Don Sheldon, the Talkeetna Glacier Pilot Who Landed a Super Cub on the Side of Denali to Bring Climbers Home
How Talkeetna bush pilot Don Sheldon landed a Super Cub uphill on Denali's glaciers to rescue climbers and map the mountain.
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.
Douglas Bader, the Legless Spitfire Ace Who Argued His Way Back Into the Cockpit and Fought the Battle of Britain on Two Tin Legs
How Douglas Bader lost both legs in a 1931 crash, flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain on two tin legs, and scored 20.5 victories.
Glacier Girl, the P Thirty-Eight Lightning the Greenland Ice Cap Swallowed for Fifty Years Before a Georgia Pilot Melted Her Back Out
How a P-38 Lightning buried under 268 feet of Greenland ice for 50 years was melted out, restored, and flown again as Glacier Girl.
Pancho Barnes, the Happy Bottom Riding Club, and the Desert Bar Where Every Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier Learned to Fly Low
The story of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, the desert bar where sound-barrier test pilots learned to be human.
Roscoe Turner, the Red Lion, and the Waxed-Mustache Showman Who Flew a Pet Lion Cub Around the Pylons at Cleveland
Roscoe Turner flew a real lion cub as his copilot and won the Thompson Trophy three times - a record no pilot ever matched.
The Chance Vought F4U Corsair, the Bent-Wing Bird the Japanese Called Whistling Death, and the Long Fight to Get Her Onto a Carrier Deck
The F4U Corsair earned the name 'Whistling Death' for its shrieking dive, and overcame carrier rejection to become one of WWII's deadliest fighters.
The Douglas D C Three, the Gooney Bird, and the Airplane the World Kept Flying Long After Everybody Tried to Retire Her
The Douglas DC-3 first flew in 1935 and still hauls freight worldwide 90 years later - here's why it was never truly replaced.
The Gee Bee R One, Jimmy Doolittle, and the Flying Barrel That Set a Speed Record Nobody Else Dared to Chase
How Jimmy Doolittle flew the deadly Gee Bee R-1 to a 296 mph world record in 1932 - then walked away from racing for good.
The Night Witches, the Five Eighty-Eighth, and the Soviet Women Who Cut Their Engines and Glided Wood-and-Fabric Biplanes Over the German Lines in the Dark
How the Soviet 588th 'Night Witches' turned an obsolete wood-and-fabric biplane into a fearsome night bomber on the Eastern Front.
The Thirteen Black Cats, the Hollywood Stunt Flyers Who Put a Price on Every Way to Nearly Die, and the Printed Menu That Sold Danger by the Item
How the Thirteen Black Cats turned 1920s Hollywood stunt flying into a business with a printed price list for every deadly aerial trick.
Alberto Santos-Dumont, the Fourteen-Bis, and the Little Brazilian in Paris Who Flew Around the Eiffel Tower for a Bet
How Alberto Santos-Dumont made Europe's first witnessed powered flight in 1906 and shaped aviation history.
Beryl Markham, The Messenger, and the Nineteen Thirty-Six Solo Flight the Wrong Way Across the Atlantic
How Beryl Markham became the first person to fly solo nonstop east-to-west across the Atlantic in 1936, into the wind.
Bob Hoover, the Shrike Commander, and the Dead-Stick Iced Tea Routine That Turned Energy Management Into Art
How Bob Hoover flew a dead-stick Shrike Commander and poured iced tea mid-roll to teach the pilot's most vital skill: energy management.
Flak-Bait, the B Twenty-Six Marauder That Flew Two Hundred Seven Missions and the Smithsonian Restoration That Refuses to Make Her Look New
Flak-Bait flew 207 combat missions in WWII - and the Smithsonian is preserving her battle damage instead of restoring her to shine.
Noel Wien, the Open-Cockpit Hisso Standard, and the Nineteen Twenty-Five First Flight From Fairbanks to Nome Across Country No Map Had Ever Drawn
In 1925, Noel Wien flew an open-cockpit Hisso Standard 500 miles from Fairbanks to Nome across Alaska no pilot had ever seen.
Operation Chastise, the Dambusters, and the Sixty-Foot Night Barnes Wallis's Bouncing Bomb Broke the Ruhr Dams Open
How the RAF's Dambusters used Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb to break the Ruhr dams flying at 60 feet in the dark.
Ormer Locklear, the Curtiss Jenny, and the Wing Walker Who Taught America to Look Up
How wing walker Ormer Locklear and the surplus Curtiss Jenny turned 1919 America into a nation that looked up at the sky.
Swamp Ghost, the B-17E That Sat Fifty Feet Deep in a New Guinea Swamp for Sixty-Four Years Before Anybody Brought Her Home
The story of Swamp Ghost, a B-17E that sat 64 years in a New Guinea swamp before its 2006 recovery and preservation in Hawaii.
Tex Johnston, the Dash Eighty, and the August Afternoon in Nineteen Fifty-Five He Rolled a Jetliner Over Lake Washington in Front of Everybody Who Could Fire Him
How Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled the Dash 80 prototype over Lake Washington in 1955 and helped launch the jet age.
The Flying Tigers, Claire Chennault's P-40 Warhawks, and the Shark-Toothed Fighters That Bought China Time Before America Was Even in the War
How Claire Chennault turned the outclassed P-40 into a war-winner with the Flying Tigers over China, months before America entered WWII.