On January 1, 1929, five Army Air Corps airmen flew a Fokker trimotor over Southern California for 150 hours to prove aerial refueling could transform military airpower.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the first African American and first person of Native American descent to earn an international pilot's license in 1921, after learning to fly in France when every U.S. flight school refused her.
TaildraggerOn October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 with two cracked ribs and a piece of broomstick - a story of calculated risk and cold nerve.
TaildraggerHarold Gillam was Alaska's most legendary bush pilot until a 1943 crash in the Coast Range claimed his life at age 39 during a solo rescue attempt.
TaildraggerJacqueline Cochran broke the sound barrier in 1953, won the Bendix Trophy, and commanded the WASP - the most decorated pilot in history, male or female.
TaildraggerJohn Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight in June 1919 - eight years before Lindbergh - in an open-cockpit biplane through ice and zero-visibility cloud.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented wing walking, became America's most famous barnstormer and aerial movie star, and died at 28 when Hollywood floodlights caused spatial disorientation during a filmed spin.
TaildraggerHow five minutes of dive bombing on June 4, 1942 - and the torpedo crews who made it possible - turned the tide of the Pacific War at Midway.
TaildraggerThe Douglas DC-3 made commercial aviation profitable in 1936 and still flies today - the aircraft that reshaped how the world moves people.
TaildraggerOn July 23, 1983, a metric conversion error left Air Canada Flight 143 with half its required fuel at 41,000 feet - 69 people survived because a captain knew how to slip a jetliner.
TaildraggerThe Hughes H-4 Hercules flew exactly once on November 2, 1947, yet it remains the largest flying boat ever built and survives today at McMinnville's Evergreen Aviation Museum.
TaildraggerThe Memphis Belle survived 25 WWII combat missions over Nazi Europe, then spent 30 years decaying outdoors in Memphis before a landmark restoration saved her.
TaildraggerThe P-47 Thunderbolt was WWII's most-produced American fighter - a rugged, powerful aircraft that defined the air war over Europe through toughness, altitude, and aggressive tactics.
TaildraggerThe Schneider Trophy seaplane races of 1913–1931 directly produced the engineering breakthroughs behind the Supermarine Spitfire and Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
TaildraggerBob Reeve built a glacier-flying operation and a regional airline from $40 and a can of axle grease, using Valdez harbor mud flats as his runway in the 1930s.
TaildraggerBefore Pearl Harbor, 100 American volunteers flew shark-mouthed P-40s under Claire Chennault's unconventional tactics to hold the line over Burma and China.
TaildraggerOn December 23, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landed at Edwards after flying nonstop around the world in Burt Rutan's Voyager - with 18 gallons to spare.
TaildraggerHarriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel on April 16, 1912 - a landmark swallowed by Titanic headlines the very same day.
TaildraggerHurricane R4118 flew approximately 50 Battle of Britain combat sorties, spent 40 years in an Indian shed, and was restored to flight in 2004.
TaildraggerRoscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy three times, flew with a lion, and made aviation something every American felt belonged to them.
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