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Aviation History

The Curtiss-Wright P-40L Warhawk was armed with FOUR .50-caliber machine guns.

1st Lt. Charles Blakesly Hall, U.S. Army Air Corps

Its July 2nd, 1943, and the pilot of a P-40 Warkawk takes careful aim at a German Luftwafe fighter targeting B-25 bombers over Sicily. Soon the German aircraft is streaking earthward to its death. ...

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O-1 Bird Dog in flight with pilot searching for the enemy in Vietnam.

The Forward Air Controller in Vietnam

Discover the crucial role the Forward Air Controllers (FACs) in the Vietnam War performed, and the aircraft they flew. Experience the danger these pilots faced, and the impossible missions they fle...

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An F-105F Thud Wild Weasel preparing for Rolling Thunder in Vietnam 1960s

The Wild Weasel III

The F-105G Wild Weasels provide highly effective in suppressing SAM and AAA sites in North Vietnam, but not without a cost. The Wild Weasel crews were under constant danger from SAM missles and Fla...

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Captain Merlyn Hans Dethlefsen, Air Force Medal of Honor Recepient

Courage Above The Skies Of North Vietnam

It's March of 1967, and four Republic F-105 "Thud" Wild Weasel IIIs are on a daylight raid over Hanoi. Read the story of Capt. Dethlefsen who won the Air Force Medal of Honor.

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Captain Charles F. Blair, Jr., Pan American Airways pilot and aviation pioneer

Charles F. Blair Jr., Aviation Pioneer

Aviation is full of firsts, and Pan American Captain Blair set several himself. A naval aviator who flew flying boats, Capt. Blair advanced transocean flying with flying boats.

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The cockpit of a PA-11 Piper Cub aircraft like the one the boys flew on their transcontinental round trip in 1966.

Flight of Passage

Two young brothers, 17 and 15 years of age, take a Piper Cub across the United States from New Jersey to California in 1966, the first two young people to ever make that flight.

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Lt. Lester J. Maitland, pilot, and Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger, navigator, chosen to successfully cross the Pacific to Hawaii

The Hegenberger System

A young aeronautical engineering US Army Air Corps pilot devised an ingenious system to guide aircraft down through inlement weather to a safe landing. His system was called the "Hegenberger System...

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The BLB Oxygen Mask and Aviation

The BLB Oxygen Mask and Aviation

The history of hypoxia is closely related to high-altitude aviation physiology and became a problem as aircraft in the 1930s and beyond began flying at higher and higher altitudes. The BLB oxygen m...

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Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson, Aircraft Designer Extraordinaire

A Skunk Of A Different Kind!

Aviation history is replete with incredible men and women who brought to life the amazing world of aviation. Among them was an incredible aeronautical engineeer who designed and built some of the m...

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A photo of Bessie Coleman standing on the wing of her Jenny in 1922

Bessie Coleman Soars Across the Sky

The 1920s and 1930s were the heyday of early aviation, but African Americans were excluded from all of the fun. That is, until a smart, attractive African American girl decided she just wouldn't ac...

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The B-24D, Liberator, Serial Number 41-11819, named "Raunchy", landing at Benghazi, Libya 1943

The Disappearance of the "Lady Be Good"

On April 4, 1943, a Consolidated B-24D Liberator with a crew of 9 departed an airfield in Libya on a night mission to bomb Naples, Italy. Discover the story of how the aircraft and crew disappeared...

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Operation Baby Lift Lockheed C-5A Galaxy 68-0218 lifts off from Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam, 4 00 p.m., Friday, 4 April 1975.

Operation Baby Lift

Operation Baby Lift was a humanitarian effort undertaken by the US government to save South Vietnamese orphans from the North Vietnamese. Like so many other government programs, this one did not en...

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