On 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.
TaildraggerThe Gee Bee Super Sportster won the 1932 Thompson Trophy at 252 mph in Jimmy Doolittle's hands - and killed nearly everyone else who tried to fly it.
TaildraggerOn July 23, 1983, a unit conversion error left Air Canada Flight 143 with half its required fuel, forcing a dead-stick landing at a Manitoba drag strip with 89 people aboard.
TaildraggerThe Hughes H-4 Hercules flew exactly once - 70 feet above Long Beach harbor on November 2, 1947 - and remains the largest flying boat ever built.
TaildraggerThe Memphis Belle completed 25 combat missions over occupied Europe in 1943, then spent four decades deteriorating outdoors before a 13-year restoration saved her.
TaildraggerOn September 16, 1979, two East German families crossed the Iron Curtain in a homemade hot air balloon, covering 28 km to freedom in Bavaria in under 30 minutes.
TaildraggerOn September 15, 1940, Keith Park committed Fighter Command's last reserve and held the sky over Britain - the day Hitler's invasion plan effectively died.
TaildraggerThe Flying Tigers flew combat against Japan before America entered WWII, led by a tactical genius the Army had discarded and proven right.
TaildraggerDon Sheldon pioneered glacier landings on Denali for over two decades, building the techniques and standards that Alaska mountain aviation still relies on today.
TaildraggerOn November 22, 1935, Edwin Musick flew the Martin M-130 China Clipper from California to Manila, completing the first scheduled transpacific air crossing in history.
TaildraggerFlak-Bait, a Martin B-26 Marauder, flew 207 combat missions in WWII - more than any other American aircraft - and now sits at the Smithsonian bearing every mark it earned.
TaildraggerFrank Luke Jr. scored 18 aerial victories in 17 days in 1918, making him the second-highest American ace of WWI through the most dangerous attack runs of the war.
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