Air transportation is vitally important to the world's economy, as well as the thousands of people each day who make routine, long distance trips. While it is easy to take this convenience for granted, it is almost impossible to imagine life without it. Nearly a century has passed since the Wright brother's momentous flight, and preparations for next year's celebration are already underway. Two...

Several decades ago, airline meals may have been the main reason that planes carried airline sickness bags, but in the past few years the food has improved by leaps and bounds from an international perspective. As a banner on the homepage declares, this is "the world's first and leading site about nothing but airline food." Amazingly enough, there is a section on the site dedicated to airline...

The Fort-Worth-based AMR Corporation, parent company of American Airlines, has initiated a $500 million buyout of Trans World Airlines (TWA), the nation's longest flying carrier. TWA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, citing high fuel prices as a major factor in its financial decline. In addition to the merger with TWA, American is also acquiring certain US Airways assets and...

In the hopes of preventing another terrorist attack like the ones of September 11, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley are developing an intelligent autopilot system for commercial aircraft. The system, dubbed Soft Walls, would activate whenever an aircraft approaches a designated no-fly zone. Using global positioning system technology, the autopilot would guide the plane...

The 12th International Workshop on Future Aviation Activities was held in September 2002, and this collection of presentation transcripts was released the following January. Many references to the September 11 terrorist attacks are made, especially concerning airport security measures and changes in the public's views of flying. Speakers also addressed long-term trends in air transportation, such...