Eugene Ely, the Curtiss Pusher, and the Wooden Platform Off a Cruiser That Gave the Navy Its First Airplane
How Eugene Ely flew a Curtiss Pusher off USS Birmingham in 1910 and landed on USS Pennsylvania in 1911, inventing naval aviation.
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.
Roscoe Turner, Gilmore the Lion, and the Powder-Blue Showman Who Won the Thompson Trophy Three Times at Cleveland
Colonel Roscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy three times, flew with a pet lion, and became aviation's greatest showman.
The Bristol Blenheim, the Only One Left Flying, and the British Light Bomber That Was Restored Three Times Because Her People Refused to Let Her Die
Radio Hangar explores The Bristol Blenheim, the Only One Left Flying, and the British Light Bomber That Was Restored Three Times Because Her People Refused to Let Her Die.
The de Havilland Comet's First Flight on July Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen Forty-Nine, and the Square Windows That Taught the World How Metal Really Breaks
The de Havilland Comet launched the jet age on July 27, 1949, then its square windows revealed the deadly lesson of metal fatigue.
The Flying Tigers, Claire Chennault's American Volunteer Group, and the Shark-Mouthed P Forty Warhawks That Held the Sky Over Burma Before America Was Even in the War
How Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers used shark-nosed P-40 Warhawks and unconventional tactics to beat Japanese airpower over Burma and China in 1941-42.
The Gates Flying Circus, Ivan Gates and Upside-Down Pangborn, and the Barnstorming Outfit That Sold a Million Americans Their First Ride
The Gates Flying Circus gave over a million Americans their first airplane ride and helped turn a nation onto flight in the 1920s.
The Gimli Glider, Captain Bob Pearson's Dead-Stick Sideslip Onto a Drag Strip After Air Canada Ran a Boeing 767 Out of Fuel at Forty-One Thousand Feet
How Captain Bob Pearson glided a fuel-starved Air Canada 767 to a dead-stick landing at Gimli using a slip every student pilot learns.
The Memphis Belle, the B Seventeen That Flew Twenty-Five and Came Home, and the Thirteen-Year Restoration That Put Her Back Together at the Air Force Museum
The Memphis Belle survived 25 WWII missions, then a 13-year restoration returned the famous B-17 to display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton.
The Piper J-3 Cub, the Little Yellow Taildragger That Taught America to Fly and Trained the Men Who Won a War
How the 65-horsepower Piper J-3 Cub taught America to fly and trained the pilots who won World War II.
The Vought F4U Corsair, the Bent-Wing Whistling Death, and the Fighter the Navy Almost Gave Up on Before the Marines Made It a Legend
The story of the F4U Corsair, the gull-winged 'Whistling Death' the Navy nearly abandoned before the Marines made it a WWII legend.
Voyager, the Rutan Brothers, and the Nine Days Around the World on a Single Tank of Gas
How Voyager and the Rutan team flew nonstop around the world in 1986, landing with just 18 gallons of fuel to spare.
Bessie Coleman, Queen Bess, and the Black Barnstormer Who Crossed an Ocean to Get the License America Wouldn't Give Her
How Bessie Coleman crossed the Atlantic to become the first Black and Native American woman to earn a pilot's license.
Don Sheldon, the Talkeetna Glacier Pilot, and the Cessna One Eighty That Landed on the Ruth Amphitheater to Pull Climbers Off Denali
How Talkeetna bush pilot Don Sheldon flew an ordinary Cessna 180 on skis onto Denali's glaciers to rescue stranded climbers.
Jimmy Doolittle's Blind Flight of Nineteen Twenty-Nine, the Fog Lab at Mitchel Field, and the Morning a Man Flew From Takeoff to Landing Without Ever Seeing the Ground
On September 24, 1929, Jimmy Doolittle flew from takeoff to landing entirely on instruments, launching the age of instrument flight.
Ormer Locklear, the Man Who Walked the Wings, and the Curtiss Jenny Barnstormers Who Sold America Its First Airplane Ride
How barnstormer Ormer Locklear and the surplus Curtiss Jenny sold America its first airplane ride after World War I.
Pancho Barnes, the Fastest Woman on Earth, and the Happy Bottom Riding Club at the Edge of the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes became the fastest woman on earth and built the desert club where test pilots broke the sound barrier.
Sixty-Four Days Aloft - The Hacienda Cessna One Seventy-Two That Refused to Land Over Las Vegas
In 1958-59, two men kept a Cessna 172 airborne over Las Vegas for 64 days without landing - a record that still stands today.
That's All, Brother, the C Forty-Seven That Led the D-Day Invasion and Was Nearly Turned Into a Turboprop Before the CAF Pulled Her Out of the Boneyard
How the C-47 that led the D-Day airborne invasion was rescued from a turboprop conversion line and restored to fly over Normandy again.
The Douglas SBD Dauntless, the Slow But Deadly Dive Bomber, and the Five Minutes at Midway That Turned the Whole Pacific War
How the slow, homely Douglas SBD Dauntless sank four Japanese carriers at Midway and turned the Pacific War in five minutes.
The Douglas World Cruiser Chicago, the 1924 First Flight Around the World, and the Open-Cockpit Biplane Still Hanging in the Smithsonian
The 1924 Douglas World Cruiser Chicago made the first flight around the world - and still hangs in the Smithsonian today.