On May 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, landing in Ireland after nearly 15 harrowing hours.
TaildraggerOn May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field in the Spirit of Saint Louis for the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight.
TaildraggerOn May 19, 1919, Harry Hawker and Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve ditched in the North Atlantic, failing to cross but proving it could be done.
TaildraggerDouglas Corrigan 'accidentally' flew from New York to Ireland in 1938 after being denied permission three times.
TaildraggerThe 1980 Mount Saint Helens eruption exposed aviation's vulnerability to volcanic ash and sparked the global warning systems pilots rely on today.
TaildraggerAlcock and Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight in June 1919, eight years before Lindbergh, in an open-cockpit biplane.
TaildraggerThe Bermuda Sky Queen's 1947 emergency ocean landing saved 69 lives but was overshadowed by Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier the same day.
TaildraggerMax Conrad made over 200 solo ocean crossings in single-engine Pipers, earning the title Flying Grandfather.
TaildraggerHow the Schneider Trophy seaplane races of the 1920s and 1930s directly produced the Spitfire and its Merlin engine.
TaildraggerOn May 14, 1908, mechanic Charlie Furnas became the first airplane passenger in America at Kill Devil Hills, NC.
TaildraggerThe Kee Bird B-29 survived 48 years on a frozen Greenland lake only to burn during its rescue attempt moments before takeoff.
TaildraggerOn May 13, 1913, Igor Sikorsky flew the first four-engine airplane, defying experts who called multi-engine flight impossible.
TaildraggerJimmy Stewart flew twenty combat missions over Nazi Germany in a B-24 Liberator, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross twice.
TaildraggerThe 1988 Ramstein airshow disaster killed 67 spectators and three pilots, fundamentally rewriting airshow safety rules worldwide.
TaildraggerA Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk sat untouched in the Egyptian Sahara for 70 years after its pilot vanished, sparking a fierce restoration debate.
TaildraggerThe Berlin Airlift delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies over 277,000 flights, ending when the Soviet blockade lifted on May 12, 1949.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman crossed the Atlantic to earn her pilot's license after every U.S. flight school refused to teach a Black woman to fly.
TaildraggerThe story of Wellington bomber N2980, ditched in Loch Ness in 1940 and recovered 45 years later as the best surviving example of its type.
TaildraggerOn May 11, 1926, the airship Norge completed the first verified flight across the North Pole, crossing from Europe to Alaska.
TaildraggerOn May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess flew a Messerschmitt Bf 110 solo from Germany to Scotland in one of aviation's most bizarre unauthorized missions.
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