The Caproni Ca.60 from 1921. The most amazing thing about this plane is that it could actually fly.

Northrop Grumman's svelte LEMV (Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle)

Investment tip: Biplanes (minimize sonic booms; currently supersonic travel is prohibited because of the booms).

Boeing 747g

NASA X-47g

The first badass airplane photo in history, of an Airco DH.4 (1918)

When I parked planes at ACK, this never happened, luckily

Experimental Boeing/NASA X-48B unmanned aerial vehicle (i.e., drone). Much of the X-48 research is classified, so please don't tell anyone you saw this.

Recent attempt in Georgia to make a flying car. As Churchill said, "Never, never, never, never give up."

The first hybrid, the Taylor Aerocar (1949)

A King Air 100-- what Charlie had to land in TWICE A SPY with no piloting experience save PlayStation. I hope whoever took this photo got out of the way.

DARPA's ISIS

DARPA's ISIS, a 450-foot unmanned spy blimp that shoots hypersonic missiles from 12 miles up, where it can stay for 10 years, out of range of most surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles. Probably corners well, too. What will happen to conventional warbirds?

The Taliban Drone: Real or Photoshopped?

Because sometimes you need to go to eleven engines

One reason that public opinion of drones is about to improve

The base model Terrafugia flying car, out in 2014: $279,000--includes leather seats!

Stearman

Skunk Works' just-announced SR-72 "Son of the Blackbird," an unmanned Mach-6 spy plane armed with hypersonic missiles. Where does this leave conventional warbirds?

Jess Dixon's Flying Automobile (1940). Didn't catch on because of insufficient hat room.

Lun-class ekranoplan

CIA's FruitFly nanobot listening device. Huge tech advance, except battery lasts only a fruit-fly-esque 18 seconds.

With a wingspan of 125 meters (exactly twice that of a 747), the forthcoming Be-2500 will be by far the biggest plane ever to fly. If it gets off the ground.

It's not a B-52 or a Blackbird, but this PBA DC-3 was my first airplane gig—as a baggage handler.

Relax, earthlings, it's just a Mikrokopter drone that I'm using for book research.

Cormorant

Say you happened to have a drone for your book research and your neighbor was blasting his Kevin Federline album again?

Ladybug flying 550 mph

DC-4

X-47B

Compare/Contrast: Economy class on a Boeing 747 today and in the late-1960s…

The Pentagon's new Argus One drone: What might its designers have been thinking about?

AR2.0 delivers a paper.

Drone in need of an oil change?

Moller's M400 flying car: It flies, gets good MPG on land and has ample legroom. Just one drawback: You're seeing the extent of its flight capability.