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Black Wings: The Life of African American Aviation Pioneer William Powell
When African American pilot, engineer, and entrepreneur William Powell was a young adult, even the skies were segregated. Many would-be African American pilots, such as first licensed African American...
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Remembering Test Pilot Eric Melrose “Winkle” Brown
A Tribute to British Royal Navy officer and experimental test pilot Captain Eric Melrose “Winkle” Brown (27 January 1919 – 21 February 2016) I met Eric Brown in April 2013 at the Royal Air Force Club...
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Obscure Objects: Ruth Law’s World War I Liberty Bonds Leaflet
No one could say Ruth Law was a novice. She had been flying since 1912. She was the first woman to fly at night, in a biplane purchased from Orville Wright. She was the first woman to make a living as...
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Celebrating the Centennial of Coast Guard Aviation with the Seaguard
The Museum’s restored HH-52A. Image: John Siemens Unless you live in a coastal area, or on one of the nation’s waterways, the U.S. Coast Guard is usually out of sight, out of mind, unless something...
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Images from the 1961 All Woman’s International Air Race
Documented in our National Aeronautic Association collection is the 1961 All Woman’s International Air Race that ended in Nassau, Bahamas on May 29. The race hosted 21 contestants over a 909-kilometer...
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Well, is it Flak Bait or Flak-Bait?
As the curator for the Museum’s Martin B-26B Marauder, I’ve become obsessed with the proper way to designate the name given to it by its first pilot Jim Farrell in August 1943. It all centers on the...
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A New Home for an Old Glove
Who would think that a damaged, old leather glove, with the thumb badly torn, could be a valuable item? But if that damaged glove belonged to Luftwaffe pilot Günther Rall, with 275 aerial victories...
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Crossing the Atlantic in a Wicker Chair
If you were going to fly non-stop for 33½ hours, what kind of chair would you want to sit in? For Charles Lindbergh, it was this simple wicker chair. The Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis was a modified...
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Capturing the Early History of Aeronautics
Among the treasures found within the special collections of the DeWitt Clinton Ramsey Room, a branch of the Smithsonian Libraries located at the National Air and Space Museum, is a collection of...
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Pioneering Aerial Archeology by Charles and Anne Lindbergh
On October 7, 1929, Anne Morrow Lindbergh gazed out the window of a Sikorsky S-38 flying boat, entranced by the view before her: gleaming stone structures only recently freed from the thick tropical...
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