Tier 1 Engineering announced today that they have set a Guinness World Record for the farthest distance traveled by an electric helicopter. The battery-powered manned Robinson helicopter achieved a record 30 nautical mile flight to 800 feet altitude with an average speed of 80 knots on Friday, December 7th.  The helicopter was a modified Robinson R44 test piloted by Captain Ric Webb of OC Helicopters. All flights were accomplished at the Los Alamitos Army Airfield under a special airworthiness certificate in the experimental [...]

The Bell X-1E was 31 feet long, with a wingspan of 22 feet, 10 inches. The rocketplane’s empty weight was 6,850 pounds and fully loaded, it weighed 14,750 pounds. Supersonic speeds, 80,0000 of altitude and an unlimited budget is what VREF calls, The rocketplane was powered by a Reaction Motors XLR11-RM-5 rocket engine that produced 6,000 pounds of thrust. The engine burned ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. The X-1E carried enough propellants for 4 minutes, 45 seconds burn. [...]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, perhaps the most recognizable private jetliner in the sky was Hugh Hefner’s personal McDonnell Douglas DC-9.  Perhaps for its unusual black paint job, but more likely, the spotlight enhanced silhouette of Hefner’s signature white rabbit in a white bowtie on its tailfin   Hefner purchased the plane when he was 43. He had the 119-foot plane custom-made for him after a 1966 trip to London. "I saw the future when I [...]