On Wednesday, Aeroflot officials announced their long-delayed and much anticipated decision regarding the purchase of 44 new planes. The verdict? The state-run company will split the difference between the two foreign contestants by ordering 22 each from Boeing and Airbus.
The decision comes as no real surprise, indicating the Russian state’s interest in maintaining good relations […]

Yesterday, the European consortium EADS rejected Russian demands for a seat on the company’s board of shareholders. The news comes on the heels of last week’s $1 billion stock purchase that gave Russia’s second largest bank, the state-controlled Vneshtorgbank, a 5% stake in the company that owns Airbus. President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide Sergei […]

Constructed for the U.S. Navy in the mid-1930s for the purpose of undertaking reconnaissance over the open seas, the USS Macon was the largest dirigible in American history. Requiring 6.5 million cubic feet of helium to inflate and weighing 400,000 pound, 785-foot long airship was a flying behemoth. Its interior was sufficiently large to […]

In the spring of 1935, American Staff Sergeant John Cook undertook a “fact finding” tour of the Soviet Union on behalf of the U.S. Army Air Corps to evaluate the condition of the USSR’s civilian airline service. What Cook experienced was, in his own words, “exceedingly unpleasant.” Everywhere he flew he encountered overloaded, uncomfortable, and […]

A Tu-154 operated by Iran Airtour crashed on Friday while landing in the northern Iranian city of Mashad. Initial reports indicate that the Russian-built aircraft blew a tire shortly after touching down. A fire, sparked by a wing raking the ground, then engulfed the plane. Twenty-nine of the 148 people on board were killed.
Given the […]