On 1 May 1960, the Eisenhower administration told the world that a NASA weather research aircraft had gone missing over Turkey. It was a carefully constructed lie — and it lasted exactly four days. On 5 May, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev revealed that they had shot...
On 2 May 1952, a British Overseas Airways Corporation de Havilland Comet lifted off from London Heathrow and flew to Johannesburg. It carried 36 passengers in pressurised comfort at 35,000 feet, cruising at 500 mph — twice the speed of any existing airliner. The jet...
Quick FactsNationalityFinnish 🇫🇮Aerial Victories94 (highest non-German ace of WWII)Aircraft FlownBrewster Buffalo, Bf 109GWarsWinter War, Continuation WarBorn / Died21 Feb 1914 – 21 Feb 1999 (age 85 — died on his birthday)UnitLLv 24, HLeLv 34 Eino Ilmari Juutilainen —...
For 462 days, Western aircraft landed at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport every three minutes around the clock. They brought coal. They brought flour. They brought powdered milk and dried eggs and medicines. At the peak of the operation, a fully loaded transport...
In 1921, no flight school in the United States would take her. Not because she lacked ability — she hadn’t been given the chance to prove it. They turned her away because she was Black, and because she was a woman. So Bessie Coleman learned French, saved her...
He painted his aeroplane red so the enemy would know exactly who was coming. By the time Manfred von Richthofen fell from the sky on 21 April 1918, he had destroyed 80 enemy aircraft — a record that stood as the highest confirmed tally of any fighter pilot in the...
Quick FactsNationalityBritish 🇬🇧Aerial Victories38 (highest confirmed British ace of WWII)Aircraft FlownSpitfire Mk.II through Mk.XIVWarsWorld War IIBorn / Died9 Mar 1915 – 30 Jan 2001 (age 85)Unit616 Sqn RAF, No. 144 Wing RCAF Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX in the Air...
On the morning of October 19, 1901, a small, open gondola suspended beneath a cigar-shaped hydrogen balloon rounded the Eiffel Tower at low altitude, straightened out over the Seine, and docked at the Saint-Cloud aerodrome in a time of 29 minutes and 30 seconds. The...
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