Curtiss Field, Long Island, and the Barnstormer's Contract That Sent a Kid to His First Loop
How 1920s barnstormers turned surplus Jennies and farmers' hay fields into flying's first schools - and why Oshkosh carries on their legacy.
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The Curtiss JN-4 Jenny and the Ninety-Dollar Surplus Trainer That Turned a Generation of Pilots Loose on America
How $50 surplus Curtiss JN-4 'Jenny' biplanes launched the barnstorming era and put ordinary Americans in the sky.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear, King of the Wing Walkers, and the Night Dive Over DeMille Field
The story of Ormer Locklear, the first wing walker, who invented aerial stunting in barnstorming's golden age before dying at age 28.
TaildraggerLincoln Beachey and the Death Dip: The Man Who Taught America to Look Up
Lincoln Beachey was America's greatest early aviator, whose death-defying stunts from 1910 to 1915 transformed the airplane from curiosity to cultural icon.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman and the License Nobody in America Would Give Her
Bessie Coleman became the world's first Black female pilot in 1921 after every American flight school turned her away - so she crossed the Atlantic to earn her license in France.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear and the Airplane Transfer: The Texan Who Built Barnstorming Into an Art Form
Ormer Locklear of Greenville, Texas invented airplane-to-airplane transfers and became barnstorming's first true showman before dying at 28 in 1920.
TaildraggerLindbergh Before the Atlantic - The Barnstorming Years That Built a Legend
Before crossing the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh spent years as a barnstormer, building the real-world skills that made his historic 1927 flight possible.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear - The Wing Walker Who Invented the Barnstorming Era One Step at a Time
Ormer Locklear climbed out of a moving Curtiss Jenny in 1917 to fix a loose radiator cap - and accidentally invented American barnstorming.
TaildraggerThe Gates Flying Circus and the Upside-Down Pilot Who Flew a Million Americans
How the Gates Flying Circus flew over a million Americans in the 1920s and built the cultural foundation for commercial aviation.
TaildraggerPangborn, Herndon, and Miss Veedol - the first nonstop flight across the Pacific, and the man who climbed out on the wing to save it
How Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon flew the first nonstop Pacific crossing in 1931 - and climbed onto the wing mid-flight to survive it.
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.
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.
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