All Stories

NASA is usually associated with spaceflight, but its first "A" stands for Aeronautics. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb of NASA led the development of several key technologies: area rule in the 1950s and '60s, supercritical wings in the 1970s, and winglets in the 1970s and '80s.

By 1940 the modern airport had come into being. Today's airports are basically similar, but over the years airport designers have had some interesting ideas when planning for the future of air travel. 

The mid-1930s were a difficult time for airlines. To survive in these challenging times, airlines needed bigger, better, and faster airplanes that could profitably fly passengers as well as mail. By the mid-1930s, the first modern, high-performance airliners were taking to the air. 

Flight attendants improve the flying experience for passengers by ensuring their safety and providing for their comfort. How did this role start? Who were some of the first flight attendants? Discover their stories.  

This is your captain, making history. Meet the first women to fly as captain for commercial airlines and discover their stories.  

Museum acting director Chris Browne was Airport Manager of DC's Reagan National Airport on September 11, 2001. He reflects on the tragedy, 20 years later.

Raise a glass and cheers to a new season of AirSpace! And to help us get in the celebratory mood, today's episode is about a truly intoxicating period of American history – prohibition. You might know [we didn’t] that NASCAR has its roots in bootleggers driving illicit hooch in the 1920s. But it turns out, not all bootleggers were driving their contraband around in cars. Today on AirSpace, learn how prohibition and passenger airlines went hand-in-hand.

If you’ve flown commercial, you’re familiar with the preflight safety spiel. On this episode, Emily, Matt, and Nick dive into the history of the inflight safety briefing to better understand the evolution from straight-forward instruction to Hollywood production, and an expert in cabin safety weighs in on whether these flashy videos  actually make air travel safer.

It took decades of research, lobbying, and litigation to prove the dangers of secondhand smoke, and a lot of that work happened at cruising altitude. In this episode, we’ll hear how flight attendants were instrumental in the fight to get smoking OUT of the skies, and how the lawsuit they brought against the tobacco companies had huge ripple effects in the smoke-free public places we enjoy today.

Right now COVID-19 vaccines are traveling across the country and around the world – and air travel is a critical component of this supply chain. On today’s episode we’re breaking down the history of the cold chain and how air safety plays a part (particularly with all that dry ice).