November 2012

Cover, Contents & Departments

Viewport, Letters, What’s Up, Soundings, In the Museum

Sightings, Reviews & Previews, Credits, Forecast, Moments & Milestones

Features

Intensive Space

For those critically wounded in combat, U.S. military aircraft go the extra mile.

By Michael Klesius

Printed in Space

How to save weigh on a journey to Mars: Make only the tools you need—on the way.

By Mark Betancourt

Cuba During the Missile Crises

50 years ago, few Cubans knew the whole world was watching.

By Rafael Lima

Carpenter’s Special: de Haviland D.H.98 Mosquito

Never has there been a more successful warplane made of wood.

By Will Wright

Ode to the Bubble

The first helicopter to fly a U.S. president may be the last helicopter to retire.

By Mark Huber

Pint-Size Sky Watchers

What can a small telescope possibly discover? Half a million near-Earth asteroids, for starters.

By Damond Benningfield

And the Oscar Goes to… the Airplane!

Were you fooled by these Hollywood fakes?

By Preston Lerner

Who Was Fatty Pearson

Some stories that Royal Air Force pilots circulated about him may not be wholly true. The one written by Ernest Hemingway was.

By Tim Belknap