Also: Firefighting By Night Vision, B787 Turns One, NIMBY Screws Helo Program, Remembering Armstrong, Space Snacks

WACO Classic Aircraft is making progress on the first Great Lakes biplane airframe, as well as the first airplane ordered by a customer.

The company says the project is moving into high gear with nearly all vendors online, all of the engineering updates approved, and drawing updates mostly complete. A team of students from the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland have soared to new heights in their quest for the Sikorsky Prize. With new freshman pilot Henry Enerson providing the power, the human powered helicopter Gamera II soared to an altitude of 8 feet during a recent 25 second flight. Who’s the king of Hot-Air? Nick Donner of Fischerville, KY is the new World Champion Hot Air Balloonists. Donner claimed the title last Saturday after a week of competitions in Battle Creek, MI. Defending World Donner knows the Battle Creek flying area extremely well as he won the 2009, 2010 and 2011 US National Championships. All this... and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!

Airborne 08.31.12 is chock full of info about the half-week period ending Friday, August 31st, 2012... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Host Ashley Hale, and supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, and Aero-Journalists Tom Patton, and Glen Moyer, this episode covers:

• WACO Great Lakes Nearly Reborn
• Gamera II Hovers high
• USA Retains World Balloon Title
• Aerial Firefighters Going Bump in the Night
• CA Eyes NY Helo Rules
• Boeing Dreamliner Anniversary
• ONE Nimby Leads to Medivac Relocation
• Barnstorming-Remembering Neil
• Canadian Space Snacks

Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again next week for the next edition of "Airborne" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, in just a few days!

FMI: www.aero-news.net, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews, The Full ANN/YouTube AIRBORNE Roster -- www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL42E90078D99B1053&feature=view_all