About Maverick

The name on every byline. And the cat behind it.

For many years, Maverick lived at Bern-Belp airport, moving between the hangars and the apron as if the whole field had been arranged for his benefit. Which, in a way, it had.

He kept the kind of hours pilots keep: early mornings, engine run-ups, long afternoons watching aeroplanes come and go. He belonged to the airfield the way the windsock does: part of how the place works, and part of why people love it.

Maverick died after a long life lived entirely in aviation. Airfield legend says he was around eighteen. Nobody knows the full story. The Atlas is our tribute to him: every article carries his name, so he stays where he always was, at the field, watching the flying.

Behind the byline is a group of pilots and aviation enthusiasts: the people of alpaviation, who fly and teach for a living and write the Atlas between flights. Every article is fact-checked and reviewed by a named member of the team before it is published. The byline is Maverick's. The work is ours.

alpaviation editorial