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 October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 - flying with two broken ribs and a cockpit sealed shut with a piece of broomstick.
On December 23, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first nonstop, unrefueled circumnavigation of the Earth in Voyager, covering 24,986 miles in just over nine days.
On September 24, 1929, Jimmy Doolittle completed the first fully blind flight at Mitchel Field - 15 minutes that created the foundation of every instrument approach flown today.
Ormer Locklear invented aviation spectacle before barnstorming became a phenomenon, then died at 29 during a Hollywood night dive stunt that launched the golden age he created.
Gregory 'Pappy' Boyington led the misfit VMF-214 Black Sheep Squadron to 97 aerial kills, was shot down over Rabaul, spent 20 months as a POW, and received the Medal of Honor in person from President Truman.
Roscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy three times, flew with a live lion named Gilmore, and became the most theatrical air racer in American aviation history.
The de Havilland Mosquito overcame official rejection to become WWII's fastest combat aircraft - and the tool behind one of the war's most daring precision bombing raids.
The SR-71 Blackbird flew faster than any missile fired at it, completed 24 years of undefeated missions, and delivered its final records on the way to a museum.
The Memphis Belle's 13-year restoration at Wright-Patterson uncovered combat damage and field repairs that turned an aging artifact into a preserved historical record.
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was the heaviest single-engine American fighter of World War II - and the airplane its pilots trusted most to bring them home alive.
The Navy rejected the F4U Corsair for carriers in 1942, the Marines took it to Guadalcanal, and it achieved an 11:1 kill ratio against Japanese aircraft.
Wiley Post flew around the world twice, discovered the jet stream, and built the first pressure suit - all with one eye and an oilman's borrowed airplane.
On January 2, 1929, Canadian bush pilot Wop May flew 600 miles north in an open-cockpit biplane at 40 below zero to deliver life-saving diphtheria antitoxin.
In September 1936, Beryl Markham became the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo east to west, battling headwinds and engine trouble for 21 hours and 25 minutes.
Bessie Coleman became the world's first Black licensed pilot in 1921 after crossing the Atlantic to train in France - a story of determination that shaped American aviation history.
Don Sheldon pioneered glacier aviation in the Alaska Range from Talkeetna, opening Denali's high basins to expeditions and never losing a passenger across two decades of mountain flying.
How a denied pilot with a $300 airplane crossed the Atlantic in 1938, told everyone he went the wrong way, and kept that smile for 60 years.
How Ivan Gates turned surplus WWI Jennies and a promoter's instinct into a flying circus that introduced an estimated 12 million Americans to flight.
Jimmy Wedell, a self-taught one-eyed pilot from Louisiana, built the world's fastest piston airplanes and dominated the 1930s National Air Races from a bayou workshop.
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown crossed the Atlantic non-stop in June 1919 - eight years before Lindbergh - in an open-cockpit biplane over 16 hours and 27 minutes.