Flying With Fish The Blog for Those Who Fly & Those Who Want to Fly Smarter

On December 17th 1903, a morning, not unlike today, sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight become a reality in Kill Devil Hills, Dare County, North Carolina, when Orville and Wilbur Wright launched the Wright Flyer into the skies and into history. The Wright Brothers’ Wright Flyer, 21 feet 1 inch long, constructed of giant spruce [...]

Fifty-three years ago today, on the evening of October 26th 1958, crowds gathered to witness history, the first Boeing 707-121 commercial passenger flight. Pan Am’s “Clipper America” (N709PA) flew from Pan Am’s Wordport, at New York’s Idlewild Airport to Paris’ Le Bourget Airport with 11 crewmembers and 111 passengers for eight-and-a-half hours. The Boeing 707′s [...]

Moose Peterson is a world renowned wildlife photographer, landscape photographer, camera bag designer and he literally wrote the book on Nikon.  While my interests were never in wildlife photography, I was hooked at Moose’s work at the age of 16 when I received my copy of the Nikon System Handbook (now in it its sixth [...]

Yesterday at 7:08am PST, a Boeing a 747-8KZF/SCD (RC523), flying as Flight BOE 523, lifted off from Runway 16R/34L at Paine Field, in Everett, Washington, for a 17-hour function and reliability test flight. After flying 8,119 miles over the continental United States, Flight BOE523 touched back down at Paine Field at 12:08am PST having made [...]

As I sit here looking out the window at more than a foot of snow on the ground and a grey dreary sky dropping ice from the clouds, like most people my mind wanders to warmer places with clear skies. Yesterday afternoon John Milleker, a photographer in Baltimore, sent me the link to a video [...]

The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar took to the skies for the first time forty years ago today, November 16th 1970. To me is the L-1011 is the airplane that started my love of airplanes, airlines, travel and the smell of jet fuel.   The L-1011 was not only an airplane that flew over my house day and [...]

Normally I only write about civilian aircraft and airline topics, but this week’s question delves into US Naval & Marine Corps aviation.  Since one of my favourite TV shows as a kid was the Black Sheep Squadron, based on VMA-214 during World War II, I figured venture into military aircraft this week. This week’s reader [...]

Nearly two weeks ago I arrived in London for the combined marathon-&-sprint that is involved in creating social media content for a major aircraft manufacturer at one of the premier industry air shows in the world … the Farnborough Airshow. Attending an air show as a spectator is great fun. Attending an industry sales event, [...]

This week’s reader mail comes from Joyce, in Oregon, and it’s a favourite topic of mine.  Joyce asks “With the popularity of the Boeing 747, why had no one made a full double-decker before the A380?” Well Joyce … first off the design of the Boeing 747 was actually designed for cargo and cargo conversion [...]

Summer is in the air, the sun is shining, some airlines are doing well and others are on strike … so I figured this might be a good time to interject some humour into Flying With Fish. To completely rip off a comedy concept by Jeff Foxworthy, this post is all about “You might be [...]