Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright made
the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-
than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903.

National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

A hijacker who became known as D.B. Cooper parachuted from 
a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 into a raging thunderstorm over Washington State.

He had $200,000 in ransom money in his possession. His brazen
crime still stands as one of the most mysterious in history.

Cooper commandeered the aircraft shortly after takeoff, showing
a flight attendant something that looked like a bomb.

(L to R) Captain William Scott; First officer/copilot Robert Rataczak; flight attendant Tina Mucklow; and second
officer Harold Anderson are shown here at a news
conference in Reno, Nevada, after the arrival of Flight
305 to Reno International Airport.     
    
    
    
    
FBI Special Agent Larry Carr.

Northwest Orient Flight 305’s 727 seen in the light of day.

The Hughes Flying Boat, at one time the largest aircraft ever built,
was piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight
in Long Beach Harbor, California.

Built with laminated birch and spruce (hence the nickname the
Spruce Goose) the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan
longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than
700 men to battle.

Howard Hughes was a successful Hollywood movie producer when
he founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. He personally
tested cutting-edge aircraft of his own design and in 1937 broke the transcontinental flight-time record.

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (1905 – 1976)

The Spruce Goose is now on display at the Evergreen
Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

The supersonic Concorde jet made its last commercial
passenger flight, traveling at twice the speed of sound
from New York City’s John F. Kennedy International
Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport on October 24,
2003.

A large crowd of spectators greeted the plane’s arrival in
London, which coincided with two other final Concorde
flights from Edinburgh and the Bay of Biscay.