Icons of Aviation History: B-24 Liberator

Over 19,000 B-24 Liberator bombers were manufactured by the US during the Second World War, making it the most widely-produced American aircraft of the period.

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B-24 Liberator, on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton

Icons of Aviation History: Nieuport 28C

Light and highly maneuverable, the Nieuport 28C was rejected by the French air service, but found a place with the first American fighter squadrons to be deployed in World War One.

 

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Nieuport 28C in the Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola FL

Gustav Whitehead and the First Airplane

In March 2013, Paul Jackson, the editor of the widely-respected aviation journal Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, published an article in which he reignited a long-running historical dispute by asserting that the first airplane flight had not been made by the Wright Brothers in December 1903, but by a German immigrant named Gustav Whitehead in the summer of 1901.

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Gustav Whitehead’s “Aeroplane Number 21”

Sonic Wind and “The Fastest Man On Earth”

In 1954, John Stapp rode a rocket sled to over 600mph and became “The Fastest Man on Earth”.

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Sonic Wind rocket sled on display at the Space History Museum in Alamogordo

Icons of Aviation History: B-36 Peacemaker

B-36 bomber was one of the largest propeller-driven aircraft ever built. Designed during WW2 it was intended to bomb Germany from the US, but was not finished in time, and ended up as a nuclear bomber in the Cold War.

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B-36 Peacemaker at the Pima Air and Space Museum