Since the inaugural issue of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine in April 1986, we have published more than 200 short personal accounts of flying experiences. Here you’ll find some of our favorites. Taken together, they show how varied a life the airplane has led since its birth 118 years ago, and how its cousins—the balloons, gliders, and yes, the rocket belt—have contributed to the richness of aviation history.

But even these gems from our archive can’t tell the complete story of flight. That’s why we asked you, the Air & Space readers, to share some of your best memories of flying. More than 400 of you responded, with tales ranging from the suspenseful to the humorous to the historic. A selection is below, and you can find more here. Watch for more stories to be added in the future.

From Our Readers

Why do we fly? Maybe just for the feeling that Ryan Mohr must have had as he flew Tony Phillippi's perfect Grumman Albatross seaplane over Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota on a perfect 2014 fall day.

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Taking Flight

A beautifully restored Howard DGA built in 1943 cruises over Middletown Valley in western Maryland.

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Aerospace Firsts

Jessica Voruda and a passenger fly in a Piper J3C Cub over farmland near Hartford, Wisconsin in July, 2017.

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For the Fun of It

A Marine Corps Reserve UH-1Y makes ready to deploy troops as part of a poor-weather training exercise at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in January 2017.

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Heavy Weather

An Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 takes flight in October 1978. Although Eastern ceased operations in 1991, the 727 flew for major U.S. airlines into the 2000s.

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Adventures in Coach

Lieutenant John Payne mailed this publicity photo of himself posing in the cockpit of a Republic P-47D home to his grandfather.

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In the Service

This Bede BD-4 at the 1991 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh joined the hundreds built from an $1,800 kit introduced by Jim Bede in 1970.

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Homebuilt Airplanes

The 31st of more than 100 parachute-deployment “saves,” according to the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association, happened in November 2012 in New South Wales, Australia.

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Close Calls

The “perfect red fabric” of Ferdinand Seeman’s Waco, over Point Bonita, California, in 2018.

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Such a Lot of World To See

Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger hot air balloon program lasted 22 years, flying in nearly every U.S. state and around the globe.

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It's a Family Affair

A reproduction Wright <i>Flyer</i>, with pilot Kevin Kochersberger, was foiled by bad weather on this particular attempt on December 17, 2003. But it had already flown successfully to mark the 100th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur’s triumph.

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Encounters With History

On his first skydive in 2016, Anthony Killeen took this shot of a circular rainbow in New Zealand.

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Wonders Above

Instructor Erin Brueggen of CubAir enjoys the Wisconsin breeze in her 1946 Piper JC3 Cub in May 2021.

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Why We Fly

From the Archive

The Skye Ryder powered parachute comes as a kit for assembly. A 50-horsepower engine is standard, as is the feeling of freedom experienced when flying it.

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Riding the Sky Over Montana

The year before her flight to England, Lores Bonney (in foreground at right) flew solo around Australia. She flew the same open-cockpit de Havilland Gipsy Moth on both flights. She told this story to the author several years before her death in 1994 at the age of 96.

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Australia to England, Alone

After its final flight across the Atlantic, in June 2003, Air France Concorde F-BVFA lands at Washington Dulles International. The airplane is on view today at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near the airport.

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Mach 2 on the Concorde

Before the Hindenburg disaster brought the airship era to a close, travelers experienced a degree of luxury and comfort today’s airline passengers would envy. Then again, an Atlantic crossing took three days.

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Across the Atlantic on the Hindenburg

A 1927 photo of Frank Clark, who offered $20 for Phillips’ flight and piloted the first rescue attempt.

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Wingwalker to the Rescue

In the skies above Iraq in 2017, a KC-135 Stratotanker pumps gas into a B-52 Stratofortress. KC-135s and B-52s have hooked up for more than 60 years.

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Eyewitness: Inflight Refueling

Eleanor Roosevelt (right), shown on a 1933 flight with her friend Amelia Earhart, admired the courage of women pilots, and aimed to become one herself, but her husband objected on the grounds that it was too dangerous. When Earhart disappeared in 1937, Eleanor wrote her daughter Anna: “Heard about Amelia over the radio and felt even lower…I do like her and I’ll miss seeing her if she’s gone but perhaps she’d rather go that way.”

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The Search for Amelia Earhart

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