On July 18, 1938, Douglas Corrigan landed in Ireland claiming he'd followed the wrong end of his compass - a story no one believed and everyone loved.
TaildraggerIn 1911, Cal Rodgers flew a grape-soda-sponsored Wright biplane from Brooklyn to Long Beach in 84 days, becoming the first pilot to cross the United States by air.
TaildraggerHow barnstormer Clyde Pangborn's years hanging off biplanes above county fairs gave him the skills to complete the first non-stop transpacific flight in 1931.
TaildraggerThe 1961 crash of UN-chartered DC-6B Albertina, which killed Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld near Ndola, remains officially unexplained 65 years later.
TaildraggerOn September 24, 1929, Jimmy Doolittle flew the first fully instrument-guided flight in history - the 15-minute test that made modern IFR flying possible.
TaildraggerIn August 1955, Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled the 367-80 prototype over Lake Washington in a move that helped seal the jet age for Boeing.
TaildraggerThe Curtiss SB2C Helldiver survived over 800 engineering changes and a reputation its own crews despised to deliver more combat ordnance than any other Allied carrier dive bomber in the Pacific.
TaildraggerThe North American X-15 set speed and altitude records that still stand today while generating the hypersonic research data that made Apollo and the Space Shuttle possible.
VectorThe Republic P-47 Thunderbolt ended WWII as America's most-produced fighter, with the 56th Fighter Group destroying more enemy aircraft than any other group in the Eighth Air Force.
TaildraggerThe Vought F4U Corsair's inverted gull wing solved a critical propeller clearance problem - and gave the Marines their most iconic fighter of World War II.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the world's first Black licensed pilot in 1921, crossing the Atlantic to earn credentials that every American flight school had refused her.
TaildraggerBob Hoover survived being shot down over France, escaped a German POW camp in a stolen Focke-Wulf 190, and became the greatest airshow pilot in history.
TaildraggerOn September 17, 1908, Lt. Thomas Selfridge became aviation's first powered-flight fatality - and his role in early aviation was far larger than most history books acknowledge.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented wing walking and mid-air aircraft transfers in 1919, became Hollywood's first aerial stuntman, and died on camera at age 28.
TaildraggerThe B-29 'Doc' survived decades as a weapons range target before a 16-year volunteer effort returned her to Wichita's skies on July 17, 2016.
TaildraggerIn August 1927, eight planes raced 2,400 miles across the Pacific for a $25,000 prize - only two returned, and the disaster reshaped how aviation approached oceanic flight.
TaildraggerOn December 14, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew a homebuilt composite aircraft called Voyager around the entire Earth - nonstop, unrefueled - in nine days.
TaildraggerOn April 16, 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel solo - a milestone the Titanic disaster nearly erased from history.
TaildraggerOn June 14, 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight, crossing 1,890 miles in 16 hours and 27 minutes - eight years before Lindbergh.
TaildraggerHow the $50 Army surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny launched the barnstorming era and introduced millions of Americans to flight.
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