Aviation history and storytelling with Taildragger. Warbird restorations, legendary pilots, famous flights, and the stories that shaped aviation from the Wright Brothers to the Space Shuttle.
On December 14, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first nonstop, unrefueled circumnavigation of the Earth, landing after 216 hours aloft in an aircraft built by hand in a desert hangar.
Flak-Bait flew 207 combat missions in WWII - a record no American aircraft has matched - and its ongoing restoration at Udvar-Hazy preserves every patch as evidence.
On November 2, 1947, Howard Hughes flew the world's largest airplane - the H-4 Hercules - one mile across Long Beach Harbor, vindicating years of ridicule and an $18 million gamble.
How barnstorming bush pilot Jimmy Angel discovered the world's tallest waterfall and crash-landed atop an ancient Venezuelan mesa in 1937, leaving his plane behind for 33 years.
The Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment - all-female crews in open-cockpit biplanes - flew over 23,000 combat sorties against Nazi Germany, earning the name 'Night Witches.'
Operation Bolo on January 2, 1967 was the most successful air-to-air engagement of the Vietnam War, destroying seven MiG-21s with no American air combat losses.
The sole surviving Northrop N-9M flying wing still flies at Chino's Planes of Fame Museum, linking Jack Northrop's 1920s vision directly to the B-2 Spirit.
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was the heaviest American single-engine fighter of WWII and the most-produced American fighter aircraft in history, with 15,686 built.
Don Sheldon pioneered glacier landings on Denali in the 1950s, transforming mountaineering logistics and becoming the legendary bush pilot of Talkeetna, Alaska.
How Douglas Corrigan spent 11 years chasing government approval to fly the Atlantic, then crossed it anyway on July 17, 1938 - and spent the rest of his life denying it.
How Lt. Gail Halvorsen turned two sticks of chewing gum into Operation Little Vittles, dropping over 23 tons of candy on blockaded West Berlin.
On the night of May 16, 1943, 617 Squadron flew Lancasters at 60 feet over Germany to deliver Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb and breach the dams of the Ruhr Valley.
The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil was the fastest piston-engine fighter ever evaluated by Allied test pilots - and only one of the 37 built still survives.
On April 6, 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers left Seattle on the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe - a 175-day, 27,553-mile mission that reshaped American aviation.
The Grumman F6F Hellcat achieved a 19-to-1 kill ratio in WWII and enabled Commander David McCampbell's record nine-kill mission on October 24, 1944.
On September 4, 1936, Beryl Markham became the first person to fly solo non-stop from England to North America - east to west, against the prevailing winds, alone.
In 1911, Cal Rodgers became the first person to cross America by air - 84 days, ~4,300 miles, and no instruments - after forfeiting the prize he set out to win.
Ormer Locklear invented wing-walking out of in-flight necessity in 1917, became America's first aviation celebrity, and died at 28 during a Hollywood night-dive stunt in 1920.
Richard Bong flew 40 aerial victories over the Pacific in a P-38 Lightning, becoming America's greatest fighter ace - and died in a California test flight on August 6, 1945.
On August 7, 1955, Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled the prototype 707 twice over Lake Washington, helping launch the commercial jet age.