All Stories

Hurricanes are a fact of life in the Caribbean but in 2017, the season was so bad that it changed everything for the people of Puerto Rico. We spoke to two Coast Guard members, as well as one of our own colleagues, about what the hurricane was like, and what happened after.

In this Air and Space Quarterly exclusive, five U.S. Navy pilots who became the first American women to fly in combat tell their stories.

Cathleen S. Lewis, a curator in the space history department at the National Air and Space Museum, has written Cosmonaut: A Cultural History, which documents the complicated past of Soviet and Russian human space exploration. 

In the early 20th century, airships were seen as the ideal air transportation for carrying freight and most notably, passengers, around the world. Garland Fulton was an early advocate of lighter-than-air vehicles (LTA) for the United States Navy. During his life he studied and collected articles on airships.

Curtiss aircraft sales representative and flight instructor Lawrence Leon won hearts, minds, and aircraft orders in interwar Argentina through the power of his personality and excellence as a pilot.

Space is dangerous. And as long as we've been sending people into space, we've also been thinking about what we can do to make sure they're prepared for it, and make sure they will come home again.

As a physicist, engineer, entrepreneur, and astronaut, Franklin Chang-Díaz has made significant contributions to space exploration. Born in San José, Costa Rica, he developed a passion for science and space at an early age. He moved to the United States to continue his education and achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut and in 1980, NASA selected Chang-Díaz as an astronaut candidate, making him the first Latin American immigrant to become a NASA astronaut.

When an aerobatic pilot wanted to fly right up to the limit, she chose an aircraft that proved to be a model of instability 

Foam 331's new display at the Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center honors first responders 

John D. “Danny” Olivas grew up in the border city of El Paso, Texas, across the Rio Grande from Mexico. Its population is now 81% Hispanic, the largest Hispanic population of any major city within the United States. Olivas and his extended family have been part of that vibrant community since his great-grandfather migrated from Mexico in 1894.