On May 19, 1919, Harry Hawker and Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve ditched in the North Atlantic, failing to cross but proving it could be done.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes ran the Happy Bottom Riding Club, the legendary desert bar where America's test pilots drank free after breaking records.
TaildraggerThe B-24 Lady Be Good vanished over Libya in 1943 and was found 16 years later in the Sahara, perfectly preserved with working radios.
TaildraggerThe 1910 Los Angeles Air Meet at Dominguez Field drew hundreds of thousands and ignited America's love affair with flight.
TaildraggerAlcock and Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight in June 1919, eight years before Lindbergh, in an open-cockpit biplane.
TaildraggerIn 1987, 19-year-old Mathias Rust flew a rented Cessna 172 through Soviet airspace and landed near the Kremlin, changing Cold War history.
TaildraggerThe 1980 Mount Saint Helens eruption exposed aviation's vulnerability to volcanic ash and sparked the global warning systems pilots rely on today.
TaildraggerDouglas Corrigan 'accidentally' flew from New York to Ireland in 1938 after being denied permission three times.
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.
TaildraggerChuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the Bell X-1 past Mach 1 with two broken ribs and a broomstick lever.
TaildraggerA B-17 bomber flew over 100 miles and landed in a Belgian field in 1944 with no crew aboard after all hands bailed out over Germany.
TaildraggerThe 1909 Grande Semaine d'Aviation at Reims, France was the event that proved aviation was real and invented the airshow.
TaildraggerThomas Fitzpatrick stole airplanes twice from Teterboro and landed them on Manhattan streets to win bar bets in 1956 and 1958.
TaildraggerWiley Post lost an eye in an oil field, flew around the world twice, and discovered the jet stream that every airline uses today.
TaildraggerAntoine de Saint-Exupéry flew mail routes over the Sahara and Andes before writing The Little Prince, then vanished over the Mediterranean in 1944.
TaildraggerOn May 14, 1908, mechanic Charlie Furnas became the first airplane passenger in America at Kill Devil Hills, NC.
TaildraggerMax Conrad made over 200 solo ocean crossings in single-engine Pipers, earning the title Flying Grandfather.
TaildraggerHow test pilot Tex Johnston's barrel roll of Boeing's prototype jet airliner over Lake Washington changed aviation history.
TaildraggerHow the Schneider Trophy seaplane races of the 1920s and 1930s directly produced the Spitfire and its Merlin engine.
TaildraggerOn May 13, 1913, Igor Sikorsky flew the first four-engine airplane, defying experts who called multi-engine flight impossible.
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