Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: America by Air: Airline Expansion and Innovation

For Students 9th - 10th
Air travel grew in the 1920s and 1930s despite the Great Depression. Read about the new commercial airlines of the time and what it was like to fly at the dawn of commercial passenger flight.
Handout
PBS

Pbs: Who Made America?: Innovators: Juan Trippe

For Students 9th - 10th
One-page profile of influential innovator, Juan Trippe, whose vision and ideas revolutionized air travel with the birth of mass aviation and Pan American Airways.
Handout
PBS

Pbs: Who Made America?: Innovators: Wilbur and Orville Wright

For Students 9th - 10th
Two self-taught Midwestern brothers broke the barrier of the air, succeeding where others with government grants and engineering degrees had failed, and shaping the course of the twentieth century.
Handout
PBS

Who Made America?: Innovators: George Westinghouse, Jr.

For Students 9th - 10th
One-page profile of influential innovator, George Westinghouse, Jr., whose vision and ideas helped to increase the safety of the railroad system in America. His experimentation with electricity also had a huge impact on the power...
Website
National Academy of Engineering

Greatest Achievements: Airplane

For Students 9th - 10th
This page provides an overview of the history behind one of the greatest engineering innovations of all time:the airplane. There is also a timeline showing its development.