Jackie Cochran and the orphan from Sawdust Road who became the fastest woman alive
Jackie Cochran rose from barefoot poverty to become the fastest woman alive, breaking the sound barrier and founding the WASP program.
Taildraggeraviation history
Jimmy Stewart and the movie star who flew twenty combat missions over Nazi Germany in a B-twenty-four Liberator
Jimmy Stewart flew twenty combat missions over Nazi Germany in a B-24 Liberator, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross twice.
TaildraggerKee Bird the B-twenty-nine Superfortress that burned on a frozen Greenland lake after a fifty-year rescue mission
The Kee Bird B-29 survived 48 years on a frozen Greenland lake only to burn during its rescue attempt moments before takeoff.
TaildraggerThe Cornfield Bomber and the F-one oh six Delta Dart that landed itself in a Montana field after the pilot punched out
The true story of the F-106 Delta Dart that recovered from a flat spin and landed itself in a Montana field after its pilot ejected.
TaildraggerBob Timm and John Cook and the sixty-four day endurance flight over Las Vegas in a Cessna one seventy-two
In 1959, Bob Timm and John Cook set an unbroken world record by flying a Cessna 172 for 64 days straight over Las Vegas.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club where the greatest hangar flying stories were ever told
Pancho Barnes built the Happy Bottom Riding Club, where Cold War test pilots like Chuck Yeager turned hangar flying into an art form.
TaildraggerThe Berlin Blockade lifts on May twelfth nineteen forty-nine and the airlift that moved two million tons on three-minute intervals
The Berlin Airlift delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies over 277,000 flights, ending when the Soviet blockade lifted on May 12, 1949.
TaildraggerThe Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk found in the Egyptian Sahara seventy years after its pilot walked away and vanished
A Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk sat untouched in the Egyptian Sahara for 70 years after its pilot vanished, sparking a fierce restoration debate.
TaildraggerThe de Havilland Mosquito and the wooden airplane that outran every fighter in the sky
The de Havilland Mosquito, built from wood and rejected by the Air Ministry, became WWII's most versatile combat aircraft.
TaildraggerThe Ramstein airshow disaster of nineteen eighty-eight and the pierced heart maneuver that changed airshow safety forever
The 1988 Ramstein airshow disaster killed 67 spectators and three pilots, fundamentally rewriting airshow safety rules worldwide.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman and the woman who crossed an ocean just to learn how to fly
Bessie 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 airship Norge and the first verified flight across the North Pole on May eleventh, nineteen twenty-six
On May 11, 1926, the airship Norge completed the first verified flight across the North Pole, crossing from Europe to Alaska.
TaildraggerThe Gimli Glider and the Boeing seven sixty-seven that ran out of gas at forty-one thousand feet
The full story of the Gimli Glider, the Air Canada Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet and glided to a deadstick landing in 1983.
TaildraggerThe Vickers Wellington pulled from Loch Ness and the bomber that spent forty-five years at the bottom of Scotland's most famous lake
The story of Wellington bomber N2980, ditched in Loch Ness in 1940 and recovered 45 years later as the best surviving example of its type.
TaildraggerDouglas Bader and the legless fighter ace who escaped from prison camps as often as he shot down Messerschmitts
Douglas Bader lost both legs in a 1931 crash, then became one of the RAF's deadliest fighter aces in World War II.
TaildraggerRudolf Hess and the solo Messerschmitt flight to Scotland that nobody ordered on May tenth, nineteen forty-one
On May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess flew a Messerschmitt Bf 110 solo from Germany to Scotland in one of aviation's most bizarre unauthorized missions.
TaildraggerSaburo Sakai and the four-hour flight home blind in one eye after a bullet through the skull
How Saburo Sakai flew a Zero 560 miles home with a bullet in his skull, blind in one eye, and survived.
TaildraggerBeryl Markham and the solo westbound Atlantic crossing that history tried to forget
Beryl Markham made the first solo east-to-west Atlantic crossing in 1936, then was forgotten by history for nearly fifty years.
TaildraggerRichard Byrd and Floyd Bennett and the North Pole flight that history still argues about on May eighth, nineteen twenty-six
The 1926 Byrd-Bennett North Pole flight remains aviation's most debated claim — here's what happened and why historians still argue.
TaildraggerThe Farnborough crash of nineteen fifty-two and the de Havilland one ten that broke apart over the crowd
The 1952 Farnborough crash killed 31 people and fundamentally changed how every air show in the world operates today.
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