The Flight Deck

Today, Air Traffic Control towers loom over airports, bringing order and safety to a huge network of airplanes crossing the globe. But what was it like to fly in the earliest days of aviation, before radios or signal towers? Retired FAA Air Traffic Controller Helen Parke-Wall shares stories from the beginnings of ATC. If you’ve hiked the prairies of the Midwest or the backcountry of the Southweste...

*NOTE: During this episode, you may hear the interviewer and interviewee refer to “the 400” or “dash 100.” These numbers refer to variants of the 747. Just like apples have different varieties—fuji, honeycrisp, MacIntosh, etc—planes have their own variations, too! When Boeing released the 747, it changed the aviation industry forever. The story of the 747’s development, however, must be told along...

Sometimes the story of how we acquired an artifact is just as interesting as the artifact itself. Such is the case with the Soviet-built MiG-21 that stands in our Great Gallery. Bruce Florsheim, one of our docents and an active player in getting the MiG to Seattle, explains the historical significance of the MiG and how it ended up in our Museum. “In its time, the MiG 21 became the most produced s...

What do you get when a WWII American Fighter Ace has the same name as a Hollywood icon and doesn’t get rid of anything? The Lt. Col. James C Stewart Collection! Amy Heidrick, Associate Director of Collections, delves into the archives of the American Fighter Aces Association to reveal the stories that these objects tell about being a fighter ace during WWII. One of our most robust collections belo...

The clock was ticking in 1968, and the race to the Moon was on. The Apollo 8 mission, which came about by accident as NASA was finalizing tests on weight and vehicle performance, sent a crew to the Moon to see if humans could fly safely on the Saturn V rocket. They did, and one of the most amazing takeaways of the mission—aside from the safe return of the astronauts—was the famous Earthrise photo...

Please Note: During his retelling, American fighter ace Besby F. Holmes uses an ethnic slur to describe his attackers. This oral history is presented unedited as a historical artifact of one veteran's experience. In American fighter ace Besby F. Holmes’ oral history, recorded in the early 90’s, he recalls the scramble to get to a plane during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The night before, he had a...

Commercial pilot Kevin Gordon returns in this episode to answer listener questions about all things aviation: what it takes to become a pilot, the difference between Navy and Air Force pilots, and explains the infamous “blue juice” of plane bathrooms. Gordon explains the two routes to becoming a pilot—military and civilian—and shares his own story of flight, from getting a private pilot’s license...

Before there were flight attendants, there were stewardesses, and in this AMA episode we talk to Mary Hoy, who served as a stewardess aboard United Airlines from 1967-1973, who answers questions from our social media followers. Hoy describes the joys and struggles of being a stewardess during this Golden Age of Aviation and recalls experiencing rapid changes in aviation technology as she worked ab...

Eighty years ago today, Orson Welles’ 1938 broadcast ‘War of the Worlds’ used cutting-edge audio technology to convince listeners that planet Earth was under attack by Martians. What was intended as a Halloween special actually caused listeners all over the country some real distress, and we talk to three experts—Ben Blacker, co-creator of the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast and creator of the co...

Sometime between her third and fourth year of her PhD program, Yi’s research ground to a halt. Her experiments were failing, she wasn’t acquiring good data, and even her friends were asking whether or not she could, or should, continue. Amidst the confusion about her future in science, Yi heard that the Korean government was looking for astronaut candidates. “I’m an easily distracted person, so I...

96-year-old Betty Dybbro was fortunate enough to spend one year as a WASP (Women Air Force Service Pilot) during World War Two, and in order to tell her story, we enlisted Katherine K. and Nithi B., two members of Amelia’s Aero Club who participate in aviation and aerospace activities at the Museum. They ask Betty about growing up in rural Indiana, her very first flight, and what she felt when she...

Did you have trouble figuring out your major when you were in college? If so, you already have one thing in common with the world’s first Korean astronaut, Soyeon Yi. After toying with the idea of becoming an industrial engineer—she always loved designing buildings and drawing—Soyeon Yi realized it wasn’t the right fit for her; then, through a process of elimination, she decided to pursue mechanic...

Did you know that 80% of the world’s blindness can be cured, and 90% of those cases occur in low to middle income countries? The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital works to decrease preventable and curable incidents of blindness with its mobile operating room and teaching facility. The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital started in 1982 with a DC-8 plane that flew to locations around the globe that are in desperate...

As SpaceX and Blue Origin continue to make history by building rockets that will take future space vacationers to the Moon or Mars, the Museum is thinking about how to preserve the history of these private companies. Back in the 1960’s and up until now, it was easy for historians to access public records at NASA that documented the space race; and that’s not the case now. According to our Adjunct...

The American Fighter Aces Association preserves the memories of pilots who have sacrificed bravely for their country, and the Museum is home to its collection of artifacts and stories, including the oral histories of numerous pilots we’ve interviewed. In this edition of our Personal Courage series, we sit down with digitization specialist Ali Lane to listen to highlights from oral histories of thr...

Episode 13: Meet and R2-D2 Builder Bob Jacobson, R2-D2 builder extraordinaire, claims that he wasn’t always into engineering, but the process of building his droid forced him to learn some basic and advanced techniques. Our host caught up with Jacobson at the Museum’s R2-D2 Builder’s Expo, held every year in the spring. Jacobson and his R2-D2 were game for all of our questions, like what inspired...

Episode 12: She Opened Up the Skies A faceless mannequin wearing a 1920s’ style dress is posed next to our Boeing model 40B, but it’s not just there for show. The mannequin represents Jane Eads, the world’s very first transcontinental commercial airline passenger. In 1927, when she was just a 21-year old journalist, Eads rode in a 40B on a mail route from Chicago to San Francisco. Back then, the j...

Back in 1977, when Bob Alexander was just a young engineer, he was chosen to work on a challenging new project: the Hubble space telescope. During his ten years on the project, Bob—now a Museum volunteer—advanced to the level of supervisor and recalls that with all the experienced engineers working alongside him, designing the Hubble was a pretty smooth operation. This week, we’ve tapped Akshay Mu...

Episode 10: Do Airplanes Have Keys? This week we talk to Kevin Gordon, first officer for Alaska Airlines, who graciously answers questions that our listeners have submitted via social media. Do a pilot’s arms get tired after flying all day? And can they watch movies during their flights? Gordon answers these queries and explains that the titles captain and first officer, which many mistake for pil...

Episode 9: Surviving the Final Frontier Did you know that for every month you spend in space, you lose about 2% BMI? Neither did we until we talked to Tommy Gantz, one of our volunteers and resident space experts. Over the years she’s spent a lot of time studying space travel and life aboard the International Space Station, and has developed a deep respect for anyone who travels to space. Gantz ad...

Episode 8: The Angel Bird Hustling in and out of a Huey helicopter is one of the most vivid memories of Platoon leader David Waggoner and crew chief Jerry Sousa: it took 10-15 seconds to load and unload the helicopter, and their journeys took them to hot zones where they were vulnerable to enemy fire. The Huey and those who flew in it were fearless, reporting to every call no matter how dangerous,...

Episode 7: Remembering Apollo Astronaut Dick Gordon Dick Gordon passed away in November 2017, and author and volunteer Jake Schultz had the honor of recording Gordon’s oral history few months prior to learn about his experiences as an astronaut. In this episode, Gordon talks spaceflight, corvettes, and football. He recalls the differences between the Gemini and Apollo missions. Gemini’s Titan II r...

Episode 6: The Personal Courage Series: Shouting at Hitler Show Notes: In this second installment of our Personal Courage series, B-17 pilot Dick Nelms takes us on one of his missions and shares how he and his comrades dealt with fear and other realities of war. From a young age, Dick loved planes and when the time came to participate in the war effort, he knew he wanted to fly. And it’s a good th...

Episode 5: When We Chose to Go to the Moon How did a bunch of Houston high school students help President Kennedy drive the United States towards putting a man on the Moon? In September 1962, Bob Salling, one of our docents, was pulled out of school along with tens of thousands of other Houston high school students to hear a speech by President Kennedy at Rice University. Salling remembers that “a...

Episode 4: A Brief History of Legroom Has your airplane seat felt a little tight lately? It’s not just you—it’s the evolution of legroom on passenger planes, and it’s not getting any roomier. We talk to Marva Semet to discuss how this battle for inches came about. Semet finds that spaces weren’t always so tight on in the early days of aviation, when flying itself was a luxury for the very few. Dur...