Planes

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Orville Wright Turns 137

Former Air Force pilot Brian Shul calls the super-fast SR-71 Blackbird "the most remarkable airplane of the 20th century."

The Ultimate Spy Plane

The SR-71 Blackbird, now featured in the Transformers movie sequel, was faster than a rifle bullet and flew 16 miles above the earth

A US Air Force Boeing 707 disturbs a colony of sooty terns during takeoff.

The Perils of Bird-Plane Collisions

When airlines want to investigate dangerous bird strikes against planes, they turn to the head of the Smithsonian’s Feather Identification Lab

A spectacular new gallery at the Air and Space Museum (the nose of a 747) charts the history of an astonishing triumph—air travel.

From the Castle

Aero Dynamic

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How Pan Am's Founder Juan Trippe Turned Americans Into Frequent Fliers

This antique globe was once owned by the fabled airline executive, who ushered in modern air travel

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Seeking Friendlier Skies

Can radar networks eliminate airplane turbulence?

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Flights of Fancy

Leslie Payne's flying machines soared, if only in his imagination

On their first flight together, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindberg flew more than 7,000 miles from the United States to China.

Sky Writer

Anne Morrow Lindbergh chronicled the flights made with her celebrated husband

Boeing-Wichita B-29 Assembly Line

Dive Bomber

Underwater archaeologists ready a crashed B-29 for visits by scuba-wearing tourists at the bottom of Lake Mead

Chiricahua Mountains

Crash Junkie

Flight instructor Craig Fuller scales mountains, combs deserts and trudges through wilderness to track down old airplane wrecks

Day after day, the brothers (Wilbur, left, and Orville at the controls) put their new and improved glider through its paces. Assistant Dan Tate lent a hand.

To Fly!

A new book traces the Wright brothers' triumph 100 years ago to an innovative design and meticulous attention to detail

As the fabric-covered plane came to a halt, frenzied sou-venir hunters tore at it, putting French officials on guard. Hailed in his home state of Minnesota, the 25-year-old pilot hated the nickname Lucky, bestowed on him after the flight. After sleeping in splendor at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, he awoke to a life, he said, "that could hardly have been more amazing if I had landed on another planet." On an old postcard kept by the Richards family, Tudor Richards has written, "We saw him land!"

We Saw Him Land!

In a long-lost letter an American woman describes Lindbergh's tumultuous touchdown in Paris—75 years ago this month

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

A Rare Bird

Eugene Gilbert in Bleriot XI attacked by eagle over Pyrenees in 1911 depicted in this painting

Evidence from the Skies

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Piloting Pint-size Planes

Across the country, weekend aviators are sending their remote-controlled model aircraft soaring

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The Dominoes Are Falling

Planes are stacked on the runways and circling in holding patterns, delays are piling up and . . . the dominoes are falling

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Langley's Feat--and Folly

The Smithsonian Secretary assembled a devoted team, a remarkable engine and a plane that wouldn't fly

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Women and Flight

Howard Hughes stands with his first plane, the H-1.

Howard Hughes' H-1 Carried Him "All the Way"

A silver speedster from the 1930s evokes the golden age of flight, a pair of world-class speed records and the early triumphs of Howard Hughes' life

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