On October 15, 1783, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier became the first human being in recorded history to leave the ground, rising 84 feet above Paris in a tethered Montgolfier balloon.
TaildraggerOn August 7, 1955, Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston rolled the 707 prototype twice over Lake Washington - a calculated gamble that may have sold the jet age.
TaildraggerThe 1927 Dole Derby sent fifteen aircraft from Oakland to Honolulu for a $25,000 prize - and cost ten lives, reshaping American aviation regulation forever.
TaildraggerThe Dornier Do 335 Pfeil was the fastest piston-engine fighter of WWII at 474 mph - and only one complete example survives, at the Smithsonian.
TaildraggerHow a P-38F Lightning abandoned on the Greenland ice cap in 1942 was recovered from 268 feet of glacial ice and restored to flight 60 years later.
TaildraggerOn January 26, 1990, the SR-71 Blackbird set a transcontinental speed record of 2,124 mph on its final flight before retiring to the Smithsonian.
TaildraggerR.J. Mitchell designed the Spitfire's iconic elliptical wing from a decade of Schneider Trophy racing, completing the prototype while dying of cancer at 42.
TaildraggerIn 1911, Cal Rodgers flew a fragile Wright biplane 3,200 miles across America in 84 days, surviving 60-plus crashes to prove a continent could be crossed by air.
TaildraggerFrank Luke Jr. compiled 18 aerial kills in 17 days in WWI, earning Eddie Rickenbacker's declaration that he was the greatest individual fighter of the entire war.
TaildraggerRoscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy three times - a record never matched - by combining theatrical showmanship with genuine pylon racing skill.
TaildraggerOn October 14, 1908, S.F. Cody - a Wild West showman from Iowa - made the first officially recognized powered flight in Great Britain, covering 1,400 feet over Laffan's Plain.
TaildraggerOn December 23, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landed at Edwards AFB after flying 24,987 miles around the Earth on a single load of fuel - aviation's last great first.
TaildraggerThe Vought F4U Corsair was the fastest American single-engine fighter of WWII, earning an 11:1 kill ratio after the Navy handed it to the Marines for being too dangerous to carrier-land.
TaildraggerOn July 17, 1938, Douglas Corrigan filed a flight plan to Los Angeles, flew east for 28 hours, and landed in Dublin - then claimed he got turned around.
TaildraggerOn April 16, 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel - a milestone buried by Titanic headlines the very next morning.
TaildraggerJimmy Angel was a Missouri barnstormer who discovered the world's tallest waterfall in 1933, then crash-landed on its summit in 1937 - leaving his plane there for 33 years.
TaildraggerThe 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was not a mechanical failure - it was a dead reckoning error in the Andes that helped define CFIT risk for every generation of pilots since.
TaildraggerHow the Curtiss JN-4D Jenny - sold as government surplus after WWI for as little as $200 - sparked the barnstorming era and introduced aviation to everyday Americans.
TaildraggerWiley Post flew solo around the world in 1933 with one eye, a failed autopilot, and a propeller repaired in the Soviet wilderness - completing the flight in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the first Black American to earn an international pilot's license in 1921 after learning French and training in France when every American school refused her.
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