Stories of daring, stories of technological feats, stories of prevailing against the odds ... these are the stories we tell at the National Air and Space Museum. Dive in to the stories below to discover, learn, and be inspired. 

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August 01, 2016 On This Day: First U.S. Female to Earn Pilot’s License Story | This Day in History

On August 1, 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first licensed female pilot in the United States, and the second woman to receive a pilot’s license in the world.

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July 31, 2016 Food & Flight: Jerrie Mock’s Moroccan Recipe Story

Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock, the first woman to fly solo around the world, was a wife and a mother of three, but she was no ordinary housewife. And she didn’t cook like one either. This world explorer’s recipes reflect her worldliness and wanderlust. The recipes that Mock chose to feature in the cookbook are a traditional Moroccan meat pie called bastilla, and couscous.

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July 30, 2016 Catching Pokémon at the Museum Story

isitors and staff alike are finding Pokémon alongside the Museum’s collection: a Bulbasaur by the Spirit of St. Louis; a Growlithe on the 1903 Wright Flyer; a Chariz … Wait, why are there so many Doduo in the West wing?

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July 29, 2016 Flying the SR-71 Story

The Museum is fortunate that among our corps of docents, or guides, are people with direct experience flying or flying in a number of our aircraft. Among those docents are Buz Carpenter and Phil Soucy who know what its like to sit inside one of the world's fastest aircrafts, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

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July 28, 2016 Setting Records with the SR-71 Blackbird Story

In 1976, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird broke the world’s record for sustained altitude in horizontal flight at 25,929 meters (85,069 feet). The same day another SR-71 set an absolute speed record of 3,529.6 kilometers per hour (2,193.2 miles per hour), approximately Mach 3.3. As the fastest jet aircraft in the world, the SR-71 has an impressive collection of records and history of service. The Blackbird’s owes its success to the continuum of aircraft that came before it.

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July 27, 2016 The Mystery of Grey Spots on Apollo Glove Story | Armstrong Spacesuit

The last time Neil Armstrong's gloves and helmet were displayed, in 2012, visitors asked us about “grey spots” on the right glove. We're conducting research and examining historical documentation to find out why.

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July 25, 2016 Exploring Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes: A Towering Red Planet Analog Story

As the National Air and Space Museum’s annual Mars Day! celebration approaches, we look to a recent research trip taken by a Smithsonian Summer Intern to investigate the similarities between some of Earth’s most amazing dunes and those found on the ruddy surface of Mars.

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July 24, 2016 Amelia Earhart: Using Fashion to Inspire Flight Story

Did you know Earhart created a clothing line called “Amelia Fashions” in 1933? Earhart had been interested in flying apparel for women for years. At the beginning of her career, Earhart had to wear aviation suits that were designed for men and poorly fitted for a woman. There was nothing else available.

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July 24, 2016 Operation Moon Bounce Story

On July 24, 1954, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) at Stump Neck, Maryland sent and received the first human voice transmission to be bounced back to Earth from the Moon. Moon bounce, also known as Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication, is a technique that sends radio wave transmissions from Earth to the Moon. 

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July 21, 2016 Iconic Apollo Photography Sells Savings Bonds Story

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, and the U.S. Treasury turned to America’s newest space heroes to fundraise. In 1970, the Advertising Council began one of the Treasury’s longest running Savings Bond promotions, “Take stock in America.” One of the first posters produced for the promotion is a photographic assembly depicting the United States’ conquest of the Moon.

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