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National Air and Space Museum

A US flag flies over the captured U-858 as it receives a K-ship escort to Lewes, Delaware. (Official US Navy photograph via National Archives and Records Administration.)

K-Ships vs. U-Boats

65 Squadron received eight new Spitfires through the sponsorship of the East India Fund in July 1940. These new Spitfires featured de Havilland constant-speed propellers.

Better Propellers for “The Few”: Desmond Cooke’s Legacy in the Battle of Britain

Navy pilot Edward Lewis “Whitey” Feightner (National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution)

Remembering Edward Lewis “Whitey” Feightner

One of the entrances to the underground tunnels of the Mittelwerk, as photographed by the U.S. Army after the liberation in April 1945.

“Wonder Weapons” and Slave Labor

TWA transferred its entire fleet of five Boeing 307s, along with their flight crews, to the ATC. The airline opened regular transatlantic service in 1942.

Air Transport Command and the Airlines During World War II

Aircraft designer Neal Loving flying his WR-3 near Springfield, Ohio.

Neal V. Loving: Pilot, Engineer, Aircraft Designer

Alma W. Thomas, Blast Off, 1970, acrylic on canvas, 74 x 54 inches

The Art of Alma W. Thomas: A Colorful Response

The 101 African American officers arrested at Freeman Field about to be transported to Goodman Field, Kentucky. This image was likely taken with a hidden camera by Master Sergeant Harold J. Beaulieu, Sr. Other photographs of the event taken by another African American enlisted man were destroyed by a white officer on the spot.

Mutiny at Freeman Field: The Tuskegee Airmen on Trial, Part 2

Men of the all-African American 477th Bombardment Group pose in front of a North American B-25 Mitchell.

A Pattern of Resistance: The Tuskegee Airmen on Trial, Part 1

Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams, and other members of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign march through the lunar lander exhibit at Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Apollo 11.

The Challenge Before Us: A Historical Reflection on 1969 and 2020

Three WASP at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.

Flying on the Homefront: Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)

This American flag was left on the International Space Station by the crew of STS-135, the last space shuttle mission, with the intention of it being retrieved by the next crew to launch from American soil.

Launching Astronauts from American Soil: Why is it Important?

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley walk through Crew Access Arm in SpaceX spacesuits during a dress rehearsal for the first crewed SpaceX launch.

SpaceX Dragon Launch and Entry Suits

Space X's Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Redefining How NASA Gets into Space

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in the days before the first crewed launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Launch Complex 39: From Saturn to Shuttle to SpaceX and SLS

U.S. Army Air Force technical sergeant Ben Kuroki, who served in the Europe and Pacific theaters during World War II.

Ben Kuroki: A Story We All Need to Know

The V-1 (Vergeltungswaffe Eins, or Vengeance Weapon One), was the world's first operational cruise missile. (Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Insitution)

The Myth of the German “Wonder Weapons”

A hand touching the Museum's lunar touchrock. Part of a photo series by Museum photographer Jim Preston.

Touching a Piece of the Moon

Backup spacecraft for Telstar, the world's first active communications satellite. Telstar 1 began an era of live international television. After its launch on July 10, 1962, it relayed television images between the United States and France and England.

That’s no moon. (It's also not the Death Star.)

Amelia Earhart flew this Lockheed 5B Vega solo across the Atlantic and non-stop across the United States -- both firsts for a woman. Earhart left a greater legacy than her many record flights. She also helped promote aviation and air travel, especially among women, and proved that a woman could handle an airplane as well as a man.

Transforming the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery

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