From Balloons to Drone‪s‬ From Balloons to Drones

Rebecca Siegel, author of 'To Fly Among the Stars: The Hidden Story of the Flight for Women Astronauts,' joins us for a chat about the Mercury Program and the 13 women who went through astronaut training, but were not allowed to become astronauts. She also tells us about the process of how to make these complex, nuanced histories accessible to a younger audience.

What happens when one country steals another's airplane? Not just to fly it, but to mass produce it? Dr. Robert M. Farley joins us for a discussion of how intellectual property dominates the world of military aircraft technology. From the Wright Brothers, to the Soviet version of the B-29, to the F-35, air power is all about IP law.

Eileen Bjorkman is a retired USAF Colonel and flight test engineer with over 700 hours in the cockpits of F-4s, F-16s, C-130s, and C-141s. She's also the author of 'Unforgotten in the Gulf of Tonkin: A Story of the U.S. Military's Commitment to Leave No One Behind.' She joins us to talk about combat search and rescue operations in the Vietnam War and the harrowing story of F-8 pilot Willie Sharp.

The Gallipoli Campaign during World War I is not usually connected with the pioneering use of air power, but should it be? We talk to Sterling Michael Pavelec about his new book that talks about the important role air power played at Gallipoli.

Katherine Sharp Landdeck is here to tell us all about the WASPs, the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II. She's the author of 'The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II.' She goes beyond some of the familiar figures like Jackie Cochran and Nancy Love to tell us about other, lesser-known women in the program. And of course, we will talk about Walt Disney, because Brian will find a way!

We're joined by Dr. Peter Westwick, director of the Huntington-USC Aerospace History Project and author of Stealth: The Secret Contest to Invent Invisible Aircraft! We'll talk about the design process of stealth planes like the F-117 and B-2 at Lockheed and Northrop and answer the tough questions, like why did stealth research seem to be focused in California? What role did Russian research play in stealth development? And of course, how is Disney connected to all this?