John Derry and the nineteen fifty-two Farnborough disaster that rewrote airshow safety forever
The 1952 Farnborough airshow disaster killed 31 people and fundamentally changed how every airshow in the world manages spectator safety.
The Hangar
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.
Noel Wien and the first flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks that opened Alaska to the airplane
Noel Wien's 1924 flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks in an open-cockpit biplane changed Alaska forever.
The Kee Bird and the B-twenty-nine they almost flew out of Greenland after forty-seven years on the ice
The Kee Bird B-29 sat on a frozen Greenland lake for 48 years before a team nearly flew her home — then lost her to fire.
The Montgolfier brothers and the first public flight of a hot air balloon on June fourth, seventeen eighty-three
On June 4, 1783, the Montgolfier brothers launched the first public hot air balloon flight in Annonay, France, launching the age of human flight.
The Vought F4U Corsair and the bent-wing bird the Navy rejected from its own carriers
The Vought F4U Corsair was rejected by the Navy for carrier use but became the Pacific's deadliest fighter with an 11-to-1 kill ratio.
Wiley Post and the one-eyed Oklahoma oilfield roughneck who flew around the world and invented the pressure suit
Wiley Post lost an eye in an oil field accident, then flew around the world twice and invented the pressure suit.
Wrong Way Corrigan and the transatlantic flight nobody was supposed to make
How Douglas Corrigan pulled off aviation's greatest stunt by 'accidentally' flying to Ireland instead of California in 1938.
Air France Flight zero zero seven at Orly and the Atlanta art patrons who never came home on June third, nineteen sixty-two
The 1962 crash of Air France Flight 007 at Orly killed 130 people, including 106 Atlanta art patrons, and reshaped a city's cultural identity.
Eddie Rickenbacker and the twenty-four days on a life raft that should have killed America's Ace of Aces
How Eddie Rickenbacker, America's WWI Ace of Aces, survived 24 days adrift in the Pacific in 1942.
Swamp Ghost the B-seventeen found in a Papua New Guinea swamp and the thirty-four-year mission to bring her home
The story of Swamp Ghost, a B-17E bomber lost in a Papua New Guinea swamp in 1942 and recovered 64 years later for display at Pearl Harbor.
The de Havilland Mosquito and the wooden airplane that outran everything the Luftwaffe could throw at it
The de Havilland Mosquito was a wooden WWII bomber so fast it needed no guns, becoming the most versatile Allied combat aircraft.
The Gimli Glider and the Boeing seven sixty-seven that ran out of fuel at forty-one thousand feet
How a metric conversion error left Air Canada Flight 143 without fuel at 41,000 feet, and the glider pilot who saved 69 lives.
The Phantom Fortress of Cortonburg and the B-seventeen that landed itself with no crew aboard
On November 23, 1944, a crewless B-17 Flying Fortress flew itself from Germany to Belgium and landed intact in a farmer's field.
The Tupolev Tu-144 crash at the nineteen seventy-three Paris Air Show and the Cold War rivalry that fell from the sky
The 1973 Tu-144 crash at the Paris Air Show killed 14 people and exposed the fatal costs of Cold War rivalry in aviation.
Charles Rolls and the first nonstop double crossing of the English Channel on June second, nineteen ten
On June 2, 1910, Charles Rolls completed the first nonstop round-trip flight across the English Channel—and died flying 39 days later.
Jackie Cochran and the orphan from Muscogee who became the fastest woman alive
Jackie Cochran rose from barefoot poverty to become the most decorated female pilot in history, breaking the sound barrier and leading the WASP program.
Max Conrad the Flying Grandfather and the solo ocean crossings in a Piper Twin Comanche
Max Conrad crossed the Atlantic dozens of times in Piper Comanches, setting world records that proved light aircraft could go anywhere.
The Cornfield Bomber and the F-106 that landed itself in a Montana field after the pilot punched out
The true story of an F-106 Delta Dart that recovered from a flat spin and landed itself in a Montana field after its pilot ejected.
The de Havilland Mosquito and the wooden wonder they said would never work
The de Havilland Mosquito was a wooden WWII bomber that outran fighters and changed aerial warfare despite being rejected by the Air Ministry.
The Grande Semaine at Reims in nineteen oh nine and the week that invented the airshow
The 1909 Grande Semaine d'Aviation at Reims, France was the event that invented the modern airshow format we know today.