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After a Tragedy in 2002, Special Forces Soldiers Learned That Armed Drones Are a Combat Necessity

Why the Predator is here to stay. The Battle of Takur Ghar began three days into Operation Anaconda—an attempt by thousands of U.S. and allied troops to encircle Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in ...
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Goggles, Flying, Amelia Earhart

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.
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A F-100D aircraft dropping a napalm bomb near Bien Hoa, South Vietnam

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.
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Remembering Capt. James A. Lovell Jr.

Few astronauts were as famous as Jim Lovell—Tom Hanks played him in the 1995 movie Apollo 13. Lovell commanded that ill-fated space mission, which did not land on the Moon in 1970 because an ...
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Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC Map

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.
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Pancho Barnes, the Stuntwoman in the Way of the U.S. Air Force

The barnstorming era of flight brought a new kind of entertainment—and danger—to everyday Americans. Test and stunt piloting offered aviators, mostly young men, the thrill of flying and the freedom of ...
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Art of the Airport Tower

Art of the Airport Tower takes you on a photographic journey to airports in the United States and around the globe. Smithsonian photographer Carolyn Russo explores the varied forms and functions of ...
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Who is the Man That Discovered the Universe?

A century ago, Edwin Hubble began the race to the edge of the cosmos. On a snowy New Year’s afternoon in 1925, on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., astronomer Henry ...
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Understanding Charles Lindbergh

On May 20–21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh piloted his Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis on the first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic. The former air mail pilot and barnstormer flew from New York to ...
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Aviation Explorers Camp

The National Air and Space Museum hopes to expand interest and capabilities in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) fields by engaging and empowering our Aviation Explorers to seek ...
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Restoring the Museum’s V-1 Missile

A little over a year ago, I recounted the restoration of our German V-2 ballistic missile. Now the Preservation and Restoration Unit at our Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is completing its compatriot, ...
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The P-3 Orion Was Made for Hunting Submarines

How Lockheed's P-3 kept the Cold War from turning hot. Submarines are hard to kill. For military strategists, no warship generates as much uncertainty and trepidation as an adversary that can prowl ...