The Vought F4U Corsair, the Bent-Wing Bird They Called Whistling Death and Why That Gull Wing Was an Accident of Geometry
The F4U Corsair's iconic gull wing wasn't styling - it was geometry solving a 13-foot propeller problem. Here's the full story.
The Hangar
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.
The XB-70 Valkyrie, the Six-Engine Mach Three Bomber That Folded Its Wingtips in Flight and Now Sits Alone at Dayton After a Camera Killed Her Sister
Radio Hangar explores The XB-70 Valkyrie, the Six-Engine Mach Three Bomber That Folded Its Wingtips in Flight and Now Sits Alone at Dayton After a Camera Killed Her Sister.
Wrong Way Corrigan, the Patched-Up Curtiss Robin, and the Nineteen Thirty-Eight Flight to Ireland That Everybody Knew Wasn't a Mistake
How Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan flew a patched-up Curtiss Robin from Brooklyn to Ireland in 1938 and called it a navigation error.
Alcock and Brown, the Converted Vimy Bomber, and the First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Into an Irish Bog
How John Alcock and Arthur Brown made the first nonstop transatlantic flight in 1919, crash-landing a converted bomber in an Irish bog.
Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz, the Grape-Soda Biplane That Crossed America in Eighty-Four Days and Arrived Held Together by Almost Nothing
In 1911, Cal Rodgers flew the Vin Fiz biplane across America in 84 days, crashing dozens of times to become the first to cross the continent by air.
Doc, the B-29 Superfortress That Spent Forty Years as a Bombing Target in the Mojave Before a Handful of Volunteers Brought Her Back to the Sky
Radio Hangar explores Doc, the B-29 Superfortress That Spent Forty Years as a Bombing Target in the Mojave Before a Handful of Volunteers Brought Her Back to the Sky.
Douglas Bader, the Legless Spitfire Ace Who Crashed on a Dare, Talked His Way Back Into a Cockpit, and Made the Germans Threaten to Take His Tin Legs Away
How RAF ace Douglas Bader lost both legs in a 1931 crash, flew Spitfires on tin legs, and became a Battle of Britain hero.
Operation Chastise, the Dambusters, and Barnes Wallis's Bouncing Bomb That Skipped Across a Reservoir to Break the Ruhr
How Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb and 617 Squadron's Lancaster crews broke Germany's Ruhr dams in the May 1943 Dambusters raid.
The de Havilland Mosquito, the Wooden Wonder Built by Furniture Makers and Piano Companies That Outran Every Fighter in the Sky
The de Havilland Mosquito was a wooden WWII bomber built by furniture and piano makers that outran the Spitfire and became a legend.
The Douglas DC-3, the Twin-Wasp Airliner Born From a Phone Call That Made the Airlines Pay Their Own Way and Then Carried an Army to War
How the Douglas DC-3 made airlines profitable, won a war as the C-47, and became the longest-serving working aircraft ever built.
The Douglas World Cruisers and the Nineteen Twenty-Four Flight That Carried Four Open-Cockpit Biplanes All the Way Around the World
In 1924, four US Army biplanes attempted the first flight around the world - two survived to complete the 26,000-mile journey.
The Gates Flying Circus, Clyde Pangborn, and the Barnstorming Troupe That Sold a Million Americans Their First Airplane Ride
How the Gates Flying Circus and pilot Clyde Pangborn gave a million Americans their first airplane ride in the 1920s.
The Gimli Glider, the Air Canada Boeing Seven Sixty-Seven That Ran Out of Fuel at Forty-One Thousand Feet and Glided Dead-Stick Onto an Old Drag Strip in Manitoba
How Captain Bob Pearson glided a fuel-starved Air Canada 767 to a dead-stick landing at Gimli in 1983.
The Memphis Belle, the B-Seventeen That Beat the Twenty-Five Mission Odds and the Thirteen-Year Restoration That Brought Her Back at Dayton
How the B-17 Memphis Belle beat the odds to finish 25 missions in 1943 and survived a 13-year restoration to stand in Dayton today.
The Rutan Voyager, the Paper Airplane With a Hundred-Foot Wingspan That Flew Nine Days Around the World Without Stopping for Fuel
The story of the Rutan Voyager, the featherweight aircraft that flew nonstop around the world in 1986 without refueling.
Wop May, Vic Horner, and the Nineteen Twenty-Nine Open-Cockpit Mercy Flight That Carried Diphtheria Serum Six Hundred Miles Into the Alberta Cold
In January 1929, pilots Wop May and Vic Horner flew diphtheria serum 600 miles into Arctic Alberta in an open-cockpit biplane.
Bessie Coleman, Queen Bess, and the Texas Cottonpicker Who Crossed an Ocean to Get the Pilot's License America Wouldn't Give Her
Bessie Coleman crossed the Atlantic and learned French to earn the pilot's license America denied her, becoming the first Black woman to fly.
Blackbird 972, the SR-71 That Flew Los Angeles to Washington in Sixty-Four Minutes on Its Way to a Museum Hook in the Smithsonian
On March 6, 1990, SR-71 Blackbird 972 flew Los Angeles to Washington in 64 minutes on its final flight to the Smithsonian.
Don Sheldon, the Talkeetna Glacier Pilot Who Landed a Super Cub on the Side of Denali to Pull Climbers Off the Mountain Alive
How Alaska bush pilot Don Sheldon landed a Super Cub on Denali's glaciers to fly injured climbers off the mountain one at a time.
Flak-Bait, the Martin B-Twenty-Six Marauder That Flew Two Hundred and Seven Missions and Refused to Die, Now Coming Back to Life Piece by Piece at the Smithsonian
Radio Hangar explores Flak-Bait, the Martin B-Twenty-Six Marauder That Flew Two Hundred and Seven Missions and Refused to Die, Now Coming Back to Life Piece by Piece at the Smithsonian.