Pioneers

Learn about the amazing history of human flight from before the Wright Brothers to today…

1911: Cal Rodgers (First Trans-USA flight)

Ever heard of Joe Kittinger? Neither had I, until I received an email describing his awesome high altitude parachute jump back in the 1960s. Rather than retell this story, here is the email (author unknown). You can read more about Joe on Wikipedia. Joe Kittinger is not a household aviation name like Neil Armstrong...

In the early days of jet airliners the Boeing company’s test pilot, Tex Johnson, rolled the prototype of the 707 airliner upside down, to impress the audience and encourage them to buy this wonderfull airplane. Although this was a perfectly safe thing do do, Tex’s boss was not impressed! Here is the famous photo...

We stumbled across a fabulous coolection of early aviation print ads and thought you might like to take a look. (oops, that was supposed to be “collection” — but it really is cool!) The Aviation Ancestry website features print advertisements covering British aviation from 1900 through to 1970 — from engine manufacturers through...

Ever dreamt of strapping on a rocket pack on your back and being a Rocketeer? I have, but I always had some reservations about whether it was technically possible, and concerns about my legs and rear getting fried by hot rocket gases. Not a problem with the Martin Jetpack, currently under development in New...

On May 12, 2011 a team from the University of Maryland successfully completed the first test flight of their human powered helicopter, which they have named Gamera after a giant flying turtle. This flight is in preparation for an attempt to win the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize, a prize that has not been won in...