Manufacturers
32 legendary aircraft manufacturers
Aérospatiale / BAC
The 1962 Anglo-French treaty created an unprecedented collaboration: Aérospatiale (France) and the British Aircraft Corp...
Air Tractor Inc.
Snow was an ag pilot first, an engineer second. He flew the aircraft he designed, and he designed them for the people wh...
Bell Aircraft
Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 through Mach 1 in 1947. Twenty years later, Bell UH-1 Hueys became the soundtrack of Viet...
Boeing
Boeing built the heavy bombers that won WWII, the jetliners that democratized air travel, and continues as one of two ma...
Boeing Vertol
Originally Piasecki Helicopter, the company was acquired by Boeing in 1960. The Chinook remains in production today, a t...
Cessna Aircraft Company
Clyde Cessna started building monoplanes when biplanes were still king. His company went on to dominate general aviation...
Consolidated Aircraft
More B-24 Liberators were built than any other American military aircraft in history. The PBY Catalina saved thousands o...
CubCrafters
Founded in Yakima, Washington, CubCrafters started by restoring and modifying Super Cubs before designing their own airc...
Curtiss-Wright
The P-40 wasn't the best fighter of WWII, but it was available when America needed aircraft. The Flying Tigers made it f...
de Havilland Canada
Originally a subsidiary of the British de Havilland, the Canadian operation carved out its own identity by building airc...
Douglas Aircraft Company
Douglas built the aircraft that transformed aviation from a novelty into an industry. The DC-3/C-47 is arguably the most...
Fairchild Republic
Fairchild Republic carried forward Republic's tradition of building aircraft that prioritized survivability and firepowe...
General Dynamics
From the F-111 Aardvark to the F-16, General Dynamics pushed the boundaries of combat aircraft design. The lightweight f...
Glenn L. Martin Company
The Martin Mars flying boats were the largest allied flying boats of WWII, and the B-26 Marauder earned a fearsome reput...
Grumman
Grumman aircraft earned their Iron Works nickname by bringing Navy pilots home when other manufacturers' planes fell apa...
Hughes Helicopters
Hughes Helicopters emerged from the Hughes Aircraft Company's rotorcraft work. The compact, agile OH-6 Cayuse earned the...
Learjet
The original Lear Jet 23 flew in 1963 and changed everything about executive travel. Bombardier acquired the company in ...
Lockheed
Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works became synonymous with breakthrough aviation technology. The P-38 Lightning, Constellation, ...
Maule Air
B.D. Maule started designing aircraft during WWII and never stopped. The company remains family-owned, still building fa...
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas fighters served in every American conflict from Vietnam through Desert Storm and beyond. The F-4 alone...
Mikoyan (MiG)
More MiG fighters have been built than any other family of jet combat aircraft. The MiG-21 alone saw over 11,000 produce...
Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant
Mikhail Mil founded the bureau in 1947 and spent the next three decades building helicopters that made Western engineers...
NASA
NASA didn't build spacecraft — North American, Grumman, Boeing, and others did that. But NASA defined what was possible ...
North American Aviation
North American's legacy includes the most iconic American fighter of WWII, the first supersonic bomber, and the spacecra...
Northrop Grumman
Northrop spent decades proving that a flying wing could work, enduring cancellations and skepticism until the B-2 Spirit...
Piper Aircraft
Started as Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing before William T. Piper took over and renamed it. The Cub trained tens...
Republic Aviation
Republic's philosophy was simple: build it big, build it powerful, build it tough. The P-47 Jug could absorb damage that...
Ryan Aeronautical
Ryan Airlines started as a small operation flying passengers between San Diego and Los Angeles. When Lindbergh needed a ...
Sikorsky Aircraft
Igor Sikorsky was already famous for building the world's first four-engine aircraft in Russia before emigrating to Amer...
Stearman Aircraft
The Stearman name outlived the company by nearly a century. Every bright yellow biplane at every airshow in America carr...
Vought
The Corsair was initially rejected by the Navy for carrier operations, so the Marines took it. They made it legendary. P...
Wright Brothers
Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved what the world's best-funded engineers couldn't. Their systematic approach to the pro...