Aviation Eras
Periods of innovation in the history of aviation from early flight to the modern age
70 Years of “Slipping the Surly Bonds”
Whether you love it or hate it, John Gillespie Magee's "High Flight" remains the most enduring of aviation poems.
December 08, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Getting Medieval
When the Eighth Air Force wanted to protect its bomber crews, it asked medieval armor specialists for advice.
November 21, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Mind if I Smoke?
Remember when passengers used to toss lit cigarettes out the airplane window? Honest.
November 17, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Catch-22 At Fifty
Writer Joseph Heller drew on his own wartime experience for his 1961 masterpiece.
November 11, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Ask a Veteran
These Museum staffers and volunteers once served their country in the armed forces. Now they serve in a different way.
November 10, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Stay Tuned
A new emergency warning system will be tested on Wednesday -- 60 years after another radio network warned Americans of Cold War air raids.
November 07, 2011 |
By Roger Mola
The Warbird Woodstock
A new book highlights the final Gathering of Mustangs in 2007.
November 02, 2011 |
By Pat Trenner
The Other B-29 Missions
The big bomber's little-known errands of mercy.
October 27, 2011 |
By Guy Longshore
The World’s First Warplane
One hundred years ago this Sunday, on October 23, 1911, Captain Carlo Piazza climbed onto his spindly Blériot XI and made military history.
October 21, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Who Killed Hammarskjöld?
A new book reopens (for the umpteenth time) the 50-year-old mystery of how, or rather why, U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others died in a plane crash on September 18, 1961.
September 30, 2011 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Finley Hunt’s Flying Machine
Designs for a fanciful Civil War airplane fetch big bucks at auction.
September 30, 2011 |
By Mary Paltzer
Canadian Air & Space Museum Body Checked by Ice Rink
The Canadian Air & Space Museum arrived last Tuesday to an eviction notice, a team of locksmiths and the news that four ice rinks were to be built in their space.
September 22, 2011 |
By Heather Goss
On the Wing and On the Ground
Ernie Pyle's aviation and war dispatches.
September 16, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Remembering 9/11 at American History
Each day this week until September 11, the National Museum of American History is displaying artifacts recovered from the horrific crash of United Airlines Flight 93 a decade ago...
September 07, 2011 |
By Roger Mola
Going Once….The 1920 Pulitzer Race Trophy
From the Chicago Daily Tribune, November 28, 1920: "At last the pride of the Army air service, the Verville-Packard chasse biplane, has established its worth by romping ahead of thirty-four starters in the first Pulitzer...
September 02, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
The First Across the Continent
A 100th anniversary remembrance of Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz.
September 2011 |
By Charles Wiggin, As Told To Howard Eisenberg
The Raiders Remember
In an annual ceremony, the last of the Doolittle Raiders recall their part in victory over Japan.
September 2011 |
By Paul Hoversten
Distance Runners
Unmanned aerial vehicles redefine the term "nonstop flight."
September 2011 |
By Michael Milstein
Lieutenant Ivan Baranovsky’s P-39
An airacobra's journey to the eastern front...and back.
September 2011 |
By Tim Wright
