Awesome Airplanes

David Martin honors the other hero of the Miracle on the Hudson; this time lapse video shows the recovery of Flight 1549’s Airbus A320 from the river next to his apartment. Thanks, Colin!

Henrik Toth’s Fighter Sidecar Mashup may not be particularly road or air-worthy, but it’s one sweet flight of fancy; it features a mini-WW2 cockpit bolted on to a Yamaha Wild Star.

Actual aviators may want to look elsewhere, but Wings of Prey is ideal for casual WW2 fighter fans; it includes six theatres of war, 50 missions, 40+ planes, multiplayer, and future DLC.

Own a piece of WW2 history with this Spitfire Sculpture; limited to 24 pieces, it’s crafted from the Spitfire engine of an RAF ace who fought in the Battle of Britain; #13-24 sit on engine conrods.

Easily the baddest-ass DIY’ers ever, 81-year old Jim O’Hara and his wife have built a two-thirds scale P-38 fighter using little more than CAD plans; it made its maiden flight 10/24/09.

Dunhill’s Fighter Provenance Fountain Pen doesn’t just spit ink but fire: it’s made from the engine casing of a Spitfire fighter and features a propeller-shaped pen clip and plexiglass cap.

ParaJet is now accepting refundable $16k deposits for its SkyCar, which flew from the UK to Africa; the design has evolved since then, but the car should be ready to deliver by late 2010.

Liked the F/A-18F time lapse? The 80s music is a bit jarring, but this F-35 Lighting II video is far more thorough with a thorough run-down of the assembly and flight test processes.

Before the B-2 bomber was Germany’s Horten 2-29, which NatGeo has recreated to test out its stealth abilities; the result? World War 2 London would have never seen it coming.

In the interests of suspense we won’t reveal the ending, but come on: a Corvette ZR1 vs an F/A-18 Hornet? MotorTrend’s “race” is a little silly, but still fun; the action starts at 8 minutes.

Fly by the seat of your pants through your office with this F-4 Ejection Seat; it features an authentic seat from the Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom fighter jet with matching aluminum base.

Just “plane” awesome: 73 remote controlled airplanes take flight simultaneously at the 2009 Joe Nall, a gathering of RC flight enthusiasts at the Triple Tree Aerodrome in South Carolina.

With 18 guest rooms, gardens and more, the Hotelicopter smells like an April Fool’s joke, but we’ll play along: it makes its maiden flight 6/26, so get those fictional boarding passes ready.

Relive the legendary Death Star trench run of Gold 5 with this Stay on Target t-shirt, this time with equally legendary WWII era fighters including a Spitfire, Corsair and Warhawk.

Air traffic has never looked so beautiful–or been so interactive: artist Aaron Koblin has created Google Maps of 205,000 flight paths on 8/12/08; they’re sortable by altitude, make and model.

Pilot Alan Norman shows off Lockheed Martin’s 5th gen airplanes, the F-22 and F-35, above; he explains how stealth, aerodynamics and integrated avionics all contribute to air dominance.

While we’ve previously featured Kirk Hawkin’s Icon A5, Wired has an short but sweet video interview up with some great panning and in-flight shots; note: 15 second ad pre-roll.

Engineered by the SpaceShipOne team, the ICON A5 is designed for recreational flying; it’s able to land on water, features wings that fold away and runs on unleaded.

Tired of waiting for the real-life JSF, Dutchman Arthur van Poppel has created his own drivable mini F-35; the plane is awesome, but Arthur, seriously… a John Denver soundtrack?

Our buddies over at Dark Roasted Blend have posted The World’s Biggest Airplanes, which include everything from steampunk airships to monstrous, sky-splitting Russian planes.