History of Airplanes

Category: American

From the Wright Brothers to Charles Lindbergh to Chuck Yeager to Neil Armstrong, Americans were the leaders in aviation.

The early kite-like pusher biplanes of the Wrights and Glenn Curtiss astounded the world, especially when Curtiss won the Rheims international air race in 1909. The Wrights let their pre-eminence slip away and by 1915, the Curtiss Aeroplane Company was the largest in the world. During World War One, under wartime pressure, the British, French, and Germans made more rapid advances than the Americans.

But the Twenties were another story, and U.S. military fliers set the pace in high-speed flying, and of course, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris, an event quite unrivalled in modern history. In the late Twenties and through the Thirties, air racing became quite the rage in the United States, and odd-looking “all-engine” airplanes like the infamous GeeBee set new records. Other American aviators like Wiley Post and Amelia Earhart established new frontiers in aviation.

Aircraft technology proceeded apace: Pratt & Whitney’s double Wasp radial engines were the powerhouses of the day. RCA produced the finest electronic equipment.

In World War Two, the American air forces relied on massive numbers of high-quality airplanes – fighters, bombers, trainers, as well as pilots, air crews, supplies, and spare parts – to rule the skies.