AirSpaceMag-History of Flight

A New Dawn, Partially Realized

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:20:38 GMT

In 1969, Pan Am was promising both the jumbo jet and the SST. In the end, we only got one of them.

What’s Real, and What’s Not?

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

At the National Air and Space Museum, some artifacts are more genuine than others.

Alaska and the Airplane

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

For a century, each has shaped the other.

Bush Pilot Hall of Fame

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Meet the pilots who created the Alaska bush pilot legend.

Viewport: June-July 2013

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Progress in Power and Safety

Lockheed’s Mom

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:48:25 GMT

Flora Haines Loughead was a journalist, farmer, miner, and mother to two pioneers of the aviation history.

In the Age of Stratojets

Wed, 01 May 2013 01:54:11 GMT

A former B-47 crew chief looks back at one of the great airplanes of the 20th century.

Last of its Kind

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:27:23 GMT

A look inside the Smithsonian's Stratoliner.

Kamikaze Bats

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:18:11 GMT

The plan: Strap napalm bombs onto bats, and drop them over World War II Japan.

Sex and the Airlines

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:35:47 GMT

The evolution of the stewardess, from airborne homemaker to aerial sex kitten.

Lost, Not Forgotten

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:08:30 GMT

Wrecked aircraft from around the world are showcased in Dietmar Eckell's forthcoming book.

Plane Spotting

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:01:06 GMT

You'll find them at most any airport. Some spotters try to see every type of jet flown by a given airline, while others are on the lookout for special liveries.

Did Harriet Quimby’s Blériot End Up in New York?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:16:12 GMT

Or maybe it's just another aviation urban legend.

A Brief Tour of Time (and Navigation)

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:30:41 GMT

A new exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum tells us where we are, and how to get where we're going next.

Lindbergh’s Trainer: Brunner-Winkle Bird

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:00:00 GMT

The plane that taught Anne Morrow Lindbergh to fly is flying again.

Docking on the Empire State Building

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:56:59 GMT

Despite plans for a mooring station, only one airship ever docked at the Empire State Building.

Shenzhou’s Pigs In Space

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:28:28 GMT

As far as we know, Captain Link Hogthrob remains the first porcine astronaut.

NASM’s One-and-Onlies: The Complete List

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:00:00 GMT

All the Smithsonian’s one-of-a-kind aircraft

The Titanium Gambit

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:09:29 GMT

During the Cold War, Boeing execs got a strange call from the State Department: Would you guys mind trading secrets with the Russians?

Free to Good Homes

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:12:32 GMT

The National Air and Space Museum holds its version of a yard sale.

Moments & Milestones: Close Formation

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:00:00 GMT

The parasitic aircraft of Britain’s Short Brothers.

Trigger Pullers and Mouse Clickers

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:05:35 GMT

Do drone pilots deserve medals?

Viewport: Apr-May 2013

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:00:00 GMT

And the Trophy Goes To...

Kings of the Air

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Two showmen, one dirigible, and the flight that changed aviation.

Not the First?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:28:52 GMT

It’s not the first time someone has claimed that Gustave Whitehead flew before the Wright brothers. But solid evidence is still lacking.

Rescue, James Bond Style

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:08:06 GMT

Some of 007's imaginative toys were based on actual inventions.

Hidden Treasures

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:59:13 GMT

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is a wonderland for the aviation enthusiast.

Flights and Fancy: When Airplanes Had Beds

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

In 1955, some transatlantic flights still offered sleeper berths.

Disaster at Xichang

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:00 GMT

An eyewitness speaks publicly for the first time about history’s worst launch accident.

Fantastic Plastic

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:16:16 GMT

Dive bombers, fighters, and trainers, all hanging from a bedroom ceiling.

Combat on Canvas

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:07:17 GMT

Art and artifacts from the Marine front lines, now on display in Washington.

Wings Over Washington

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:35:00 GMT

In more innocent times, it was okay to buzz the Capitol.

Haunted Airfields

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:00:00 GMT

For Halloween, a collection of weird tales about airports and aircraft.

Tennis, Anyone?

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:51:20 GMT

When she wasn't playing tennis on the wing of a biplane in flight, Gladys Roy was dancing the Charleston.

Even Lindbergh Got Lost

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:00 GMT

In the 1920’s, only one man held the key to aerial navigation.

The First Presidential Flight

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:19:08 GMT

Nowadays the U.S. President has his own airplane. But for Franklin Roosevelt in 1943, flying was still a big deal.

Some Thing on the Wing

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:45:45 GMT

Quite a shock out my airplane window.

Hazardous Mail

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:17:44 GMT

A simple scrap of paper reminds us of a time when delivering letters cross-country was risky business.

The Route: Reno to San Francisco

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:17:14 GMT

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Mr. Arango’s Aeroplanes

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:00 GMT

A World War I aircraft enthusiast’s collection tracks the evolution of the species.

Viewport: Feb-Mar 2013

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Timing is everything.

The Gift of Art

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:34:29 GMT

A recent donation by Michael and Maureen Harrigan helps the Museum fulfill its mission.

History in Flight

Tue, 11 May 2010 08:01:10 GMT

Rare warbirds star in a California airshow.

Here’s Looking at You, Floyd Bennett

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:12:58 GMT

New York City’s first municipal airport couldn’t take a bad picture.

The Legacy of Flight

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Images from the archives of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

Aeronautical Sheet Music

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:48:54 GMT

Songs inspired by the early age of flight.

The Sherman Fairchild Story

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:12:32 GMT

Sherman Fairchild, the photographer who transformed aviation

Gil Cohen: Aviation Artist

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:39:45 GMT

A new illustrated book brings aviation history to life.

A Family Affair

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:44:01 GMT

Bernard Pietenpol’s happiest moments came when he was flying one of his homebuilt airplanes—with a child or two in tow.

Animals Aloft

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:39:58 GMT

Aviation can sometimes be downright inhuman.

The Flying White House

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:51:56 GMT

Presidential airplanes, past and present.

Chapeau by Blériot

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 03:03:41 GMT

In the winter of 1909, chic Parisians sported Blériot, Antoinette, and Voisin biplanes on their heads.

Spy Pigeons

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:59:46 GMT

Unlikely soldiers during World War II: More than 250,000 pigeons deployed by the British.

Pippo: A World War II Mystery

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:03:21 GMT

Why does the solitary night fighter call out for a nickname?

Beavers On Parachutes

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:34:20 GMT

In 1948, Idaho decided the best way to move beavers was to airdrop them.

Crocodiles on a Plane

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:04:49 GMT

Sometimes passengers and crew are downright inhuman.

Where is the Wright Brothers’ Patent?

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 02:34:25 GMT

It appears to have, uh, gone missing.

Fly-Powered Planes and Other Oddities

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 06:25:59 GMT

Oddball items at the National Air and Space Museum.

Pilots, Look Down

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:42:03 GMT

To find their way home, aviators used to be able to read the rooftops.

Live and Let Fly

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:36:23 GMT

Real pilots rate the performance of the airplanes in James Bond flicks.

And the Oscar Goes to... the Airplane!

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Some of the airplanes that loom largest in our collective memory have flown only in the movies.

In the Museum: Pieces of the Smithsonian Near You

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Can’t make it to the Museum? There might be an artifact on loan right in your neighborhood.

Ode to the Bubble

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The Bell 47, famous as the star of “Whirlybirds,” was the DC-3 of helicopters. Could it make a comeback?

In the Museum - Web Supplement

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

A gallery of traveling air- and spacecraft loaned out by the Smithsonian.

Moments & Milestones: Pressure to the People

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

75 years ago, the Army Air Corps’ XC-35 launched the pressurized cabin.

Oldies & Oddities: Home Sweet Duralumin

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

A Buckminster Fuller design was grounded in aerospace technology.

The Golden Age of Flight Attendants

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

A new book documents the evolution of stewardesses from registered nurses to starlets in the sky.

Who Was Fatty Pearson?

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:00:00 GMT

A World War II British foot soldier’s best friend in the air, and the man who rescued Ernest Hemingway.

The Hemingways Go Flying

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:47:13 GMT

The macho man of American Letters was a nervous flier. His wife was another story.

Alarming Reports from George Orwell

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 03:49:09 GMT

In the weeks leading up to the Blitz, Londoners were still learning how to respond to air-raid warnings.

Cancelled: Princess, Dethroned

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 GMT

A British aircraft company could not give up the ship.

Remembering Phyllis Diller

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:27:33 GMT

A story from when the famed comedian joined Bob Hope on his USO tours.

Carlotta, the Lady Aeronaut

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 05:07:15 GMT

An 1880 balloon jaunt ends with our heroine up a tree.

Not Fade Away - Glenn Curtiss Was Here

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 GMT

A 1920s hangar still stands at a Connecticut airport.

Moments & Milestones - The Bridge Builder - Sept12

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 GMT

Twenty-five years ago, Mathias Rust decided to personally intervene in the cold war.

How Do You Name an Aircraft Carrier?

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 04:26:53 GMT

It's not as straightforward as you think.

Take a Seat

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:23:21 GMT

Sixty-six years ago this week, Sergeant Lawrence Lambert became the first person in the U.S. to be ejected from a high-speed aircraft.

The Notorious Flight of Mathias Rust

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:33 GMT

Ronald Reagan was president, there was still a Soviet Union, and a 19-year-old pilot set out to change the world.

What’s Under the Thames?

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:01:22 GMT

Almost 100 aircraft were lost in the river during World War II alone, and it's not certain how many are still to be recovered.

A&S Interview: Captain Eric Brown

Tue, 26 May 2009 01:03:00 GMT

Holder of the Guinness World Record for most types of aircraft flown.

Orville, Wilbur and Me

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:00:00 GMT

You too can fly a Wright aircraft.

Moments and Milestones: Autoland I

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:00:00 GMT

Two pilots won a trophy in 1937 for keeping their hands off the controls.

In the Museum: The Archives’ Big Move

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:00:00 GMT

Fifty-four truckloads of irreplaceable aviation history make the 35-mile trek to the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.

To the North Pole…by Balloon

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:03:48 GMT

115 years ago today, three Swedish explorers set off on the only attempt ever to reach the Pole by balloon.

The Tower Ravens

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:26:19 GMT

During World War II, a raven helped alert the city to approaching bombers.

The First Airplane Ad

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 07:33:25 GMT

The first newspaper ad for an airplane appeared 103 years ago today.

Above and Beyond: Too Much, Too Soon

Wed, 20 May 2009 03:53:00 GMT

The first newspaper ad for an airplane appeared 103 years ago today.

Battle Noise School

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:32:26 GMT

How psychologists conditioned soldiers and civilians to the sounds of combat during World War II.

Airmail Odyssey: 1918-2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:47:34 GMT

Three historic mailplanes commemorated the anniversary of U.S. airmail by tracing the original coast-to-coast route.

In the Museum: The Unrecognized First

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Emory Malick, the first African-American pilot, wasn't known to historians until recently.

Glamour Boy

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:25:56 GMT

The day Claude Grahame-White thrilled the crowd at the Boston-Harvard meet.

1908: The Year the Airplane Went Public

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:41:14 GMT

Five years after Kitty Hawk, the Wrights finally showed the world their invention.

Berry’s Leap

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:24:00 GMT

In February 1912, Capt. Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from an airplane.

The First Air Force Mission

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:35:07 GMT

In 1916, eight Curtiss biplanes from the U.S. Army’s 1st Aero Squadron—the country’s entire air force—flew into Mexico for their first military action.

The First Across the Continent

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A 100th anniversary remembrance of Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz.

The Resistance

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:34:04 GMT

A hub of creativity for early airplane builders: North Carolina? Ohio? Nope—Oregon. And these Oregonians had an independent streak.

Building Spitfires, Slowly

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:54:40 GMT

The legendary WWII fighter wasn't so fast getting out of the factory.

Hitch Hikers

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Ten of aviation's most famous hitch-hikers.

Meet The Beetle!

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The Coléoptère was one weird-looking aircraft.

Moments & Milestones - Making a Smoother (and Speedier) Airplane

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Within months of its first flight, August Bellanca's Skyrocket II set five world speed records.

He Saved Navy Fliers from Spam

Thu, 17 May 2012 04:31:14 GMT

Long before Swanson's TV dinner, there was the Maxson Sky Plate.

Second Life for Hangar One

Mon, 07 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The Moffett Field landmark may yet house aircraft again.

Sea Shadow for Sale

Fri, 04 May 2012 03:42:15 GMT

For a mere $300,000, you can buy this unique stealthy seagoing vessel.

Space History Items Bring $1 Million

Thu, 03 May 2012 07:18:58 GMT

To buy a piece of space history, you need plenty of cash.

Celestial Body

Wed, 02 May 2012 03:33:12 GMT

De Havilland's D.H. 106 Comet blazed the commercial jet trail but broke its nation's heart.

Howard Hughes’ Robot

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:25:59 GMT

On his record-setting flight in 1938, the billionaire had two navigators, only one of which was human.

Moments and Milestones: The Pressure’s On

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The ingenious—and goofy—modifications of endurance flights.

Airborne for 64 Days

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:42:55 GMT

In a Cessna 172, no less.

The Designing Life

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:28:17 GMT

This year’s National Air and Space Museum lifetime achievement award winner, Burt Rutan, talks about music, golf and his favorite chair.

In the Museum: The Katzenjammer Kids Take to the Air

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:00:00 GMT

It took a cartoonist to paint the first serious depiction of aircraft flight.

Oldies Oddities: Lindbergh Ate Here

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The young airmail pilot logged plenty of time at the local diner.

Berry’s Leap, Pt. 2

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:07:45 GMT

Grant Morton wasn't the first to parachute from an airplane, or even the second.

Cancelled: Design by Committee

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The Bristol Brabazon was big and it flew. Much more can’t be said.

A Capital Landing

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 06:48:24 GMT

A look back at Claude Grahame-White's 1910 landing next to the White House.

Göring’s Nephew

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 04:45:30 GMT

A bizarre case of mistaken identity almost cost a World War II B-17 commander his life.

Radio Flyer

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:49:35 GMT

In 1957, the Narco Superhomer was The Great New Thing.

The End of the Plain Plane

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:11:22 GMT

When wild liveries and outrageous uniforms were the norm.

Or Die Trying

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:00:00 GMT

After the Wright brothers flew, a handful of inventors were determined to join them.

A&S Interview: Art Greenfield

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:57:04 GMT

Want to set a record-breaking flight? You’ll need an observer from the National Aeronautic Association.

World War II: The Movie

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:00:00 GMT

When the U.S. Army Air Forces needed 100,000 men to volunteer, General Hap Arnold recruited Hollywood.

Hollywood Air

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:36:41 GMT

The first Hollywood movie showcasing airline travel, Three Guys Named Mike, came out in 1951.

The Battle of Key West

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:59:21 GMT

Phantoms v. MiGs over Florida in 1962.

Missing in Inaction: F-104

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:37:36 GMT

Alert: If you see a Starfighter in a parking lot, contact this Dutch museum.

70 Years of “Slipping the Surly Bonds”

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:19:51 GMT

Whether you love it or hate it, John Gillespie Magee's "High Flight" remains the most enduring of aviation poems.

In the Museum: The Original Airliner

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:00:00 GMT

The Boeing 247 was the Dreamliner of its day.

Getting Medieval

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:46:38 GMT

When the Eighth Air Force wanted to protect its bomber crews, it asked medieval armor specialists for advice.

Mind if I Smoke?

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:11:28 GMT

Remember when passengers used to toss lit cigarettes out the airplane window? Honest.

Oldies & Oddities: The Flying Winnebago

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:00:00 GMT

For some reason the heli-camper never really caught on.

A Pearl Harbor Mystery

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:00:00 GMT

How a 1940s Interstate Cadet trainer sent a famous airshow pilot on a journey to find a kindred spirit.

Catch-22 At Fifty

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:57:42 GMT

Writer Joseph Heller drew on his own wartime experience for his 1961 masterpiece.

The Warbird Woodstock

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:23:23 GMT

A new book highlights the final Gathering of Mustangs in 2007.

The World’s First Warplane

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:01:56 GMT

One hundred years ago this Sunday, on October 23, 1911, Captain Carlo Piazza climbed onto his spindly Blériot XI and made military history.

“This Is Only a Test”

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:01 GMT

Fifty years ago, cold-war games halted all civilian air traffic—long before September 11 did the same.

The Day Nobody Flew

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:41 GMT

September 11, 2001 wasn't the first time U.S. air traffic was grounded.

Who Killed Hammarskjöld?

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:45:19 GMT

A new book reopens (for the umpteenth time) the 50-year-old mystery of how, or rather why, U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others died in a plane crash on September 18, 1961.

Finley Hunt’s Flying Machine

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:01:17 GMT

Designs for a fanciful Civil War airplane fetch big bucks at auction.

History of Flight

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:18:06 GMT

Designs for a fanciful Civil War airplane fetch big bucks at auction.

Canadian Air & Space Museum Body Checked by Ice Rink

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:52:34 GMT

The Canadian Air & Space Museum arrived last Tuesday to an eviction notice, a team of locksmiths and the news that four ice rinks were to be built in their space.

On the Wing and On the Ground

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

Ernie Pyle's aviation and war dispatches.

Just One Word: Plastics

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

The world's first all-composite airplane may fly again.

Byline: Ernie Pyle

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

The country's best-known war correspondent learned his trade as an aviation reporter.

Karachi to Bombay to Calcutta

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

The struggle to start Air-India.

Going Once….The 1920 Pulitzer Race Trophy

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:10:46 GMT

From the Chicago Daily Tribune, November 28, 1920: "At last the pride of the Army air service, the Verville-Packard chasse biplane, has established its worth by romping ahead of thirty-four starters in the first Pulitzer...

Oldies and Oddities: Lying Down on the Job

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Piloting in the prone position

Orville Mugs For His Birthday

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:51:34 GMT

You may have noticed the U.S. flag flying on a federal building today, but chances are it was on the pole yesterday, too. Or perhaps you woke feeling the need for “appropriate exercises to further stimulate interest in aviation,” which many of us consider part of our routine. At least today, though, you’ve got President [...]

In the Museum: A Fleet’s Final Flight

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A civilian flight trainer enters the collections.

Moments and Milestones: Once Around

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

The 75th anniversary of a round-the-world trip.

Stranded

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Four aircraft, 12 airmen, 25 days, 40 below zero, in the middle of nowhere.

Special Section: True Grit

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Aviation's Stories of Determination

The Original Amazing Race

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

In October 1936, three journalists battled to circle the globe first.

Viewport: Across the Country in 49 Days

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

In October 1936, three journalists battled to circle the globe first.

Reviews and Previews: Prodigal Son

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A troubled man, Gregory Boyington found redemption commanding a U.S. Marine fighter squadron in the South Pacific.

Conan Knows Best

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:35:44 GMT

Who can forget the immortal question posed by the Mongol General in the 1982 classic Conan the Barbarian? Wait…don’t tell me you’ve forgotten? When the Mongol General bellows “What is best in life?” some (sissy) barbarian offers the following: “The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.” (“The [...]

A&S Interview: Ron Davies

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:51:11 GMT

A former museum curator of air transport rallies for high-speed rail.

Captain America and the Horten Brothers

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:54:17 GMT

Oh, those Horten brothers. Looks like they’re at it again. The aircraft in Captain America: The First Avenger looks suspiciously like a Horten flying wing; did Reimar and Walter team up with the evil Johann Schmidt (aka Red Skull), the head of Nazi Germany’s HYDRA research department? Here’s what we know: The diabolical Schmidt expects [...]

Moments and Milestones: Last One Out, Shut off the Helium

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Fifty years ago, the Navy ended its lighter-than-air program.

Loser X-Planes

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Every research aircraft poses a question. Sometimes the answer is "forget it."

I Was There: When the DC-8 Went Supersonic

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

The day a Douglas DC-8 busted Mach 1.

The Perfect Wind Storm

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

In the 1950s, engineers at Cleveland's brand-new supersonic wind tunnel battled shock waves, unstarts, and the local power company.

The Not-So-Friendly Skies

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:33:07 GMT

Escalating baggage fees. No more in-flight meals. Delayed flights. Loud cell-phone talkers. And let’s not forget the drunks. It may be that intoxicated passengers are the most dangerous of all. AvWeb recently reported that drunk passengers caused the crash of a Cessna 185 in 2010. (“The [Transportation Safety Board] postulates that a rear-seat passenger pushed [...]

The Battle of Midway, 69 Years Later

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:40:04 GMT

“The Battle of Midway was probably the most important battle in the Pacific war during World War II,” says Russell Lee, a curator in the aeronautics division at the National Air and Space Museum. “On that day, American carrier forces defeated the Japanese, and stopped permanently their westward expansion.” Prior to the battle, Japan possessed [...]

Know Which Way the Wind Blows - sidebar - The Perfect Wind Storm

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Above and Beyond: Mantz Versus the Volcano

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Filming for Cinerama with a fearless flyer.

Genchi’s Obsession

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A grad student in Italy salvages Germany's rarest World War I airplane engines.

Viewport: Power Hungry

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A grad student in Italy salvages Germany's rarest World War I airplane engines.

Department of “What Were They Thinking?”

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:16:27 GMT

Quick: What’s the strangest way to deliver mail that you can think of? By mule? On foot? By ship? By airplane? How about by missile? That’s right. More than one person thought delivering packages by rocket was an excellent idea. Our neighbor, the National Postal Museum, notes that Austria and Germany were the first countries [...]

A Fleet’s Last Lesson

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:36:59 GMT

Gene Breiner got a little choked up when he handed over his 1929 Fleet Model 2 to the National Air and Space Museum at “Become a Pilot” Day on Saturday. He dedicated it to “all the people who learned to fly in her, and all the people I took for their first and last airplane [...]

The Akron and Macon’s Hail Mary Pass

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 03:54:57 GMT

“One of the interesting things about airships,” says Tom Crouch, a senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, who gave a lecture on the subject this week as part of the Museum’s Ask an Expert series, is that they were “transitional technology. They were capable of doing a great many things before airplanes [...]

Reader Scrapbook - main article

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:24:42 GMT

How to submit pictures for our online Reader Scrapbook

In the Museum: Dangerous Crossing

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

How to submit pictures for our online Reader Scrapbook

Survival Tactics

Tue, 24 May 2011 12:58:07 GMT

During World War II, the Smithsonian Institution aided the war effort in many different ways. An “Ethnogeographic Board” was established to act as a clearinghouse for government wartime needs, and one of their major undertakings was the “Survival Project,” requested by the U.S. Navy. Smithsonian historian Pamela Henson writes in “The Smithsonian Goes to War: [...]

NASA Art Returns to Washington

Fri, 27 May 2011 01:17:13 GMT

Since 1963, hundreds of artists (and musicians, poets—even one fashion designer) have interpreted NASA’s aeronautic and space projects. The artists were given carte blanche to create what they wanted, in any medium, on any subject. In celebration of NASA’s 50th anniversary in 2008, more than 70 diverse artworks from the program began touring the country [...]

Helicopter Missions: Vietnam Firefight

Tue, 31 May 2011 07:02:25 GMT

In 1966, Second Lieutenant Larry Liss was on the Czech-German border during a snowstorm, freezing his varlata off, when he saw something beautiful. It was a Bell UH-1 helicopter, still on the ground. The pilot—who was wearing short sleeves and drinking a cup of coffee—took one look at Liss and shook his head. “He said, [...]

Premier Performer

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:48:34 GMT

For their first airshows, the Wright exhibition team relied on the Model B.

A Mailplane for Lindbergh

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Donald Hall's 1927 rush job.

Oldies and Oddities: When Civvies Scrambled Fighters

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Neighbors, families, and friends watched the skies for enemy bombers.

A Historic Crash and its Legacy

Wed, 11 May 2011 01:33:52 GMT

It was about the hardest landing you can have and survive. Forty-four years ago today, NASA test pilot Bruce Peterson unwittingly created the intro for 1970s television show “The Six Million Dollar Man” when he hit the lakebed in an M2-F2 lifting body aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base doing 250 miles an hour without [...]

Explanation: They Were Drunk

Tue, 17 May 2011 07:55:26 GMT

In the history of aviation, there were ideas that didn’t quite work out. Take the Avro VZ-9-AV Avrocar, one of ten odd aircraft profiled in the Smithsonian Channel film “Unbelievable Flying Objects.” (It’s number 5). The U.S. Air Force became interested in the Avrocar as an early “stealth” aircraft that could hover beneath radar, then [...]

Senior Aviatrix

Mon, 16 May 2011 12:20:36 GMT

She thought she'd like to fly again. And so she flew. Helene Dax, 87, a former pilot, had filled out a survey form at the Brookdale Senior Living center where she lives in Denver. Brookdale, which caters to people challenged with Alzheimer's and dementia, and Jeremy Bloom's Wish of a Lifetime found...

Crossing the Atlantic by Balloon (and Other Means)

Thu, 12 May 2011 05:54:09 GMT

When Jules Verne's novel Five Weeks in a Balloon: or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen was translated into English in 1869, it appeared with this publisher's note: "So far as the geography, the inhabitants, the animals, and the features of the countries the travellers pass ove...

Parachuteless Freaks

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:01:29 GMT

On March 23, 1944, a British Lancaster bomber over Germany's Ruhr River took heavy flak and exploded. As his oxygen mask and goggles began to melt, and his flight suit burned, tail gunner Nick Alkemade heard the pilot ordering the crew to bail out.The aircraft was at 18,000 feet, and while Alkemade...

Surviving the Hindenburg

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:17:35 GMT

When the Hindenburg flew toward the the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937, it was the airship's eleventh voyage to the United States. The nearly 804-foot-long ship, the pride of Nazi Germany, had been carrying passengers on excursion flights since 1910 without a single injur...

The Victory of Advertising

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:23:53 GMT

Before the Japanese air attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, less than one percent of all workers in American aeronautical factories were female. Just two years later, more than 475,000 women would help to manufacture aircraft for the war effort. Another 350,000 would ...

Gimme the Good Old Days

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:40:23 GMT

With ever-mounting budget cuts, and pressure to reduce the national deficit, NASA and the FAA just don’t crash airplanes intentionally like they used to. Here’s a golden oldie of a test the two agencies jointly conducted on December 1, 1984, when they took a Boeing 720 (a smaller, faster version of...

One of the "Intrepid Birdwomen"

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:57:07 GMT

"Here is a group of feminine flyers who don't just fool around with flying," reported the Los Angeles Times in January 1934. "They hardly ever powder their noses. They don't even carry mirrors. They'd rather poke their not unhandsome little noses into a balky carburetor than riffle up a pack of bri...

When Airmail Hazards Included Buffalo

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 01:19:38 GMT

India is an air-minded nation. Philatelist Pradip Jain notes in his 2002 book Indian Airmails that the Ramayama, the ancient Sanskrit epic, includes references to King Nala and Princess Damayanti sending "amorous messages to each other through the medium of a flying, talking swan." During the Maury...

After Walking On the Moon

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:20:23 GMT

You're the first man to set foot on the Moon. You're also a Korean War veteran, and a former test pilot who has flown more than 200 types of aircraft. What do you do for fun?Well, we don't know what he does for fun nowadays, but for two days in February 1979, Neil Armstrong set five world records f...

Who's First?

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:56:02 GMT

The things he carried: A sack of coffee. Fifty copies of the local newspaper, the Press Democrat. Three letters.Those letters are what put Fred Wiseman into the history books. On February 17, 1911, Wiseman—authorized by the Santa Rosa, California, postmaster—carried the first mail by airplane.To ce...

Working the Ramp

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:18:02 GMT

They work in all weather loading and unloading your suitcases, the mail, freight, even dead bodies and wild and domestic animals. They deice the airplane in winter, and clean it between each flight. So spare a thought for the airline industry's baggage handlers.Liesl Miller Orenic, an associate pro...

The Budget News From 1911

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:40:48 GMT

As in any year, there are winners and losers in the 2012 Pentagon budget announced yesterday. The Defense Department plans to buy more Reaper unmanned drones, but the Marine Corps' short takeoff and landing version of the F-35 was put on two-year "probation," and may not happen at all. Pretty stand...

The Other Mrs. Simpson

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 03:55:29 GMT

Every December 17, National Air and Space Museum senior curator Tom Crouch attends the annual wreath-laying ceremony in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, to mark the anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight. This year I tagged along. Our first stop was the Outer Banks History Center in near...

Concorde: Flying Supersonic

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:45:41 GMT

For 27 years, the Concorde carried passengers across the Atlantic Ocean at twice the speed of sound, on the very edge of space. A flight from New York to London took a mere 3 ½ hours; the supersonic aircraft flew so high and so fast that American spyplanes were ordered to stay out of the Concorde’s...

Walter A. Soplata 1923 - 2010

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:43:07 GMT

Walter Soplata, a carpenter who saved numerous World War II aircraft and engines from the cutting torch and amassed a legendary collection on his Ohio property, died on Friday, November 5, at age 87. His son, Wally, wrote about his father in the November 2007 issue of Air & Space. Today, he wri...

A Piece of Lafayette Escadrille History

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:26:53 GMT

On November 15, 2010, Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco will auction this dark grey-green canvas fuselage insignia panel from a Spad VII flown by the Lafayette Escadrille, featuring the familiar Indian-head insignia. The panel, says the company's press release, was collected by Sergeant E...

Magellans of the Air

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:26:15 GMT

On September 28, 1924, crowds cheered and sirens shrieked as the Army Service pilots known as "the Magellans of the Air" landed at Sand Point Field in Seattle, Washington, after completing the first round-the-world flight.They had set off on April 6, some six months earlier, determined to circumnav...

Alberto's Big Race

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:48:20 GMT

As prizes go, this was a big one. In 1901, French oil tycoon and aviation patron Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe put up 100,000 francs (equivalent to more than $500,000 today) for the first airman who could fly a 7-mile circuit starting from a park in Paris, rounding the Eiffel Tower, then returning to...

You've Got (Balloon) Mail

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 03:21:53 GMT

In September 1870, not long after the start of the Franco-Prussian War, the city of Paris was under siege by Prussian soldiers. By the 19th, the German army had blocked all communication into or out of the city. There was nothing worse, wrote French journalist Francisque Sarcey, than to "live cut o...

200 Pounds of Silk

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 05:20:39 GMT

It wasn't the most dramatic flight of 1910, but it left an important legacy. Phil Parmelee, a pilot with the Wright exhibition team, took off from Dayton, Ohio, with 200 pounds of silk loaded into his Wright B Flyer, to be delivered to a merchant in Columbus. Dry goods salesman Max Morehouse paid t...

Pushing His Buttons

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:18:03 GMT

Alex Spencer, curator of British aircraft and military flight materiél at the National Air and Space Museum, started his career some 20 years ago as a lowly intern. One morning, as he was riding the shuttle out to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryl...

The Day(s) Nobody Flew

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:42:17 GMT

You hear it all the time, even from people who should know better: September 11, 2001 was the only time in history that all air traffic in the United States was halted.Wrong. Sigh.Air & Space researcher Roger Mola was the first to point out that it wasn't the first time. That distinction goes t...

Pégoud Flies Upside Down, 1913

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:08:51 GMT

French aviator Adolphe Pégoud ranks as one of the best and bravest pilots in history, and he knew how to wow a crowd. On this day in 1913 he introduced a trick that scared even other pioneers of flight—he flew upside down, for an audience at the Juvisy aerodrome outside Paris.A correspondent descri...

Gossamer Condor: The First Human-Powered Flight

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:18:00 GMT

It took 18 years for someone to claim the $100,000 prize offered by British industrialist Henry Kremer for the first sustained (mile-long) human-powered flight. On this day in 1977, the Gossamer Condor, built by Paul MacCready and flown by bicyclist/ hang-glider pilot Bryan Allen, won the challenge...

B-24 Understudy Fills Big Shoes

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:43:44 GMT

Just two weeks ago, the Commemorative Air Force returned its B-29 Superfortress, Fifi, to flight after six years of down time while the airplane was fitted with customized engines (maintainers had found metal shavings in the engine oil). The CAF planned to re-launch Fifi as the signature aircraft f...

Amelia Earhart's Irish Sojourn

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:01:27 GMT

On May 20, 1932 Amelia Earhart set off in her Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland intending to fly to Paris. Nearly 15 hours later, she landed in Robert Gallagher's cow pasture in Ballyarnott, in Derry, Northern Ireland, instead, thereby becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.Mrs. Gal...

Aviation's "It" Girl

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:38:47 GMT

Airplanes and The Movies came of age at the same time, and Harriet Quimby—best known as the first American woman to earn a pilot's license—had a keen interest in both. In fact, by the time she fatally crashed her Blériot XI on this day in 1912, there was little the adventure-loving 37-year-old hadn...

The World War II History of the Wright Military Flyer

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:35:16 GMT

The two-seat biplane looks somewhat flimsy. Sure, it was cutting-edge in 1909 when the Wrights demonstrated it for the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Fort Meyer. But how would it fare during World War II?Fortunately, the Wright Military Flyer never had to compete in any dogfights. But it did travel from...

The Battle of Britain Beacon

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:12:41 GMT

To mark this year's 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the Royal Air Force Museum has begun initial planning for a new exhibition building, tentatively called the Battle of Britain Beacon.The 350-foot-tall structure (taller than Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, and the United States Capitol...

Breaking the Sound Barrier: Yer Doin' It Wrong

Fri, 07 May 2010 04:35:20 GMT

Attention, turbojet-heads: Turner Classic Movies airs "The Sound Barrier" at 8 p.m. EST Friday, May 7. The 1952 film, directed by David Lean, plays fast and loose with aerodynamics and aviation history, but it offers fine footage of a de Havilland Comet and a Supermarine Swift interceptor, a number...

Give This Steco a Home

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:43:26 GMT

Dennis Eggert, president of the Minnesota Air & Space Museum, is in desperate need of storage space for a 1911 Steco Aerohydroplane. “God forbid if it comes to calling a trash truck or Dumpster,” he says, “but it’s got to be moved.” The aircraft had been disassembled and stored in various site...

Stealth: Flying Invisible

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:11:06 GMT

In March 1999, during the Kosovo War, as Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko piloted his F-117, he saw two missiles punch through the bottom of the clouds. The unbelievable had happened: A Serbian surface-to-air missile had locked on to his aircraft. Zelko was able to eject, and was rescued shortly after...

240,000-mile Filing Extension

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:56:57 GMT

"Dear Mr. Taxman: I'm sorry I missed the deadline. I was, uh, hmm, in a spaceship flying to the moon?"On the evening of April 15, 2010, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's John H. Glenn lecture series honored four legendary men of Apollo 13 on the 40th anniversary of their hair-raising ...

Not Your Average Seagull

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:32:41 GMT

On April 13, Bonhams auction house will offer a 1917 Curtiss MF "Seagull" Flying Boat for sale. The MF (which stands for "Modernised F-boat") was developed in 1917 from the original F model, a design the U.S. Navy had been using since 1912/1913. (The F model was the most successful of the pre-war C...

The Corsair in Zazzy Red Lipstick

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:16:55 GMT

A makeshift screen hung from a support rig that read “Three Tons.” Dave Morris, a curator from Britain’s Fleet Air Arm Museum, projected on it three slides: Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” a Ming vase, and a Chippendale end table. “What if these were yours?” he asked the audience at the National Ai...

Elinor Smith, 1911 - 2010

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:23:15 GMT

In 1928, Elinor Smith, at age 16, became the youngest pilot to earn a license, which was signed by Orville Wright. She made headlines later that year by flying under New York City’s four East River bridges. With Bobbi Trout as co-pilot, they became the first women aviators to refuel an airplane in ...

Wanna Be a Tuskegee Airman?

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:41:27 GMT

Or at least play one? Then keep an eye on the casting calls for George Lucas's next film, Red Tails, currently shooting in San Francisco.From a recent announcement: Beau Bonneau Casting in San Francisco is currently working on a George Lucas Film "Red Tails" starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrance...

Robert M. White, 1924 - 2010

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:50:50 GMT

Former World War II POW, Korean War veteran, and Air Force test pilot Bob White died on March 17, St. Patrick's Day. "The old Irishman went home at 11:55 last night," his son, Greg, wrote in an e-mail to relatives and friends this morning. Major General White retired from the Air Force in 1981 wit...

More Animals Aloft

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:53:07 GMT

You’re wandering through the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center when you notice the parachute. An extremely small parachute. This thing couldn’t keep Anne Morrow Lindbergh aloft. So who was it for? Turns out it was made for a lion cub named Gilmore, the pet of air racer and...

Space Toys

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:52:15 GMT

Space toys can be big business. In 2007, a toy Robby the Robot inspired by the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet was given a retail estimate of $4,500. But that's chump change compared to what Masudaya's Target Robot (right) went for at a recent auction at Dan Morphy—a whopping $52,900.True, the 15-in...

The First Supersonic Bail-Out

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:49:53 GMT

How does it feel to eject from an aircraft going nearly 800 miles per hour?Terrible.But test pilot George Smith managed to survive his harrowing ordeal on this day in 1955, after bailing out of an F-100A diving at Mach 1.05 toward the ocean. As recounted in TIME magazine months later, the 40-g dece...

The Capt. Marlon Green

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:15:37 GMT

When Marlon Green wanted a flying job with Continental Airlines more than 50 years ago, the company wouldn't give him the time of day. Now they've named an airplane after him.Green, who died last year at the age of 80, had to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court to get hired as the first Afric...

The First Jumbo Jet Passengers

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:43:25 GMT

Forty years ago today, Boeing's 747 Jumbo Jet made its commercial debut on Pan American's New York-to-London route.The flight didn't go exactly as advertised. The widebody's 352 passengers and 20 crew members sat on the runway for two hours, waiting to take off from Kennedy Airport, before Captain ...

"Latham Flies Into Clouds"

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:39:02 GMT

The early history of aviation wasn't just a matter of flying faster and farther, but higher, too. On this day 100 years ago, French aviator Hubert Latham flew an airplane above a kilometer altitude for the first time, breaking his own record by nearly 2,000 feet. He took off in his Antoinette from ...

Going Forward in James Cameron's Wayback Machine

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:06:12 GMT

The gunships in the movie Avatar surely were inspired by the Bell Aerospace Textron X-22A of the mid-1960s (below), one of the many iterations of mankind's unquenchable thirst for Vertical-Takeoff-and-Landing machines. Although the tails of Avatar's VTOLS were lifted from the Bell-Boeing V-22 Ospre...

The First Overhead Blimp Shot

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:27:19 GMT

ESPN's website has an interesting feature on the origins of the overhead stadium shot—first used in 1960. Or was it in 1959?

An Airplane in Antarctica in 1914

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:22:13 GMT

Archaeologists researching the 1911-14 Australian Antarctic Expedition have found pieces of the first airplane ever taken to a polar region. Details are at the project's blog.

The First Naval Aviator

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:34:26 GMT

On this day in 1910, Theodore "Spuds" Ellyson, a 25-year-old Navy Lieutenant from Richmond, Virginia, was ordered to report to Glenn Curtiss's flying school in San Diego as the first Naval officer assigned to aviation."What was accomplished is now history," Ellyson wrote later, "namely the develop...

An Artist in Metal

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:26:54 GMT

The latest Internet tsunami flooding e-mail boxes is the work of Young C. Park, who constructs magnificently intricate airplane models of aluminum. Several of his models are on display at the Craftsmanship Museum in Vista, California, which maintains a web version of the exhibit with photos of doze...

England to Australia in 1919

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:35:17 GMT

Speaking of the land down under, on this day in 1919 brothers Ross and Keith Smith landed their Vickers Vimy bomber in Port Darwin to claim a £10,000 prize as the first to fly from England to Australia in less than 30 days. The challenge had come from Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes, who sti...

Make Me a Supermodel

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:13:28 GMT

Bravo’s got nothing on THIS runway supermodel: Chicago’s Wright auction house, which specializes in contemporary design, will feature in its December 8 Important Design auction a cast aluminum wind tunnel model of a Douglas BTD Destroyer—along with a Mercedes 230SL convertible and a Czechoslovakian...

Ticket to Ride

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:16:57 GMT

The next time you book a flight online and print your own airline ticket, give a moment of thanks to IBM and American Airlines. If it weren’t for those two companies, we’d still be carving our tickets out of stone tablets.Commercial travel was so simple back in the 1920s. One airmail plane, one ava...

The Sub of All Fears

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:14:46 GMT

Workers at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory announced on November 12 that through the use of submersibles, they had located at 2,600 feet two Japanese submarines that the U.S. military had scuttled off Oahu in 1946 after post-war assessment. One, the I-14, was designed to carry two Aichi M6A...

Not Your Father's World War II Movie

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:33 GMT

Ready to experience World War II in "4-D"? Head over to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans for the opening of Tom Hanks' latest production, Beyond All Boundaries.The 35-minute film takes viewers from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day, and will be shown exclusively in the museum's newly expanded ...

Happy Birthday, Jane's!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:25:19 GMT

Remember the Dewoitine D 26, the single-seat, single-engine parasol fighter trainer? Wondering how many were ever built? Open your trusty Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, and you’ll learn that 11 were produced for the Swiss Air Force.Jane’s will also tell you the first flight of the Douglas B-66 De...

Boilerplate, the Mechanical Marvel

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:01:11 GMT

Remote-controlled drones are commonplace over today’s battlefields, playing an important role in U.S. air superiority. But one of the first military uses of a robot is almost completely forgotten—the story of “Boilerplate,” part of the U.S. Army’s 1st Aero Squadron. Wait—you've never heard of Boil...

The First U.S. Military Pilot

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:39:55 GMT

A hundred years ago today, the U.S. military got its first pilot. On October 26, 1909, Frederick E. Humphreys, a 26-year-old Lieutenant with the Army Signal Corps, soloed for the first time in a Wright Flyer at College Park, Maryland, under the watchful eye of no less an instructor than Wilbur Wrig...

Bad Hair Day

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:08:09 GMT

What was thought to be a lock of Amelia Earhart’s hair, on display at a Cleveland museum, is merely thread. In mid-September, the International Women’s Air and Space Museum included in its e-newsletter to IWASM members an explanation of the misunderstanding: Last week we reported that a sample of h...

The Brevity Thing

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:38:47 GMT

What do you write in your logbook after you've just piloted a rocketplane past the "sound barrier" for the first time? If you're Chuck Yeager, you keep it short: "#1 ok"That's the notation (then) Captain Yeager made in the Flight and Engineering Report for Bell XS-1 Ship #1 (serial no. 6062), aka "...

Richard Whitcomb (1921-2009)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:27:59 GMT

If Richard Whitcomb wasn't the most important aerospace engineer of the past 50 years, he was certainly on the short list. The veteran of NASA's Langley Research Center died on Tuesday at the age of 88. Read about his contributions to aeronautics here, or watch a NASA-produced video at this link.By...

Alfred Nobel's rocket camera

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:03:49 GMT

Alfred Nobel, the Swedish millionaire who originated the world's most prestigious science prizes, was also a compulsive tinkerer and filer of patents. Among the fields that caught his interest was rocketry, perhaps not surprising for the man who invented dynamite.Nobel wasn't the first to think of ...

Who broke the sound barrier?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:06:01 GMT

Was it really Chuck Yeager? Or did George Welch beat him to it? If so, it happened on this day in 1947.

Earhart's goggles go on the block

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:27:06 GMT

Normally, the folks at Profiles in History, based outside Los Angeles, auction off Hollywood memorabilia. On October 8-9, they'll sell what they're billing as "the single most important flight-worn aviation artifact to ever be offered at public auction"—the goggles worn by Amelia Earhart during her...

Weirdest Hangar Ever

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:01:06 GMT

We recently got an announcement that a ca.-1912 hang glider, modeled after an 1896 design by Wright-brother mentor Octave Chanute, had been installed in the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California. A 1912 Glider in the Pacific Design Center Design centers are sort of shopping malls f...

Accidental first

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:07:42 GMT

It's not absolutely certain when Blanche Stuart Scott became the first American woman to pilot an airplane (it may have been September 2, 1910, or September 4—Scott herself gave different dates). But either way, it was an accident.The 25-year-old Scott, who also went by the name of Betty, had won f...

New York to Nome in 1920

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:20:57 GMT

In the early days of aviation, any wilderness was a challenge for propeller-driven airplanes made of wood and fabric. And in 1920, there was hardly a territory more rugged and fraught with danger than Alaska.So it was that Billy Mitchell of the Army Air Service, who was always anxious to show off t...

The war to end all wars

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:05:18 GMT

Each year the ranks of surviving veterans of World War I—which began on this day 95 years ago—get thinner. Now just a handful are left. Henry Allingham, who joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a teenager in 1915, died on July 18 at the age of 113. He was the last British veteran of the war, and, ...

Primetime TV: Lindbergh vs. Earhart

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:03:59 GMT

It’s a tough call for prop-heads: Which do I watch? At 9 p.m. Monday, National Geographic airs “Secret Lives of Charles Lindbergh,” which notes the seven children he fathered with three German women. PBS counters with “History Detectives,” which evaluates the likelihood that a piece of an aircraft...

Recreating Blériot's Channel crossing

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:54:16 GMT

A hundred years ago, Louis Blériot made the first aerial crossing of the English channel. On Saturday, French Pilot Edmond Salis recreated the flight (see video here), followed a day later by Mikael Carlson of Sweden, who had tried to take off on the day of the centennial, but was grounded by Frenc...

Recreating Frank Tinker's 1937 dogfight

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:50:43 GMT

While a group of well-wishers recently marked the 100th birthday of Spanish Civil War pilot Frank Tinker, one aficionado took it a step further by simulating one of the American-born aviator's most famous victories, a shoot-down of a Messerschmitt Bf-109 in July 1937. See the video here:

Celebrating a Spanish Civil War hero

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:42:12 GMT

Frank Tinker, the Arkansas-born pilot who became the most famous American mercenary in the Spanish Civil War, will be honored on the centennial of his birth at a ceremony in De Witt, Arkansas, on July 11. The event is being organized by Tinker's niece, Marcia Tinker Morrison, and the Grand Prair...

Flight Over the Hudson

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:20:18 GMT

Wilbur Wright was a prudent man. Before flying over New York City’s harbor on the morning of September 29, 1909, Wright fastened a red canoe to the underside of his Model A biplane, figuring the canoe would transform the Model A into a makeshift floatplane should he need to make a water landing. Wr...

Coast-to-coast, dawn-to-dusk, in 1924

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:34:46 GMT

Lieutenant Russell Maughan, a Utah-born Army pilot, winner of the Distinguished Service Cross in World War I, and holder of the world aerial speed record in 1923, tried twice that year to become the first person to fly cross-country in a single day. Both times he failed, brought down by a clogged g...

Test pilots aren't as much fun as fighter pilots

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:54:32 GMT

...or so thought Gemini/Apollo astronaut (and former test pilot) Michael Collins, as quoted in the 1970 book, First on the Moon: I like fighter pilots. I really do. They're good guys. As a group, I like them better than I like any other group. They're very independent people. They're not just talke...

The day Amelia Earhart became famous

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:12:15 GMT

Nowadays, Amelia Earhart is remembered for her last, lost flight. But in her time, she was best known as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, an adventure that began on this day in 1928.Earhart wasn't the pilot, but a passenger. In the months after Lindbergh-mania hit America, publisher Geor...

Neil Armstrong's X-15 flight over Pasadena

Wed, 20 May 2009 07:27:26 GMT

In my last post on Neil Armstrong, I mistakenly repeated the fable that as a test pilot, Armstrong once looked out the window of his X-15 rocket plane just prior to landing, and saw the Rose Bowl instead of the Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base. Makes for good bar talk. But here's the truth...

Amy Johnson's excellent adventure

Tue, 05 May 2009 04:30:55 GMT

Reading the stories of early aviators always makes me shake my head with admiration. Consider, for example, Amy Johnson, who on this day in 1930, set out from Croydon, England, bent on becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia—which she did, in 19 days, alone in a de Havilland Gi...

Vietnam: Reconciliation II

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:14:43 GMT

Might Dan Cherry have a third career as an ambassador to Vietnam? The retired Air Force Brigadier General met the Vietnamese pilot he shot down in 1972 about a year ago. When Cherry returned home, he set about arranging for Hong My to visit the U.S. The two made presentations at the Sun & Fun f...

Former Foe Welcomes New Friend

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:04:17 GMT

The "Above & Beyond" department in our April/May issue chronicles the search by a retired Air Force Brigadier General for the Vietnamese pilot he shot down in 1972. After an emotional reunion, Dan Cherry arranged for Hong My and his son to come to the United States, where the two pilots will p...

George Lucas to film Tuskegee Airmen story

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:03:04 GMT

The director of Star Wars says he's been waiting 20 years to film the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American pilots who distinguished themselves in the skies over Europe during World War II. Now he'll get the chance. George Lucas's company, Lucasfilm, will begin shooting in Europe this ...

Spitfire Sees Wartime Service Again—A Bidding War

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:04:20 GMT

On April 20, put in your bid for a 1944 two-seat, airworthy Supermarine Spitfire at a Bonhams auction at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, Britain. Bonhams officials expect a sale price of $2.2 million.

Urban Legendinski

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:35:11 GMT

Photos of this Soviet behemoth, posing as a K-7 designed by Konstantin Kalinin, have been zinging around the Internet lately, eventually landing on the desktops of National Air and Space Museum curators. “If it’s on the Internet, it must be true,” goes the saying.No dice, says curator Von Hardesty,...

Across the South Atlantic in 1922

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:26:52 GMT

On this day in 1922, a pair of Portuguese aviators, Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, set off on the first flight across the southern Atlantic, from Lisbon to Recife, Brazil. They made it, but with plenty of down time for repairs and waiting on replacement aircraft. They finally finished the 5,100...

Voices of the Sky: Historic Sound Recordings

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:54:13 GMT

Cube life got you down? Download Voices of the Sky from Smithsonian Folkways and “tighten your safety belt, locate the nearest emergency exit, study the instructions for inflating your life jacket the courage—and the wattage—to turn up the sound to runway volume.”Besides offering terrific liner ...

Remembering an Early G-Man

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:22:05 GMT

Earl Wood, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic Aero Medical Unit who pioneered the study of G-forces on pilots in the early jet age, died on March 18 at the age of 97. The Mayo Clinic has a short sketch of his career and a documentary film in two parts.

An Earhart Souvenir?

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:13:03 GMT

This summer, the PBS History Detectives series will air an episode that investigates the provenance of a metal airplane part owned by a San Jose, California man. Jon Ott says his grandfather recovered the part from Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E after she dragged a wing on the ground during ...

Giving the WASPs their due

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:35:25 GMT

You don’t see much bipartisanship in Washington these days, but yesterday all 17 female members of the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike, introduced a bill (S. 614) to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. The medal, previously given to groups...

False start

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:20:09 GMT

Aerospatiale's Concorde made its maiden flight 40 years ago this week, a half-hour hop out of Toulouse-Blagnac Airport on March 2, 1969.What heady days those were for aviation and space. Not a month earlier, the Boeing 747 had made its first flight. And a month and a half prior to that, the Saturn ...

The first solo flight

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:29:13 GMT

Wondering who wrote the first description of flying over a landscape, I came across this charming passage by Jacques Charles, French scientist and inventor of the hydrogen balloon. Charles wasn't the first to fly—that honor goes to Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, who fle...

Viewport: A Lesson from the Civil War

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Above and Beyond

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Mission: Cuba. Status: Top secret.

The 1907 Gordon Bennett Race—In Stereo!

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

3-D photos of early balloons and aero meets, from the Smithsonian vaults.

Nineteen Eighty Six

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

The year we were born.

Stealing the Wright Flyer

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:38:00 GMT

Back in 1951, sci-fi author Jack Finney had a few questions for the Smithsonian, like: How exactly would someone break in?

In the Museum

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Paul Garber: Eyewitness to History

Viewport: The Great Collector

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:50:34 GMT

Paul Garber: Eyewitness to History

The Power of 25

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Think of it as a crash course in aeronautical trivia.

What Were They Doing at 25?

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Some were already heroes. Others were nowhere near where you would have expected them to be.

Biplanes and Us

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

25 years later, it's a complicated relationship.

Project Equine

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

...And the high-tech horse it rode in on.

Moments and Milestones: Now, That’s Good Mileage

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

...And the high-tech horse it rode in on.

Under the Hood of a Wright Flyer

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:26:23 GMT

Aviation historians and restorers get a rare peek at a 98-year-old engine.

In the Museum: Lindbergh for Sale

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:32 GMT

Stanley King's memorabilia collection.

The Road to the Future… Is Paved With Good Inventions

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:36:28 GMT

We bring you 10 great ideas that made flying safer, easier, or just a whole lot more fun.

Moments and Milestones: Can You Hear Me Now?

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:00:00 GMT

When radio communication took to the air.

Above and Beyond: Aunt Mildred

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:00:00 GMT

A race across the Pacific.

Oldies and Oddities: Buying the Farmhouse

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Adventures in Navy ballooning.

Reel Aviation

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 09:00:00 GMT

Newsreels brought the excitement of aviation to millions of moviegoers in the 1930s. Now read the lost scripts.

A Glimpse of Things to Come

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:27:13 GMT

A hundred years ago, the International Air Meet gave spectators a look into the future.

The Airplanes of James Bond

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:57:50 GMT

After 46 hours watching all 22 films, our list numbers more than 150.

What the Red Baron Never Knew

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:51:25 GMT

Computer analysis of World War I aircraft shows precisely why some were deadly and others, death traps.

The Few, the Brave, the Lucky

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:31:30 GMT

To face the enemy in World War I, pilots first had to survive flight training.

Interview: Steve Craig

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:17 GMT

Proud owner of the last flying Wildcat

We Represented All Women

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:55:51 GMT

During World War II, WASPs proved that an airplane couldn’t tell the difference between a male and female pilot.

The Bear Is Back

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:32:50 GMT

The winning-est Bearcat in air racing steps up once more to the starting gate.

Flying Tigercats: And Then There Were Five

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:51:10 GMT

A couple of strays join the prowl, and the world’s supply of flyable Grumman F7Fs increases by two-thirds.

The Thin Aluminum Line

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:28:45 GMT

Supersonic airplanes and a screen of radar stood ready during the cold war to avert the end of the world.

Then & Now

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:28:49 GMT

No More New Orleans Cover-up

A & S Interview: Joe Sutter

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:29:31 GMT

The "Father of the 747" talks about the famed airliner's birth.

The Smithsonian Survival Guide

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:43:27 GMT

Tales of downed pilots led to one of the Institution's most important contributions to World War II.

Best of the Battle of Britain

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:47:20 GMT

In this corner, the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire; across the ring, the Hawker Hurricane. Which is the more valuable restoration?

Restoration: That Big Biplane

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:34:24 GMT

"That Big Biplane" | 1929 Zenith Z6A

Lake Murray's Mitchell

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:27:31 GMT

For a B-25, it was a short flight and a 62-year layover.

Restoration: Fleet Model 8

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:50:23 GMT

Three brothers, an inspiring teacher, and the airplane in the barn.

Replicating Reims

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:22:53 GMT

A virtual race to mark the 100th anniversary of the world’s first air meet

Racing Planes of Fame

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:13:14 GMT

A visit to the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California is a tour through the history of air racing.

Ed Maloney's Mission

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:44:27 GMT

The man behind, beside, and all over, the Planes of Fame Air Museum.

The Elusive Dream

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:45:25 GMT

The Minijet, the Weejet, and other good ideas that went nowhere.

Accidental Classic

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:47:17 GMT

From the designers who brought you the P-51 Mustang, an airplane with a complicated past…and a controversial present.

Lighter Than Air

Wed, 20 May 2009 07:36:48 GMT

An illustrated history of balloons and airships.

China’s First Lady of Flight

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:20:43 GMT

In an era when Chinese women weren’t allowed to drive cars, Lee Ya-Ching flew the globe.

And Then There Was One

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:32:28 GMT

Ten airplanes that are the last still flying.

Last Breath

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:31:59 GMT

As NASA prepares to shut down a historic wind tunnel in Virginia, some hope for a stay of execution.

Goodbye, Silas Hicks

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:44:24 GMT

Charlie Kulp bids farewell to his alter ego, the "Flying Farmer."

Aviation's Jackie Robinson

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:20 GMT

It took a Supreme Court decision, but in 1963 Marlon Green finally broke into the majors.

Glacier Girl, Interrupted

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:29:29 GMT

Sixty-five years after its first attempt, the restored Lightning should finally reach England next year.

The Father of Chinese Aviation

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:47:01 GMT

Feng Ru made history on the California coast, then introduced airplanes to his native land.

The One-Dollar Pietenpol

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:55:56 GMT

Some airplanes, like some friendships, improve with age.

A Quarter Century of "Black Wings"

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:24 GMT

A talk with the curator of the National Air and Space Museum's soon-to-be-updated exhibit on African-Americans in aviation.

Curtiss on Curtiss

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:44:00 GMT

The aviation pioneer chronicled his life and work in a once rare (but now freely downloadable) 1912 book.

America the Cruisable

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:45:54 GMT

The seaplane Glenn Curtiss designed in 1914 may have had trouble on the ocean, but its reproduction is delighting a whole town on a lake.

Cat's Eyes

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:17:45 GMT

John Cunningham's wartime nickname concealed a vital military secret—the invention of airborne radar.

Across the Divide in 1911

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:43:52 GMT

A new biography details the exploits of teenage aviation pioneer Cromwell Dixon.

Coanda’s Claim

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:15:35 GMT

The story of a jet flight in 1910, just seven years after Kitty Hawk, may be too good to be true.

Above and Beyond: My Enemy, My Friend

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:16:53 GMT

Dan Cherry and Hong My met in the skies over North Vietnam in 1972, then again 36 years later.

Case Closed

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Mysteries solved, secrets revealed, and questions finally answered.

The Things It Carried

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:26:25 GMT

How an unremarkable Convair C-131H transported cops, patients, prisoners, and Gerald Ford.

Oldies & Oddities: The Bonneville Jet Wars

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:25:58 GMT

A California hot-rodder took on the feuding Arfons brothers in the 1960s.

Airplanes that Transformed Aviation

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:31:04 GMT

Sixteen historic designs that changed the game.

Portrait of the Enemy

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:01:50 GMT

Photographs taken from the world’s first warplanes changed the course of battle.

The Book of Hours

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:32:51 GMT

A peek into the logbooks of history’s notable pilots.

Amelia's Astronaut Connection

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:50:51 GMT

The grandson of Amelia Earhart's photographer will carry her scarf higher than she ever did—into orbit.

Bush Flying in Alaska

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 08:30:00 GMT

The former territory’s first pilots didn’t let snow, ice, and a lack of runways stop them from building a new industry.

That Old-Time Profession

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:31:04 GMT

The airplanes are faster and the power lines more plentiful, but cropdusters fly today just as they did in the 1920s.

Aircraft That Changed the World

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:21:04 GMT

We fearlessly (or foolishly) pick 10.

The Daring Mr. Moisant

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:30:00 GMT

The most celebrated American aviator of 1910 took up flying as an act of revenge.

Too Hot to Handle: McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:09:46 GMT

Man cannot zoom by blended wing alone; he must have an engine that, well, works.

The Great Escape

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

For U.S. airmen trapped in Yugoslavia during World War II, building a secret airstrip was their only way out.

Then and Now: From Airships to Waterslides

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

The world's largest free-standing building gets a second lease on life.

In the Museum: Flying Outside the Boundaries

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

The world's largest free-standing building gets a second lease on life.

Viewport: Our Family Albums

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

The world's largest free-standing building gets a second lease on life.

Flying Bathtubs Sell Like Hotcakes

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The nation's first mass-produced lightplane started as a homely, humble homebuilt.

Moments and Milestones: Travel Air’s Mystery Ship

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The nation's first mass-produced lightplane started as a homely, humble homebuilt.

Above and Beyond: The Oldest Powered Flying Machine?

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The nation's first mass-produced lightplane started as a homely, humble homebuilt.

Viewport: Conquering the Unknown

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The nation's first mass-produced lightplane started as a homely, humble homebuilt.

Checking In...

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

...on the Missing Persons File

The 727 that Vanished

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A case pursued by the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security, CENTCOM, and the sister of Ben Padilla.

One More For The Checklist

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

For some pilots, a good-luck charm is standard equipment.

Cause Unknown

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

What brought down these five airplanes?

The Curious Case of Edgar Mix

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The celebrated aeronaut found Earth-bound life difficult to navigate.

Brooklyn’s Jewel

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A National Park Service project reclaims aviation history.

The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack (1943)

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:16:05 GMT

In comic strip form, Smilin’ Jack’s appearance was modeled on that of barnstormer and air racing star Roscoe Turner, three-time winner of the Thompson Trophy. The movie serial went bland and blond with actor Tom Brown, who would later have a recurring role as a rancher on television’s “Gunsmoke.” This 1943 serial featured the lovely Marjorie Lord, Keye Luke (better known as Charlie Chan’s Number One son and for his recurring role in the TV series “Kung Fu”), Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan), and Turhan Bey (Bey was in several serials; his “exotic” looks doomed him always to play the heavy). Watch the other chapters of The Adventures of Smilin' Jack at the Internet Archive.

Danger Flight (1939)

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:28:13 GMT

"Tailspin Tommy" first appeared as a comic strip shortly after Charles Lindbergh’s epic 1927 flight across the Atlantic. Tommy was such a popular character that he soon branched out into books, radio, and several different movies. While the original serial was released in 1934, this one-hour short shows the youthful aviator was still popular with audiences in 1939. Actor John Trent made at least four Tailspin Tommy movies; here he shares the screen with Marjorie Reynolds, who would later star in the television comedy “The Life of Riley.”

Thrills! Chills! Mystery in the Air!

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

In the 1930s and ’40s, heroic pilots engaged enemy aircraft — every Saturday morning.

Ace Drummond (1936)

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 05:47:23 GMT

The title of this Universal release comes from the comic strip of the same name, which was loosely based on the exploits of World War I ace Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, "the inspiration of youthful airmen the world over." The legendary pilot was much in the public eye in the 1930s, having joined Eastern Air Lines in 1934. In this 13-part serial, Drummond is portrayed by big band singer John King, who has an unnerving habit of bursting into song while bystanders look on adoringly. Watch the other chapters of Ace Drummond at the Internet Archive.

Oldies and Oddities:He Shot California

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Moments and Milestones: Birth of the Clippers

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Viewport:The Muse in Museum

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Above It All

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:36:28 GMT

It took a maze of valves and venturis—and a trio of tycoons—to whisk passengers into the stratosphere.

Glacier Girl: The Back Story

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:36:35 GMT

How it got trapped in the ice, and how it got out.

In Search of the Real Wright Flyer

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:13 GMT

Building a replica of the first airplane requires a certain resourcefulness. Anybody got any horsehide glue?

I Have Today Seen Wilbur Wright and his Great White Bird

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:26 GMT

The airplane debuted to rave reviews.

Moments & Milestones: The Greatest Great Circle

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:39:58 GMT

The airplane debuted to rave reviews.

The Classic Wagon

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:23:39 GMT

Why families still travel in Wacos.

Above and Beyond: Cornwell’s Folly

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:23:29 GMT

Why families still travel in Wacos.

Moments and Milestones: Perfecting the People Filter

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:26:17 GMT

Why families still travel in Wacos.

In the Museum: Life Among the Savidges

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:23:33 GMT

Why families still travel in Wacos.

Oldies and Oddities: Blown Away

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:32:51 GMT

Why families still travel in Wacos.

Can This P-38 Be Saved?

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:32:52 GMT

Lockheed P-38 Lightnings brought many a pilot home. This pilot would like to return the favor.

Oldies and Oddities: Where Do Ailerons Come From?

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:37:02 GMT

Lockheed P-38 Lightnings brought many a pilot home. This pilot would like to return the favor.

Silver Bullet

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:38 GMT

No airplane in the world could outshine Howard Hughes' H-1 Racer--until Jim Wright built a copy of it.

Howard Hughes' Top Ten

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:55 GMT

Wealthy beyond measure and weird beyond belief, Howard Hughes was an aerospace leviathan.

Restoration: Delightfully de Havilland

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:00 GMT

The last flying D.H.89 Dragon Rapide in the United States.

Fork-tailed Devils and Flying Shoes

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:20:35 GMT

What does the Northrop P-61 have in common with Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne?

Flights & Fancy: The Western Canadian Ramjet Co.

Tue, 27 May 2008 08:14:47 GMT

What does the Northrop P-61 have in common with Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne?

Oldies & Oddities: Body by Erco

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:49:35 GMT

What does the Northrop P-61 have in common with Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne?

The Magician of Mojave

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:19:55 GMT

Burt Rutan remembers the birth of the VariEze and names his favorite aircraft.

Moments & Milestones: The Hungry City

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:16:53 GMT

Burt Rutan remembers the birth of the VariEze and names his favorite aircraft.

In the Museum: A Wright Relic Surfaces

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:16:56 GMT

Burt Rutan remembers the birth of the VariEze and names his favorite aircraft.

Head Skunk

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:29:00 GMT

Kelly Johnson was a giant in aircraft design. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, we find out how his legend grew.

The Other Harlem

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:56:12 GMT

In 1930s Chicago, at the corner of 87th Street and Harlem Avenue, Cornelius Coffey made aviation history.

Oldies and Oddities: Tinseltown’s Training Base

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:34:53 GMT

In 1930s Chicago, at the corner of 87th Street and Harlem Avenue, Cornelius Coffey made aviation history.

Restoration: Connecticut's State Warbird

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:33:51 GMT

What World War II fighter was a product of the Nutmeg State?

Thanks For the Memories

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:36 GMT

Air crews recall their service as roadies for Bob Hope's USO show.

The Big Race of 1910

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:37 GMT

How the first U.S. air race launched an aviation tradition.

The Do-Everything Bomber

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:39 GMT

With its bid to replace the Convair B-36 bomber, did Douglas promise too much?

A&S Interview: Joe Chappell

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:49:48 GMT

Flight Engineer for Air Force One.

Moments-Milestones Old Faithful

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:58:14 GMT

Flight Engineer for Air Force One.

Pack Man

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:00:37 GMT

Charles Broadwick invented a new way of falling.

The Pride of Cherry Grove

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:56:04 GMT

With little more than Bernard Pietenpol's plans, anybody could build an airplane.

Simply the Best

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:48:56 GMT

Is there an airshow fan alive who doesn't know the legend riding beneath that hat?

Flights and Fancy: It Started off Bad and Went Downhill

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:56:22 GMT

Is there an airshow fan alive who doesn't know the legend riding beneath that hat?

Restoration: Kentucky Panther

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:36 GMT

Grumman's first jet honors a son of the Bluegrass State.

Slim and Bud

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:37 GMT

Meet Charles Lindbergh the barnstormer—as he interviews his oldest flying buddy.

In The Museum: The Thursday Regulars

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:09:36 GMT

Meet Charles Lindbergh the barnstormer—as he interviews his oldest flying buddy.

Ode on a Canadian Warbird

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:18:08 GMT

The author remembers childhood, with round engines.

The War Between the Wars

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:41:34 GMT

In the skies over Spain, pilots and airplanes rehearsed for World War II.

Oldies and Oddities: The Disney War Plan

Wed, 20 May 2009 03:53:00 GMT

In the skies over Spain, pilots and airplanes rehearsed for World War II.

In The Museum: Fashion Lighter Than Air

Wed, 20 May 2009 03:53:01 GMT

In the skies over Spain, pilots and airplanes rehearsed for World War II.

Then & Now: Under Stress

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:16:54 GMT

In the skies over Spain, pilots and airplanes rehearsed for World War II.

Zoom Shot

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:16:54 GMT

One day in L.A., a helicopter changed television news forever.

Restoration: Beech Staggerwing

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:16:53 GMT

A true story with an O.Henry ending.

Woe Canada

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:25:05 GMT

The only thing that kept Canada from beating the U.S. to a jet airliner was Canada.

Above & Beyond: Shooting Up a Shooting Star

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:23:35 GMT

There's more than one way to dump extra fuel before landing.

Bring Back the Brute

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:25:34 GMT

A GeeBee racer in flyable condition? Don’t do it.

Then & Now: A Weighty Matter

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:20:44 GMT

A GeeBee racer in flyable condition? Don’t do it.

A&S Interview: Georgy Mosolov

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:48:19 GMT

A top Soviet-era test pilot talks about his favorite MiGs and his friend Yuri Gagarin.

The Black Eagle of Harlem

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:47:15 GMT

The truth behind the tall tales of Hubert Fauntleroy Julian.

A&S Interview: John H. Hill

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:17:27 GMT

A brief history of airline passenger seats

You’ve Got Mailplanes

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:45:25 GMT

Square-tail Stearmans, straight-wing Wacos, and Hisso Jennies top the roster of antique airplanes at a captivating grass strip in Iowa.

Sightings

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:45:39 GMT

Square-tail Stearmans, straight-wing Wacos, and Hisso Jennies top the roster of antique airplanes at a captivating grass strip in Iowa.

Present at Creation

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:46:45 GMT

From five witnesses came a family tradition to honor the moment the airplane was born.

Above & Beyond: The Village of Tempelhof

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:09:27 GMT

From five witnesses came a family tradition to honor the moment the airplane was born.

Moments & Milestones: The First “A” in NASA

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:13:51 GMT

From five witnesses came a family tradition to honor the moment the airplane was born.

Crash Course

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:21:47 GMT

Finding an airplane to deliver the mail should have been easy.

A Flying Success

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:34:09 GMT

For an entire week in 1938, the country celebrated airmail.

The Image Maker

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:42:17 GMT

During the 1920s, photographer Nathaniel Dewell produced iconic portraits of airmail’s finest.

No Longer Afraid of the Dark

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:30:31 GMT

The civil engineering project that got the airmail through the night.

The Father of Airmail Looks Back

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:37:06 GMT

On the 20th anniversary of airmail service, three key players recalled the early days.

The Great Race

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:30:43 GMT

When the Air Mail Service decided to establish a route between New York City and Chicago, two pilots competed to fly it first.

Then & Now: Wash Day

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:54:34 GMT

When the Air Mail Service decided to establish a route between New York City and Chicago, two pilots competed to fly it first.

Moments & Milestones: Hits and Missiles

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:24:07 GMT

Produced in cooperation with the National Aeronautic Association

The Route: Rock Springs to Reno

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:28:57 GMT

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

The Route: North Platte to Rock Springs

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:04:55 GMT

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

The Route: Iowa City to North Platte

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:50:21 GMT

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

The Route: Cleveland to Iowa City

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:26:53 GMT

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

The Route: Long Island to Cleveland

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:14:10 GMT

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Crossing the Alleghenies in 1919

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:18:56 GMT

The man who saved the airmail describes “Hell Stretch.”

Then & Now: Hard Hat Zone

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:15:40 GMT

The man who saved the airmail describes “Hell Stretch.”

Slim Lewis Slept Here

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:20:14 GMT

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, had one brief, shining moment when airmail pilots used it as a stopover. Then they went away, leaving only memories.

Mach 1: Assaulting the Barrier

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:37:13 GMT

In 1947, no airplane had ever gone faster than the speed of sound.

The Two Memphis Belles

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:50:29 GMT

The romance behind the famous B-17’s name.

The Burnelli Controversy

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:19:39 GMT

Was this designer a genius or his own worst enemy?

Dash 80

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:20:28 GMT

The story of the prototype 707.

The Schneider Trophy

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:14:04 GMT

It began as the prize for a seaplane race. It ended as the symbol of a contest among nations that foreshadowed war.

In the Museum: Predators and Dragons

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:45:31 GMT

Stops on a tour through america's hangar

Above & Beyond: The Bridge that Did Not Fall

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:45:57 GMT

Memorable flights and other adventures

It's Never Too Late to Take That First Flight

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:32:35 GMT

My grandmother loved her first and only airplane ride.

How They Trained

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:32:41 GMT

Rare archival footage shows Army pilots learning to fly Jennies in 1917.

Stowaways

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:41:07 GMT

The strange things restorers find in old aircraft.

Moments & Milestones: The Phantom at 50

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:28:27 GMT

Producted in Cooperation with the National Aeronautic Association.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Aeroplane!

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:27:14 GMT

In 1910, showmen flew death-defying stunts in Wright airplanes. Sometimes, death won.

Moments & Milestones: The Unknown Aeronaut

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:13:52 GMT

In 1910, showmen flew death-defying stunts in Wright airplanes. Sometimes, death won.

Sleeping Beauty

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:50:53 GMT

A last, longing look at the Concorde.

The Need for Speed

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:39:31 GMT

How six X-planes took aviation to 7,000 mph.

The Soplata Airplane Sanctuary

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:40:36 GMT

Of the 20 stray aircraft his father rescued, the author remembers that first bomber best.

Make Your Own X-15

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:40:50 GMT

Download and build your own paper model.

X-15 Walkaround

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:41:25 GMT

A short guide to the fastest airplane ever.

Why We Miss the X-15

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:19:00 GMT

Not only was it the fastest. It may have been the best flight research program ever.

The Country Where Nobody Flies

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:06:09 GMT

Did Cuba abandon its private pilots or did they abandon Cuba?

Book Excerpt: "On Cuban Wings"

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:36:44 GMT

Chronicling the island's rich aviation history

Popularity Contest

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:36:53 GMT

Which one of six past champions would have gotten your vote?

An Airplane in Every Barn

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:37:15 GMT

A once-thriving organization of rural pilots is struggling to survive.

X-15: The Hollywood Version

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:12:53 GMT

Charles Bronson starred. The Pentagon had a few minor corrections.

Think You Know Amelia?

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:35:05 GMT

Take our Earhart quiz and find out.

Hunting Zeros

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:35:13 GMT

Finding an airworthy Zero is not easy these days. In fact, you can count them on one hand.

Operation Highjump

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:35:18 GMT

A year after World War II ended, the U.S. Navy mounted a massive-though hastily planned-mission to the bottom of the world.

An American Obsession

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:07:11 GMT

When she vanished-70 years ago this July-she was as big a star as Greta Garbo. Is that why some are still driven to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart?

Buried at the Bottom of the World

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:36:13 GMT

When people die serving their country, to what lengths must a government go to recover the bodies?

Lunch With Willard

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:29 GMT

How a meeting 50 years ago solved a photographic mystery.

The G Machine

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:38 GMT

Riding an Atlas into space was a piece of cake compared to pulling 32 Gs on the Johnsville centrifuge.

300,000 Airplanes

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:52 GMT

Individual effort and mass production are equally represented in a new book celebrating World War II aircraft factories.

That Extra Little Lift

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:33:55 GMT

Willard Custer's Channel Wing looked like a mistake. Turns out his critics were the ones who were wrong.

Cecil Lewis' War

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:24:58 GMT

One writer's view of flying in WWI.

Above & Beyond: A Bougainville Mystery

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:25:25 GMT

One writer's view of flying in WWI.

In the Museum: The Spirit of Santos-Dumont

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:25:31 GMT

The Spirit of Santos-Dumont

Flyboy: David Ellison Takes Off

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:26:05 GMT

In his new film, the actor-pilot gets to combine his two loves.

The Grumman Cats

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:20:55 GMT

Just under nine lives that created a company legend.

Show Me the Way to Go Home

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:22 GMT

Long before the Global Positioning System, pilots got from town to town by reading rooftops.

Where the War Began

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:27 GMT

A new aviation museum preserves Pearl Harbor's past.

Nikola Tesla's Curious Contrivance

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:43 GMT

"You should not be at all surprised if someday you see me fly from New York to Colorado Springs in a contrivance which will resemble a gas stove and weigh almost as much." Nikola Tesla, 1913

Cessna's Golden Oldie

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:47 GMT

What flies into your mind when you hear the words "light aircraft"? We bet it's the 172.

In the Museum: High Flier

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:51 GMT

Restoring the Northrop YP-61 Black Widow

At the Movies: Take Two

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:53 GMT

World War I airplanes star in a feature film about the Lafayette Escadrille.

Glenn Curtiss Slept Here

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:21:55 GMT

Has Hammondsport, New York, done right by its most famous citizen?

Beautiful Climber

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:22:00 GMT

In the summer of '58, nothing was faster to 50,000 feet.

Le Airshow

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:22:46 GMT

Where can you see a a formation of World War I fighters, a Mirage 2000, and a Junkers Ju 52 all on the same day?

Orchestrated Hell

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:22:43 GMT

In 1943, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow took his radio audience along on a RAF bombing mission to Berlin.

Speed Freak

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:22:17 GMT

In the 1950s, the Mach 2+ B-58 Hustler seemed a safe bet to win the arms race.

A Full Retaliatory Response

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:29 GMT

When President John Kennedy contemplated nuclear war, what went through the minds of the U.S. bomber crews?

Planes, Trains, and Waterfalls

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:54 GMT

A South African company revives a 1950s airliner and the lost art of elegant travel.

The Short, Happy Life of the Prop-fan

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:56 GMT

Meet the engine that became embroiled in round one of Boeing v. Airbus, a fight fueled by the cost of oil.

The Century Series: F-100

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:22:09 GMT

A portrait of the F-100 Super Sabre in action during the Vietnam War.

Despots Aloft

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:20:12 GMT

To the three most infamous dictators of the 20th century, the airplane was much more than a way to get from Stalag A to Gulag B.

In the Museum: Buck Rogers in the 21st Century

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:05:04 GMT

The reality of spaceflight is tangible; a spacecraft or flight spare enables us to preserve the technology involved in a Mars landing so that future generations can understand how it was done. But how do you preserve a "sensation" so that future generations will appreciate its impact on society?

The People and Planes of Anoka County

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:20:20 GMT

Denizens of a small Minnesota airport: bombers, ones-of-a-kind, T-6s, Cubs, a 1938 Stinson SR10 once owned by the governor of Pennsylvania, and a veritable hive of homebuilders.

Vintage Charmers

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:47 GMT

Visit Mountain Valley Airport and soar with the wood-and-fabric fans of the Vintage Sailplane Association.

Save the Mentor!

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:20:21 GMT

T-34 owners are the latest to prove the value of good old-fashioned American ingenuity.

The Mystery of the Lost Clipper

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:59 GMT

The Civil Aeronautics Board and the FBI abandoned the case 47 years ago, but two amateur detectives are still searching for the cause of the crash of Pan Am 944.

50 Years of Hercules

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:00 GMT

As utilitarian as a bucket and just as plain, Lockheed's C-130 has flown almost everything to almost everywhere.

Contact

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:58 GMT

Tales from the era when the Air Age met the Stone Age.

Crown Jewels

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:58 GMT

What gives the restored warbirds of the Flying Heritage Collection their sparkle?

Lockheed Electra 10A

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:03 GMT

The New England Air Museum discovers the power of Lockheed's 10.

The WoW Factor

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:03 GMT

The place to go for the world's best warbird-watching? Warbirds over Wanaka, New Zealand.

Origin of the Species

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:08 GMT

We want speed! We want vertical lift! The Bell XV-3 Tilt-rotor was the first to satisfy all aeronautical tastes.

Alpine Air

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:14 GMT

The only thing more durable than these Junkers Ju 52s are the mountains over which they now fly sightseers.

Glacier Girl

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:16 GMT

The Lockheed P-38 saved from an icy tomb is now the star attraction in a previously quiet Kentucky town.

Reflecting the Glow of Flight's Golden Age

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:20 GMT

Page through these vintage magazine covers and return to a time when the world was vast and air travel was grand.

French Lessons

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:19:22 GMT

With their own country occupied by Germany, French air cadets came to Alabama to learn to fly. Vive la Dixie!

God Save the Vulcan!

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:48 GMT

The Royal Air Force Vulcan, immense cold war bomber and aerodynamic marvel, has been sentenced to permanent museum exhibition.

100 years on

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:51 GMT

Magazine Within a Magazine. Celebrating 200 Years of Flight

Diamonds in the Wreck

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:18:21 GMT

Riches to rags and back again: A 1928 mailplane is reborn.