Eddie Rickenbacker became America's top WWI ace with 26 victories, earned the Medal of Honor in a solo attack on seven German aircraft, and survived 24 days adrift in the Pacific at age 52.
TaildraggerMajor Richard Bong, America's all-time top ace with 40 aerial victories and the Medal of Honor, died in a P-80 jet test flight the same morning the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.
TaildraggerRichard Bong of Poplar, Wisconsin earned 40 aerial kills flying a P-38 Lightning over New Guinea - a record no American pilot has ever broken.
TaildraggerEddie Rickenbacker earned 26 aerial victories in WWI then survived 24 days adrift in the Pacific - the defining story of the Ace of Aces.
TaildraggerRichard Bong scored 40 aerial kills in a P-38 Lightning during WWII - a record no American pilot has matched in any conflict since.
TaildraggerThe Lockheed P-38 Lightning's twin-engine range made it America's deadliest Pacific fighter and carried Richard Bong to 40 aerial victories.
TaildraggerRichard Bong scored 40 aerial victories in WWII - more than any American pilot in history - before dying in a jet accident on August 6, 1945, the same morning as Hiroshima.
TaildraggerRichard Bong flew 40 aerial victories over the Pacific in a P-38 Lightning, becoming America's greatest fighter ace - and died in a California test flight on August 6, 1945.
TaildraggerRichard Bong shot down 40 Japanese aircraft over the Pacific - a record no American fighter pilot has matched in over 80 years - and died the same morning the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.
TaildraggerHow race driver Eddie Rickenbacker became WWI's top American ace, then survived 24 days on a Pacific raft in 1942.
TaildraggerRichard Bong scored 40 aerial victories in the Pacific, making him the highest-scoring American fighter ace in history.
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