All Stories

As we celebrate the anniversary of the pioneering Apollo 8 mission, many commentators and news stories will assert that NASA sent Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders to the Moon to beat the Soviet Union. In fact, the Soviets were planning to send two cosmonauts to loop around the Moon, but that statement of the agency’s intent is, at best, half true.

Cyrus K. Bettis was a leading US Army Air Service pilot in the 1920s that became the world’s fastest air racer in 1925. In July 2018, members of his family visited the Museum to donate artifacts and archival materials documenting his life near the airplane that he flew and the prizes that he won.

At age 30, Afghan-American pilot Shaesta Waiz became the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe solo in a single-engine aircraft. (She managed to snap a photo or two along the way.) Waiz shared some of her favorite images from her record-breaking journey.

Jeannie M. Leavitt became the Air Force’s first female fighter pilot in 1993.

On October 15, 1910, Kiddo the cat became the first of his kind to attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airship—and he wasn’t very happy about it.

While Bessie Coleman never realized her dream of opening a flight school for African American pilots, her legacy as the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license has impacted and inspired flight students for decades.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, has a new addition: Nemesis NXT, a record-breaking Sport-class air racer.

Meet Jon and Patricia Sharp, the husband and wife duo behind Nemesis Air Racing. 

Sustainable energy has been at the heart of modern innovations large and small, from efficient light bulbs in living rooms to solar panels powering buildings. One of the newest breakthroughs in energy technology can often be found zipping around the streets in front of the Department of Energy (DOE) in Washington, DC—a car powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

On October 4, 2017, Shaesta Waiz became the youngest woman to fly solo around the globe in a single-engine plane. Before completing her historic flight, the Afghan refugee visited the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum to share her story and what helped her succeed.