All Stories

Flying under all four bridges in New York by age 17.  Simultaneously holding the women’s world speed, altitude, and distance records.  Breaking their own world record with 930 barrel loops. The women in this article set and broke records with feats of flying. Discover their stories.  

Breaking records or excelling in physical competition are feats of endurance, training, and skill. Jeana Yeager and Patty Wagstaff’s stories exemplify this, as they soared above the competition.  

Women made history not only as pilots of aircraft, but also by being willing passengers. Read about three women that were brave enough to fly in aircraft when they were relatively new inventions.

In addition to the feats accomplished while in a plane, Earhart made an impact in areas from ranging from fashion to flying an autogiro. Here are five things you may not know about the famous American pilot.

On May 18, 1953, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound and, at the time of her death in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other male or female pilot in aviation history. 

On September 25, 1912, Alberto Salinas Carranza and Gustavo Salinas Camiña received their pilot licenses from the Aero Club of America. The Salinas cousins were the first of a group of five Mexican pilots sent by their government to the United States to study at the Moisant Aviation School at Hempstead, Long Island. The photographs and correspondence found in the collection of Shakir S. Jerwan, their “profesor,” provide a unique glimpse into the early history of Mexican aviation.

100 years ago Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn her pilot's license. In part because she was a woman, and especially a woman of color, Bessie had to travel all the way to Europe to get her flight training. Today on AirSpace, we're looking back on Bessie's experiences in France and Germany in the 1920s and exploring just how far she went to earn her historic license (and inspire generations of pilots along the way).

Museum acting director Chris Browne was Airport Manager of DC's Reagan National Airport on September 11, 2001. He reflects on the tragedy, 20 years later.

Raise a glass and cheers to a new season of AirSpace! And to help us get in the celebratory mood, today's episode is about a truly intoxicating period of American history – prohibition. You might know [we didn’t] that NASCAR has its roots in bootleggers driving illicit hooch in the 1920s. But it turns out, not all bootleggers were driving their contraband around in cars. Today on AirSpace, learn how prohibition and passenger airlines went hand-in-hand.

Explore the innovative metalworking techniques developed by the Museum’s restoration specialists to fabricate the mast elbows from the radar array of the World War II night fighter.