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In 2019, we commemorate several transatlantic firsts, including the 100^th anniversaries of the first transatlantic flight by the Navy NC-4 in May and the first nonstop transatlantic flight by John Alcock and Arthur Brown. June 28 marks the 80^th anniversary of the inaugural Pan American Airways transatlantic passenger flight in 1939. For William John Eck, it was a voyage for which he had waited eight long years. Finally, he was “Passenger Number One”!

What music would you take along on a quarter-million mile road trip?

On this episode of AirSpace we’re talking about the most exclusive form of public transportation – presidential flight. 

In this guest blog post, Chesley Bonestell expert Melvin Schuetz reflects on the Bonestell artwork "A Fog-Filled Canal on Mars."

In 1917, the United States Army Air Service established an aviation engineering section at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. In 1927, the Engineering Division, as it was then known, moved to nearby Wilbur Wright Field and there remained as the Air Force Material Division (AFMD) and Air Material Command (AMC). Throughout the years, those stationed at Wright Field celebrated the holidays.

John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22 and his funeral on November 25 occurred at a moment in which "live via satellite" was beginning to enter the Cold War world. Satellites broadcast information about his death around the world in a way never possible before.

2 Space Shuttles + 1 asteroid the size of Texas + a dash of 90s rock = the most terribly wonderful space movie of all time? Well, maybe for Emily, Matt, and Nick.  This fall has got us hooked on space movies. So, Emily, Matt, and Nick decided to rewatch the 1998 film Armageddon to see how many inaccuracies they could find. 

First Man is almost certainly is the most accurate fictional depiction of human spaceflight in the 1960s ever made. A curator weighs in on what the film got right and wrong.

It’s the ship that would boldly go on to make history—the Star Trek starship Enterprise studio model, used in the filming of the iconic television show, which premiered on NBC in September of 1966. Take a closer look at the makings of the starship Enterprise.

It’s become one of the most well-known appendages in pop culture history—Spock’s pointed ears, signaling him as half-Vulcan, and now synonymous with the beloved sci-fi series. The Museum’s conservation team recently treated a replica ear in our collection.