A vintage French postcard featuring the helicopter of Paul Cornu of Lisieux, France, who piloted the first manned flight of a rotary wing aircraft on 13th November 1907.

How America's Aviation Industry Got Its Start Transporting Mail

Amelia Earhart, pictured with the Lockheed Electra in which she disappeared in 1937.

Picture of the Wright Brothers with Orville watching Wilbur take readings outdoors, circa 1908. (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images).

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HISTORY

World War I pitted Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire against Great Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Italy and Japan. New military technology resulted in unprecedented carnage. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

World War I

In the 15th century, Europeans began to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of new routes to China and the East, but in the process they discovered what they labeled a "New World," although Indigenous people had lived there for centuries. Other explorers have pushed the limits of flight and seafaring, and traversed the frozen Continent of Antarctica.

Exploration

In the Roaring Twenties, a surging economy created an era of mass consumerism, as Jazz-Age flappers flouted Prohibition laws and the Harlem Renaissance redefined arts and culture.

Roaring Twenties

The Renaissance, a vibrant period of European cultural, artistic, political and scientific “rebirth” after the Middle Ages, was led by people including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and the Medici family.

Renaissance

Inventions from the telephone to the Model T and the computer have defined human history, and inventors like Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Eli Whitney and Alexander Graham Bell have transformed our society.

Aviation

Topics

What Happened to Amelia Earhart?

Wright Brothers

Stories

History of Flight: Breakthroughs, Disasters and More

How America’s Aviation Industry Got Its Start Transporting Mail

The First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Lasted 16 Harrowing Hours

Automation of Planes Began 9 Years After the Wright Bros Took Flight—But It Still Leads to Baffling Disasters