Operation Vengeance, the P-Thirty-Eight Lightning, and the Long Odds Shot That Killed the Man Who Planned Pearl Harbor
How 16 P-38 Lightnings flew 400 miles to intercept and kill Admiral Yamamoto on April 18, 1943, arriving one minute early.
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.
Ormer Locklear, the Wing Walker Who Stepped From One Jenny to Another in Midair and Then Died on Camera Chasing the Shot
How barnstormer Ormer Locklear pioneered midair plane changes and died filming a stunt for The Skywayman in 1920.
Pardo's Push, the Two F-Four Phantoms Over Laos, and the Day One Fighter Pilot Flew a Crippled Jet Home on His Own Windscreen
How Captain Bob Pardo pushed a crippled F-4 Phantom nearly 100 miles over Laos in 1967 using his own windscreen.
Robin Olds, the Handlebar Mustache, and Operation Bolo - the Day the F-Four Phantoms Pretended to Be Bombers and Ambushed the MiGs Over Hanoi
How Robin Olds and his F-4 Phantoms disguised themselves as bombers to ambush North Vietnamese MiGs on January 2, 1967.
Roscoe Turner, the Powder-Blue Showman Who Flew With a Lion Named Gilmore and Won the Thompson Trophy Three Times
How Roscoe Turner, his lion Gilmore, and a self-made uniform led to three Thompson Trophy wins and aviation immortality.
The Gee Bee R-One, Jimmy Doolittle, and the Flying Beer Barrel That Won the Thompson Trophy and Scared Its Own Pilots
How Jimmy Doolittle won the 1932 Thompson Trophy in the deadly Gee Bee R-1 - then walked away from racing forever.
The Lockheed Constellation, the Triple-Tailed Connie That Howard Hughes Ordered in Secret and Kelly Johnson Shaped Into the Most Beautiful Airliner That Ever Flew
The story of the Lockheed Constellation, the triple-tailed airliner Howard Hughes ordered in secret and Kelly Johnson shaped into a legend.
The Southern Cross, Charles Kingsford Smith, and the First Flight Across the Pacific from California to Australia
In 1928, Charles Kingsford Smith flew the Southern Cross across the Pacific from California to Australia - aviation's greatest overwater feat.
The Vought F4U Corsair, the Bent-Wing Whistling Death, and How the Navy's Hardest Airplane to Land Became the Marine Corps' Favorite Fighter
How the Vought F4U Corsair went from 'unsuitable for carriers' to the Marine Corps' legendary Whistling Death fighter.
A Higher Call, Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown, and the Crippled B Seventeen a German Ace Escorted Out to Sea Instead of Shooting It Down
On December 20, 1943, German ace Franz Stigler escorted a crippled B-17 to safety instead of shooting it down - the true story behind A Higher Call.
Carl Ben Eielson, the North Dakota Schoolteacher Who Flew Alaska's First Airmail in an Open-Cockpit de Havilland and Then Vanished Over the Siberian Ice
How North Dakota schoolteacher Carl Ben Eielson flew Alaska's first airmail, crossed the Arctic by air, and vanished over Siberian ice.
Neil Williams and the Folded Wing, the Aerobatic Champion Who Rolled a Crippled Zlin Inverted to Hold His Own Broken Spar in Place All the Way Down to the Grass
How British aerobatic champion Neil Williams saved a Zlin with a folded wing in 1970 by flying it inverted and landing upside down.
Operation Chastise, Barnes Wallis and the Bouncing Bomb, and the Night Six Seventeen Squadron Flew at Sixty Feet to Break the Dams of the Ruhr
How Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb and 617 Squadron broke the Ruhr dams flying at 60 feet in the dark on the night of May 16–17, 1943.
Otto Lilienthal, the Flying Man of Berlin Who Jumped Off a Hill Two Thousand Times to Prove the Air Would Hold You Up
Otto Lilienthal made over 2,000 glider flights in the 1890s, proving human flight was possible and inspiring the Wright brothers.
Pancho Barnes, the Fastest Woman in the World Who Built the Happy Bottom Riding Club and Fed the Men Who Broke the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes went from fastest woman alive to running the desert club where test pilots celebrated breaking the sound barrier.
The 1929 Women's Air Derby, Louise Thaden's Travel Air, and the Cross-Country Race the Newspapers Sneered at as the Powder Puff Derby
How Louise Thaden won the 1929 Women's Air Derby, the cross-country race newspapers mocked as the Powder Puff Derby.
The Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, the Fifty-Dollar War Surplus Trainer That Put a Whole Generation of Barnstormers in the Air
How the $50 war-surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny launched the 1920s barnstorming era and put a generation of Americans in the sky.
The Piper J-Three Cub, the Sixty-Five Horsepower Taildragger That Taught America to Fly and Then Went to War as the Grasshopper
The Piper J-3 Cub taught most of America to fly on 65 horsepower, then went to war as the L-4 Grasshopper artillery spotter.
The Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' Eight-Engine Flying Boat That Flew Exactly Once and Now Lives Under One Roof in McMinnville, Oregon
The Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' all-wood flying boat, flew once for under a minute in 1947 and now lives in McMinnville, Oregon.
The XP-82 Twin Mustang, the Two-Fuselage Fighter That Refused to Fly Until They Turned the Propellers Around, and Tom Reilly's Ten-Year Resurrection of the Last One in the World
How Tom Reilly spent a decade rebuilding the world's only airworthy XP-82 Twin Mustang - and why its propellers spin the way they do.