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.
On May 27, 1958, the McDonnell F-4 Phantom made its first flight - an unwanted jet that became the defining fighter of a generation.
The 1945 Gremlin Special crash in New Guinea's hidden Baliem Valley led to one of WWII's most daring rescues using glider snatch recovery.
How sixteen P-38 Lightnings flew 400 miles at wave-top height to intercept and kill Admiral Yamamoto in 1943.
How volunteers rescued the B-29 Fifi from a Navy bombing range and restored her to flying condition against impossible odds.
On May 26, 1970, the Tupolev Tu-144 became the first commercial transport aircraft to reach Mach 2, a milestone in the Cold War supersonic race.
How a crashed Japanese Zero in Alaska's Aleutian Islands gave Grumman the intelligence to build the F6F Hellcat and turn the Pacific air war.
Patty Wagstaff won three consecutive US National Aerobatic Championships from 1991-1993, forever changing competition aerobatics.
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.
Nine obsolete Swordfish biplanes attacked the battleship Bismarck on May 24, 1941, and every one survived.
The Navy Curtiss NC-4 completed the first transatlantic flight on May 22, 1919, a milestone most people wrongly attribute to later aviators.
Hurricane R4118, a Battle of Britain combat veteran with 49 sorties, was recovered from India and restored to airworthy condition.
On May 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, landing in Ireland after nearly 15 harrowing hours.
On May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field in the Spirit of Saint Louis for the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight.
On May 19, 1919, Harry Hawker and Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve ditched in the North Atlantic, failing to cross but proving it could be done.
Douglas Corrigan 'accidentally' flew from New York to Ireland in 1938 after being denied permission three times.
The 1949 Berea crash that killed pilot Bill Odom and two bystanders ended the Cleveland National Air Races and reshaped airshow safety forever.
The Bristol Blenheim flew Britain's first offensive mission of WWII, then vanished - until one man spent 31 years bringing her back.
The 1980 Mount Saint Helens eruption exposed aviation's vulnerability to volcanic ash and sparked the global warning systems pilots rely on today.
Alcock and Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight in June 1919, eight years before Lindbergh, in an open-cockpit biplane.
Robin Olds scored 17 aerial victories across two wars and masterminded Operation Bolo, the most successful air-to-air mission of the Vietnam War.