Jean Gardner Batten
Jean Gardner Batten, a strikingly beautiful New Zealand woman, became one of the world’s most popular and famous pilots when she established several individual flight distance records in the 1930s. […]
Month: March 2009
Joseph C. McConnell
Joseph Christopher McConnell, Jr. (30 January 1922 – 25 August 1954) was the top American ace during the Korean War. A native of Dover, New Hampshire, Captain McConnell shot down 16 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s while flying F-86 Sabres with the U.S. Air Force. […]
Aviation History Facts: April
A list of aviation facts from the month of April […]
Women’s History Month
Starting in 1987 the Women’s History Month Project petitioned Congress to recognize the entire month of March as Women’s History Month. […]
Beechcraft Staggerwing
The Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing is an American biplane with an atypical negative stagger (the lower wing is further forward than the upper wing). […]
Homebuilt aircraft
Also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, homebuilt aircraft are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from “scratch,” from plans, or from assembly kits. […]
American Aircraft Manufacturing Between the Wars
At the end of World War I, the aircraft industry took a sharp nosedive. Several wartime aircraft companies closed their doors and others barely survived. One year after the Armistice, 90 percent of wartime production capacity had been eliminated. […]
Tuskegee Airmen Soared to New Heights
The 99th Fighter Squadron went to North Africa in April and flew its first combat mission against the island of Pantelleria on June 2, 1943. On June 9th, a flight, led by Lt. Charles Dryden was attacked by enemy aircraft. Lieutenants (Lt.) Willie Ashley, Sidney P. Brooks, Lee Rayford, Leon Roberts, and Spann Watson engaged the German fighter planes. […]
T-37 Tweet
The Cessna T-37 Tweet is one of the most prominent of the trainer-attack type aircraft. This small, economical twin-engine jet aircraft flew for decades as a primary trainer for the United States Air Force, and in the air forces of several other nations. […]
The American Aerospace Industry During World War II
The U.S. aircraft industry experienced huge growth during World War II. Moreover, its achievements, some claim, were as important to Allied victory as the military successes on the battlefield. American industry was fortunate in that it could operate without threat of air bombardment or other military damage to factories and without shortages of critical materials. And the industry used those advantages fully. […]