Global Aerospace & Aviation: Isaac Alexander, Host, Editor, Aggregator

“The spark of the individual moves mankind forward.” –Igor Sikorsky

Meet Isaac Alexander, whose vibrant personality and professional excellence shine through in his words and work as Chief Content Officer @HypeAviation and Editor in Chief @JetCityStar, reporting aviation, defense and space news. Knowledge that feeds into his role as host of the Global Aerospace Chat and Global Military Aviation Chat via Zoom.


Facilitating conversations around globe, he adds a dash of humor, keeps an eye on the clock, overcomes obstacles, calls on fellow professionals to add links or context when needed. (For those interested, see below for how to reach him to join the conversations or sit in to listen.) Located in the greater Seattle Washington area, Alexander reads extensively to spot, aggregate, and curate a quality feed of news and phenomenal information ahead of the crowd. Facing fear and overcoming them is shared (see his answer about skydiving, below.)

In a question-and-answer format, what follows is just a sampling of his life, experiences, and passions of a self-declared avgeek. (If you are also one, search #avgeek on Twitter to find and interact your tribe.)

Q: Where does the love of aviation and aerospace originate?

A: I was born in Tacoma Washington. My dad in 1974 got hired to be a police officer for the Port of Seattle. They have jurisdiction over both the Seattle port, and SeaTac Airport. Our family moved to a home on the south west side of the airport. We had a 75 percent view of both runways and all of the terminals. I grew up watching planes transit there from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s.

Q: What is your earliest memory of this?
A: My first aviation memory is my first airplane ride on an Alaska Air 727-200 in 1979 to Anchorage Alaska. Second earliest aviation memory was visiting the Boeing Renton factory in 1984 to see the delivery of the last 727-200 to FedEx. Third earliest memory that was VERY memorable was in November of 1984. A British Airways Concorde departed for the first time from SeaTac Airport on a flight to no where. There were hundreds of people along the street of the hill my house was on photographing the departure. It was amazing!


Q: Favorite aircraft?
A: Favorite aircraft changes through the years. I have a love affair with airships and am always sad that that form of transportation has never been economical to travel. I enjoy aircraft that defy explanation the first time you see them like the F-117 or B-2 that make you ask, can that really fly? I’m all over the map in that I just love anything really that flies over my head.

Q: Hero?

A: Igor Sikorsky, Burt Rutan, Joe Sutter. I’ve always been fascinated by the engineers who are responsible for building these magnificent flying machines. These three individuals are known as some of the best engineers that have lived for their accomplishments.

Q: What prompted/provoked launch of Hype? Describe your role, are you part of the LLC? Will ads be available for the site?

A: I started my aerospace freelance writing career under the brand JetCityStar back in October of 2010 after attending the second annual Aviation Geek Fest. I started a Twitter account and mainly used that to point out aerospace news. After doing that for over a decade, I wanted to actually start a new business that would be an aerospace news aggregator pointing out the best aviation defense and space news daily from across the globe. Luckily as fortune would say, I wasn’t the only person on earth that had the same idea.

I found Robin Koenig who built and designed a website called http://HypeAviation.com. I immediately reached out to Robin back in November of last year (2021) to find out what his vision was for his website. We chose to join forces and start operating the website together with me in charge of the news content (Chief Content Officer) and events calendar and Robin being the CEO/Designer/Programmer for the site. We were operating the site in beta since January of this year and then we came out of beta and launched version 2.0 of the website in Los Angeles during an event operated by NYC Aviation. Plans are to add ads to the website and daily newsletter soon, so Hype Aviation can finally get some revenue.

Q: Can you describe coverage for readers?

A: Daily coverage of Hype covers everything aviation defense and space across the globe. Right now stories are from mostly English language news sources. I would describe a news source falling into one of the three categories: A: Financial Press – Bloomberg, FT, WSJ, Nikkei Review, Reuters, etc. B: Trade Press – Aviation Week, Flight Global, Australia Aviation, Space News, Space Watch, Defense News, Janes, Breaking Defense, etc. C: Mainstream Press: NY Times, Washington Post, Seattle Times DW, BBC, NPR, South China Morning Post, etc. We’re approaching well over 1,000 publications that we’ve picked over the past year at least once for an aerospace story. If you visit the front page of Hype, that includes the top aviation, defense and space stories listed together with the most popular stories at the top. For those that want more specific news, we have the three vertical pages of aviation defense and space. The daily newsletter lists the top 20 news stories every day.

Q: Regarding your weekly chats via Zoom, why did you begin these? Can you describe for readers what is the most satisfying part of the chats? Can anyone participate?

A: When the pandemic became a reality in March of 2020, I knew I needed someway of being able to talk to people because I was going to go crazy if I didn’t. I chatted with my friend Nick Benson about what we should do. We both saw the video conference software Zoom was taking off we decided to start a weekly chat on Sunday evenings in North America. Thus the Global Aerospace Chat was born. Nick and I invited people in our aviation contacts to join and it’s been a staple for me ever since. Later in July 2020, we decided to switch things up content wise by alternating the focus of Sunday evenings by launching the Global Military Aviation Chat. So Sunday nights each Sunday would alternate between the Global Aerospace Chat devoted to everything Air Cargo, Business, Commercial, and General Aviation. The Global Military Aviation Chat would focus on aerial defense stories from across the globe. We have people that sign in for both, and also people that just come for one or the other. Shows cover about 20 stories over a 90-120 minute chat. I added an after chat as well after the formal chat to discuss things that didn’t get covered. One of the things I’m most proud of on the show is the global reach we’ve had. We’ve had people from New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and the U.K. be a part of the chat. Another point of pride for me is that members of the chat have been able to meet up with each other in person. A bunch of us were able to meet up at SPOTLAX in Los Angeles this fall. Also, USA members of the chat traveled to Australia and the U.K. to meet up with members there. Chats are open to anyone with an interest in aerospace. It’s been a heck of a ride.

Q: Tell our readers about yourself, military background and in general. Noticed you have a wide scope of knowledge and are quite good at hosting chats, friendly and keeping things on track. Where did you learn these skills?
A: I was in the US Navy from 2004-10. I went into the service undesignated and then later chose to be an aviation machinist mate. That title meant I would work on aircraft engines. My first four years I was with VFA-136 Knighthawks out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach Virginia. We operated both F-18C Hornets and Super Hornets. I did two multi-month cruises on the USS Enterprise in 2006 & 2007. Got to visit places such as Lisbon Portugal, Split Croatia, Cannes France, Dubai U.A.E., Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.. The last two years in the Navy I worked at the base engine shop overhauling GE404 engines.

I’ve always had a thirst for knowledge. My Mom growing up would always take me to the county library where I could pick up books. I read A LOT of British Author Bill Gungston aviation books so I could learn what was currently flying. I would also go to local news stands and bookstores with large magazine racks and speed read some of the publications there. I’ve always just had a thirst for knowledge in aviation and defense. That’s now spilled over into space as well with the amazing growth of the commercial space industry.

I’ve had quite a few amazing experiences since I started JetCityStar. One of them was visiting the Evergreen Museum in Oregon and getting onboard the flight deck of the Spruce Goose. It was mind blowing see how HUGE that flight deck was and seeing how enormous that aircraft was for it’s time. Was just absolutely grinning ear to ear when I got to sit in the pilot's seat that Howard Hughes himself sat in when the aircraft performed it’s one and only flight.


Also, can you share some favorite images.

Below: Taken in January 2022 at the Museum of Flight Aviation Pavilion. I’m a proud member of the museum.

Q: The current header on your Twitter page (included, below), is quite distinctive. Can you describe this experience, skydiving, for our readers?

Isaac Alexander.

Skydiving. Isaac Alexander's header image 11/2022. Shared here with permission. Linked to his Twitter profile page.

A: My dad surprised me for my birthday in June this year by getting me ticket to skydive. So we drove SkyDive Kapowsin in Shelton Washington, where I tandem-jumped out of perfectly good Cessna Caravan at 13,000 feet. My body reached a terminal velocity of 143 mpg before the chute was pulled and we landed after roughly two minutes out of the airplane. I paid $100 for the company to have a photographer jump with me and record the event. With that I got about 50-plus images and a short music video chronicling the whole experience. Will I sky dive again? Absolutely. It’ll be a couple years though before I do that amazing experience again. It helped me deal with my fear of heights.

Alexander is in the photo below (Center right front.)


Below, “First time to AirVenture in Oshkosh Wisconsin in 2018.”


12. Best place to reach me is on Twitter, Instagram, FB, and Linked in if you look for JetCityStar or my full name Isaac Alexander. Direct message me on those platforms or @ me and I’ll respond back.

Editor's note: This interview done remotely via Twitter. What is possible on Twitter; to “meet” great people across the planet, learn and connect? Maybe possibilities are just beginning. This story has been updated.

1 … 52 53 54 55 56 … 438