The Vought F4U Corsair's inverted gull wing solved a critical propeller clearance problem - and gave the Marines their most iconic fighter of World War II.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the world's first Black licensed pilot in 1921, crossing the Atlantic to earn credentials that every American flight school had refused her.
TaildraggerBob Hoover survived being shot down over France, escaped a German POW camp in a stolen Focke-Wulf 190, and became the greatest airshow pilot in history.
TaildraggerBockscar dropped the Nagasaki atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, with a broken fuel pump, a 45-minute detour, and fuel remaining for exactly one final bomb run.
TaildraggerOn September 17, 1908, Lt. Thomas Selfridge became aviation's first powered-flight fatality - and his role in early aviation was far larger than most history books acknowledge.
TaildraggerHow Barnes Wallis's precisely engineered bouncing bomb and 617 Squadron's low-level attack on Germany's Ruhr dams on May 16–17, 1943 redefined what airpower could accomplish.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented wing walking and mid-air aircraft transfers in 1919, became Hollywood's first aerial stuntman, and died on camera at age 28.
TaildraggerThe B-29 'Doc' survived decades as a weapons range target before a 16-year volunteer effort returned her to Wichita's skies on July 17, 2016.
TaildraggerIn August 1927, eight planes raced 2,400 miles across the Pacific for a $25,000 prize - only two returned, and the disaster reshaped how aviation approached oceanic flight.
TaildraggerHow the obsolete Fairey Swordfish biplane crippled Italy's battle fleet at Taranto in 1940 and delivered the torpedo that stopped the Bismarck in 1941.
TaildraggerOn November 22, 1935, Pan American's China Clipper made the first scheduled commercial transpacific flight under Captain Edwin Musick, covering nearly 8,000 miles to Manila in seven days.
TaildraggerOn December 14, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew a homebuilt composite aircraft called Voyager around the entire Earth - nonstop, unrefueled - in nine days.
TaildraggerHow bush pilot Wop May's 1932 aerial reconnaissance during the Mad Trapper manhunt laid the foundation for modern search-and-rescue aviation.
TaildraggerBob Reeve turned Valdez tidal mud flats into a runway in 1932 and pioneered commercial glacier landing in Alaska using seal oil and methodical improvisation.
TaildraggerOn April 16, 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel solo - a milestone the Titanic disaster nearly erased from history.
TaildraggerOn June 14, 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight, crossing 1,890 miles in 16 hours and 27 minutes - eight years before Lindbergh.
TaildraggerRichard Bong scored 40 aerial kills in a P-38 Lightning during WWII - a record no American pilot has matched in any conflict since.
TaildraggerOn January 2, 1967, Colonel Robin Olds led 48 aircrews in Operation Bolo, destroying seven MiG-21s over Hanoi in aviation's most successful aerial deception since World War II.
TaildraggerHow the $50 Army surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny launched the barnstorming era and introduced millions of Americans to flight.
TaildraggerThe de Havilland Mosquito was rejected by the Air Ministry twice before becoming WWII's most versatile combat aircraft - built almost entirely from wood.
Taildragger