All Stories

A ribbon bar in the Museum's collection offers a timeline of the famed aviator’s illustrious military career 

Before Patrick Leonini was a museum specialist for the National Air and Space Museum in the Photography department, he spent 24 years in the United States Air Force. He reflects on his career experiences in the military as an airfield manager, working in and around aircraft, crews, and ground support personnel.

During World War I, a new form of espionage took flight—literally. Photography from aircraft was introduced as a new way to spy.

On January 30, 1942, the Army Air Corps awarded Northrop a contract to build two XP-61 prototypes. Rediscover the Northrop P-61 Black Widow aircraft in part two of the blog series.

Navy pilots recall the final, frenetic days of the air war over Vietnam.

Late in World War Two the German's developed the Heinkel He 162 Spatz, an early jet fighter part of the Volksjäger (People’s Fighter) project.

During World War II, the U.S. Navy did not have a program that allowed African Americans to train and fly as naval aviators. Jesse Leroy Brown, however, fought through many hurdles to become the first African American to complete Navy flight training. Discover his story.

Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden was NASA's first African American Administrator. He also served in the military and logged over 680 hours in space.

For more than 30 years this partnership between LSO and naval aviators remained crucial to aircraft carrier landing operations. Almost overnight this partnership changed when jet aircraft altered the calculus of a carrier landing. Soon after, the Mirror Landing System (MLS) was born.

Al Casby is not only working to restore a Vought F7U Cutlass, but its reputation as well.