For 34 consecutive days, we celebrated the greatest fighter aces in history — from Adolphe Pégoud, the Frenchman who invented aerial combat, to M.M. Alam, the Pakistani ace who downed five aircraft in under a minute. If you missed any of those posts, they live permanently in our History & Legends section.
Today, we turn a new page. Same sense of wonder, different breed of pilot. Our new daily series — Outstanding Aviators in History — celebrates the men and women who didn't just fly in combat, but reshaped what flight itself meant. Inventors who worked with wood and wire. Record-breakers who flew solo across oceans. Test pilots who strapped into aircraft that had never left the ground. Aviators who broke down barriers of race, gender, altitude, and sound.
What to Expect
Every day at 8:00 AM, a new post drops — one aviator, one story, told the way it deserves to be told. Not a dry biography. Not a Wikipedia summary. A vivid account of what they did, why it was insane, why it mattered, and what it felt like to be there.
Over the coming weeks you'll meet the bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio who spent four years proving the impossible. The French journalist who crossed the English Channel in a monoplane cobbled together from piano wire. The woman who was refused flying lessons in America — so she sailed to France and earned her licence there. The Boeing test pilot who silently decided to roll a passenger jet prototype in front of 200,000 spectators without telling anyone. And the amateur cyclist who pedalled his way across the Channel on nothing but determination and cramped legs.
Coming Up in the Series
Here's a preview of who's coming — in chronological order of their greatest achievement:
The Outstanding Aviators Series — Coming Daily
| 6 May | Wilbur & Orville Wright — 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk |
| 7 May | Louis Blériot — first monoplane crossing of the English Channel |
| 8 May | Charles Lindbergh — 33.5 hours alone over the Atlantic |
| 9 May | Harriet Quimby — America's first female pilot, first woman across the Channel |
| 10 May | Bessie Coleman — refused lessons in America, went to France to earn her wings |
| 11 May | Amelia Earhart — first woman to fly the Atlantic solo |
| 12 May | Florence 'Pancho' Barnes — first female stunt pilot, holder of the women's speed record |
| 13 May | Jacqueline Cochran — founded the WASPs, first woman to break the sound barrier |
| 14 May | Jacqueline Auriol — France's supersonic test pilot who broke the barrier four times |
| 15 May | Jimmy Doolittle — flew blind, then bombed Tokyo |
| 16 May | Glenn Curtiss — the man who beat the Wright Brothers in court and in the air |
| 17 May | Billy Mitchell — sunk a battleship with bombers, was court-martialed, then vindicated |
| 18 May | Howard Hughes — billionaire, recluse, and the fastest man alive |
| 19 May | Bob Hoover — Chuck Yeager called him the greatest stick-and-rudder man alive |
| 20 May | Tony LeVier — Skunk Works test pilot who first flew the U-2 et F-104 |
| 21 May | Tex Johnston — secretly rolled the Boeing 707 prototype over 200,000 spectators |
| 22 May | Neil Armstrong — flew the X-15 to the edge of space, then walked on the Moon |
| 23 May | Eric "Winkle" Brown — flew 487 aircraft types and made 2,407 carrier landings |
| 24 May | Noel Wien — the man who brought airlines to Alaska by biplane |
| 25 May | Max Conrad — the Flying Grandfather who crossed oceans alone in a light aircraft |
| 26 May | Bryan Allen — pedalled a human-powered aircraft across the English Channel |
Each story is told in full — with historical images, key facts, unforgettable quotes, and where possible, footage you can watch. Bookmark this series. Share the ones that blow your mind. And check back tomorrow for the flight that started everything.
“The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space.”
— Wilbur Wright, 1900 — the Wright Brothers story begins tomorrowAt MiGFlug, we offer ordinary people the chance to fly in real fighter jets — the L-39 Albatros, the MiG-29, and more. It's our way of honouring the same spirit that drove every pilot in this series. The need to feel the sky. Find your flight here.
Questions connexes
Who invented aerial combat?
The Frenchman Adolphe Pégoud is often credited as a father of aerial combat and the first "ace." A pre-war stunt pilot famous for early aerobatics, he became one of the first fighter pilots of World War I. Organised air-to-air fighting grew rapidly from these pioneering French and German aviators.
Which fighter pilot shot down five aircraft in under a minute?
Who were the great pioneers of early aviation?
Early aviation was shaped by figures such as the Wright brothers, who achieved the first powered flight in 1903, and Louis Blériot, who first flew across the English Channel in 1909. They were followed by record-breakers, test pilots and barrier-breakers who together transformed flight over the following decades.
Who was the first Black woman to earn a pilot's licence?
Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn a pilot's licence, in 1921. Refused training in the United States because of her race, she sailed to France and qualified there, then became a celebrated stunt flyer who inspired a generation of aviators.
What is a flying ace?
A flying ace is a military pilot credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft. The term emerged in World War I, when nations celebrated their top fighter pilots as national heroes. Aces such as Adolphe Pégoud, and later jet-age pilots, became some of the most famous aviators in history.
What famous test pilot barrel-rolled a jet airliner?
Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston barrel-rolled the prototype of the Boeing 707 jet airliner over a crowd of spectators near Seattle in 1955 — without telling his bosses beforehand. The daring manoeuvre showcased the aircraft's strength and became one of aviation's most famous stunts.
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