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Provided no critical electrical or fuel lines are pierced in the process

The wings on a plane are the fuel tanks.

Structurally the damage is survivable. It looks similar to bird strikes. The difference is a bird strike is a blob of meat and blood hitting the plane. A drone strike would include lots of spark-inducing metal parts and volatile battery intruding into the fuel tank. The engines have some fire extinguishing capability (a small tank holding fire retardant). But fuel leaking from a wing catching fire would stay on fire until either the all the fuel drained out of the wing, or the plane reached the ground.

Boeing knew this all along. They only made the original 747 a double-decker because they wanted the cargo variant to have a fold-up nose, so it would have the capability to slide fuselage-filling cargo pallets in from the front. This necessitated putting the flight deck above the fuselage. And the aerodynamic bump behind the flight deck provided a little extra space where they could put a few passenger seats.

Once the second deck was fixed into the design, Boeing realized they could greatly increase capacity by making the plane a full double-decker. They continuously pitched this possible variant to the airlines from the 1970s to the 2000s. Every time, their market research said there just wasn't enough market demand to justify making such a large plane. So they never made one. Over the years they increased the length of the upper cabin a bit, but never got enough airline interest to warrant a full double-decker.

Then Airbus came along and insisted there was enough market demand to pay for developing a full double-deck airliner. That's the kind of risk you can take when the governments grant you loan guarantees (Airbus wouldn't have had to pay back the loans for developing the A380 if hadn't generated sufficient sales to pay for itself). As it stands, it looks like the A380 program will just barely break even, so at least the EU citizens won't get stuck with the bill.

Couldn't fly for more than a few seconds. You could do just as well with a stick of balsa wood, a rubber band, and a propeller.

40 minutes... Not too shabby

http://www.nycaviation.com/2013/01/ntsb-shows-off-burnt-boeing-787-battery/

HOLY SMOKES! I was imagining a crack along the side of a plastic case with some black soot along the damage. These look like they were found in the shell of a completely burned-down building.

Jet Skier Breaches JFK Airport Perimeter, Wanders to Terminal 3 Undetected

Questions now are raised as to why the Port Authority's $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS), loaded up with closed-circuit cameras and motion sensors, failed completely, and how a man can walk such a distance unnoticed. This is not JFK Airport's first perimeter breach, however. In early 2009, a trio of boaters ran ashore at the airport, wandered across a runway and showed up at the Port Authority Police rescue station themselves. They had become lost in their inflatable fishing raft during a storm.

Former NYPD veteran and former MTA deputy security director told ABC News âoeI think he should be given dinner and a bottle of champagne for showing us our faults,â but after a 3-mile swim, breaching an airport perimeter and a 2-mile walk in heavy, wet clothes, perhaps he should be given a trophy and a Navy SEAL Trident as well.

Less than that. I know of two incidents with airplanes being flown into buildings or stolen since the TSA came on the job. http://www.nycaviation.com/2012/07/did-someone-try-to-steal-a-skywest-plane-in-utah-last-night/#.UFJLL41lTng http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/06/news/mn-20751

Sounds like he knew he had a major malfunction and was trying to land. Air traffic controllers are heard screaming expletives.

The actual photo is of a DraganFlyer X6 built by DraganFly in Saskatoon, Canada. I imagine the folks at DraganFly are busy answering questions this morning.

This article
http://nycaviation.com/2011/03/iran-shows-off-flying-saucer-uav-which-is-not-round-looks-nothing-like-a-saucer/
  claims the drone will be made by Dorna Aerospace Company

http://nycaviation.com/2011/03/iran-shows-off-flying-saucer-uav-which-is-not-round-looks-nothing-like-a-saucer/

"The 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter aircraft went down..." What the hell? That can't be right, can it? And I thought commercial aircraft were old. Source: http://nycaviation.com/2010/08/10/plane-possibly-carrying-former-u-s-senator-ted-stevens-crashes-in-alaska/

Update: Stevens was killed, fate of other passengers unknown.

Please tell me you are not being serious. Strategic nuclear weapons in bombers make no sense since the ICBM was invented. If someone launches an ICBM attack in 15 minutes the bombs are dropping. By that time the pilots are probably still getting out of their bunkers, let alone spinning up the engines, or actually getting to the destination. Doing that would be tantamount to political suicide. You lose the retaliatory strike ability that made MAD successful in guaranteeing world peace in the first place.

Please tell me that you don't think the military spent billions on a fleet of nuclear bombers for no reason. During the cold war and up until 1991, those bomber crews were on constant alert, and we certainly would have had many in the air in time for a retaliatory attack. Suggest you watch this video, and read the notes from one of the posters there:
http://nycaviation.com/forum/b52-scramble-drill-t17274.html

The shuttle is set to take an unusual course nearly parallel with the east coast for this mission, which will be visible to nearly everyone from Florida to New York. The weather is a bit cloudy today, but should be perfectly clear Thursday night.