The Douglas DC-3, the Gooney Bird, and the Airplane That Made the World Small Enough to Fly Across
How the Douglas DC-3 made air travel profitable, won a war as the Gooney Bird, and still flies for a living today.
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The Ohka, the Yasukuni Betty, and the Cherry Blossom Suicide Bomb Hanging in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
The Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka at the Udvar-Hazy Center was a rocket-powered suicide weapon - here's its grim history and why it matters.
TaildraggerThe SR Seventy-One Blackbird's Last Flight, March Sixth, Nineteen Ninety, and the Sixty-Four Minute Dash Across America That Ended in a Museum
On March 6, 1990, an SR-71 Blackbird crossed the US in 67 minutes 54 seconds on its final flight to the Smithsonian.
TaildraggerBeryl Markham, the Vega Gull Messenger, and the Night She Flew the Atlantic Backwards Into a Nova Scotia Bog
How Beryl Markham became the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo east-to-west, crash-landing in a Nova Scotia bog in 1936.
TaildraggerThe Bristol Blenheim, the Only One Left Flying, and the British Light Bomber That Was Restored Three Times Because Her People Refused to Let Her Die
Radio Hangar explores The Bristol Blenheim, the Only One Left Flying, and the British Light Bomber That Was Restored Three Times Because Her People Refused to Let Her Die.
TaildraggerThe de Havilland Comet's First Flight on July Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen Forty-Nine, and the Square Windows That Taught the World How Metal Really Breaks
The de Havilland Comet launched the jet age on July 27, 1949, then its square windows revealed the deadly lesson of metal fatigue.
TaildraggerThe Gates Flying Circus, Ivan Gates and Upside-Down Pangborn, and the Barnstorming Outfit That Sold a Million Americans Their First Ride
The Gates Flying Circus gave over a million Americans their first airplane ride and helped turn a nation onto flight in the 1920s.
TaildraggerThe Gimli Glider, Captain Bob Pearson's Dead-Stick Sideslip Onto a Drag Strip After Air Canada Ran a Boeing 767 Out of Fuel at Forty-One Thousand Feet
How Captain Bob Pearson glided a fuel-starved Air Canada 767 to a dead-stick landing at Gimli using a slip every student pilot learns.
TaildraggerThe Piper J-3 Cub, the Little Yellow Taildragger That Taught America to Fly and Trained the Men Who Won a War
How the 65-horsepower Piper J-3 Cub taught America to fly and trained the pilots who won World War II.
TaildraggerThe Vought F4U Corsair, the Bent-Wing Whistling Death, and the Fighter the Navy Almost Gave Up on Before the Marines Made It a Legend
The story of the F4U Corsair, the gull-winged 'Whistling Death' the Navy nearly abandoned before the Marines made it a WWII legend.
TaildraggerVoyager, the Rutan Brothers, and the Nine Days Around the World on a Single Tank of Gas
How Voyager and the Rutan team flew nonstop around the world in 1986, landing with just 18 gallons of fuel to spare.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman, Queen Bess, and the Black Barnstormer Who Crossed an Ocean to Get the License America Wouldn't Give Her
How Bessie Coleman crossed the Atlantic to become the first Black and Native American woman to earn a pilot's license.
TaildraggerJimmy Doolittle's Blind Flight of Nineteen Twenty-Nine, the Fog Lab at Mitchel Field, and the Morning a Man Flew From Takeoff to Landing Without Ever Seeing the Ground
On September 24, 1929, Jimmy Doolittle flew from takeoff to landing entirely on instruments, launching the age of instrument flight.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear, the Man Who Walked the Wings, and the Curtiss Jenny Barnstormers Who Sold America Its First Airplane Ride
How barnstormer Ormer Locklear and the surplus Curtiss Jenny sold America its first airplane ride after World War I.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes, the Fastest Woman on Earth, and the Happy Bottom Riding Club at the Edge of the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes became the fastest woman on earth and built the desert club where test pilots broke the sound barrier.
TaildraggerSixty-Four Days Aloft - The Hacienda Cessna One Seventy-Two That Refused to Land Over Las Vegas
In 1958-59, two men kept a Cessna 172 airborne over Las Vegas for 64 days without landing - a record that still stands today.
TaildraggerThe Douglas SBD Dauntless, the Slow But Deadly Dive Bomber, and the Five Minutes at Midway That Turned the Whole Pacific War
How the slow, homely Douglas SBD Dauntless sank four Japanese carriers at Midway and turned the Pacific War in five minutes.
TaildraggerThe Douglas World Cruiser Chicago, the 1924 First Flight Around the World, and the Open-Cockpit Biplane Still Hanging in the Smithsonian
The 1924 Douglas World Cruiser Chicago made the first flight around the world - and still hangs in the Smithsonian today.
TaildraggerThe F Eighty-Six Sabre, MiG Alley, and the Day the Shooting Stopped Over the Yalu
The F-86 Sabre dominated MiG Alley in the Korean War until jet combat ended with the armistice on July 27, 1953.
TaildraggerThe Night Witches, the Polikarpov Po Two Biplane, and the Women Who Cut Their Engines to Glide Onto a Target in the Dark
The Night Witches flew obsolete Po-2 biplanes into WWII combat, cutting their engines to glide silently onto targets in the dark.
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