26Airline pilots
Airline pilots in the 1930s and 40s would navigate by listening to a stream of automated "A" and "N" Morse codes when visibility was poor. They would turn the aircraft to the right when hearing an "N" stream, to the left on an "A" stream and fly straight ahead while hearing a steady tone.
27. Lockheed U2 pilots were given cyanide suicide pills. After a pilot almost accidentally ingested a suicide pill instead of candy during a flight, the suicide pills were put into boxes to avoid confusion.
28. After both of the leaders of his squadron were shot down over Vietnam in 1967, American fighter pilot Merlyn Dethlefsen flew his damaged fighter back through enemy air defenses to scare off enemy fighters, then knocked out both missile sites defending the target, saving 70 of the 72 friendly aircrafts following him.
29. During the late World War 2, the Nazis designed a plane named the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. It flew so fast that it was untouchable by enemies, but it went so fast that its own pilots weren't capable of shooting enemy aircrafts before their plane flew past their adversaries.
30. In 1978, an Australian pilot named Frederick Valentich and his plane disappeared during a supposed UFO encounter. His last communication was “Melbourne that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again... (two seconds open microphone)... it is hovering and it's not an aircraft...”
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31Lt Colonel William Rankin
In 1959, a pilot named Lt Colonel William Rankin ejected from his plane directly into a violent thunder cloud. The storm winds kept him aloft for 40 minutes, pelting him with hailstones and so much rain that at times he had to hold his breath to keep from drowning in mid-air. He survived.
32. Chuck Yeager (first man to officially break the sound barrier) as a fighter pilot in World War 2 downed 5 enemy aircraft in a single mission. Two of these kills were scored without firing a single shot.
33. World War 2 fighter pilot James Howard won the medal of honor for single-handedly taking on more than 30 German fighter planes all by himself to protect a group of American bomber planes.
34. In some of the earliest displays of stunt flying, a pilot named Eugène Lefebvre would fly directly at terrified spectators, turning away only at the last second. He is also the first person to die while piloting a powered aircraft and the second person to be killed in a powered airplane crash.
35. In 1969, a Swedish pilot named Carl Gustaf von Rosen, disgusted by the genocide of the Biafran people, built his own fighter airplanes and fought the Nigerian Air Force with a band of friends.
36William Overstreet Jr.
In the spring of 1944, a pilot named William Overstreet Jr. flew his P-51 Mustang underneath the arches of the Eiffel Tower in pursuit of a German fighter, shooting down the plane and raising morale of French resistance fighters.
