All Stories

Seventy-five years ago, on August 5, 1943, a remarkable group of women stepped into roles as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Their story is one of courage, and their legacy is crucial to understanding the role of women as aviators within the United States Military.

Over the years I’ve spent curating the National Air and Space Museum’s uniform and flight clothing collection, I have received many inquiries. One of the most frequently ask questions concerns the placement of Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle's Medal of Honor ribbon on his wartime uniform.

A guest post from the National Cryptologic Museum explores women code breakers' top-secret work during World War II.

Bragg was a pioneer African American pilot whose leadership in Black pilot organizations in the 1930s paved the way for other aviators. 

Take a closer look at the Douglas SBD-6 Dauntless' unique landing gear, and how it impacts the flight of the aircraft. 

Flak-Bait, the museum’s Martin B-26 Marauder bomber, flew more combat missions than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. But how many missions did it participate in exactly?

How a single e-mail helped uncover the previously unknown history of the Museum's Curtiss P-40E Lope’s Hope.

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.

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.

The U.S. Navy’s WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) were a notable legacy of World War II’s influence on the evolving gender norms of the later 20th century.