While Air Zermatt has a challenging rescue environment in which to work, it must be nice that the view from their office regularly includes the Matterhorn. Their testimonial, from the Bell Helicopters blog, includes a video with eye-popping visuals. | 🛩️ 🚁 📹 🥇 | 🔗 www.bellflight.com/post/air-zer...

It being early August, we have officially hit the dog days 🐶 of summer and the attendant, dreaded, slow news days. The good part? We have the time to visit some of our favourite photo archives. The San Diego Air & Space Museum's (SDASM) … | 🛩️ ⚔️ 📍 🇺🇸 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 www.flickr.com/photos/sdasm...

For a peek at how the other half lives (rather, more like the other .001% 😉), here's a detailed, long-form read from Frederick K. Larkin for Skies Magazine on what it takes to transform brand-new, tech-laden Bombardier Global 8000 shells into the flying palaces delivered to the customer. | 🛩️ 🥇

Bombardier: Producing peripatetic penthouses - Skies Mag

Bombardier’s Laurent Beaudoin Completion Centre and Centre of Excellence together transform high performance aircraft into productive airborne offices and homes.

skiesmag.com

The August issue just hit the street. 💥 This month, Managing Editor @terencecgannon.com (re)discovers scale, radio-controlled model aircraft as a result of the FAI news feed. Spoiler alert: they're a universe away from the little stick-and-tissue P-51s we tried to build as kids. | 🛩️ 📡 🥇

August, 2026

A humans-in-the-loop feed for the aviation community — if made by people and flying up to the Kármán Line you'll find it on BluFly 🛩️.

blufly.media

The meticulously restored Connie Super Star that we've teased for a while now is ready for it's close up. 🎥 The Lufthansa Group Hangar One visitor and conference centre opens this weekend. More details with the link. (📸 Lufthansa Group) | 🛩️ 📍 🇩🇪 📅 🥇 | 🔗 newsroom.lufthansagroup.com/en/lufthansa...

Kinder commentators would say we here at the BluFly home office have a soft spot for the PC-12. 🙂 Less kind ones might say we're full-on obsessed. 🤪 Well, guilty as charged. 🧑🏻‍⚖️ To feed that, here's a … (📸 Robert So via @pexelsofficial.bsky.social) | 🛩️ 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 airfactsjournal.com/2026/07/flyi...

Although we always preface these spots with 'we don't do birds' (excellent coverage is provided elsewhere), we make an exception often enough that it seems we kinda do. At least where there is an aeronautical component to the coverage, as with this from @ucdavisengineering.bsky.social. | 🛩️ 🦅 🏫 🥇

What Molting Hawks Can Teach Researchers About Resilient Flight

UC Davis researchers found that red-tailed hawks adjust their wing and tail movements during molt to maintain flight performance despite missing feathers. The findings could improve wildlife rehabilit...

ucdavis.edu

Sounds like many airports (including those near the BluFly home office) could take a page out of Brisbane Airport's playbook on how to treat their planespotters. The good folks at BNE clearly haven't forgotten—as many seem to have—that we're fans. What say you? How does your local compare? | 🛩️ 📍 🇦🇺 🥇

Brisbane Airport's iconic plane spotting area ready for takeoff

Brisbane Airport’s iconic new plane spotting location, Fellowship Place, will open to the public on Sunday 19 July.Created as a gift to the city to mark Brisbane Airport’s centenary, the purpose-built...

newsroom.bne.com.au

A newsletter we discovered recently, and think you should too if you haven't already, is that of Avialan Blue, writing on a variety of topics; most recently about why « Aero Tuning Isn’t What You Think It Is (Probably) » Worth a look, and subscribing. | 🛩️ 📡 🥇 | 🔗 www.avialanblue.com/email-list/a...

We've always been a little puzzled as to why @ltaresearch.com doesn't publish more long-form articles, but here's one that somehow escaped our attention. If you're listening, folks over there, how 'bout more on the gory details of the design and construction in which our audience revels? | 🛩️ 🎈 🥇

Understanding the Difference Between Rigid Airships, Semi-Rigid Airships, and Blimps

For the first time since 1938, all three categories of airships are sharing the skies.

ltaresearch.com

Tipped off to their arrival by our friend @jasonchampton.bsky.social, these three beauties are on a tour of western Canada. We touched base with the Erickson Collection, from whence they came and obtained this … (📸 Erickson Collection) | 🛩️ ⚔️ 📅 📍 🇨🇦 🥇 | 🧵 1/4 | 🔗 ericksoncollection.com?utm_source=b...

It's a fair cop that aviation on social can be something of a self-reflecting bubble. Consequently, it's always interesting when a story finds its way through that outer membrane and into the wider, popular media. To wit, a story about Electra by Rachel Cormack just out in the @robbreport.com. | 🛩️ ⚡️

This New Hybrid Plane Can Take Off and Land on a Runway of 150 Feet. It Just Got Closer to Production.

Electra's hybrid-electric ultra-short takeoff and landing aircraft, the EL9, just reached a significant milestone on the road to type certification.

robbreport.com

« Guinness World Record for [Università di Pisa] Students with the Largest Paper Airplane in the World » (via Google Translate) You really have to see it outfly the available room, as per the video linked within, which can also be auto-translated by YouTube with reasonable accuracy. | 🛩️ 📡 🪽 🥇

Guinness World Record per gli studenti di Unipi con l'aeroplano di carta più grande del mondo ~ UNIPI

Il velivolo, realizzato solo con carta e colla e con una apertura alare di 20,04 metri, ha percorso 59 metri. L'iniziativa è stata sostenuta e prodotta dal creator e divulgatore scientifico Jakidale

unipi.it

‘Keep Them Flying’ is a good old-fashioned cards and letters campaign being organised to keep the Snowbirds flying through the extended pause between old (CT-114) and new (CT-157) team aircraft. If you have seen … (📸 Russ via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0.) | 🛩️ ⚔️ 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 keepthemflying.ca

Not sure how big an overlap there is between fans of aviation and fans of the Golden Age of Hollywood, but we count ourselves amongst them. So you know where we'll be on November 6th when the new Jimmy Stewart biopic opens. (📸 Burns & Co.) | 🛩️ ⚔️ 🎬 🥇 | 🧵 1/3 | 🔗 www.jimmythemovie.com?utm_source=b...

The aircraft livery magicians at Lincoln, Nebraska-based Duncan Aviation have been at it again: « Forty-Six Colors, One Bold Vision: Duncan Aviation Unveils Its Most Intricate Paint Scheme Yet » 😲 The whole story, with tons of detail, with link. | 🛩️ 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 duncanaviation.aero/news/46-colo...

The 2026 FAI F4 World Championships for Scale Model Aircraft are about to get under way and run from July 9 through 18, 2026, at the British Model Flying Association headquarters in Buckminster, Great Britain. Well worth a visit; details with link. (📸 BMFA) | 🛩️ ⚔️ 📡 📅 📍 🇬🇧 🥇 | 🔗 worldscale26.bmfa.uk

This month's stop on the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) beat is at the respected German, sustainable-aviation think tank Bauhaus Luftfahrt, with this recent press release: « Climate-Friendly Aviation: Greater Ambition Pays Off » (📸 Neste) | 🛩️ ⚡️ 🥇 | 🔗 www.bauhaus-luftfahrt.net/en/climate-f...

It's July, which, for us avgeeks, means one thing: Oshkosh. Short of flying there in your own plane, NectAir has come up with the best way ever to attend if you're in the Toronto area. It departs from, and returns to Billy Bishop in one day. (📸 NectAir) | 🛩️ 🥇 | 🔗 www.flynectair.com/oshkosh/

As we've said, there's no such thing as a sure thing, but anything to do with Concorde comes close. Here's your chance to own a piece of—and who's kidding who—what is likely to be the one and only supersonic airliner ever. We're not affiliated with @bringatrailer.bsky.social, but we are fans. | 🛩️

No Reserve: Illuminated Concorde Sign

Bid for the chance to own a No Reserve: Illuminated Concorde Sign at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #251,289.

bringatrailer.com

The July issue is out. 💥 This month, BluFly connects with the team of Atlantic Explorer, who recently completed a record-setting, hydrogen-lofted, transatlantic flight from Presque Isle, Maine, to Tandel, Luxembourg. The article is jam-packed with fascinating details and amazing photos. | 🛩️ 🎈 🥇

July, 2026

A humans-in-the-loop feed for the aviation community — if made by people and flying up to the Kármán Line you'll find it on BluFly 🛩️.

blufly.media

Live Event Announcement💥 Coming up on July 15, 2026 at 13:00 UTC, our friend Jon Davison will be taking *your* questions on taking your aviation photography to the next level. It's a free event, but registration in advance is mandatory. Details and sign-up information with the link below. | 🛩️ 📅 🥇

Jon Davison: The Way of the Photographer

A free, online video discussion with one of aviation’s premier photographers, where you get to ask the questions.

blufly.media

It's no secret we're fans of AirCorps in beautiful Bemidji, Minnesota. If you're in the vicinity and slogging away on some mind-numbing software job, here's an alternative with the potential to get you 'up and close and personal' with something much more aligned with your interests. | 🛩️ ⚔️ 🧰 🥇

Software Engineering Specialist | AirCorps Aviation

AirCorps Aviation is seeking a versatile and self-directed Software Engineering Specialist.

aircorpsaviation.com

We'll readily admit that @cnet.com is not always the first place we check when looking for the Story of the Day. But that sometimes means we miss a nugget like this from @joehindy.bsky.social. For casual flight sim dilettantes like us, it seems pretty good, and you sure can't beat the price. | 🛩️ 🖥️ 🥇

Google Earth's Secret Flight Simulator Is Now Free for Everyone on the Web

All you need to take to the virtual skies now is a browser.

cnet.com

We love this story: @noaa.gov is using specially configured versions of Black Swift's S0 fixed-wing drone, dropped from the P-3, to increase the detail and accuracy of hurricane data, while keeping humans at a safer distance. More with link. | 🛩️ 📡 ⚡️ 📹 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 www.aoml.noaa.gov/new-drone-da...

Lest you think that all that paraglider pilots do is hang around 🪂 all day, think again: « Paraglider Durogati Climbs Equivalent Of Two Mount Everests For New Hike-and-Fly World Record » More with link. (📸 Daniele Molineris / @RedBull.com Content Pool) | 🛩️ 🪽 📰 🥇 | 🔗 www.redbull.com/pk-en/aaron-...

We generally don't do birds (or bugs or space) except in the case of aviation-oriented studies of our feathered friends. To wit, this fascinating article by Lorna Gibson from her brand-new book 'Birds Up Close: An Engineer Explores Their Hidden Wonders' on @mitpress.bsky.social. | 🛩️ 🦅 📚 🥇 | 🧵 1/2

The Genius of the Barn Owl’s Feathers

A barn owl’s ability to hunt by hearing alone relies on exquisite variations in the structure of its feathers.

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

Okay, we'll cop to being total suckers for the yellow-green primer colour. 😍 We also love a milestone achieved, which is what @brittennorman.bsky.social reports: « First UK-Built Islander Passes 75% Completion at Bembridge, on Schedule for Delivery » | 🛩️ 📰 🥇 | 🔗 britten-norman.com/first-uk-bui...

Mini-Story 🗜️ It somehow wasn’t audacious enough to shoehorn a 1,200 horsepower Garrett turboprop into a Turbine Legend, which Innovative Wings, Inc. (IW) already has on their resume with the legendary, record-setting Legend C-GUTT. Now, … | 🛩️ 📍 🇨🇦 🥇 | 🧵 1/6 | 🔗 www.innovativewings.com?utm_source=b...

Yet another project that kind of snuck up on us, but we're happy to help spread the word now. Just out today: Cameron Levasseur writing for the @bangordailynews.bsky.social in beautiful Bangor, Maine reports on this fascinating-sounding project; we wish them the very best of luck. | 🛩️ 🎈 🪙 🥇 | 🧵 1/3

Team sets off from Maine to Europe in what could become 1st trans-Atlantic hydrogen balloon crossing

International team is attempting the first trans-Atlantic crossing to mainland Europe in a hydrogen balloon.

bangordailynews.com