When dogs fly ...

• Position: PETS

Most dogs love to ride in the family car, but the family plane can be a different story. Michele McGuire, an experienced pilot from Westminster, Md., found that out the first time she took her dog, Cooper, for a ride in her Cessna. The normally playful dog started whimpering, then curled up in a ball at the rear of the plane. McGuire realized that the plane's ear-splitting engine noise was the culprit. Attempts to place foam plugs in Cooper's ears proved futile. Finally, it dawned on McGuire: If pilots could wear bulky headsets, why not dogs? She and a fellow pilot set out to develop Mutt Muffs--an over-the-head...