All Stories

A new National Air and Space museum gallery explores how American military aviation evolved, grew, and shaped our world in the years since World War II.

Maj. Robert C. “Bob” Mikesh, United States Air Force (ret.), died in February 2022, less than two weeks short of his 94th birthday. Bob was a combat pilot, Smithsonian curator, accomplished author, and a builder of museum-quality aircraft models.

Brig. Gen. Charles E. McGee, the eldest of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen, passed away on January 16, 2022. His life of dedicated service included flying combat aircraft in three major wars—a feat that was unthinkable before his career began, when the US military banned African Americans from combat flying roles.

On December 17, 1950, the first known aerial combat between swept-wing jet fighters took place in the skies over Korea. 

The first Black Marine Corps pilot and general officer, Frank E. Petersen Jr. died on August 25 at the age of 83.

Sixty years ago, before dawn on a humid June morning, a massive North Korean ground army, and aircraft flown by Soviet pilots, pushed across the border into South Korea.