Watch the takeoff of SR-71 Blackbird from Edwards Air Force Base, California

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Overview of the invention of the telephone, with a focus on the work by Alexander Graham Bell.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Johannes Gutenberg invented one of the first printing presses using movable type.

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NASA/Dryden Research Aircraft Movie Collection

A U.S. Air Force KC-135A Stratotanker taking off during a test of experimental winglets, mid-1970s.

NASA/Dryden Research Aircraft Movie Collection

Testing in 1953 of the B-47A Stratojet, a version of the swept-wing bomber built by the Boeing Company. B-47s formed the core of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC) during the 1950s and early '60s.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The world's first military airplane is demonstrated for the U.S. Army in 1909 by Orville Wright, shown here climbing into the pilot's seat. Wright and Lieutenant Frank Purdy Lahm are catapulted down a rail and launched into the air. The machine circles the field for 1 hour 12 minutes, setting a new world's record for time aloft with pilot and passenger.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Learn about the Battle of Britain, between Britain's Royal Air Force and Germany's Luftwaffe, which began in July 1940. From The Second World War: Triumph of the Axis (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.

NASA/Dryden Research Aircraft Movie Collection

U.S. Air Force X1-E taking off under a B-29 from Edwards Air Force Base in California, c. 1947. On Oct. 14, 1947, flying an X-1, Capt. Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to exceed the speed of sound, or break the “sound barrier.”