See nine airplane models that transformed aviation

100 years of passenger air travel: a visual guide

This interactive timeline covers the first 100 years of passenger air travel, which was created in 1925 when the U.S. Post Office allowed private airlines to start delivering mail.

Explore a timeline of advancements in American aviation

From the Wright brothers' flight of the first powered plane in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to SpaceX's debut of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2010 with reusable boosters, this interactive shows off the technological evolution of flight, from mechanical propulsion to ballistic spaceflight. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Commercial air travel's early days: Flights were short, cold, depressurized, and generally comfortable

After World War II, airlines competed for their high-end passengers by offering cocktails, meals, and plush seats, cultivating the image of the elite "Jet Set." By the 1960s, air transport was completely changing global trade and offering big profits to companies able to ship via plane.

The 1910 Wright Model B was the brother’s most successful aircraft

The model, built from 1910 to 1914, was the first designed to be constructed in bulk, with four built each month in 1911 and 1912. The two-seater was used in exhibition flights and training for some of the earliest uses of airplanes in military contexts.

Find out how airlines quietly became banks

Some experts suggest airlines lose money on every flight. This video dives into how airlines have leveraged their loyalty programs to make billions of dollars, effectively evolving into banks.

A British Airways pilot mapped every flight of his career into a data art series

James Harding logged every flight he had flown in a software program and rendered the results into 3D globe animations, charts, graphs, and more. You can view the visualizations here, along with career stat breakdowns and a description of his project.

How black boxes made flying safe

Black boxes—which are actually orange—were not universally present in airplanes until roughly 1967, a process which grew out of frustration over frequent, unexplained crashes in the industry's first few decades. This piece tells the origins of...

The story of Boeing's unraveling

Long lauded as one of the world's greatest aviation companies, Boeing has taken a nosedive in the last decade after major mass casualty crashes of its planes and high-profile scandals, which have led to numerous investigations, the temporary grounding of some of its planes, and a huge hit in its value. Listen to this first episode of a series telling the story of Boeing's fall.

Explore hundreds of the brother’s personal photographs of flights, family and dogs

Their estate offered 300 negatives to the Library of Congress in 1948 after Orville’s death, most of which were taken by the brothers between 1897 and 1928. The collection serves as a visual timeline of their adult lives.

A nightmarish vision for airplane seating

Airplane seat designer Alejandro Núñez Vicente reckons his double-decker airplane seat could revolutionize budget air travel. CNN went to the 2022 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg to try it out.

Why airships are making a comeback as a cheap, fast transport solution

Airships, including blimps, have had a pretty bad reputation since the tragic incendiary crash of the Hindenburg in New Jersey in 1937. But an intense competition is ongoing between airship manufacturers looking to develop the trucks of the sky: a...

AP Photos: 20 images documenting the enormity of 9/11

The Associated Press shares 20 photographers’ frames from Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers crashed commercial planes into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

1928: A quote from Amelia Earhart

"Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting."

An architect explores da Vinci's quest to fly

This article follows Leonardo da Vinci's quest for human air flight, which he pursued in the late 1400s. Written by an architect, this piece details da Vinci's venture into the field of aviation, starting with his attempt to understand the flight...

Explore a gallery of electric vehicles from before 1920

In 1884, Thomas Parker invented the first practical electric car in London. By the turn of the century, early EVs were seen on the streets of Washington, DC. Automaker promotional materials included photographs of cars on mountain roads and other terrains.

From 19th-century whalers to startup accelerators, venture capital has a pretty exciting history

While the aforementioned whaling industry has a lot of similarities to today’s venture fund models, the first modern venture capital firm wasn’t founded until 1946.

Exploring bird skulls

Birds inspire us to fly—but what about bird skulls? This collection of various birds' preserved skulls offers a peculiar "bird's-eye" view. See the many surprising shapes of beaks and eyeholes, from mockingbirds to turkeys, in this fascinating visual collection.

Twelve artworks you'll love zooming into

Zoom in on these famous paintings to see what's hiding up close, then go exploring the rest of Google's incredible Arts and Culture hub.

See images of shipwrecks from WWII's Battle of Midway

Deep-sea explorers have captured detailed images of three iconic shipwrecks from World War II's Battle of Midway, including the first up-close photos of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi since its sinking in 1942.

A historical deep dive into everything coffee

Can’t get enough coffee? Join documentarian James Harper and historian Jonathan Morris for an immersive dive into the history of everyone’s favorite beverage. From the highlands of Ethiopia to the streets of Vietnam to Viennese cafes, you’ll travel with the humble coffee bean as it spreads across the globe.

Watch how scientists learn about hurricanes by flying into them

A specialized fleet of Air Force planes is built to fly into hurricanes and gather critical data from inside the storm. Beyond radar and microwave sensors, the planes are equipped with dropsondes—small instruments dropped into storms to measure pressure, temperature, and wind.

The Wall Street Journal: a timeline

The Wall Street Journal got its start as a financial news bulletin for people trading stocks. Since then, it has evolved beyond just financial news. It now ranks among the preeminent global business news sources.

A definitive guide to crypto and blockchain

The concept of cryptocurrency emerged more than a decade ago, with a famous whitepaper on bitcoin. To fully understand the rise of bitcoin, Bloomberg’s Matt Levine developed this comprehensive four-part series exploring the broader crypto and blockchain ecosystems, where they came from and how they work (subscription required).

Explore a visual history of the Windows operating system

Named after the windows that separate different applications, the operating system’s first version came preinstalled with Calculator, Paint, and Reversi. There was no Windows 9 to avoid compatibility issues with legacy code searching for Windows 95 and 98 files via a “windows9” query.

An illustrated guide to constructing a Viking ship

Using saga descriptions, museum consultations, and physical evidence, this guide tries to imagine what kind of ship Harald Hardrada would have sailed into Constantinople in 1034. The contemporary illustrations suggest technically precise craftsmanship.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'