All Stories

In 1945, the Tuskegee Airmen of the 477th Bombardment Group protested discrimination at Freeman Field through pre-planned displays of resistance against the segregated officers' clubs.

The Tuskegee Airmen’s fight for equality involved more than their skills in the air. It required coordinated, collective actions of civil disobedience in which 162 officers risked their careers and their lives to stand up against systemic racism in the US Army Air Forces (AAF).

Aeronautics curator Dorothy Cochrane explores the history of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and their fight for recognition for their contributions to World War II.

Curator Russell Lee explores a lesser-known form of World War II aviation: the fighting glider.

For the 75th anniversary of VE Day, curator Christopher Moore shares the story of the last American World War II aerial victory in Europe.

Carolyn Russo, curator of the Museum's art collection, shares the story behind the painting November 1944, by artist Robert Jordan, who served in World War II and was a Prisoner of War at Luft IV POW camp.

After Pearl Harbor, a Nebraska farm boy named Ben Kuroki volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps. He could not have been more American: born in the breadbasket of America, one of ten children, growing up in a small town of with a population of about 500, vice-president of his high school senior class.

Curator Michael Hankins examines the history of the World War II fighter plane P-38 Lightning and its connections with the fan-favorite SR-71 Blackbird.

Naval aviation curator Laurence Burke explores a lesser known type of naval aviation — spotter planes, a role mainly filled by Vought OS2U Kingfishers.

Few American fighter pilots on their own survived a turning, twisting, close-in dogfight against a capable Japanese pilot flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero during World War II. Curator Russell Lee explores in a new blog.