All Stories

The Blue Max (1966) brings a new complexity to the flying ace protagonist. 

The historic importance of the Sikorsky JRS-1—a weathered blue-gray airplane now on display at our Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia—is not because of the type of airplane it is. Its importance lies in one of the places the JRS-1 has been and survived: Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Gallipoli sets a classic tale of innocence lost in war during the World War I (WWI) Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey).

“The Millionaires’ Unit” was a moniker given to group of wealthy Yale students who formed a private air militia in 1916. 

While the National Air and Space Museum Archives collections feature many WWI materials, the Paul R. Stockton Scrapbook is available to view online in its entirety in slideshow mode.  Stockton documented his experiences from training at Mineola, New York, and the Third Aviation Instruction Center, Issoudun, France, to life at the front in France, to the post-war occupation of Germany.

Christopher Nolan’s latest movie, Dunkirk, brought the battle into theaters. And although you may know it stars actors such as Tom Hardy, Harry Styles, and Cillian Murphy, you may not know that the National Air and Space Museum houses examples of two of the main airplanes featured in the film. We have a Royal Air Force (RAF) Supermarine Spitfire and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 of the Luftwaffe, although the Museum’s aircraft are slightly younger than those that participated in Operation Dynamo.

A Cold War era treatment of an earlier conflict, Paths of Glory explores injustice within the ranks during World War I.

The Eagle and the Hawk was one of the best World War I dramas of the 1930s. It explores the cumulative effects on those who fought in the skies.

All Quiet on the Western Front was the first significant anti-war movie, exploring the war’s physical and psychological impact on a generation lost to war.

Hell’s Angels is considered one of the three great early aviation films that defined the genre.