The Night Witches and the Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes that terrorized the Eastern Front
The Night Witches flew obsolete wood-and-canvas biplanes on 23,000+ combat missions, terrorizing German forces with silent glide-bombing attacks.
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.
Jimmy Angel and the bush pilot who crash-landed on top of the world's tallest waterfall
Jimmy Angel crash-landed his Flamingo monoplane atop Venezuela's Auyán-tepui in 1937, discovering the world's tallest waterfall and surviving an 11-day jungle trek.
Just Jane the Avro Lancaster and the two brothers who bought an airfield to honor the one who never came home
The story of Just Jane, the Avro Lancaster that two Lincolnshire brothers spent decades restoring to honor their brother lost over Nuremberg in 1944.
Oakley Kelly and John Macready and the nonstop transcontinental flight that nearly killed them both on May third, nineteen twenty-three
On May 3, 1923, Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready completed the first nonstop transcontinental flight across the United States.
Pancho Barnes and the fastest woman alive who built a desert saloon for test pilots
Pancho Barnes broke speed records, organized Hollywood stunt pilots, and built the legendary bar where test pilots gathered after breaking the sound barrier.
Art Scholl and the final spin that the Pacific Ocean never gave back
Art Scholl, the legendary aerobatic pilot and professor, died in 1985 filming a flat spin for Top Gun — a mystery the Pacific Ocean has never solved.
Saburo Sakai and the four-hour flight home with a bullet through his skull over Guadalcanal
How Saburo Sakai flew nearly five hours home with a bullet in his skull after being shot over Guadalcanal in 1942.
The Douglas World Cruiser Seattle and the crash on April thirtieth, nineteen twenty-four that almost ended the first flight around the world
On April 30, 1924, the Douglas World Cruiser Seattle crashed into an Alaskan mountainside, nearly ending the first-ever flight around the world.
The Lady Be Good and the ghost bomber found in the Sahara fifteen years after she vanished
The B-24 Lady Be Good disappeared on her first combat mission in 1943 and was found intact in the Sahara 15 years later.
The Planes of Fame Zero and the only original flyable Mitsubishi A6M in the world
The Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California, maintains the world's only original flyable Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero fighter.
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the seven-ton fighter they called the Jug
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was WWII's heaviest single-engine fighter, devastating in both air combat and ground attack roles.
Douglas Bader and the legless ace who fought the Battle of Britain on tin legs
Douglas Bader lost both legs in a 1931 crash, then became one of the RAF's greatest fighter aces in World War II.
Operation Frequent Wind and the helicopter evacuation of Saigon on April twenty-ninth, nineteen seventy-five
Operation Frequent Wind on April 29, 1975 was the largest helicopter evacuation in history, airlifting over 7,000 people from Saigon in 18 hours.
Roscoe Turner and the lion cub who rode shotgun in the Golden Age of air racing
Roscoe Turner flew across America with a lion in the cockpit and won the Thompson Trophy three times, becoming aviation's greatest showman.
The Focke-Wulf Fw one ninety pulled from a Russian forest and restored to flight after sixty years in the dirt
How a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 crashed in a Russian forest in 1943 was recovered six decades later and restored to flying condition.
The Grumman F6F Hellcat and the airplane designed from day one to kill the Zero
The Grumman F6F Hellcat was purpose-built to defeat the Zero and accounted for 75% of all Navy air-to-air kills in the Pacific.
The nineteen forty-nine Cleveland Air Races disaster and the crash that ended the golden age of air racing
The 1949 Cleveland Air Races disaster killed a pilot, a mother, and her infant son, ending America's golden age of air racing forever.
The Phantom Fortress and the B-seventeen that landed itself with nobody on board
A crewless B-17 Flying Fortress landed itself in a Belgian field in 1944 after all nine crew members bailed out.
Doc the B-29 Superfortress and the sixteen-year restoration that dragged a bomber out of the Mojave Desert and back into the sky
The sixteen-year restoration of B-29 'Doc' brought a desert hulk back to flight, making it one of only two flying Superfortresses worldwide.
Gail Halvorsen and the Candy Bomber who turned a C fifty-four into a candy store over Berlin
How pilot Gail Halvorsen's unauthorized candy drops over Berlin transformed Cold War relations and became aviation's greatest humanitarian story.