Aviation history and storytelling with Taildragger. Warbird restorations, legendary pilots, famous flights, and the stories that shaped aviation from the Wright Brothers to the Space Shuttle.
On December 23, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first nonstop unrefueled circumnavigation of Earth in Voyager, covering 26,366 miles in 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds.
Frank Luke Jr. destroyed 18 enemy targets in 17 days of combat over the Meuse-Argonne in 1918, becoming America's most lethal aviator of the Great War before dying at 21.
On April 16, 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel - alone, by compass, through fog - a landmark aviation achievement buried by Titanic headlines.
Ormer Locklear invented wing walking in 1917 at Barron Field, Texas, and died on camera in 1920 when Hollywood floodlights caused fatal spatial disorientation.
In 1928, Canadian bush pilot Punch Dickins flew 4,000 miles over unmapped northern Canada in a Fokker Super Universal on floats, opening the Arctic to aviation.
The de Havilland Mosquito was a twin-engine wooden aircraft twice rejected by the Air Ministry that became one of WWII's most versatile and devastating combat aircraft.
A Douglas SBD Dauntless raised from Lake Michigan's floor is now restored at the National Museum of Naval Aviation - the aircraft that turned Midway.
On August 16, 1942, Navy blimp L-8 returned from a Pacific patrol with engines running and no crew - a mystery that has never been solved.
On July 23, 1983, a unit conversion error left Air Canada Flight 143 without fuel at 41,000 feet - and two pilots deadstick-landed a Boeing 767 on an occupied Manitoba drag strip with no fatalities.
The Memphis Belle completed 25 WWII combat missions without losing a crewman, then spent decades deteriorating outdoors before a full restoration at Dayton's air museum unveiled her on the 75th anniversary of her last flight.
The Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew over 23,000 combat sorties in obsolete biplanes, earning the name 'Night Witches' from a terrified Wehrmacht.
The F4U Corsair was rejected by the U.S. Navy for carrier operations yet became the Pacific War's most feared fighter, known to Japanese pilots as 'Whistling Death.'
Cal Rodgers completed the first coast-to-coast flight in American history on December 10, 1911, crossing 4,300 miles in 84 days aboard a 35-horsepower biplane.
On May 20–21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew solo nonstop from New York to Paris in 33 hours, 30 minutes, 29 seconds - and permanently changed what the world believed aviation could do.
Doc, serial 44-69972, is one of only two airworthy B-29 Superfortresses in the world - rebuilt in Wichita through 350,000 volunteer hours after decades abandoned in the Mojave Desert.
Harold Gillam flew Alaska's worst weather for a decade without losing a passenger - until January 5, 1943, when the conditions finally caught him.
How Ivan Gates turned post-WWI barnstorming chaos into a professional touring show that introduced over one million Americans to flight.
Jimmy Angel discovered the world's highest waterfall from a small monoplane, then made history with a 1937 forced landing that stranded his aircraft on top of Devil's Mountain for 33 years.
On September 24, 1929, Jimmy Doolittle flew a 15-minute fully blind flight at Mitchel Field - the demonstration that gave aviation the instrument approach system still in use today.
On November 21, 1783, Pilâtre de Rozier and d'Arlandes became the first humans to fly, covering five miles over Paris in a Montgolfier balloon.