The Tuskegee Airmen | Red Tails by Damola Ladipo

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators who fought in World War II for the U.S. Army Air Corps, a precursor of the U.S. Air Force. Their impressive performance earned them more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses and helped encourage the eventual integration of the U.S. armed forces. Most of the pilots were from the U.S., but some were from Haiti and Trinidad. This data visualization captures the names by graduation date of the pilots. Hover over the curved propeller lines to learn the pilot's name, graduation date, rank, pilot type, class, aerial victories, and military hometown.

The design is intended to capture the large number and numerous kinds of airmen over time, using the symbology of a spinning airplane propellor. The visualization was originally created for the Black History Month Tuskegee Airmen and Du Bois Challenge.