October 9: Nazi Airship Carries Corporate Bigwigs On “Millionaire’s Flight” Over Connecticut

  Today, the name “Hindenburg” is most closely associated with the fiery, disastrous crash that destroyed the famous dirigible in 1937. Before its demise, however, the massive, 800-foot-long German airship was considered the pinnacle of modern aerospace engineering and luxury travel, and often attracted both notable passengers and crowds of awe-struck spectators wherever it went….

August 23: Circumnavigating Celebrity Aviator Lands in Connecticut

  Today in 1933, the man whose fame as a fearless American aviation pioneer was second only to that of  Charles Lindbergh, flew into Hartford’s Brainard Field just  weeks after completing a record-breaking solo flight around the world. His career was more remarkable because of the accident that gave rise to it. As a young…

August 14: Gustave Whitehead Flies, Making Two Wrights Wrong

  Today in 1901, one of the most controversial events in aviation history took place in Fairfield, Connecticut.  Inventor Gustave Whitehead executed a half-mile-long flight in his Flying Machine No. 21 at a height of 50 feet off the ground — over two years before the Wright Brothers made their much more famous flight at…

May 19: World War I Flying Ace Killed In the Skies Over France

  Today in 1918, one of America’s greatest and most colorful World War I flying aces was killed in France. Raoul Lufbery, a proud Franco-American and former Wallingford resident, died after his plane was fired on by a German triplane during an aerial dogfight. Born in France in 1885 to a French mother and American…

March 30: Ukranian Helicopter Pioneer Igor Sikorsky Arrives in United States

  One of Connecticut’s greatest immigrant success stories began today in 1919 when Ukraine-born Igor Sikorsky first arrived on American shores. While Sikorsky is best known as the inventor of the world’s first practical helicopter and the founder of the Sikorsky Aircraft manufacturing company headquartered in Stratford, he first made a name for himself as…

January 20:The Wartime Plane Crash That Named an Airport

  At the start of 1941, though the United States had not yet formally entered World War II, the U.S. military was anxious to shore up defenses along the eastern seaboard, which some considered a vulnerable target for a German attack. Early in the year, the Connecticut General Assembly approved the purchase of 1,700 acres…

January 4: Connecticut’s First Woman Pilot’s Final Flight

  In the heady days of early American aviation, when tales of plucky pilots and ingenious innovators were a dime a dozen, few pilots stood out from the crowd as much as Mary Goodrich Jenson, the first woman to earn a pilot’s license in the state of Connecticut. Born in Hartford in 1907, young Mary…

January 4: A Girl with Soaring Ambitions.

  In the heady days of early American aviation, when tales of plucky pilots and ingenious innovators were a dime a dozen, few pilots stood out from the crowd as much as Mary Goodrich Jenson, the first woman to earn a pilot’s license in the state of Connecticut. Born in Hartford in 1907, young Mary…