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Remembering the Death of Lt. Joe Kennedy Jr. and America’s First Combat Drones

Browse our collections, stories, research, and on demand content. A drone B-17, seen a year after the dropping of the first atomic bomb, when it was being evaluated for use in sampling atomic clouds ...
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Why Does Rice Play Texas

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC.
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Rolls-Royce Avon Mk 28-49 Turbojet Engine

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC. In ...
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Communications Satellite, Mechanical Test Model, MicroSat

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC.
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Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp R-1830-92 Radial Engine

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC.
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Pratt & Whitney JT3D-1 Production Prototype Turbofan Engine

Pratt & Whitney Aircraft began development of its first production turbofan, the JT3D, in the late 1950s, by taking advantage of the service-proven JT3 (J57) gas generator, and adding a two-stage ...
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The Beginnings and Basics of Aerial Photography

Picture the Earth from above. In your mind's eye, what do you see? Today, we have access to air and space technology that lets us see various views of the Earth with ease. However, before the ...
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The Secret History of Drones

Pilotless aircraft have been around longer than you might think. In 1898, newspapers heralded the dawn of a new age with the invention of a device that would “render fleets and guns useless.” Physical ...
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Alan Shepard: First American in Space

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC.
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The Wright Brothers Made History at Kitty Hawk

At 10:35 a.m., on December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made history in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They made the first powered, controlled flight of a heavier-than-air flying machine. It was ...
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The Cuban Missile Crisis

Maj. Richard Heyser had been sitting 14 miles above the Earth for 5 hours. Soaring at the edge of space, he flew from northern California, around the Gulf of Mexico, and approached the small island of ...