All Aircraft

59 warbirds, spacecraft, and aviation legends

A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog)

A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog)

The A-10 is the greatest close air support aircraft ever built, and it exists because the Air Force ...

1977-present | attack | fairchild-republic
A-4 Skyhawk

A-4 Skyhawk

Ed Heinemann was told the Navy wanted an attack aircraft half the weight of the A-1 Skyraider. He de...

1956-2003 | fighter | douglas
AH-64 Apache

AH-64 Apache

The Apache is the world's most lethal attack helicopter. In Desert Storm, Apaches fired the opening ...

1986-present | helicopter | hughes
Air Tractor AT-802

Air Tractor AT-802

The AT-802 is what happens when agricultural aviation stops being folksy and starts being serious. E...

1990-present | agricultural | air-tractor
Apollo Command Module

Apollo Command Module

The Apollo Command Module brought astronauts home. Twelve humans traveled to the Moon and back in th...

1966-1975 | spacecraft | north-american
B-17 Flying Fortress

B-17 Flying Fortress

The B-17 Flying Fortress was the backbone of the American strategic bombing campaign over Europe. Cr...

1938-1968 | bomber | boeing
B-2 Spirit

B-2 Spirit

Jack Northrop spent his career chasing the flying wing. He saw the YB-49 canceled in 1949 and never ...

1989-present | bomber | northrop-grumman
B-24 Liberator

B-24 Liberator

The B-24 Liberator was the most-produced American military aircraft in history — over 18,000 built. ...

1941-1945 | bomber | consolidated
B-25 Mitchell

B-25 Mitchell

The B-25 Mitchell will forever be remembered for the Doolittle Raid — 16 bombers launched from the U...

1941-1979 | bomber | north-american
B-29 Superfortress

B-29 Superfortress

The B-29 Superfortress was the most technologically advanced aircraft of WWII — pressurized cabin, r...

1944-1960 | bomber | boeing
Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey)

Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey)

The Huey is the sound of Vietnam. That distinctive whop-whop-whop of the two-blade rotor is the most...

1959-present | helicopter | bell
Boeing 747

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 made international travel affordable. Before the jumbo jet, flying across an ocean wa...

1970-present | airliner | boeing
Boeing 767

Boeing 767

The 767 quietly killed the four-engine airliner. When it earned ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Op...

1982-present | airliner | boeing
Boeing/Stearman PT-17 Kaydet

Boeing/Stearman PT-17 Kaydet

If you flew for the Allies in World War II, odds are you learned in a Stearman. Over 60,000 pilots g...

1936-1945 | trainer | stearman
C-130 Hercules

C-130 Hercules

The C-130 Hercules has been in continuous production for over 70 years. That fact alone tells you ev...

1957-present | transport | lockheed
Cessna 172 Skyhawk

Cessna 172 Skyhawk

Forty-four thousand. That's how many Cessna 172s have rolled off the line since 1956, making it the ...

1956-present | general-aviation | cessna
CH-47 Chinook

CH-47 Chinook

The CH-47 Chinook is the heavy lifter of the U.S. Army. When you need to move artillery pieces, vehi...

1962-present | helicopter | boeing-vertol
Concorde

Concorde

Concorde is the only supersonic airliner that actually worked. The Soviets built the Tu-144, which c...

1976-2003 | airliner | aerospatiale-bac
CubCrafters Carbon Cub SS

CubCrafters Carbon Cub SS

The Carbon Cub is what happens when someone takes the soul of the J-3 Cub and rebuilds it with moder...

2011-present | general-aviation | cubcrafters
Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny"

Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny"

The Jenny taught America that airplanes were real. Before the JN-4, flight was a novelty. After it, ...

1915-1927 | trainer | curtiss
DC-3 / C-47 Skytrain

DC-3 / C-47 Skytrain

The DC-3 is arguably the most important aircraft ever built. It proved that airlines could make mone...

1936-present | transport | douglas
de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver

de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver

The Beaver is THE bush plane. Full stop. De Havilland Canada designed it by literally asking bush pi...

1947-1967 | general-aviation | de-havilland-canada
Douglas DC-9

Douglas DC-9

The DC-9 democratized air travel. Before it, jets were for major airports with long runways and full...

1965-present | airliner | mcdonnell-douglas
F-104 Starfighter

F-104 Starfighter

Kelly Johnson called it 'the missile with a man in it.' The F-104 Starfighter was the purest express...

1958-2004 | fighter | lockheed
F-14 Tomcat

F-14 Tomcat

The F-14 Tomcat was the Navy's ultimate interceptor — designed to protect carrier groups from Soviet...

1974-2006 | fighter | grumman
F-15 Eagle

F-15 Eagle

The F-15 Eagle was designed with one mission: air superiority, no compromises. It came out of the Vi...

1976-present | fighter | mcdonnell-douglas
F-16 Fighting Falcon

F-16 Fighting Falcon

The F-16 was never supposed to exist. The Fighter Mafia — a group of Pentagon reformers — pushed for...

1979-present | fighter | general-dynamics
F-4 Phantom II

F-4 Phantom II

The F-4 Phantom II was the do-everything fighter of the Cold War. Navy interceptor, Air Force fighte...

1960-2021 | fighter | mcdonnell-douglas
F/A-18 Hornet

F/A-18 Hornet

The Hornet was born from a loser. Northrop's YF-17 lost the Lightweight Fighter competition to the F...

1983-present | fighter | mcdonnell-douglas
F4U Corsair

F4U Corsair

The Corsair was the fastest and most powerful carrier fighter of WWII. That distinctive inverted gul...

1942-1953 | fighter | vought
F6F Hellcat

F6F Hellcat

The F6F Hellcat was the aircraft that broke Japanese naval aviation. Grumman designed it specificall...

1943-1954 | fighter | grumman
Grumman G-164 Ag Cat

Grumman G-164 Ag Cat

Grumman, the company that built the Hellcat and the Tomcat, sat down and designed a crop duster. And...

1957-1995 | agricultural | grumman
Grumman G-21 Goose

Grumman G-21 Goose

The Goose was originally built so rich guys on Long Island could commute to Manhattan by seaplane. T...

1937-1945 | flying-boat | grumman
H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose)

H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose)

Howard Hughes built the largest airplane ever to fly, and it flew exactly once. The H-4 Hercules was...

1947 | transport | hughes
Hughes 500

Hughes 500

In Vietnam, the OH-6 'Loach' flew low and slow on reconnaissance missions, finding the enemy so Cobr...

1963-present | helicopter | hughes
Learjet 23

Learjet 23

Before the Learjet, if you were a CEO who wanted to fly private, you chartered a turboprop and prete...

1963-1966 | general-aviation | learjet
Lockheed Constellation

Lockheed Constellation

The Constellation was the most beautiful airliner ever built. That triple tail, the graceful dolphin...

1943-1967 | transport | lockheed
Lockheed Model 10 Electra

Lockheed Model 10 Electra

The Electra was Lockheed's answer to the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. It was fast, modern, and beaut...

1934-1941 | transport | lockheed
Martin JRM Mars

Martin JRM Mars

Only seven were ever built, which makes the Martin Mars one of the rarest aircraft types that ever f...

1941-2015 | flying-boat | martin
Maule M-7

Maule M-7

The Maule M-7 is the working person's bush plane, built by hand in a small factory in Moultrie, Geor...

1984-present | general-aviation | maule
Mercury Spacecraft

Mercury Spacecraft

Mercury was America's first step into space. Alan Shepard became the first American in space aboard ...

1958-1963 | spacecraft | nasa
MiG-15

MiG-15

The MiG-15 was the wake-up call. When it appeared over Korea in November 1950, American pilots in st...

1949-present (limited) | fighter | mikoyan
MiG-21

MiG-21

The MiG-21 is the AK-47 of fighter jets. Small, cheap, simple, and built in staggering numbers. Over...

1959-present | fighter | mikoyan
MiG-29

MiG-29

The MiG-29 was the Soviet answer to the F-15 and F-16 — a twin-engine air superiority fighter design...

1983-present | fighter | mikoyan
Mil Mi-12 (Homer)

Mil Mi-12 (Homer)

The Mil Mi-12 is the most absurd helicopter ever built, and it actually worked. The Soviets wanted t...

1968-1974 | helicopter | mil
Mil Mi-26 (Halo)

Mil Mi-26 (Halo)

The Mi-26 is the largest production helicopter in the world and nothing else comes close. Its cargo ...

1983-present | helicopter | mil
P-38 Lightning

P-38 Lightning

The P-38 Lightning was America's deadliest fighter in the Pacific. Its distinctive twin-boom design ...

1941-1945 | fighter | lockheed
P-40 Warhawk

P-40 Warhawk

The P-40 Warhawk was America's frontline fighter when the war started. While it wasn't the fastest o...

1939-1944 | fighter | curtiss
P-47 Thunderbolt

P-47 Thunderbolt

The P-47 Thunderbolt was the biggest, heaviest, and most powerful single-engine fighter of WWII. Rep...

1942-1966 | fighter | republic
P-51 Mustang

P-51 Mustang

The P-51 Mustang was the fighter that won the air war over Europe. When the British Merlin engine re...

1942-1984 | fighter | north-american
PBY Catalina

PBY Catalina

The Catalina spotted more U-boats than any other Allied aircraft. That alone earns it a place in his...

1935-1945 | flying-boat | consolidated
Piper J-3 Cub

Piper J-3 Cub

The J-3 Cub is where American aviation became personal. Before the Cub, flying was for the military,...

1938-1947 | general-aviation | piper
Saturn V

Saturn V

The Saturn V remains the most powerful rocket ever flown. It sent humans to the Moon — all six landi...

1967-1973 | spacecraft | nasa
Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was supposed to make spaceflight routine. In some ways it did — 135 missions, the ...

1981-2011 | spacecraft | nasa
Spirit of St. Louis

Spirit of St. Louis

On May 20-21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew this plane from Roosevelt Field, New York to Le Bourget F...

1927 | transport | ryan
SR-71 Blackbird

SR-71 Blackbird

The SR-71 Blackbird still looks like science fiction sixty years after its first flight. Kelly Johns...

1964-1999 | reconnaissance | lockheed
U-2 Dragon Lady

U-2 Dragon Lady

Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works built the U-2 in 80 days — a high-altitude reconnaissance platform that ...

1955-present | reconnaissance | lockheed
UH-60 Black Hawk

UH-60 Black Hawk

The Black Hawk replaced the legendary Huey as the U.S. Army's primary utility helicopter. Where the ...

1979-present | helicopter | sikorsky
Wright Flyer

Wright Flyer

This is where it all starts. December 17, 1903. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Twelve seconds, 120 feet...

1903 | experimental | wright