Rejected by the U.S. Navy as unfit for carriers in 1942, the Vought F4U Corsair became the Pacific's most feared fighter in Marine Corps hands - and its enemies named it Whistling Death.
TaildraggerDon Sheldon's one-man air taxi operation out of Talkeetna defined glacier flying in the Alaska Range and opened Denali to the world's climbing community.
TaildraggerOn July 14, 1938, Howard Hughes landed at Floyd Bennett Field after circling the globe in 3 days, 19 hours, and 8 minutes - cutting the previous record in half.
TaildraggerJacqueline Cochran earned her pilot's license in three weeks, commanded over 1,000 women pilots in WWII, and became the first woman to break the sound barrier.
TaildraggerOn April 18, 1943, sixteen P-38 Lightnings flew a 435-mile dead-reckoning intercept to kill Admiral Yamamoto, changing the course of the Pacific War.
TaildraggerOn August 7, 1955, Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled a jet transport prototype over Lake Washington and sold the jet age to the world.
TaildraggerOver 100 WWII aircraft lost during carrier training on Lake Michigan survived 50+ years of cold freshwater, yielding some of the finest restored warbirds in existence.
TaildraggerThe Gee Bee Model R won the 1932 Thompson Trophy at 252 mph and became the defining image of American air racing's golden age - and its deadliest lesson.
TaildraggerThe Grumman F6F Hellcat achieved a 19-to-1 kill ratio in WWII, accounting for 75% of all U.S. Navy aerial victories in the Pacific theater.
TaildraggerThe Hughes H-4 Hercules flew once in 1947 - 70 feet high, 26 seconds, one mile - and is the largest wooden aircraft and flying boat ever built.
TaildraggerBob Hoover escaped a WWII German POW camp by stealing a Focke-Wulf 190 and became the airshow pilot Neil Armstrong called the greatest he ever saw.
TaildraggerBob Reeve invented glacier flying in 1932 from necessity - broke and resourceful in Valdez, Alaska - and built an airline that ran for nearly six decades.
TaildraggerCal Rodgers completed the first transcontinental flight in 1911, surviving 84 days, 16 crashes, and near-total aircraft rebuilding to reach the Pacific.
TaildraggerHow barnstormer Clyde Pangborn went from inverted flight at county fairs to completing the first nonstop transpacific flight in 1931.
TaildraggerDoc, a 1944 B-29 Superfortress rescued from the Mojave Desert, flew again over Wichita on July 17, 2016, after a decade of volunteer restoration work.
TaildraggerOn May 16–17, 1943, nineteen Lancaster crews flew at sixty feet over black water to destroy the Ruhr dams - a story of precision engineering and extraordinary cost.
TaildraggerNorth American's XB-70 Valkyrie flew at Mach 3 riding its own shockwave, was cancelled before combat, and only one of two airframes survives today.
TaildraggerThe Republic P-47 Thunderbolt overcame deep skepticism about its size to become the top-scoring fighter in the entire European theater of World War II.
TaildraggerHow a pre-war floatplane racing series - saved by a private widow's check - became the crucible that produced the Spitfire and the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
TaildraggerWiley Post flew around the world twice, discovered the polar jet stream, and invented the pressure suit that made space travel possible - all on $1,800 and one eye.
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