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Aviation Heritage

The stories behind the skill.

Primary-sourced histories of the aircraft, people, and moments that shaped how we fly — each one a short read that ties back to a skill you use today.

250 cards

Era
Category
Heritage
HistoryWWII

"243 feet"

First Practical Controllable Helicopter
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"000 feet"

First Transatlantic Balloon Flight
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"16 feet"

First Circumnavigation by Balloon
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"117 hours"

First Solar-Powered Round-the-World Flight
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryWWII

"1,074 women. 77 types of aircraft. And then they were told to go home."

WASP — The Women Who Flew Everything the Army Had
Story in review
Heritage
PeopleModern

"She learned to fly in a Cessna 185 on floats. Then she became untouchable."

Patty Wagstaff — Three Times the Best in America
Story in review
Heritage
HistorySpace Age

"They passed the same tests as Glenn. NASA said no anyway."

Mercury 13 — The Right Stuff, the Wrong Era
Story in review
Heritage
PeopleSpace Age

"She went to space with a Stanford PhD and a five-person crew."

Sally Ride — The Physicist Who Changed the Crew Quarters
Story in review
Heritage
PeopleSpace Age

"She called herself Chaika. The world called her history."

Valentina Tereshkova — The First Woman to Orbit Earth
Story in review
Heritage
PeopleTimeless

"She flew from Dover to France in fog. The Titanic sank the next day."

Harriet Quimby — The Channel Crossing Nobody Saw
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryJet Age

"On 16 January 1930, a 22-year-old Royal Air Force cadet n..."

The Jet Age Dawns: Whittle, Heinkel, and Junkers
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

" originally stood for "

Transponders: The Electronic Beacon
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"TCAS II, the fully capable version, issues two kinds of a..."

TCAS: The Guardian in the Cockpit
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"On 18 June 1914, the banks of the Seine River near Paris ..."

The Autopilot: Lawrence Sperry and the Gyroscope's Promise
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"Whitcomb's 1976 NASA Technical Note (TN D-8260) establish..."

Winglets and Laminar Flow: Taming the Wingtip Vortex
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"In the summer of 1975, the Defense Advanced Research Proj..."

Stealth: The Geometry of Invisibility
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryWWII

"Easter Parade"

Operation Vittles: The Berlin Airlift
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryWWII

"gleam of hope"

D-Day Air Operations: The Sunday Punch in Normandy
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryWWII

"**THE FLIGHT** On 17 September 1944, three airborne div..."

Operation Market Garden: The Airborne Highway
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryWWII

"500 miles"

Battle of the Atlantic Air Cover: Closing the Air Gap
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryTimeless

"the Wolf Pack"

Operation Bolo: The Wolf Pack's Deception
Story in review
Heritage
HistorySpace Age

"000 miles"

Linebacker II: The B-52s Go to Hanoi
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"**THE FLIGHT** On 17 January 1991, more than 1,100 USAF..."

Operation Desert Storm: The Air Campaign
Story in review
Heritage
HistoryModern

"**THE FLIGHT** Beginning on the evening of 24 March 199..."

Operation Allied Force: NATO's Air War for Kosovo
Story in review
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