How barnstorming bush pilot Jimmy Angel discovered the world's tallest waterfall and crash-landed atop an ancient Venezuelan mesa in 1937, leaving his plane behind for 33 years.
TaildraggerThe sole surviving Northrop N-9M flying wing still flies at Chino's Planes of Fame Museum, linking Jack Northrop's 1920s vision directly to the B-2 Spirit.
TaildraggerNASA's SOFIA program flew a modified Boeing 747-SP as a functioning infrared telescope from 2010 to 2022, culminating in the discovery of water on the Moon's sunlit surface.
VectorThe Bristol Type 170 Freighter - pioneer of cross-Channel car ferry aviation - has reached a landmark restoration milestone at Aerospace Bristol's historic Filton site.
TowerDon Sheldon pioneered glacier landings on Denali in the 1950s, transforming mountaineering logistics and becoming the legendary bush pilot of Talkeetna, Alaska.
TaildraggerHow Douglas Corrigan spent 11 years chasing government approval to fly the Atlantic, then crossed it anyway on July 17, 1938 - and spent the rest of his life denying it.
TaildraggerHow Lt. Gail Halvorsen turned two sticks of chewing gum into Operation Little Vittles, dropping over 23 tons of candy on blockaded West Berlin.
TaildraggerOn April 6, 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers left Seattle on the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe - a 175-day, 27,553-mile mission that reshaped American aviation.
TaildraggerOn September 4, 1936, Beryl Markham became the first person to fly solo non-stop from England to North America - east to west, against the prevailing winds, alone.
TaildraggerIn 1911, Cal Rodgers became the first person to cross America by air - 84 days, ~4,300 miles, and no instruments - after forfeiting the prize he set out to win.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented wing-walking out of in-flight necessity in 1917, became America's first aviation celebrity, and died at 28 during a Hollywood night-dive stunt in 1920.
TaildraggerThe Aichi M6A Seiran was a WWII Japanese floatplane designed to fold inside a submarine and strike American targets - the sole survivor hangs at the Udvar-Hazy Center.
TaildraggerThe B-29 Doc sat abandoned in a California desert for four decades before a 16-year volunteer effort brought it back to flight over Wichita in 2016.
TaildraggerThe 1954 de Havilland Comet disasters revealed how square window corners caused fatal metal fatigue, permanently transforming pressurized aircraft design worldwide.
TaildraggerThe Douglas DC-3 was the first airliner to make commercial aviation profitable on passenger revenue alone - and it's still flying nearly 90 years later.
TaildraggerEight military pilots flew the X-15 above 50 miles in the 1960s, earning astronaut wings and defining the altitude threshold still encoded in U.S. commercial space law today.
VectorBessie Coleman earned her pilot's license in 1921 after every American flight school refused her - so she crossed an ocean and trained in France instead.
TaildraggerBob Hoover - escape artist, sound-barrier witness, and dead-stick virtuoso - remains the pilot by whom all other pilots are measured.
TaildraggerEight years before Lindbergh, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown crossed the Atlantic non-stop in an open-cockpit biplane - and most people have never heard their names.
TaildraggerHow a 1919 government surplus sale of WWI training aircraft for as little as $200 each launched barnstorming and gave rural America its first taste of flight.
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