After the war, many pilots returned home with flying experience while surplus aircraft helped expand civilian aviation across the country. During the 1920s and 1930s, air races, barnstorming performances, airmail routes, and early passenger service helped transform flight into a growing part of American infrastructure and public life. Airports expanded across the country as navigation systems, engineering standards, and commercial air travel continued improving. Aviation was no longer viewed only as spectacle or experimentation. It was becoming integrated into transportation, business, communication, and national infrastructure.

A sample of the amzing feats barnstormers accomplished in the post World War I era. 

Economic collapse during the Great Depression slowed much of the American economy, but aviation development continued advancing in critical areas. Aircraft companies refined engineering capabilities, production methods, and organizational scale while military planners, commercial airlines, and manufacturers continued investing in aviation’s long-term potential. By the late 1930s, many of the industrial and technical foundations required for large-scale wartime mobilization were already taking shape, even before the full global consequences of another world war became clear.

Aircraft produced in the 1930s were already showing drastic technological advancements from their World War One counterparts.

Next page in this exhibit.