Noel Wien, the Quiet Barnstormer Who Flew North of the Arctic Circle With No Map, No Radio, and No One Ahead of Him
How Noel Wien became the first pilot to cross the Arctic Circle in Alaska - and why his caution made him a legend.
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.
Operation Chastise, the Dambusters, and the Bouncing Bomb Barnes Wallis Skipped Across the Water at Sixty Feet in the Dark
How the RAF's 1943 Dambusters raid used Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb to breach the Ruhr dams at just sixty feet.
Pancho Barnes, the Fastest Woman in the World, and the Happy Bottom Riding Club at the Edge of the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes became the fastest woman in the world and built the desert club at the heart of the supersonic age.
That's All, Brother, the Lead C-47 of the D-Day Airborne Assault, Rescued From a Boneyard Conversion Line and Flown Home by Volunteers
How 'That's All, Brother,' the C-47 that led the D-Day airborne assault, was rescued from a scrap line and flown home by volunteers.
The Boeing Three Oh Seven Stratoliner, the Clipper Flying Cloud, and the Only Survivor That Ditched in Elliott Bay and Came Back From the Bottom
The Boeing 307 Stratoliner was the first pressurized airliner - and its lone survivor sank in Elliott Bay in 2002 before being rebuilt again.
The Hacienda, Bob Timm and John Cook, and the Sixty-Four Days a Cessna Stayed in the Air Over Las Vegas Without Ever Landing
How two men kept a Cessna 172 airborne for nearly 65 days over Las Vegas in 1958–59, setting a flight endurance record that still stands.
The Vought F4U Corsair, the Bent-Wing Bird the Japanese Called Whistling Death, and the Fighter the Navy Sent to the Marines Before It Ever Earned the Carrier Deck
The story of the F4U Corsair, the 'Whistling Death' fighter too wild for carriers that the Marines turned into a legend.
Wiley Post, the Winnie Mae, and the One-Eyed Oilfield Roughneck Who Flew Around the World Twice and Found the Jet Stream Before Anyone Knew It Was There
How one-eyed Oklahoma roughneck Wiley Post flew solo around the world and discovered the jet stream in a wooden airplane.
Alcock and Brown, the Vickers Vimy, and the First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic in Nineteen Nineteen
How John Alcock and Arthur Brown flew a converted Vickers Vimy bomber across the Atlantic nonstop in 1919, eight years before Lindbergh.
Bob Reeve, the Mudflat Pilot of Valdez, and the Stainless Steel Skis That Put an Airplane Down on a Living Glacier
How broke bush pilot Bob Reeve used tidal mudflats and homemade steel skis to land airplanes on Alaskan glaciers and build an airline.
Doc, the B-29 Superfortress Left to Rot as a Bombing Target in the Mojave and Brought Back to Life by Volunteers in the Same Wichita Plant That Built Her
How a WWII B-29 named Doc went from a Mojave bombing target to one of only two airworthy Superfortresses, restored by volunteers in Wichita.
Glacier Girl, the Lost Squadron, and the P-38 Lightning They Cut Out From Under Two Hundred Sixty-Eight Feet of Greenland Ice
How Glacier Girl, a P-38 Lightning, was cut from under 268 feet of Greenland ice and flew again 50 years later.
Jimmy Doolittle, the Blind Flight of Nineteen Twenty-Nine, and the Foggy Morning a Man Took Off, Flew, and Landed Without Ever Once Looking Outside
How Jimmy Doolittle's 15-minute blind flight in 1929 invented instrument flying and changed aviation forever.
Roscoe Turner, Gilmore the Lion, and the Waxed-Mustache Showman Who Won the Thompson Trophy Three Times
How Roscoe Turner, the showman with a lion co-pilot, became the only pilot to win the Thompson Trophy three times.
The Night Witches, the Five Eighty-Eighth Night Bomber Regiment, and the Women Who Idled the Engine and Glided Down Out of the Dark to Bomb the German Line
The Night Witches flew 23,000+ night bombing sorties in plywood biplanes, gliding silently onto German lines on the WWII Eastern Front.
The Piper J-3 Cub, the Little Yellow Airplane That Taught America to Fly and Trained the Men Who Won a War
The story of the Piper J-3 Cub, the $1,000 yellow airplane that taught America to fly and trained most WWII pilots.
The Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes and the Eight-Engine Flying Boat That Flew One Mile One Time and Now Fills a Whole Building in Oregon
The Spruce Goose flew just one mile for 26 seconds in 1947, yet still holds the record for the longest wingspan of any aircraft ever flown.
Benny Howard and Mister Mulligan, the Homebuilt Cabin Racer That Won the Bendix and the Thompson in the Same Year
How Benny Howard's homebuilt cabin racer Mister Mulligan won both the 1935 Bendix and Thompson trophies - a feat never repeated.
Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz, the First Flight Across America in Nineteen Eleven
How Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz made the first flight across America in 1911, surviving 16 crashes over 49 days.
Don Sheldon, the Glacier Pilot of Talkeetna, and the Wager With the Wind on the Slopes of Denali
How Don Sheldon, Talkeetna's legendary glacier pilot, landed ski planes on Denali to ferry climbers and pull off impossible rescues.