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Roger Connor

Roger Connor is a curator in the Aeronautics department at the National Air and Space Museum.

Stories from this author

Some photos show intimate moments: At a remote base in the Aleutian Islands, U.S. Navy aircrew amuse themselves with cribbage—and posters of pin-up girls.

World War II in Color

Thousands of photographs in government archives bring the war to life.

A Wing 7000 drone makes a delivery to a Christiansburg home from its designated 23-foot hover altitude, where it will lower the up to three-pound package on a breakaway tether. It flies 130 feet above ground level.

One of the World’s First Delivery Drones Is Now a Museum Piece

The first to deliver coffee, clothes, and medicine takes its place in history.

We know that Elmo Pickerill, here with a Curtiss JN-4H Jenny, was a U.S. Army Air Service lieutenant in 1918. About his claims to earlier flights, we’re not so sure.

The Lies of Elmo Pickerill

Fake dates, fake radio messages: What else did this early aviator make up?

Curator Roger Connor admires the Cierva C.8W Autogiro, the United States’ oldest successful rotorcraft, which is currently in storage.

The Coolest Autogiro You Won’t See at the National Air and Space Museum

The Museum’s helicopter expert picks an undisplayed favorite from the collection.

The Draganflyer has helped the Mounties locate lost hikers.

This Drone Can Save Your Life

Just ask the hiker it helped rescue in 2013.

In May 1928, Navy Lieutenant Commander Philip V.H. Weems took Charles Lindbergh on a series of flights to teach him a new way to navigate. Clockwise from left: Lindbergh’s sun lines of position, plotted from Washington, D.C., to New York to Michigan; Weems’ personal log; the bubble sextant used in Lindbergh’s training; an article in Popular Science that documented the lessons; and Weems’ book on line of position.

In the 1920s, Only One Man Held the Key to Aerial Navigation

Even Lindbergh got lost.

For the wounded on Luzon in 1945, the Sikorsky R-6A transport doubled as an ambulance.

Medevac From Luzon

A small band of helicopter pilots risked their lives to rescue wounded soldiers during World War II.