The Memphis Belle and the thirteen-year restoration that saved America's most famous bomber
The Memphis Belle's 13-year restoration at Wright-Patterson required over 200,000 hours to save America's most famous WWII bomber from decades of neglect.
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.
The Vought F four U Corsair and the bent-wing bird that was too hot for the Navy's own carriers
The Vought F4U Corsair was rejected by the Navy for carrier use but became one of WWII's greatest fighters in Marine Corps hands.
Art Scholl and the final inverted spin that the cameras never stopped rolling on
Art Scholl, one of the greatest aerobatic pilots in history, died filming a flat spin sequence for Top Gun in 1985.
Louise Thaden and the Staggerwing that won the nineteen thirty-six Bendix Trophy
Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes won the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race outright in a Beechcraft Staggerwing, beating every male competitor.
Richard Bong, America's Ace of Aces and the forty victories that changed the Pacific War
Richard Bong scored 40 aerial victories in the Pacific, making him the highest-scoring American fighter ace in history.
The Douglas World Cruisers and the Alaskan gauntlet on the first flight around the world
How four open-cockpit biplanes attempted the first flight around the world in 1924, and why Alaska nearly ended it all.
The Night Witches and the Soviet women who bombed the Eastern Front in plywood biplanes
The Night Witches of the 588th Regiment flew plywood biplanes with dead engines through enemy fire, completing over 23,000 combat sorties on the Eastern Front.
Thomas Fitzpatrick and the stolen Piper that landed on a Manhattan street twice to win a bar bet
Thomas Fitzpatrick stole a Piper from Teterboro and landed it on a Manhattan street twice—in 1956 and 1958—to win bar bets.
Whiskey Seven and the C forty-seven that flew back to Normandy seventy-five years later
The story of Whiskey Seven, a D-Day C-47 restored by volunteers and flown back to Normandy 70 and 75 years later.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and the last flight of the pilot who wrote The Little Prince
The story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the airmail pilot and wartime reconnaissance flyer who wrote The Little Prince and vanished over the Mediterranean in 1944.
Lady Be Good, the ghost bomber of the Sahara that waited sixteen years to be found
The B-24 Lady Be Good vanished over the Sahara in 1943 and was found intact sixteen years later, four hundred miles past its base.
Roscoe Turner and the lion that flew the National Air Races
Roscoe Turner won three Thompson Trophies, flew with a lion cub, and became the greatest air racing pilot of the 1930s.
Swamp Ghost, the B seventeen Flying Fortress pulled from the jungles of Papua New Guinea after sixty-seven years
The Swamp Ghost B-17E survived 67 years in a Papua New Guinea swamp to become the most original Flying Fortress left on earth.
The Doolittle Raid and sixteen B twenty-fives that changed the course of the Pacific War
The Doolittle Raid of April 1942 launched sixteen B-25 bombers from a carrier deck to strike Tokyo and alter the course of the Pacific War.
The Gimli Glider and the seven sixty-seven that ran out of gas at forty-one thousand feet
How a metric conversion error left Air Canada Flight 143 without fuel at 41,000 feet, and a glider pilot landed a 767 with no engines.
Bob Hoover and the greatest stick-and-rudder flying the world has ever seen
Bob Hoover, called the greatest stick-and-rudder pilot ever by Jimmy Doolittle, redefined airmanship through six decades of flying.
Chuck Yeager and the broken ribs that almost kept him from breaking the sound barrier
How Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, with two broken ribs and a nine-inch piece of broom handle.
Doc the B twenty-nine Superfortress and the sixteen-year restoration that defied the impossible
The 16-year restoration of B-29 Superfortress 'Doc' from desert hulk to flying warbird is one of aviation's greatest preservation stories.
Tex Johnston and the day Boeing's test pilot barrel-rolled a jet airliner over Lake Washington
How test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled Boeing's only jet airliner prototype over Lake Washington in 1955 — and helped launch the jet age.
The death of the Red Baron on April twenty-first, nineteen eighteen
The Red Baron died on April 21, 1918, after breaking his own combat rules—and over a century later, his killer remains disputed.