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Planes

Chiricahua Mountains

Crash Junkie

Flight instructor Craig Fuller scales mountains, combs deserts and trudges through wilderness to track down old airplane wrecks

Day after day, the brothers (Wilbur, left, and Orville at the controls) put their new and improved glider through its paces. Assistant Dan Tate lent a hand.

To Fly!

A new book traces the Wright brothers’ triumph 100 years ago to an innovative design and meticulous attention to detail

As the fabric-covered plane came to a halt, frenzied sou-venir hunters tore at it, putting French officials on guard. Hailed in his home state of Minnesota, the 25-year-old pilot hated the nickname Lucky, bestowed on him after the flight. After sleeping in splendor at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, he awoke to a life, he said, "that could hardly have been more amazing if I had landed on another planet." On an old postcard kept by the Richards family, Tudor Richards has written, "We saw him land!"

We Saw Him Land!

In a long-lost letter an American woman describes Lindbergh’s tumultuous touchdown in Paris—75 years ago this month

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

A Rare Bird

Eugene Gilbert in Bleriot XI attacked by eagle over Pyrenees in 1911 depicted in this painting

Evidence from the Skies

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Piloting Pint-size Planes

Across the country, weekend aviators are sending their remote-controlled model aircraft soaring

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The Dominoes Are Falling

Planes are stacked on the runways and circling in holding patterns, delays are piling up and … the dominoes are falling

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Langley’s Feat—and Folly

The Smithsonian Secretary assembled a devoted team, a remarkable engine and a plane that wouldn’t fly

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Women and Flight

Howard Hughes stands with his first plane, the H-1.

Howard Hughes’ H-1 Carried Him “All the Way”

A silver speedster from the 1930s evokes the golden age of flight, a pair of world-class speed records and the early triumphs of Howard Hughes’ life

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