In an accident on a drilling rig, Wiley Hardeman Post lost his left eye. He knew what he wanted and the loss of an eye was not going to deter him. He used the insurance settlement from the accident to buy his first airplane. In 1931, Post made the first around-the-world solo flight in 7 days, 18 hours, 49-1/2 minutes. He was interested in making flights in the stratosphere and conceived and helped design and test the first fully pressurized flight suit and helmet. He reached an altitude of 50,000 feet in a supercharged plane and discovered jet streams. At the age of 37, he was killed in an airplane accident with his friend Will Rogers, in Pt. Barrow, Alaska.

John Gilbert “Tex” Rankin was an aerobatic pilot, barnstormer, air racer, and flight instructor from the 1920s to the 1940s. Born in Texas in 1894, he began flying in 1913 when airplanes were still considered an oddity.

In March 1918, Edward Vernon Rickenbacker joined the U.S. Air Service and became famous for his exploits as a member of the 94th Aero Squadron. He earned the name "Ace of Aces" after shooting down 22 airplanes and four balloons during World War I.

T. (Tubal) Claude Ryan learned to fly at the U.S. Air Service Flight School at March AFB, California, in 1921. In 1922, he established the Ryan Flying Company in San Diego, California, which later became Ryan Aeronautical. His first production aircraft was the M-1 mail plane that was developed in 1926, providing the design basis for Charles Lindbergh's famous Spirit of St. Louis.

In 1959, the newly created NASA invited 110 of their top test pilots to volunteer for the manned space flight program. With a long history in flying, Alan B. Shepard was disappointed because his name was not on that list. It turned out later that his name had been among the 110, but his invitation had been misplaced. He was among the seven chosen for Project Mercury. Only 23 days after Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first man in space, Shepard was launched aboard the spacecraft he named Freedom 7 for an historic 15 minute, 28 second suborbital flight.

Born in Kiev, Russia (now Ukraine), Igor Sikorsky had been interested in aircraft as a young boy. Although the Sikorsky name is forever linked to helicopters, he was a versatile aviation designer whose 50-year career included pioneering work on fixed wing aircraft and flying boats, all before leading back to his first love, helicopters, and creating the first practical one. 

As a young girl, Katherine Stinson wanted to study music in Europe. To raise the money, she decided to become a stunt pilot and cash in on the then aviation craze. She convinced Max Lillie to teach her and in 1912 became the 4th American woman to obtain a pilot's license. She abandoned her aspirations for music. She was the first pilot ever to fly at night and the first to undertake night skywriting.

Brigadier General Paul Tibbits, USAAF (Ret) was a colonel when he piloted the B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, that on August 6, 1945 dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Following World War II, Tibbets became a technical adviser for the United States' nuclear bomb tests.

Orville Wright and his older brother, Wilbur, were the inventors of the world's first successful airplane. The brothers successfully conducted the first free, controlled flight of a power-driven airplane on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Link to the entire Autograph Collection on Flickr.