Free Republic

Seven years ago, Amol Yadav announced to his family and friends that he would build an aeroplane on the roof of a boxy apartment building in the teeming Indian city of Mumbai. Incredulous friends and family members asked the young pilot how he planned to bring the plane down once it was complete. "I really don't know," he told them. Mr Yadav, who flies twin-engine turboprop planes for a living, is nothing if not obstinate. The five-storey building, home to his 19-member joint family, didn't have a lift, so they lugged factory lathes, compressors, welding machines, and an imported 180kg...

GOLD HILL — Retired Air Force pilot Ron Schreck completed an N.C. aviation milestone for the Fourth of July: He touched down at all 109 public-use airports in the state in a day. Schreck took off just before midnight from Gold Hill Airpark, where he lives, and finished his feat in 19 hours and 51 minutes at 8:09 p.m. — plenty of time before any fireworks might have interfered with his flight plan. He said the idea sprouted from hangar talk after he noted the number of airports in a state Department of Transportation booklet. Schreck said he contacted Tom...

YUKON, Okla. - NASA engineer and champion aerobatic pilot Marta Bohn-Meyer was killed Sunday when her plane crashed during practice for next week's National Aerobatic Championships. The crash occurred shortly before noon near Oklahoma City, where she was piloting her home-built Giles G-300 airplane. She had been joined there by her husband and fellow aerobatic pilot, Bob Meyer. "Flying and doing things with airplanes is my passion," she once said. "Given a choice, I'll go fly airplanes." According to the International Aerobatic Club, Bohn-Meyer had pulled into a vertical maneuver when the cockpit canopy came off. The airplane then crashed...