r/AviationHistory

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This colorized footage shows American paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division preparing for the ultimate test: D-Day, June 1944. Before boarding their C-47 transport planes, many of these elite soldiers shaved their hair into Mohawks and applied war paint. This fierce look-inspired by Native American warriors-was popularized by the legendary "Filthy Thirteen" section of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. It wasn't just about intimidation; it was a psychological shield, building unbreakable brotherhood before leaping into the unknown.

Hours before the beach landings even began, these men dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy.

Disorganized, scattered in the dark, and facing heavy anti-aircraft fire, they still managed to secure vital roads, bridges, and lock down the countryside.

They were ordinary citizens who chose to do extraordinary things.

The “Miss Hap”, coming in for a landing in this shot, is the oldest surviving example of the B-25 “Mitchell”. It was built in 1940/41 at the North American Aviation plant in Inglewood, CA

I took this photo last weekend.

Edit* Thanks for playing along. McMinnville is building a hotel next door to the static displays

Rear view of the Daimler-Benz DB 602 engine on display in the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen. A water pump on each side of the engine provided cooling water to a bank of cylinders. The DB 602 engine proved to be an outstanding and reliable power plant for LZ 129 Hindenburg. However, its capabilities will forever be overshadowed by the Hindenburg disaster.

Two DB 602 engines still exist and are on display; one is in the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and the other is in the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, in Le Bourget, France. Although the DB 602 was not used on a wide scale, it did serve as the basis for the Mercedes-Benz 500 series marine engines that powered a variety of Kriegsmarine (German navy) S-Boats (Schnellboot/fast attack boats) during the war

This is a reconstruction of the writing and reading room on the promenade deck of the LZ 129 Hindenburg. Special lightweight furniture in the Bauhaus design were available for the passengers.
Some of you might remember this room from a movie - „no ticket“!

Legacy flight shot of the F4U Corsair and a F-35C.

On 11 November 1937 at the Augsburg-Haunstetten airfield, Dr.-Ing. Hermann Wurster set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world record for speed when he flew a prototype Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG Bf 109 V13 (D-IPKY) WNr 1050 to an average speed of 610.95 kph/379.63 mph in four passes over a 3 kilometre course. This broke the speed record set two years earlier by Howard Hughes with his Hughes H-1 Special (NR258Y) by 43.83 kph/27.23 mph.

L-R: Unknown, Dipl-Ing Robert Lusser (then-chief of project development at BFW and co-designer of the 109),

Dr-Ing Hermann Wurster wearing goggles, flight helmet and parachute), Dr-Ing Hubert Bauer of BFW, Professor Dr-Ing Willy Messerschmitt and unknown. The two unknowns are possibly Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM/German Air Ministry) representatives.

Lusser and Bauer were instrumental in modifying the standard airframe and fitting the highly boosted, experimental Daimler-Benz DB 601 Re III engine (which briefly pushed output to 1,660 hp). They were on the airfield to oversee engine tuning, fuel mixtures, and mechanical reliability. Robert Lusser moved to Heinkel shortly after BFW took the record which had been set, ironically, by Heinkel two months earlier

Spitfire VBs in final assembly stage at Castle Bromwich works. Late 1941/early 1942. BL735 was scrapped in 1946. A staggering 11,555 Spitfires were made here at this factory...just over half of the total!

On This Day, August 17, 1978, three American adventurers made history by completing the first successful nonstop transatlantic balloon flight.

Their balloon, Double Eagle II, departed from Presque Isle, Maine, on August 11.

Inside the giant helium-filled balloon were Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman.

For nearly six days, they drifted across the Atlantic Ocean, battling freezing temperatures, changing winds, and the constant challenge of staying airborne.

After approximately 137 hours and 6 minutes in flight, Double Eagle II finally reached Europe.

On August 17, the balloon landed near Miserey, France, completing a journey of approximately 3,120 miles (5,020 km).

The three men had achieved something that had defeated numerous previous attempts: crossing the Atlantic Ocean nonstop by balloon.

Their historic journey earned them the Harmon Trophy, one of aviation's most prestigious honors.

3 men

1 giant balloon

137+ hours in the air

Across the Atlantic Ocean

They crossed an ocean… in a balloon.

"V Grand" was the 5,000th B-24 built by the Consolidated factory in San Diego

The LFG (Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft) Roland G.1 was a large prototype single-engine biplane bomber built in 1915. It had a single engine buried in the fuselage driving pusher configuration propellers mounted on outriggers. It had a wingspan of over 30 metres (98 ft), extremely large for the time. Although it had twin pusher propellers mounted between the wings and an Idflieg G designation (heavy bomber), it had only a single engine, mounted in the fuselage over the centre of gravity and linked to the propellers by gears and shafts. HAZET radiators mounted on the sides of the fuselage between the wings provided cooling to the adjacent engine.

The G.I had unstaggered unequal span wings, its fuselage was flat sided with a rounded nose containing the gunner's position. The pilot's cockpit was immediately behind the gunner but ahead of the wing leading edge. The Maybach Mb.IVa water-cooled six cylinder inline engine was directly behind the pilot driving two propellers placed on outriggers in the inner bays. The undercarriage was conventional, with wheels on a single axle mounted on a pair of V-struts to the fuselage. There was also a tail skid and a pair of smaller wheels mounted under the nose to avoid nose-overs. Only one was made, I'm unsure of its fate. Image from the Ray Wagner Collection