Aviation History

Compare 1969, and the launch of Apollo 11 to 2020, and the successful docking of the crewed Dragon Endeavor with the International Space Station. Both milestones in the push that the United States made into space happened against similar backdrops of racial protest. The Smithsonian Institution has called upon its various member museums to delve […]

Though firmly rooted in aviation’s earliest days—it was founded in 1866—the Royal Aeronautical Society advances firmly into the future on a number of fronts. One of the most recent of these missions has been the opening of the society’s new National Aerospace Library Film Archive. Though the library itself—housed near the Farnborough airport in the […]

He had just a couple of straightforward passions in his life: flying—especially warbirds—and his wife, Lucille. Those who flew with and worked alongside Rudy Frasca couldn’t help but be infected by his enthusiasm for aviation, and understand his deep affection for his family. Frasca, flight simulation icon and founder of Frasca International, died on May […]

This week marks an historic milestone in world history, with the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe: VE-Day. On May 8, 1945, Axis forces in Europe, led by Germany, signed articles of surrender—not just an armistice. Last year, plans began for a series of events that would […]

Zoe Dell Lantis grabbed the opportunity to work as an exhibition girl at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939—which celebrated the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge just six months prior. Lantis was a 20-year-old dancer looking to expand her horizons, and she did just that, joining an aerial promotional tour […]

In a celebration of the SR-71 and U-2 aircraft, the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, will be hosting an event titled “Secrets Revealed”, in which more than 20 former pilots and crew members will participate in panel discussions, narrate live presentations, and meet visitors in the museum. The event […]

World War II ended in a series of events marked by two prominent milestones in 1945—the end of the war in Europe in May, and the closing of the war in the Pacific in August and September, with the final conclusion of the war marked by the signing of the instrument of surrender of the […]

This story originally featured on Popular Science NASA mathematician and trailblazer Katherine Johnson has died at 101 years old. Johnson was among the first black women to work at the space agency as well as at its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Among her many achievements, Johnson computed the flight path that Neil […]

Some ’specially fun flying recently: a ride in EAA’s B-17, a DC-3 I brought back home to Hamilton, Ohio, from where it had flown for many years as a freighter, and then a Cessna 195 I took from Hillsboro, Ohio, to Port Clinton on Lake Erie. I rode back to Lunken Airport from Hamilton in […]

The first airplane to cross the Atlantic was a war-surplus Vickers Vimy bomber with a wingspan of 68 feet. The Spirit of St. Louis had a 46-foot wing. In 1975, I made the 2,000-mile trip from Gander, Newfoundland, to Shannon, Ireland—by then, a commonplace for single-engine planes with optimistic pilots—in a homebuilt of 23-foot span. […]