Patty Wagstaff and the three straight national aerobatic titles that rewrote the airshow world
Patty Wagstaff won three consecutive US National Aerobatic Championships from 1991-1993, forever changing competition aerobatics.
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.
Swamp Ghost and the B-seventeen Flying Fortress that sat in a Papua New Guinea swamp for sixty years
The Swamp Ghost B-17 sat in a Papua New Guinea swamp for 64 years before a dramatic recovery brought it to Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.
The Gimli Glider and the seven sixty-seven that ran out of fuel at forty-one thousand feet
The full story of the Gimli Glider, the Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet and glided to a dead-stick landing in 1983.
The North American F-hundred Super Sabre and the first production fighter to go supersonic in level flight on May twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty-three
The F-100 Super Sabre became the first production fighter to exceed Mach 1 in level flight on May 25, 1953, changing military aviation forever.
Kee Bird and the B-twenty-nine that burned on the Greenland ice after fifty years of waiting
The Kee Bird B-29 survived 48 years on a frozen Greenland lake only to burn minutes before its rescue flight in 1995.
Robin Olds and the Bolo mission that tricked every MiG over Hanoi
How Robin Olds masterminded Operation Bolo, the brilliant 1967 ambush that destroyed half of North Vietnam's MiG-21 fleet in twelve minutes.
The Fairey Swordfish biplanes that attacked the Bismarck on the night of May twenty-fourth, nineteen forty-one
Nine obsolete Swordfish biplanes attacked the battleship Bismarck on May 24, 1941, and every one survived.
Thomas Fitzpatrick and the drunk Marine who landed a stolen airplane on a New York City street twice
Thomas Fitzpatrick stole two airplanes and landed them on a Manhattan street two years apart to win bar bets.
Amy Johnson and the seventy-five-hour pilot who flew solo from England to Australia in a Gipsy Moth called Jason
Amy Johnson flew solo from England to Australia in 1930 with just 75 hours of flight time in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth named Jason.
Eugene Bullard and the American who had to cross an ocean to earn his wings
Eugene Bullard, America's first Black combat pilot, had to leave his country and fly for France to earn his wings.
The Memphis Belle restoration and the thirteen years it took to save America's most famous bomber
The Memphis Belle's 13-year restoration at Wright-Patterson AFB saved America's most famous WWII bomber from decades of decay.
Doc the B-twenty-nine Superfortress and the sixteen-year resurrection in a Wichita hangar
The B-29 Superfortress 'Doc' was rescued from a desert boneyard and restored to flight over 16 years by volunteers in Wichita, Kansas.
Jackie Cochran and the orphan from Sawdust Road who outflew every man in the sky
Jackie Cochran rose from poverty to hold more aviation records than any pilot in history, male or female.
Jimmy Angel and the bush plane stranded on top of the world's tallest waterfall
How bush pilot Jimmy Angel crash-landed on a Venezuelan mesa in 1937 and accidentally gave the world's tallest waterfall its name.
The Gimli Glider and the seven sixty-seven that ran out of gas at forty-one thousand feet
The Gimli Glider incident turned a Boeing 767 into history's largest glider after a metric conversion error left it without fuel at 41,000 feet.
The Navy Curtiss NC-4 and the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic, arriving in Lisbon on May twenty-second, nineteen nineteen
The Navy Curtiss NC-4 completed the first transatlantic flight on May 22, 1919, a milestone most people wrongly attribute to later aviators.
The Night Witches and the Soviet women who bombed the Eastern Front in plywood biplanes
The Night Witches were Soviet women who flew obsolete biplanes on daring nighttime bombing raids against German forces from 1942 to 1945.
The nineteen fifty-two Farnborough disaster and the de Havilland DH one ten that changed airshow safety forever
The 1952 Farnborough airshow disaster killed 31 people and fundamentally transformed airshow safety rules worldwide.
Amelia Earhart lands in Ireland and becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic on May twenty-first, nineteen thirty-two
On May 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, landing in Ireland after nearly 15 harrowing hours.
Art Scholl and the flat spin over the Pacific that Top Gun never showed you
Art Scholl, the aerobatic master and aerial cinematographer, died in a flat spin over the Pacific while filming Top Gun in 1985.