Doc, one of only two flyable B-29 Superfortresses in the world, flew again in 2016 after sitting in the Mojave Desert for decades - restored by volunteers in Wichita over nearly 30 years.
TaildraggerOn September 24, 1929, Jimmy Doolittle completed the first fully instrument-guided flight under a canvas hood at Mitchel Field, proving blind flight could be a system, not a stunt.
TaildraggerOn the night of May 16–17, 1943, 617 Squadron's Lancaster bombers flew at 60 feet to breach the Ruhr Valley's dams using Barnes Wallis's revolutionary bouncing bomb.
TaildraggerHow a single German navigation error on August 24, 1940 triggered the chain of decisions that redirected the Luftwaffe away from the RAF's airfields - and saved Britain.
TaildraggerThe Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was the most produced American fighter of World War II - a massive, punishment-absorbing machine that brought pilots home when nothing else could.
TaildraggerThe Tuskegee Airmen's 332nd Fighter Group flew over 200 WWII bomber escort missions with an exceptionally low loss rate - a record earned through discipline, not circumstance.
TaildraggerAfter WWI, the U.S. Army auctioned thousands of surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jennies for as little as $200, launching the barnstorming era that brought flight to rural America.
TaildraggerRejected by the Navy and handed to the Marines, the Vought F4U Corsair became the Pacific War's most feared fighter with an 11-to-1 kill ratio.
TaildraggerOn August 25, 1919, a passenger boarded a converted WWI bomber at Hounslow Heath and flew to Paris, launching scheduled international commercial aviation.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the world's first Black woman to earn an internationally recognized pilot's license in 1921 after every American flight school refused to train her.
TaildraggerBob Hoover escaped a German POW camp in 1945 by stealing a Focke-Wulf 190 he had never flown, launching the career of aviation's greatest airshow pilot.
TaildraggerFrank Luke Jr. became America's most lethal WWI ace by destroying 14 observation balloons and 4 aircraft in just 17 days during September 1918.
TaildraggerThe complete story of Glacier Girl - the P-38 Lightning buried 268 feet under the Greenland ice cap in 1942 and restored to flight in 2002.
TaildraggerKatherine Stinson set cross-country distance records, performed night aerobatics with Roman candles, barnstormed Japan and China, and was still rejected by the Army in WWI.
TaildraggerOn September 28, 1924, two U.S. Army Air Service biplanes completed the first aerial circumnavigation of the Earth - 27,553 miles in 175 days.
TaildraggerOn January 2, 1967, Brigadier General Robin Olds led 28 F-4 Phantoms disguised as an F-105 strike package into an ambush of their own design, destroying seven MiG-21s in twelve minutes without a single American loss.
TaildraggerThe de Havilland Mosquito - rejected twice by the Air Ministry - became WWII's fastest bomber and flew the daring Operation Jericho prison raid in February 1944.
TaildraggerThe Douglas SBD Dauntless sank four Japanese fleet carriers at Midway on June 4, 1942, in four minutes that permanently shifted the balance of power in the Pacific War.
TaildraggerThe Memphis Belle flew 25 combat missions over Europe in 1943, then sat neglected outdoors for decades before a 25,000-hour volunteer restoration returned her to glory.
TaildraggerThe Schneider Trophy seaplane races of the 1920s and 1930s directly produced the engineering breakthroughs that made the Supermarine Spitfire - and Britain's survival in 1940 - possible.
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