France has been called the cradle of aviation by many- a fact that cannot be disputed, although some have tried. By the end of the 19th century, she led the world in lighter-than-air flight. Any concern about heavier-than-air flight was dismissed as inevitable, and France would achieve it in due course. By the time Blériot bravely enquired 'Which way is England?' the country was ready to redress any perceived shortfall. Besides leading European aviation,...

On the cusp of the Great Depression, Denver mayor Benjamin Stapleton pushed for the development of the first city-operated airport. Denver Municipal Airport opened in 1929 with three hub airlines. While Stapleton would be honored to later have the airport named after him, by the mid-1980s, the name Stapleton had become synonymous with congestion, flight delays, and frequent closures when the snow moved in. To solve the problem, Denver mayor Federico...

Paine Field was named in honor of hometown hero Topliff Olin Paine, an Army Air Corps pilot during World War I. Located 6 miles south of Everett and 20 miles north of Seattle, Paine Field- known as Snohomish County Airport-got its start as a WPA project in the 1930s. Situated on 1,000 acres, this airport was shaped by numerous events, such as World War II, the Korean War, and the arrival of Boeing, as well as social, political, and environmental issues...

In 1916, an airplane company was established in the previous Heath shipyard along the Duwamish River, situated a short distance south of Seattle's Elliott Bay. Work on the first two airplanes was already well underway as the articles of incorporation for Pacific Aero Products Company established three Seattle residents as the principals, William E. Boeing, James Foley, and Edgar Gott. The company's diverse crew included men with woodworking skills,...

Farmingdale, located in west-central Long Island on both sides of the Nassau-Suffolk County border, was an important center of airplane manufacturing from the First World War until almost the end of the Cold War. Aviation pioneers like Lawrence Sperry, Sherman Fairchild, Leroy Grumman, Alexander de Seversky, and Alexander Kartveli directed the manufacture of aircraft, aircraft engines, and key subassemblies as they evolved from the propeller, biplane...

From its founding in 1927 until the establishment of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1948, Wright Field played a vital role keeping the Army Air Force positioned as the world's leader in aircraft design and development. The Second World War catapulted it into the forefront of America's war effort, as virtually every new aircraft produced for the Army Air Force was developed and tested in Dayton. Wright Field's testing program also had the fascinating...

Marine Air Group 25 was a pioneering combat air transport unit that entered overseas service during the Guadalcanal campaign in September 1942, helping to achieve the first American offensive victory of the war in the Pacific. It quickly gained fame for its rapid delivery of vital supplies and its lifesaving evacuation of casualties. During the fight for Guadalcanal, Marine Air Group 25 became the nucleus of the joint-service SOPAC (South Pacific)...

On April 1, 1942, less than four months after the world was stunned by the attack on Pearl Harbor, sixteen US aircraft took to the skies to exact retribution. Their objective was not merely to attack Japan, but to bomb its capital. The people of Tokyo, who had been told that their city was invulnerable from the air, would be bombed and strafed-and the shock waves from the raid would extend far beyond the explosions of the bombs. The raid had first...

Virginia has one of the oldest and richest aeronautical legacies in the country. Beginning with the use of balloons in the Civil War, the commonwealth was at the forefront of aerospace innovation, particularly in military aviation. Langley Field and Quantico were key development centers in the maturation of aerial warfare for the Army Air Service, its successors, and the Marine Corps. Norfolk witnessed the birth of the American carrier force and was...

Shortly after the Wright brothers took to the air, aviation fever gripped Massachusetts. The biggest names in the industry, including Wilbur Wright, Glenn Curtiss, and Claude Graham-White, among others, flew in for the first major air shows, further exciting the people of the Bay State about the potential of manned flight in the realms of military tactics, the expansion of commerce, and even personal transportation. By the 1920s, Massachusetts had...