A man in a park in Phoenix showed me how to make a home out of cardboard boxes. Not a home, exactly, but something like a backyard playhouse built by an ingenious child. The cardboard boxes interlocked, and the shelter, secret and cozy, kept out the cold of the Arizona night. The man, named Ernest, had once been an engineer at the Boeing Co. Ernest, I came to understand, was a sort of brilliant grown-up orphan: he had an air ...

The challenges inherent in getting a 162,000-pound aircraft off the ground and landing it safely are pretty obvious to most observers. But at cruising altitude, above 10,000 feet, pilots face a different critical challenge: staying focused."You can't read a novel, but you could read a manual about procedures or about the airplane," the former Boeing 767-400 pilot said. "You can't read a newspaper. You can't use a laptop. That's strictly prohibited." However, some airlines make documents, including manuals, available only ...

For the 18th year in a row, the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to condemn the 47-year embargo against Cuba by the United States."You can't read a novel, but you could read a manual about procedures or about the airplane," the former Boeing 767-400 pilot said. "You can't read a newspaper. You can't use a laptop. That's strictly prohibited." However, some airlines make documents, including manuals, available only in digital form and provide company laptops for pilots to ...

Last year's howls of outrage when U.S. auto executives flew to Washington on private jets to seek government bailouts may soon be repeated, now that the House of Representatives has added $330 million to the 2010 defense budget to buy four new planes for the Air Force's VIP fleet. That's because the planes that usually fly generals and White House officials around the globe are also being used — on 15% of their flights — to ferry lawmakers around ...

And now, the rejects. Three months after the White House released a single photograph taken during a photo op of "Air Force One" flying over New York -- a flight that caused panic on the streets below -- the U.S. Air Force on Friday released the remaining 145 photos taken during the flight. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 -- a military version of a 747 -- making three passes by the Statue of Liberty, at one point accompanied by ...

A former engineer for Rockwell International and Boeing was convicted Thursday of economic espionage and acting as an agent of China, authorities said. Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 73, was accused of stealing restricted technology and Boeing trade secrets, including information related to the space shuttle program and the Delta IV rocket. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney convicted him on charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage; six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country; one count of acting ...

A Southwest Airlines jet made an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia, on Monday after a football-sized hole in its fuselage caused the cabin to depressurize, an airline spokeswoman said. There were no injuries aboard the Boeing 737, which was traveling at about 30,000 feet when the problem occurred, Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told CNN. The sudden drop in cabin pressure caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy. Southwest Flight 2294 was en route from Nashville, Tennessee, ...

The last time Terry Williams can remember being headache-free was in December. A chronic migraine has plagued her ever since. So have balance and vision problems, a tremor in her left arm, a prickly sensation in her feet and a loss of childhood memories. The ailments, she says, began on April 11, 2007. Williams, then a 17-year flight attendant on American Airlines, noticed a "misty haze type of smoke" on flight No. 843 as it taxied toward a gate in ...

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane is facing yet another delay, the company announced Tuesday, this time saying it needed to reinforce a section of the aircraft before starting test flights. The 787 is a medium-size plane that is expected to become the backbone of airlines' long-haul fleets, replacing the Boeing 767. Boeing has not set a new date for the airplane's first flight, the company statement said. "It will be several weeks before the new schedule is available," the statement added. ...

Tail-diving passenger numbers, the long-delayed debut of a new jet and the ghost of Air France flight 447 haunts this week's Paris Air Show. One of the commercial aerospace industry's most prestigious events, the biennial show is celebrating its 100th anniversary with the industry facing grim economic numbers and the aftermath of the transatlantic crash of a Paris-bound Airbus A330 that killed 228 passengers and crew on May 31. The air show comes at a time when the commercial airline ...