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.
Ormer Locklear invented wing walking, became America's most famous barnstormer and aerial movie star, and died at 28 when Hollywood floodlights caused spatial disorientation during a filmed spin.
How five minutes of dive bombing on June 4, 1942 - and the torpedo crews who made it possible - turned the tide of the Pacific War at Midway.
The Douglas DC-3 made commercial aviation profitable in 1936 and still flies today - the aircraft that reshaped how the world moves people.
On July 23, 1983, a metric conversion error left Air Canada Flight 143 with half its required fuel at 41,000 feet - 69 people survived because a captain knew how to slip a jetliner.
The Hughes H-4 Hercules flew exactly once on November 2, 1947, yet it remains the largest flying boat ever built and survives today at McMinnville's Evergreen Aviation Museum.
The Memphis Belle survived 25 WWII combat missions over Nazi Europe, then spent 30 years decaying outdoors in Memphis before a landmark restoration saved her.
The P-47 Thunderbolt was WWII's most-produced American fighter - a rugged, powerful aircraft that defined the air war over Europe through toughness, altitude, and aggressive tactics.
The Schneider Trophy seaplane races of 1913–1931 directly produced the engineering breakthroughs behind the Supermarine Spitfire and Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
Bob Reeve built a glacier-flying operation and a regional airline from $40 and a can of axle grease, using Valdez harbor mud flats as his runway in the 1930s.
Before Pearl Harbor, 100 American volunteers flew shark-mouthed P-40s under Claire Chennault's unconventional tactics to hold the line over Burma and China.
On December 23, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landed at Edwards after flying nonstop around the world in Burt Rutan's Voyager - with 18 gallons to spare.
Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel on April 16, 1912 - a landmark swallowed by Titanic headlines the very same day.
Hurricane R4118 flew approximately 50 Battle of Britain combat sorties, spent 40 years in an Indian shed, and was restored to flight in 2004.
Roscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy three times, flew with a lion, and made aviation something every American felt belonged to them.
On October 7, 1903, America's best-funded flying machine program crashed into the Potomac - nine days before the Wright Brothers succeeded at Kitty Hawk.
On August 7, 1955, test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled the Boeing 707 prototype over Lake Washington - a calculated move that launched the jet age.
The F4U Corsair was rejected by the Navy for carrier use, handed to the Marines, and became the most feared propeller-driven fighter in the Pacific.
On February 2, 1970, an F-106 Delta Dart recovered its own flat spin after the pilot ejected and belly-landed itself in a Montana cornfield with the engine still running.
The Fokker D.VII was the only aircraft ever named by designation in a major international armistice - and the story of why reveals how air power changed warfare forever.
R.J. Mitchell designed the Supermarine Spitfire while dying of cancer at 42 - his elliptical wing kept the aircraft competitive from 1936 to 1954.