You might have noticed the metal rods that airplanes have on their wings, but do the pieces have a name? What are they for and how do they work?

For the Airbus A380, the operating empty weight—that’s the weight of an aircraft before passengers, cargo and fuel are added, basically—might be around 610,000 pounds.

Metal from a Lockheed SR-71 aircraft, a former military reconnaissance plane nicknamed Blackbird, is featured in a new version of Urwerk’s Electro Mechanical Control watch, scheduled to debut ...