All Stories

Women in the United States have long served their country and women aviators have been no exception.  Perhaps the best known efforts are those of the Women Air Service Pilots (WASP), formed in 1943, merging the Women’s Auxiliary Flying Squadron and Women’s Flying Training Detachment.  But before the WASP, women pilots, such as Ruth Law, Opal Kunz, Florence “Pancho” Barnes, and Mary Charles were determined to serve their country in whatever way they could.

Today we’re talking about a chilling chapter from flight history— Night Bomber Regiment 588. 

We explore the D-Day missions of the Museum's Martin B-26B-25-MA Marauder Flak-Bait.

The D-Day invasion relied on paratroop and glider landings the day before -- in moonlit darkness. In this blog, we explore the key technologies used to locate drop zones and landing zones under cover of darkness.

The 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only unit that stormed the beach at Normandy on June 6, 1944, that was comprised entirely of African American soldiers, played a vital role in protecting the ships and soldiers during the D-Day invasion.

In the early morning of June 6, 1944, thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen readied themselves for D-Day of Operation Overlord. For several divisions of American and British soldiers, the invasion had actually begun the night before on board Douglas C-47s.

D-Day was the boldest, riskiest and most anticipated operation of the entire World War II European Theater. To succeed in the Allied invasion of France, Allied commanders needed detailed information about prospective French coastal landing sites and surrounding areas. That's where aerial photography comes in.

May 2, 2019, marks the United States’ Days of Remembrance, the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust.  Today the National Air and Space Museum remembers Dezsö Becker, a Hungarian aviator who served in World War I and died in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in January 1945.

Until recently, a Lockheed U-2, one of the most successful intelligence-gathering aircraft every produced, was on display in the Museum's Looking at Earth gallery. The U-2 was designed by a team led by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson at the famous Lockheed 'Skunk Works" in Palmdale, California. The jet played a crucial role during the tense years of the Cold War.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center was a special stop on the “Journey of Heroes” program, bringing veterans and Holocaust survivors to Washington, DC.