Tech Sgt. Ben Kuroki stands alone as the only Japanese American to fight in the Pacific air war. He's also among the rare few who served in both European and Pacific theaters during WWII. We reflect on his service in the blog: s.si.edu/3OgfHCR #AAPIHeritageMonth

Our Grumman G-164 Ag-Cat rolled off the factory line today on #TDIH in 1963. The Ag-Cat was the first aircraft specifically designed by a major aircraft company for agricultural aviation and is one of the most successful: s.si.edu/3NzpDXR

#OTD in 1923, Lt. John A. Macready and Lt. Oakley G. Kelly took off from Roosevelt Field in New York in a Fokker T-2 transport to begin the first nonstop transcontinental flight. #IdeasThatDefy

On this day in 1960, U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union. This sparked an embarrassing diplomatic incident for the United States and halted flights of the U-2 over the Soviet Union: s.si.edu/2IUBgHH

Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was the second American to orbit the Earth. He also served as an aquanaut, spending 30 days in 1965 living and working in a sea-floor habitat 205 feet below the surface. Carpenter was born on this day in 1925.

In 1932, Katherine Cheung became the first woman of Chinese descent to earn a pilot's license in the United States. She performed aerobatics at fairs and air shows in California and regularly entered competitive air races. #SmithsonianAANHPI #AAPIHeritageMonth

On this day in 1979, Space Shuttle Enterprise was rolled out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Although it did not launch from the pad, Enterprise was used to conduct fit checks and launch pad procedures.

The Douglas SBD Dauntless was one of the truly great aircraft of World War II. It played a major role throughout the Pacific, especially at the Battle of Midway. It flew for the first time on this day in 1940. Pictured here is the Museum's SBD-6.

The Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket became the first aircraft to fly twice the speed of sound, at Mach 2. It was the second Skyrocket built and NACA used it to explore the flight characteristics of swept-wing aircraft. More: s.si.edu/3ALzH8o

Bessie Coleman was determined to fly, and moved to France to make it happen. She became the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license and continues to inspire pilots around the world. Coleman died at age 34, today in 1926.

An artifact from a galaxy far, far away has arrived at the Museum.

Visit the Udvar-Hazy Center this Friday to be among the first to see it unveiled and on display, plus meet Walt Disney Imagineering exec Scott Trowbridge from 11 am to noon. #MayThe4thBeWithYou

#OTD in 1928, Spirit of St. Louis made its final flight to DC where Charles Lindbergh presented the aircraft to the Smithsonian. When it was later transported to the US National Museum (now the Arts and Industries Building), its wings were separated from the fuselage.

A lot of calculations go into hanging an aircraft for display. So when we decided to suspend our P-51 Mustang not as if in level flight but rolled 22 degrees to the left, our museum specialists got to work on a plan. We explore in a new blog: s.si.edu/3w5vSMW

It may not be what you'd expect a science lab to look like but the Spacelab laboratory module was a well-equipped research facility flown in the payload bay of Space Shuttle Challenger—it launched today in 1985.

More on this module in our collection: s.si.edu/44fNthm

#OTD in 1954, test pilot James F. 'Skeets' Coleman made the first tethered flight in the Convair XFY-1 Pogo, a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft.

On this day in 1990, Space Shuttle Discovery and the crew of STS-31 touched back down on Earth having successfully completed the mission to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

On this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis for the first time. Three weeks later, he would pilot the history-making aircraft on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight. #AirSpacePhoto

On this day in 1961, Mercury capsule #14 was launched on its second uncrewed launch escape system test at Wallops Island. The launch escape system functioned as planned even though the trajectory was too low and the aerodynamic pressures were higher than planned.

Earlier this year, NASA and Lockheed Martin unveiled the X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft at a rollout ceremony. More on NASA's Quesst mission to demonstrate supersonic flight without generating loud sonic booms in #ASQ 's latest Up to Speed: s.si.edu/4deuU1x

On this day in 2001, Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, launching aboard Soyuz TM-32 in this Sokol KV-2 spacesuit. Tito paid a reported $20 million for his nearly eight-day spaceflight, which included six days on the International Space Station. #AirSpacePhoto