The first airplane equipped with an autopilot was a pivotal moment in aviation history. It transformed flying from a constant struggle to a more controlled, reliable endeavor. The first autopilot ...

When they built the first airplane that carried a man, the Wright brothers were inspired tinkerers, not original thinkers; they did not concoct the theories on which their contraption was based.

Eugene Ely's daring and fortitude paid off, and he eventually ushered in the age of U.S. naval aviation by successfully taking off from a U.S. Navy warship in Virginia on Nov. 14, 1910.

The first actual flight in Alaska took place two years later. On July 3, 1913, James Martin took off from Fairbanks’ Exposition Park in an open-cockpit Gage-Martin biplane with an eight-cylinder ...