More than 130 beautifully restored aircraft, artifacts, and memorabilia tell the story of almost nine decades of US Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard Aviation.

The X-Planes
Article by Jay Miller

The X-Planes, that unique family of mostly exotic research aircraft that first came into being with the advent of Bell Aircraft Corporation’s X-1 of 1945, have appeared only sporadically on aircraft manufacturers’ design boards. Today, well over half a century since the advent of the X-1, only forty-five X-designators have been assigned. From 1944 through 1970, the military services and various government agencies funded almost thirty X-plane programs, or approximately one per year.

Carmine Vito: U-2 Pilot
Article by Eric Hehs

“I was a little nervous,” recalls Vito. “And my throat was dry.” His anxiety could have been attributed to his mission route right over Moscow at the height of the Cold War.

Vito is the only U-2 pilot to fly directly over Moscow. His flight was the third operational flight over potentially hostile territory, or what the pilots called “hot” flights.