On October 14, 1908, S.F. Cody - a Wild West showman from Iowa - made the first officially recognized powered flight in Great Britain, covering 1,400 feet over Laffan's Plain.
TaildraggerThe P-47 Thunderbolt was the heaviest single-engine fighter ever mass-produced, and the 56th Fighter Group made it the highest-scoring outfit in the Eighth Air Force.
TaildraggerOn December 23, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landed at Edwards AFB after flying 24,987 miles around the Earth on a single load of fuel - aviation's last great first.
TaildraggerOn October 14, 1943, the Eighth Air Force lost 60 B-17s and 594 airmen in a single afternoon over Schweinfurt, ending unescorted deep-penetration bombing over Germany.
TaildraggerThe Vought F4U Corsair was the fastest American single-engine fighter of WWII, earning an 11:1 kill ratio after the Navy handed it to the Marines for being too dangerous to carrier-land.
TaildraggerOn July 17, 1938, Douglas Corrigan filed a flight plan to Los Angeles, flew east for 28 hours, and landed in Dublin - then claimed he got turned around.
TaildraggerOn April 16, 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel - a milestone buried by Titanic headlines the very next morning.
TaildraggerJimmy Angel was a Missouri barnstormer who discovered the world's tallest waterfall in 1933, then crash-landed on its summit in 1937 - leaving his plane there for 33 years.
TaildraggerJoe Foss, a South Dakota farm kid who watched Lindbergh land as a boy, flew a Grumman Wildcat over Guadalcanal in 1942–43 to tie Eddie Rickenbacker's record of 26 aerial victories.
TaildraggerThe 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was not a mechanical failure - it was a dead reckoning error in the Andes that helped define CFIT risk for every generation of pilots since.
TaildraggerHow the Curtiss JN-4D Jenny - sold as government surplus after WWI for as little as $200 - sparked the barnstorming era and introduced aviation to everyday Americans.
TaildraggerThe Gee Bee Model R Super Sportster was the fastest piston aircraft in America in 1932 - and arguably the most dangerous machine ever to win the Thompson Trophy.
TaildraggerHow a Japanese Zero found upside-down in an Alaskan bog gave American engineers the intelligence to design the F6F Hellcat and flip the balance of Pacific air power.
TaildraggerThe Memphis Belle's 13-year restoration at Wright-Patterson rescued WWII's most famous bomber from decades of outdoor decay in a Memphis city park.
TaildraggerThe Me 262 flew 100 mph faster than any Allied fighter, yet Hitler's bomber directive and production failures kept it from reaching the front until Germany had already lost.
TaildraggerAmerica's Mach 3 nuclear bomber was canceled before flying a combat mission, yet its research legacy shaped every high-speed aircraft that followed.
TaildraggerWiley Post flew solo around the world in 1933 with one eye, a failed autopilot, and a propeller repaired in the Soviet wilderness - completing the flight in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes.
TaildraggerHow researcher Matt Scales tracked down serial 42-92847 - the C-47 that led the entire D-Day airborne assault - and how the CAF flew her over Normandy 75 years later.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the first Black American to earn an international pilot's license in 1921 after learning French and training in France when every American school refused her.
TaildraggerBob Hoover escaped a German POW camp by stealing a Focke-Wulf 190, became the greatest airshow pilot of his generation, and fought the FAA to keep flying into his seventies.
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