When Lindbergh Tested His Spirit of St. Louis
Recently discovered photos of the Spirit of St. Louis test flights shed light on the “Lone Eagle’s” preparations for his celebrated transatlantic flight.
Forgotten Casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis
How the shootdown of a U-2 spyplane over Cuba by a Soviet surface-to-air missile nearly led to nuclear war
Thunderbolt Top Ace Contender in the Pacific War
Colonel Neel Kearby was among the top scorers in the Pacific when he pushed his luck too far while chasing Eddie Rickenbacker’s record.
Voyager’s Nonstop Around-the-World Adventure
On a flight fraught with peril, two pilots circumnavigated the globe in a spindly twin-boom airplane with only the fuel they carried on takeoff.
Last Sabrejet Ace of the Korean War
Hank Buttelmann was the U.S. Air Force’s youngest and last ace of the Korean War.
Hans-Ulrich Rudel: Eagle of the Eastern Front
Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Germany’s most highly decorated combat pilot, only shot down nine enemy aircraft, but he destroyed the equivalent of more than three Soviet tank corps
An Air Force Pilot Flies Navy
Ron Williams remembers his temporary duty assignment flying douglas A-3B “Whales” from a carrier as the most challenging two years of his career
The Man Who Almost Beat the Wrights Into the Air
More than 100 years ago, Samuel Langley's team of specialists from the Smithsonian Institution proved to a small group of astonished observers that powered flight was possible. But they still had to prove that their Aerodrome could safely carry a man into the sky.
