Charles Lindbergh was born on February 2, 1902, in Detroit, Michigan. He dropped out of college to begin a career as barnstormer and mail delivery pilot. When the Orteig Prize was announced as a reward for the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, Lindbergh set out to win it. He first approached Sicilian plane Read More…
Marjorie and Katherine Stinson were the first women to make a real mark in aviation. Marjorie, a legendary flight instructor, ran a flying school in San Antonio, Texas, and Katherine supported her sister’s flying school, the Red Cross, and Liberty Bonds with the money she made with stunt flying. Ruth Law, who came from a Read More…
Ever since the invention of the airplane, aerobatics pushed the limits of what could be done with—or on—an airplane. Daredevil pilots looked at flying as an entertaining way to earn a living. Lincoln Beachy, Glenn Curtiss, and Charles Hamilton were the first to impress crowds across the country with their aerial performances. Lincoln Beachy set Read More…
Many kids and teens are interested in flying, and some even get in trouble with their parents for trying to put their plans into motion. But Otto Lilienthal, considered by many to be the first true aviator, started building flying machines with his brother as a teen—and he never stopped. Born in Pomerania, Germany, in Read More…
December 17, 1903, is remembered as a monumental day in aviation history — the day that Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the age-old dream of flight and took off on the first sustained airplane ride. Several decades before the Wright brothers ascended from Kitty Hawk, however, Sir George Cayley of Yorkshire, England, launched another human Read More…