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Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 7, 1976) was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained prominence from the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big-budget and often controversial films like The Racket […]

Republic F-84G Thunderjet

Intended as a replacement for the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the F-84 Thunderjet was a turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. Originating as a 1944 USAAF proposed “day fighter”, the F-84 first flew in 1946 and it entered service in 1947. Initially, the Thunderjet was plagued with so many structural and engine problems that in 1948, the U.S. Air […]

Aviation Insider: A Tale of the Times

We’ll lose the XC-99 and it won’t be alone Big, historic airplanes could be the aeronautical definition of “conundrum” for museum people. No one wants to see a truly historic airplane, such as the XC-99 disintegrate into powdery oxide while in outside storage. However, the realities of space and financing determine the prioritization for every […]

America’s Aerial Warriors Today

Life begins at 40 or 50, or … It’s a sure fact of life that we all reach a point where we can’t begin to guess how long ago something in our lives happened. Did such and such happen five years ago? Or was it 10? We get to the point where we can’t even […]

Which three famous Pilots would you invite to a Bar?

Here’s something fun. We all have our favorite pilots, whether a modern day pilot, a WW I or WW II ace, A Mustang driver from MiG alley during the Korean War, or a Wild Weasel from Vietnam, these are the guys that got the job done. Tell us who you’d like to invite to a […]

Happy Birthday Beech Staggerwing

At the height of the Great Depression, aircraft executive Walter H. Beech and airplane designer Ted A. Wells joined forces to collaborate on a project to produce a large, powerful, and fast cabin biplane built specifically for the business executive. The Beechcraft Model 17, popularly known as the “Staggerwing”, was first flown on November 4, […]

Hey, That’s My Dad!

Part of the enjoyment of viewing WW II photographs is seeing the never-ending panorama of men and women at work during the war. Young and cocky fighter pilots, winsome women serving donuts or riveting bombers, and mechanics lounging for a moment before returning to the endless tasks of keeping high-performance aircraft ready to fight. Much […]

Early Aeronautical Pioneer

Michael Holroyd Smith, a Victorian inventor and engineer, is best remembered for his pioneering work on developing Britain’s earliest street tramways. However, he was also interested in and contributed to the development of powered flight. He is known to have presented a lecture concerning the possibility of mechanically powered flight in 1879 and in 1910 […]

History: Eddie Rickenbacker

On this day in history, October 8, 1890, Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (“Captain Eddie”), was born. He grew up in a poor immigrant family in Columbus, Ohio, and left school at thirteen to work when his father died. He learned engineering through correspondence courses. He drove in four Indianapolis 500 races before 1917, became America’s “Ace […]

Monday Multi-Wing S.E.5a Scout

by Budd Davisson When World War One broke out in 1914, the airplane was barely eleven years old and was nothing more than a plodding, noisy kite barely more dangerous than an observation balloon. As a weapon, it was difficult to take seriously. Four short years later it had been transformed into a multi-dimensional weapon […]