Wiley Post and the one-eyed Oklahoma farm boy who flew around the world twice and discovered the jet stream
Wiley Post lost an eye in an oilfield accident, bought his first airplane with the insurance money, and changed aviation forever.
Taildraggeraviation history
Leslie Irvin and the first intentional free-fall parachute jump on April twenty-eighth, nineteen nineteen
On April 28, 1919, Leslie Irvin made the first intentional free-fall parachute jump, proving humans stay conscious in free fall.
TaildraggerJackie Cochran and the orphan girl who became the fastest woman alive
Jackie Cochran rose from barefoot orphan to the fastest woman alive, breaking the sound barrier and holding over 200 flight records.
TaildraggerThe first flight of the Airbus A three eighty on April twenty-seventh, two thousand five
On April 27, 2005, the Airbus A380 - the largest commercial airplane ever built - made its maiden flight from Toulouse, France.
TaildraggerThe bombing of Guernica on April twenty-sixth, nineteen thirty-seven and the afternoon that changed aerial warfare forever
On April 26, 1937, the Condor Legion bombed the Basque town of Guernica in a three-hour attack that changed aerial warfare forever.
TaildraggerEugene Bullard, the first Black combat pilot who flew for France because America wouldn't let him
Eugene Bullard, born in Georgia in 1895, became the first Black combat pilot in history, flying for France because America refused him.
TaildraggerBob Timm and John Cook and the Cessna one seventy-two that stayed airborne for sixty-four days
In 1958-59, Bob Timm and John Cook kept a stock Cessna 172 airborne for 64 days, setting a record that still stands.
TaildraggerJimmy Angel and the crash landing on top of the world's tallest waterfall
Jimmy Angel crashed his Flamingo monoplane atop Venezuela's Auyán-tepui in 1937, proving the world's tallest waterfall existed.
TaildraggerThe Grande Semaine d'Aviation at Reims and the week in nineteen oh nine that invented the airshow
The 1909 Grande Semaine d'Aviation at Reims, France, was the event that transformed flying from a curiosity into a global industry.
TaildraggerLouise Thaden and the Staggerwing that won the nineteen thirty-six Bendix Trophy
Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes won the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race outright in a Beechcraft Staggerwing, beating every male competitor.
TaildraggerArt Scholl and the final inverted spin that the cameras never stopped rolling on
Art Scholl, one of the greatest aerobatic pilots in history, died filming a flat spin sequence for Top Gun in 1985.
TaildraggerThe Douglas World Cruisers and the Alaskan gauntlet on the first flight around the world
How four open-cockpit biplanes attempted the first flight around the world in 1924, and why Alaska nearly ended it all.
TaildraggerThomas Fitzpatrick and the stolen Piper that landed on a Manhattan street twice to win a bar bet
Thomas Fitzpatrick stole a Piper from Teterboro and landed it on a Manhattan street twice - in 1956 and 1958 - to win bar bets.
TaildraggerFive military aircraft that refused to retire and the engineering that keeps them flying
Five military aircraft have served for over 60 years each, and the engineering principles behind their longevity apply to all of aviation.
TowerLady Be Good, the ghost bomber of the Sahara that waited sixteen years to be found
The B-24 Lady Be Good vanished over the Sahara in 1943 and was found intact sixteen years later, four hundred miles past its base.
TaildraggerAntoine de Saint-Exupéry and the last flight of the pilot who wrote The Little Prince
The story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the airmail pilot and wartime reconnaissance flyer who wrote The Little Prince and vanished over the Mediterranean in 1944.
TaildraggerThe Gimli Glider and the seven sixty-seven that ran out of gas at forty-one thousand feet
How a metric conversion error left Air Canada Flight 143 without fuel at 41,000 feet, and a glider pilot landed a 767 with no engines.
TaildraggerWrong Way Corrigan and the most famous navigational mistake that fooled absolutely nobody
Douglas Corrigan flew a patched-up Curtiss Robin from New York to Ireland in 1938, claiming it was a navigational error nobody believed.
TaildraggerChuck Yeager and the broken ribs that almost kept him from breaking the sound barrier
How Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, with two broken ribs and a nine-inch piece of broom handle.
TaildraggerDoc the B twenty-nine Superfortress and the sixteen-year restoration that defied the impossible
The 16-year restoration of B-29 Superfortress 'Doc' from desert hulk to flying warbird is one of aviation's greatest preservation stories.
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