Data stories
Original research computed from the FlightFinder aviation-safety corpus. Every number is recomputed nightly from the live database.
The 1973 oil shock never showed up where you would look for it
We rebuilt US trunk airlines' quarterly P&L from the CAB's own Form 41 tapes, 1969–1979. Fuel's share ratcheted up and stayed. The profit collapse came a year late.
Spins, Morse code, and a dead-stick spiral: the airline pilot checkride of 1956
We read the CAA's original Airline Transport Pilot rulebook. The exam it describes would terrify a modern airline pilot — and the experience numbers haven't moved in 70 years
America's first anti-hijacking rule fit in two paragraphs
October 1961: after the first wave of hijackings to Cuba, the FAA wrote its entire response in 137 words — no metal detectors, no screening, just a ban on interfering with the crew
Europe's bird-strike advice, measured against America's bird-strike data
A third of a million American records against two thousand British ones a year — and the seasons, the species and the reporting duties all differ.
Bird strikes and the light aircraft
What a third of a million FAA strike reports say to general aviation pilots — and where the standard advice holds up
The oldest jets still flying in 2026
What a year of live ADS-B tracking says about the age of the planes overhead
The animals aircraft hit most are not the ones that damage them
347,000 FAA wildlife strike reports, grouped by animal family — for all civil aviation, for airliners, and by aircraft model
What actually breaks on a Boeing 737
264,000 mechanic reports to the FAA, sorted by aircraft system
Why a Sacramento suburb looks like America's laser-strike capital
The FAA's laser data names Mather, California as the top city — the real story is how the data is filed