aircraft have a lifespan of at least 30 years, but when their time is up, where do they go?

Have you ever stopped to wonder why you always exit a plane on the left side? It turns out there is a reason why this is the case - and it’s not just planes who have this procedure.

A local museum was praised as one of the best in the country by a globally recognized magazine. According to Travel + Leisure, a travel magazine based in New York, the San Diego Air and Space Museum has been named one of the “10 Best Aviation Museums Around the U.S.“

In this contemporary age of commercial aviation, it's easy to forget just how amazing it is that we can fly around the globe with ease. And that's why it's so important to visit aviation museums across the country. All 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., have at least one institution dedicated to flying, whether that's a major air and space museum, an aviation hall of fame, or an exhibit about various flight-adjacent topics, like famous aviators or iconic airlines.

“Hoots and derision—which did not worry me at all,” Lilian Bland wrote, describing her visit to an air show in Blackpool, England, in 1909. She’d been telling everyone there that she intended to build and fly her own airplane. They were unimpressed. Bland was undeterred. She built a DIY plane of bamboo, wood and fabric, with a bicycle handlebar for steering and an engine she carried from England back to her home in Ireland. But would the Mayfly, as she called it, fly?