Wiley Post and the one-eyed pilot who flew around the world alone
Wiley Post lost an eye in an oil field accident, then flew solo around the world and invented the first practical pressure suit.
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.
Doc the B-twenty-nine Superfortress and the sixty-year resurrection from a weapons range in the Mojave Desert
How a B-29 Superfortress abandoned on a Navy weapons range was restored to flight over nearly two decades by volunteers in Wichita.
Glacier Girl and the P-38 Lightning pulled from two hundred sixty-eight feet of Greenland ice
How a P-38 Lightning buried under 268 feet of Greenland ice was recovered and restored to flying condition after 60 years.
Lincoln Beachey and the dive that silenced the man who owned the sky over San Francisco Bay
Lincoln Beachey, the most famous pilot of aviation's early era, died in a wing failure dive over San Francisco Bay in 1915.
Mathias Rust and the teenage Cessna pilot who landed in Red Square
In 1987, 19-year-old Mathias Rust flew a rented Cessna 172 from Helsinki to Moscow's Red Square, exposing Soviet air defense failures and reshaping Cold War politics.
Tex Johnston and the barrel roll that sold the Boeing seven oh seven
How test pilot Tex Johnston's unauthorized barrel roll of the Boeing Dash 80 prototype helped launch the 707 and the jet age.
The Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst and the thirty-seven seconds that ended the age of the airship on May sixth, nineteen thirty-seven
The Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst on May 6, 1937 destroyed the world's largest airship in 37 seconds and ended rigid airship travel forever.
Wrong Way Corrigan and the transatlantic flight nobody was supposed to believe
Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan flew from New York to Dublin in 1938, claiming he meant to go to California — and never admitted otherwise.
Alan Shepard and the fifteen minutes that put America in space on May fifth, nineteen sixty-one
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space during a 15-minute suborbital flight that changed the course of history.
Jacqueline Cochran and the orphan girl who became the fastest woman alive
Jacqueline Cochran rose from barefoot poverty to become the fastest woman alive, breaking the sound barrier and holding more aviation records than any pilot in history.
The Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik pulled from a Russian lake and the sixty-year swim that ended in a hangar
How Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmoviks survived sixty years underwater and the painstaking effort to restore history's most-produced combat aircraft.
The Tu-144 crash at the nineteen seventy-three Paris Air Show and the six seconds that destroyed the Soviet supersonic dream
The 1973 Tu-144 crash at the Paris Air Show killed 14 people and effectively ended the Soviet supersonic airliner program.
The XB-70 Valkyrie mid-air collision and the photo shoot that killed two pilots at Mach three's doorstep
The 1968 XB-70 Valkyrie mid-air collision killed two pilots during a routine GE publicity photo shoot over the Mojave Desert.
William Rankin and the forty-minute fall through a thunderstorm at forty-seven thousand feet
In 1959, Marine pilot William Rankin ejected at 47,000 feet and survived 40 minutes inside a thunderstorm.
Amy Johnson and the solo flight from England to Australia that began on May fourth, nineteen thirty
On May 4, 1930, Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in a secondhand biplane with just 75 hours in her logbook.
Eric Winkle Brown and the Royal Navy test pilot who flew more aircraft types than anyone in history
Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown flew 487 aircraft types and made 2,407 carrier landings, records no pilot will likely ever break.
The Cornfield Bomber and the F-106 Delta Dart that landed itself in a Montana field
The true story of an F-106 Delta Dart that recovered from an unrecoverable flat spin and landed itself in a Montana wheat field in 1970.
The de Havilland Mosquito rebuilt from scratch in New Zealand and the dream to fly the Wooden Wonder again
New Zealand's Avspecs and the UK's People's Mosquito project are rebuilding the legendary WWII wooden fighter-bomber from scratch.
The Galloping Ghost and the Reno Air Race disaster of twenty eleven
The 2011 Galloping Ghost crash at Reno killed 11 people and ultimately ended unlimited air racing at Stead Airport.
The ghost of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 and the dead flight engineer who kept showing up in other airplanes
The true story of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, the crash that changed cockpit procedures forever, and the ghost sightings that followed.