First flown in late 1938, the Boeing 307 was the first airliner with a pressurized fuselage. It could carry 33 passengers in great comfort and cruise at 6,096 meters (20,000 feet), while maintaining a ...

Fifty years ago, on December 19, 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific. They were the last humans to visit the Moon—and the last to be more than 400 miles from the Earth. Since ...

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC.

Kalpana Chawla, PhD, was an engineer, pilot, and astronaut who spent more than 30 days in space over two Space Shuttle missions. Chawla was born in Karnal, India, and was fascinated by flight since ...

1. Continuous, Supersonic Afterburner. Ever wonder what causes the diamond pattern in the SR-71 jet engine exhaust? It's due to the extra thrust provided by the afterburner which is actually ...

This exhibit is now closed. In this display, Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit from the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing was back on the Museum floor for the first time in 13 years. The spacesuit underwent an ...

On May 20, 1932, Amelia Earhart set out in her Lockheed Vega to become the first woman to fly nonstop and alone over the Atlantic Ocean. Departing from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, and landing in ...

Concentration of force is the essence of military action. Germany’s surprise attack and swift victory over 650 troops stationed inside Ft. Eben-Emael during World War II on May 10, 1940, showed a new ...

The Tuskegee Airmen have become popular symbols of increasing diversity and representation in the U.S. armed forces, but the extent to which they had to fight to establish themselves, risking their ...

Leonardo da Vinci created masterpieces of art and sculpture. Equally remarkable, his aggregate achievements in engineering, mathematics, anatomy, geology, physics, music, military technology, ...

In 1978, Congress passed a law allowing airlines to set their own fares and routes, an event that transformed the commercial airline industry and the passenger experience. Regulation by the federal ...

Until the nineteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci was generally known only as a painter. Little or nothing of his sculpture or engineering works survived, and his notebooks, the only surviving evidence ...