Oshkosh 2002 Civil Aircraft

The joke about the Ford Trimotor was that it "takes off at 90 miles an hour, flies at 90 miles an hour and lands at 90 miles an hour", which is pretty accurate.   However, it was a very successful airliner in the 1920s and 1930s and the presence of three motors gave it a margin of security in an age when aero engines weren't always very reliable.

And here's an updated take on the future of air transport - or should I say space transport?   The company XCOR is building experimental rocket engines with the hope of using them on civilian space transports.   This is their EZ-Rocket, based on a Long-EZ kitset aircraft designed by Burt Rutan, arguably the world's greatest designer of experimental civilian aircraft.   Burt became world famous in 1986 when his brother Dick flew the Voyager aircraft around the world in 9 days without refuelling.   Although Burt isn't involved with XCOR's project, Dick was flying this particular aircraft as a testbed to gain experience with rocket engines.   At AirVenture 2002 he took off on a conventional runway using rocket power, turned the engine off in flight, landed, re-ignited it and repeated the cycle.   And if you want to see what his kid brother Burt is up to, you can check it out on this page which describes SpaceShipOne's First Flight into Space.