Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Pacific Clipper's long way home
Pearl Harbor stranded an American airliner, so the crew flew around the world.
Coming January 6
Dossier 06
Air & Space
For those who looked up and went further.
The stories in this series
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Major James Howard's one-man stand
One Mustang pilot took on about thirty German fighters to protect the bombers.
Coming January 11
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The first landing on a ship
A daredevil pilot landed on a warship using ropes and sandbags.
Coming January 18
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Apollo 1 fire
Three astronauts died in a fire during a routine test on the launch pad.
Coming January 27
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Explorer 1 reaches orbit
Four months after Sputnik, an Army rocket put America's first satellite in orbit.
Coming January 31
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The lost bomb of Tybee Island
A nuclear bomb may still lie buried in the mud off Georgia.
Coming February 5
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The first human satellite
A Navy captain flew away from the space shuttle with no tether at all.
Coming February 7
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Bridge of Spies
A U-2 pilot and a Soviet spy crossed paths on a Berlin bridge.
Coming February 10
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Operation Homecoming
The first American POWs walked off a plane into freedom after years in Hanoi.
Coming February 12
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Butch O'Hare saves the Lexington
One Navy pilot stood between nine bombers and his aircraft carrier.
Coming February 20
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Lucky Lady II circles the globe nonstop
An Air Force bomber flew around the world without landing once.
Coming March 2
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
USS Langley, the first carrier
America's first aircraft carrier started life as a coal ship.
Coming March 20
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The loss of USS Akron
The Navy's giant flying aircraft carrier went down in a storm off New Jersey.
Coming April 4
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Sinking the battleship Yamato
The biggest battleship ever built sailed on a one-way mission and never arrived.
Coming April 7
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Apollo 13: "We've had a problem"
Two hundred thousand miles from Earth, an oxygen tank on Apollo 13 exploded.
Coming April 13
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Apollo 13 comes home
After four days in a crippled spacecraft, three astronauts splashed down alive.
Coming April 17
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Doolittle Raid
Sixteen Army bombers took off from a Navy carrier that was never built for them.
Coming April 18
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Desert One: Operation Eagle Claw
Eight Americans died in the Iranian desert trying to bring the hostages home.
Coming April 24
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Alan Shepard: the first American in space
"Light this candle," Alan Shepard said, after hours of waiting on the pad.
Coming May 5
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Jacqueline Cochran breaks the sound barrier
The woman who led the WASPs became the first woman faster than sound.
Coming May 18
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
NC-4 flies the Atlantic
Eight years before Lindbergh, a Navy crew flew across the Atlantic first.
Coming May 27
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Ed White walks in space
"I'm coming back in, and it's the saddest moment of my life."
Coming June 3
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Midway: five minutes that changed the war
In about five minutes, Navy dive bombers turned the Pacific War.
Coming June 4
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The first "flying saucers"
A pilot searching for a lost Marine plane saw nine objects streak past Mount Rainier.
Coming June 24
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Berlin Airlift begins
To save a blockaded city, aircrews flew in food and coal for nearly a year.
Coming June 26
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Quentin Roosevelt's Last Flight
A president's youngest son flew into a dogfight and never came home.
Coming July 14
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Eagle Has Landed
Two veterans flew to the Moon. One was a Korean War Navy pilot.
Coming July 20
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Wiley Post Circles the Globe Alone
A one-eyed pilot from Oklahoma flew around the world by himself.
Coming July 22
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
A Bomber Hits the Empire State Building
In thick fog, a B-25 slammed into the world's tallest building.
Coming July 28
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Operation Tidal Wave: Ploesti
They flew B-24 bombers at treetop height into Hitler's oil fields.
Coming August 1
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Bockscar Over Nagasaki
Their target was hidden by clouds, and their fuel was running out.
Coming August 9
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Schweinfurt-Regensburg
In a single day, sixty American bombers fell from the sky.
Coming August 17
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Guion Bluford Reaches Orbit
A combat pilot with 144 missions in Vietnam became the first Black American in space.
Coming August 30
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
St. Mihiel
For the first time, an American army attacked under its own flag.
Coming September 12
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Air Force Is Born
After 40 years under the Army, America's airmen finally got their own branch.
Coming September 18
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Berlin Airlift Ends
For 15 months, pilots fed a city of two million from the sky.
Coming September 30
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The airmen who fed the Lost Battalion
They flew low on purpose, so the starving men below could catch the bundles.
Coming October 6
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Yeager breaks the sound barrier
He did it with two broken ribs and a sawed-off broom handle.
Coming October 14
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Major Anderson Over Cuba
He was the only American killed by enemy fire in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Coming October 27
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
John Glenn Goes Back at 77
Thirty-six years after his first orbit, the old Marine flew again.
Coming October 29
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
First takeoff from a ship
A civilian pilot rolled off a wooden ramp and started naval aviation.
Coming November 14
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
First flight over the South Pole
To clear the mountains, they threw their food overboard.
Coming November 29
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Flight 19 disappears
Five Navy bombers vanished, and then so did the plane sent to find them.
Coming December 5
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Twelve seconds at Kitty Hawk
The first airplane flight was shorter than the wingspan of a modern jet.
Coming December 17
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
The Space Force is born
For the first time since 1947, America created a new military branch.
Coming December 20
Public domain · Source & rights ↗
Apollo 8 leaves for the moon
Three men became the first humans ever to leave Earth's orbit.
Coming December 21