The Bermuda Sky Queen and the flying boat that landed in the middle of the Atlantic
The Bermuda Sky Queen's 1947 emergency ocean landing saved 69 lives but was overshadowed by Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier the same day.
TaildraggerTaildragger
Operation Chastise and the Dambusters who skipped bombs across German reservoirs at sixty feet on May sixteenth, nineteen forty-three
On May 16, 1943, nineteen Lancaster bombers attacked Germany's Ruhr Valley dams using spinning bouncing bombs dropped at exactly sixty feet.
TaildraggerThe Dornier Do seventeen pulled from the English Channel and the only surviving Bomber of its kind
The last surviving Dornier Do 17, a WWII German bomber, was recovered from the English Channel in 2013 after 73 years underwater.
TaildraggerThe Gloster E twenty-eight thirty-nine and the secret jet that changed everything on May fifteenth, nineteen forty-one
On May 15, 1941, the Gloster E.28/39 made Britain's first jet-powered flight, proving Frank Whittle's revolutionary engine concept.
TaildraggerMax Conrad the Flying Grandfather who crossed oceans alone in a Piper Comanche
Max Conrad made over 200 solo ocean crossings in single-engine Pipers, earning the title Flying Grandfather.
TaildraggerThe Schneider Trophy and the seaplane races that gave birth to the Spitfire
How the Schneider Trophy seaplane races of the 1920s and 1930s directly produced the Spitfire and its Merlin engine.
TaildraggerCharlie Furnas and the first airplane passenger who climbed aboard at Kill Devil Hills on May fourteenth, nineteen oh eight
On May 14, 1908, mechanic Charlie Furnas became the first airplane passenger in America at Kill Devil Hills, NC.
TaildraggerKee Bird the B-twenty-nine Superfortress that burned on a frozen Greenland lake after a fifty-year rescue mission
The Kee Bird B-29 survived 48 years on a frozen Greenland lake only to burn during its rescue attempt moments before takeoff.
TaildraggerIgor Sikorsky and the four-engine giant that nobody believed could fly on May thirteenth, nineteen thirteen
On May 13, 1913, Igor Sikorsky flew the first four-engine airplane, defying experts who called multi-engine flight impossible.
TaildraggerJimmy Stewart and the movie star who flew twenty combat missions over Nazi Germany in a B-twenty-four Liberator
Jimmy Stewart flew twenty combat missions over Nazi Germany in a B-24 Liberator, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross twice.
TaildraggerThe Ramstein airshow disaster of nineteen eighty-eight and the pierced heart maneuver that changed airshow safety forever
The 1988 Ramstein airshow disaster killed 67 spectators and three pilots, fundamentally rewriting airshow safety rules worldwide.
TaildraggerThe Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk found in the Egyptian Sahara seventy years after its pilot walked away and vanished
A Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk sat untouched in the Egyptian Sahara for 70 years after its pilot vanished, sparking a fierce restoration debate.
TaildraggerThe Berlin Blockade lifts on May twelfth nineteen forty-nine and the airlift that moved two million tons on three-minute intervals
The Berlin Airlift delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies over 277,000 flights, ending when the Soviet blockade lifted on May 12, 1949.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman and the woman who crossed an ocean just to learn how to fly
Bessie Coleman crossed the Atlantic to earn her pilot's license after every U.S. flight school refused to teach a Black woman to fly.
TaildraggerThe Vickers Wellington pulled from Loch Ness and the bomber that spent forty-five years at the bottom of Scotland's most famous lake
The story of Wellington bomber N2980, ditched in Loch Ness in 1940 and recovered 45 years later as the best surviving example of its type.
TaildraggerThe airship Norge and the first verified flight across the North Pole on May eleventh, nineteen twenty-six
On May 11, 1926, the airship Norge completed the first verified flight across the North Pole, crossing from Europe to Alaska.
TaildraggerRudolf Hess and the solo Messerschmitt flight to Scotland that nobody ordered on May tenth, nineteen forty-one
On May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess flew a Messerschmitt Bf 110 solo from Germany to Scotland in one of aviation's most bizarre unauthorized missions.
TaildraggerWatson's Whizzers and the American test pilots who stole Hitler's jet fleet before the ink on VE Day was dry
How a band of American test pilots raced across defeated Germany to seize Hitler's secret jets before the Soviets could claim them.
TaildraggerThe Travel Air Mystery Ship and the civilian racer that humiliated every military fighter at the nineteen twenty-nine Cleveland Air Races
How a secret civilian racer from Wichita humiliated every military fighter at the 1929 Cleveland Air Races and changed American aviation.
TaildraggerRichard Byrd and Floyd Bennett and the North Pole flight that history still argues about on May eighth, nineteen twenty-six
The 1926 Byrd-Bennett North Pole flight remains aviation's most debated claim - here's what happened and why historians still argue.
Taildragger