All Stories

The dangers of ballooning were apparent to aeronauts and the general public. From the early 1800s, attempts to fly over water too often ended in disaster or a narrow escape. Some of the best known aeronauts on both sides of the Atlantic set off across a large body of water never to be seen again. The daring rescue of balloonists from water was a favorite subject with artists and engravers. The vision of a “lost balloon” vanishing over the horizon became a metaphor for the uncertainties of life in the turbulent 19th century.  

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

The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) artists documented the new military technology as thoroughly as every other aspect of the war.

The Fighting 69th explores the story of the American Expeditionary Force’s arrival in France in World War I. 

Today marks an important day in sports—the official first day of baseball season and the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game.

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.

With its dramatic aerial combat scenes and heroic and tragic pilot figures, The Dawn Patrol is the father of all military aviation films. 

In the early years of the balloon, explorers employed the lighter-than-air craft to probe the upper reaches of the atmosphere, or float across the arctic wastes in an attempt to reach the North Pole.

Women around the world have meaningfully contributed to the aerospace industry, from groundbreaking research to daring flights. Here are just a few of those inspiring women.  

Having watched the first humans rise into the air, Benjamin Franklin predicted that the new invention would have considerable military value, enabling an aerial view of an enemy’s army for “conveying intelligence into, or out of, a besieged town, giving signals to distant places, or the like.”