Topic description and stories

Disaster at 37,000 feet

06 Jan 2020

Cambridge University Library archive reveals the facts behind the Hollywood myths of 'The Aeronauts'

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Aeroplane schematics.

The first non-stop transatlantic flight - 100 years on

14 Jun 2019

Exhibiton and Vickers archive at Cambridge University Library celebrates aviation milestone.

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Flying snowy owl

Silent flights: How owls could help make wind turbines and planes quieter

22 Jun 2015

A newly-designed material, which mimics the wing structure of owls, could help make wind turbines, computer fans and even planes much quieter. Early...

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R100 at mast in Canada

The ‘flying scientist’ who chased spores

11 Feb 2015

A passion for fungi led Cambridge mycologist Dr Dillon Weston to ever-more inventive means of trapping fungal spores, even from the open window of an...

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Demonstrator aircraft

Watts up - aeroplanes go hybrid-electric

23 Dec 2014

An aircraft with a parallel hybrid engine – the first ever to be able to recharge its batteries in flight – has been successfully tested in the UK...

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Vapour trail

Carbon offsets could help lower emissions without harming the economy

27 Sep 2013

Instead of harming the economies of developing countries, carbon offsets and taxes on shipping and aviation would have a minimal or even a positive...

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Screenshot from Attack Of The Zeppelins, which airs on Monday

Attack of the Zeppelins

23 Aug 2013

An investigation into how the Zeppelins worked, and how they were defeated, led by Cambridge engineer Hugh Hunt, forms the subject of a Channel 4...

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A DC4 drops a bouncing bomb in the reconstructed Dambusters operation.

Bombs away: The Dambusters bounce back

30 Apr 2011

The daring Dambusters raid of World War II, in which RAF pilots famously used a bouncing bomb to breach two German dams, has been recreated by a...

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