Come join me on May 3, 2023 at 8p.m. Eastern for a guest lecture from U.S. Air Force Col. Merryl Tengesdal (Ret.) at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (also streaming online), about her amazing career in aviation. Starting as a Navy helo pilot, she became the first African American woman to fly the…

Read more

The newest episode of the From Balloons to Drones podcast features historian Tal Tovy, discussing the design and development of two of my favorite fighter aircraft: the F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 Eagle. He explores the topic from an interesting angle in his new book: Tomcats and Eagles: The Development of the F-14 and F-15…

Read more

Don’t miss the latest From Balloons to Drones Podcast! It’s available on Soundcloud, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts. This month’s show is very exciting: 50 years ago this January was the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, which ended major U.S. combat operations in the Vietnam War. To look back on the air…

Read more

I’m very happy to see another great review of my book, Flying Camelot: the F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia. Published in the great online journal, The Strategy Bridge, Dr. Luke Truxal says that “Hankins’ work is an excellent analysis of how the perception of fighter pilots inside and outside of…

Read more

I was so happy to be interviewed for this new article from Flying Magazine. Several curators from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, including myself, talk about our favorite artifacts and visitor experiences. Check it out here: Museum Spotlight: Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.

Read more

I’m really happy to say that I was featured as a guest on the latest episode of the Modern Scholar Podcast! Host Philip Shackelford and I have a great conversation about my career and how I got here, and an in-depth discussion of my book, Flying Camelot: the F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of…

Read more

The newest episode of the “From Balloons to Drones” podcast is out! You can check it out on Spotify, or on Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. How did the U.S. get from the first flight of an airplane in 1903, to full-fledged military-capable airplanes in only short few years? Dr. Larry Burke, the…

Read more

Over on From Balloons to Drones, Brian Laslie has just posted his review of the new book, Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb by James Scott. Sounds pretty interesting, I’ll have to add it to my to-read books list!

Read more

The new episode of the From Balloons to Drones podcast is up! We’re joined by Sean Maloney, professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada, author of Emergency War Plan: The American Doomsday Machine, 1945–1960, from Potomac Press. As the spectre of potential nuclear war is rising again, we take a look at…

Read more