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aviation: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As flight • air transportation • civil aviation

Photos and Videos

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
Wright brothers
Sopwith Camel
Airbus A380 passenger jet in flight, featuring blue and white livery with Airbus A380 and promotional text on the fuselage, photographed against a pale sky.
helicopter
aviation: Chicago
Polar projection map centered on the Northern Hemisphere, showing air distances in statute miles from major U.S. gateway cities to various international destinations. Red lines radiate from U.S. cities such as New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to cities across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, with distance values labeled along each route. The map highlights the relative proximity of global locations to the United States by air travel.
View the launching of the Bell X-1 aircraft from the bomb bay of a B-29 bomber
Seven of the largest flying objects in history
See how air traffic controllers at Frankfurt Airport, Germany manage the rush hour traffic in the skies
How Did the Montgolfier Brothers' Hot-Air Balloon Contribute to Aviation?
Know how a helicopter stays up in the air and how its rotor generates lift
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Related Topics and References

Topics
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Key People

Orville and Wilbur Wright
Wright brothers
American aviators
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
American aviator
Theodore von Kármán
Theodore von Kármán
American engineer
Richard E. Byrd stands on a ship deck in heavy fur clothing and a leather cap, holding a sundial compass during an Antarctic expedition.
Richard E. Byrd
American explorer
Wally Funk, wearing a red blazer, speaks with hands clasped at the 2022 Michael Collins Trophy presentation at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
Wally Funk
American aviator
Portrait of Amelia Earhart smiling, wearing a collared shirt and jacket.
Amelia Earhart
American aviator
Hazel Ying Lee
Hazel Ying Lee
Chinese American pilot
Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Russian scientist
Auguste Piccard, 1961
Auguste Piccard
Swiss-Belgian physicist
Fieseler, Gerhard
Gerhard Fieseler
German aviator
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Louise McPhetridge Thaden
American aviator
Edward O'Hare
Edward O’Hare
American aviator and WWII hero
Jacqueline Cochran
Jacqueline Cochran
American pilot
Paul Painlevé.
Paul Painlevé
French prime minister and mathematician
Watch the “Gossamer Albatross” the first human-powered plane crossing the English Channel in 1979
Paul Beattie MacCready
American aeronautical engineer
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Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier
French aviator
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Joseph-Michel Montgolfier
French aviator
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Harold Gatty
Australian-born aviator
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Orville Wright
American aviator
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Wilbur Wright
American aviator

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