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.
TaildraggerHow a secret civilian racer from Wichita humiliated every military fighter at the 1929 Cleveland Air Races and changed American aviation.
TaildraggerThe 1926 Byrd-Bennett North Pole flight remains aviation's most debated claim - here's what happened and why historians still argue.
TaildraggerTen ambitious aircraft programs that were cancelled before production, from nuclear-powered bombers to forward-swept wing fighters.
TowerIn 1987, 19-year-old Mathias Rust flew a rented Cessna 172 from Helsinki to Moscow's Red Square, exposing Soviet air defense failures and reshaping Cold War politics.
TaildraggerLincoln Beachey, the most famous pilot of aviation's early era, died in a wing failure dive over San Francisco Bay in 1915.
TaildraggerThe Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst on May 6, 1937 destroyed the world's largest airship in 37 seconds and ended rigid airship travel forever.
TaildraggerDouglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan flew from New York to Dublin in 1938, claiming he meant to go to California - and never admitted otherwise.
TaildraggerIn 1959, Marine pilot William Rankin ejected at 47,000 feet and survived 40 minutes inside a thunderstorm.
TaildraggerThe Boeing 777 marks 30 years as the best-selling long-haul widebody in commercial aviation history, with over 2,000 deliveries.
TowerCaptain Eric 'Winkle' Brown flew 487 aircraft types and made 2,407 carrier landings, records no pilot will likely ever break.
TaildraggerOn May 4, 1930, Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in a secondhand biplane with just 75 hours in her logbook.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes broke speed records, organized Hollywood stunt pilots, and built the legendary bar where test pilots gathered after breaking the sound barrier.
TaildraggerOn May 3, 1923, Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready completed the first nonstop transcontinental flight across the United States.
TaildraggerHow Saburo Sakai flew nearly five hours home with a bullet in his skull after being shot over Guadalcanal in 1942.
TaildraggerFive Canadian airports dating back to the 1920s are still operating today, from Winnipeg's 1920 grass strip to Vancouver International.
TowerCalifornia's five oldest airports still operating in 2026 span from 1923 to 1930, each with deep roots in American aviation history.
TowerA crewless B-17 Flying Fortress landed itself in a Belgian field in 1944 after all nine crew members bailed out.
TaildraggerThe Boeing 2707 was America's audacious supersonic airliner program, killed by Congress in 1971 after a billion dollars and zero flying prototypes.
TowerThe 1952 Farnborough airshow disaster killed 31 people and transformed airshow safety regulations worldwide.
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