Icons of Aviation History: F-22 Raptor

The F-22 Raptor is the latest fighter to be produced by the US.

F-22 Raptor on display at the US Air Force Museum

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The History of Embalming

From the dawn of humanity, people have been treating dead bodies with reverence and respect, often based around religious ceremonies and rituals. The earliest members of Homo sapiens buried their dead, often accompanying the bodies with “grave goods” such as spear points and pottery.

Civil War embalming tent

Icons of Aviation History: F-117 Nighthawk

The first of the “stealth” aircraft to be deployed, the F-117 Nighthawk looks more like a spaceship than a military airplane.

F-117 Nighthawk on display at the US Air Force Museum

Pelagornis: The Largest Flying Bird

In 1983, construction workers who were building a new terminal at the Charleston Airport in South Carolina made an unusual discovery—pieces of a large fossilized skeleton, including parts of a skull and limb bones. Paleontologists from the nearby Charleston Museum were called in to investigate the find, and museum director Albert Sanders dispatched a team headed by staff member James Malcolm to excavate the skeleton.

Pelgornis skeleton on display at the Charleston Museum

Icons of Aviation History: Wright Flyer III

The Wright Flyer III has been called “the first practical airplane”. Indeed, Orville Wright himself declared that “it was in the Flyer III that I really learned how to fly.”

Wright Flyer III on display at Carillon Historical Park, Dayton OH

The Whiskey Rebellion

After the adoption of the US Constitution in 1789, one of the first tests faced by the fledgling United States of America was a rebellion of farmers in Pennsylvania.

President Washington leads the militia to confront the Whiskey Rebellion

“Come Get This Goddamn Cat”: Kiddo’s Failed Trip Across the Atlantic

In 1909, an American newspaperman made an attempt to be the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air, in a dirigible originally designed for a failed expedition to the North Pole.

Walter Wellman on the “America”