Beginning in 1925, the Ford Motor Company, by then well known for successfully mass producing reliable inexpensive cars, entered into the uncertain and risky realm of the aircraft design and production business. The Ford Trimotor was undeniably the best product to come out of the endeavor. More than any other aircraft up to that time, the Trimotor had a profound effect on the early advancement of commercial aviation.
In 1932, Cleveland was the center of air racing in the U.S. The National Air Races were equivalent in popularity to today's NASCAR event at Daytona. They were a bright spot for the country in the otherwise gloomy Depression era.
Project Mercury was America's first program to safely launch and return a human from Earth orbit. After two suborbital missions flown by Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom on Redstone rockets, John Glenn, aboard the Mercury Spacecraft Friendship 7, was launched by an Atlas rocket on February 20, 1962, successfully completing three Earth orbits.
The Soviet Mig-17 design began in 1949, was first flown in 1950 and entered production at the end of 1951. The early Mig-17 models were used as day fighters; they had no afterburners, no radar and small airbrakes. Later, as their mission was extended to night fighting, modifications were made, and the plane acquired afterburners and radar.
Shown in the Museum's Pavilion of Flight in eternal pursuit of a Mig-17 is the F-4 Phantom II. Manufactured by McDonnell Aircraft Company, the F-4 Phantom first entered service in December 1960. Over the next 19 years it was manufactured in large numbers - more than 5,200 aircraft were built by the time production was completed.
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