All Stories

During Bud Anderson's thirty-year career as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces and the U.S. Air Force that spanned World War II and the Cold War, he was a fighter pilot, a combat and operational commander, a test pilot, and the leader of flight test programs.

On June 7, 2024, Gen. William A. Anders died at age 90. Bill Anders dedicated his life to aerospace, first as a pilot and then as an astronaut, and his life was filled with inspirational moments for us to reflect upon as we mourn his passing. 

It’s 1961. You’re a 24-year-old pilot. You’re also one of 25 women invited to undergo the rigorous testing that the Mercury 7 astronauts went through. You are one of the 13 women that pass, greatly defying everyone’s expectations. Most people would dine out on this story for the rest of their lives. Gene Nora Jessen, however, isn’t “most people.”

Jim Dean's contributions to the Museum’s art collection and NASA are invaluable. Dean left an indelible mark in the fields of art and science as our Museum’s first art curator from 1974 to 1980 and as director of the NASA Art Program from the early 1960s to 1974.

Born in Weatherford, Oklahoma, to a dentist and a former schoolteacher on September 17, 1930, Lt. Gen. Thomas Stafford (USAF) grew up under the first transcontinental airline route. As a child, he would watch silver DC-3s streak across the sky and think “I want to do that.”

What’s new in aviation and space. The latest on the search for Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra. 

Pulling back the curtain on artifacts in storage.

Few people in the air and space community touched as many aspects of what we do here at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum as did Richard H. Truly. His remarkable career in the military, in space, and as a leader blended together an array of experiences, having had the opportunity to impact programs and make decisions, the effects of which linger to this day.

In 1142 a total solar eclipse with much the same path as the one coming up April 8. It was also the sign in the sky the Seneca needed to join the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a representative democracy that would govern six tribes below Lakes Erie and Ontario.

Large, slow flying boats like the Consolidated PBY Catalina, played vital roles for naval operations, including launching airborne attacks, anti-submarine patrols, delivering supplies, and performing air rescue. Although missions in these roles may not often be remembered, February 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of one of the most extraordinary flights of the PBY Catalina during World War II.