Ormer Locklear, the Curtiss Jenny, and the Wing Walker Who Taught America to Look Up
How wing walker Ormer Locklear and the surplus Curtiss Jenny turned 1919 America into a nation that looked up at the sky.
Taildraggeraviation history
Tex Johnston, the Dash Eighty, and the August Afternoon in Nineteen Fifty-Five He Rolled a Jetliner Over Lake Washington in Front of Everybody Who Could Fire Him
How Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled the Dash 80 prototype over Lake Washington in 1955 and helped launch the jet age.
TaildraggerThe Flying Tigers, Claire Chennault's P-40 Warhawks, and the Shark-Toothed Fighters That Bought China Time Before America Was Even in the War
How Claire Chennault turned the outclassed P-40 into a war-winner with the Flying Tigers over China, months before America entered WWII.
TaildraggerThe Gossamer Condor and the August Morning a Bicycle Racer Pedaled the First Human-Powered Airplane Around a One-Mile Course
How the Gossamer Condor won the Kremer Prize on August 23, 1977, achieving the first human-powered controlled flight.
TaildraggerBob Reeve, the Valdez Glacier Pilot Who Turned a Tidal Mud Flat Into a Runway and Landed Miners on the Roof of Alaska
How Bob Reeve turned a Valdez tidal mud flat into a runway, pioneered glacier landings, and invented Alaska bush flying.
TaildraggerCharles Kingsford Smith, the Southern Cross, and the Nineteen Twenty-Eight Fokker Trimotor That Beat the Pacific in Three Impossible Hops
How Charles Kingsford Smith and the Southern Cross made the first trans-Pacific flight from the US to Australia in 1928.
TaildraggerChuck Yeager, Glamorous Glennis, and the Broomstick That Broke the Sound Barrier With Two Cracked Ribs
How Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947 - flying with two cracked ribs and a broomstick to close the hatch.
TaildraggerDoc, the B-29 Superfortress the Navy Used for Bomb Practice, and the Wichita Volunteers Who Spent Sixteen Years Bringing Her Back to the Sky
Radio Hangar explores Doc, the B-29 Superfortress the Navy Used for Bomb Practice, and the Wichita Volunteers Who Spent Sixteen Years Bringing Her Back to the Sky.
TaildraggerJerrie Mock, the Spirit of Columbus, and the Ohio Housewife Who Flew a Single-Engine Cessna Solo Around the World in Nineteen Sixty-Four
Radio Hangar explores Jerrie Mock, the Spirit of Columbus, and the Ohio Housewife Who Flew a Single-Engine Cessna Solo Around the World in Nineteen Sixty-Four.
TaildraggerThe Republic P Forty-Seven Thunderbolt, the Seven-Ton Fighter They Called the Jug That Brought More Men Home Than Any Fighter Had a Right To
How the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the seven-ton 'Jug,' became WWII's toughest fighter and brought more pilots home than any of its rivals.
TaildraggerThe Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes, and the One-Mile Hop Off Long Beach Harbor That Silenced Every Man Who Said She'd Never Fly
How Howard Hughes flew the Spruce Goose one mile off Long Beach in 1947 to prove his critics wrong.
TaildraggerThe Winnie Mae, Wiley Post, and the One-Eyed Oklahoma Pilot Who Flew a Wooden Lockheed Vega Around the World Twice and Then Went Looking for the Stratosphere
How one-eyed pilot Wiley Post flew the wooden Winnie Mae around the world twice and pioneered the pressure suit and jet stream.
TaildraggerBeryl Markham, The Messenger, and the Night She Flew the Atlantic the Hard Way, East to West Against the Wind
How Beryl Markham became the first person to fly the Atlantic solo east to west, from England to North America, in September 1936.
TaildraggerGail Halvorsen, the Candy Bomber, and the Wiggle of the Wings That Turned a C Fifty-Four Skymaster Into Hope Over Berlin
How pilot Gail Halvorsen became the Candy Bomber, dropping chocolate on handkerchief parachutes to children during the 1948 Berlin Airlift.
TaildraggerJimmy Doolittle's Blind Flight of Nineteen Twenty-Nine and the Foggy Bottom Cockpit That Taught Airplanes to Fly Without Looking Outside
How Jimmy Doolittle's 1929 blind flight proved airplanes could fly safely on instruments alone, launching the modern age of IFR aviation.
TaildraggerThe Bristol Blenheim, Duxford, and the Restoration That Flew, Crashed a Month Later, and Was Built All Over Again
The last airworthy Bristol Blenheim was rebuilt three times over nearly 40 years, surviving two crashes to fly again at Duxford.
TaildraggerThe Night Witches, the Five Eighty-Eighth Night Bomber Regiment, and the Women Who Glided Silent Over the German Lines in Wood-and-Canvas Biplanes
The Night Witches flew 23,000 night sorties in wood-and-canvas biplanes, gliding silently over German lines on the WWII Eastern Front.
TaildraggerThe Vought F4U Corsair, the Bent-Wing Bird They Called Whistling Death and Why That Gull Wing Was an Accident of Geometry
The F4U Corsair's iconic gull wing wasn't styling - it was geometry solving a 13-foot propeller problem. Here's the full story.
TaildraggerThe XB-70 Valkyrie, the Six-Engine Mach Three Bomber That Folded Its Wingtips in Flight and Now Sits Alone at Dayton After a Camera Killed Her Sister
Radio Hangar explores The XB-70 Valkyrie, the Six-Engine Mach Three Bomber That Folded Its Wingtips in Flight and Now Sits Alone at Dayton After a Camera Killed Her Sister.
TaildraggerWrong Way Corrigan, the Patched-Up Curtiss Robin, and the Nineteen Thirty-Eight Flight to Ireland That Everybody Knew Wasn't a Mistake
How Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan flew a patched-up Curtiss Robin from Brooklyn to Ireland in 1938 and called it a navigation error.
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