This subseries consists of scrapbook pages, prints (both original and reproduction), drawings, handbills, and plates from publications, relating to aviation. It is particularly strong in French and British aerostation (ballooning), 1783-1785, in 19th-century English ballooning, and in historic U.S. civil and military aircraft, 1903 to circa 1950.

Eighteenth-century events represented include the first hydrogen balloon ascent, Paris, August 1783; the first three human balloon ascents (by Pilatre de Rosier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, from la Muette, November 1783; by Charles and Robert, from the garden of the Tuilleries, December 1783; and of "Le Flesselle", at Lyon, January 1784); and Blanchard and Jeffries making the first Channel crossing, January 1785. The materials include portraits of Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier, 1783; and of James Sadler, the first English balloonist, 1785; as well as several prints relating to Vincent Lunardi. Other prints depict various proposed methods of steering balloons, in particular the use of eagles. "Inventé pour le bien present et celui de la posterité", a satirical representation of a fantastic airship, is derived from the engraving "Pro bono publico", first printed by Willir in 1784.

Nineteenth-century materials include several scrapbook pages and a large number of prints and handbills relating to ballooning in Britain, 1836-1870, in particular the career of Charles Green and the "Vauxhall Royal Balloon" (later, "Great Nassau Balloon"). Other materials relate to ascents by James Sadler (1810-1813). The materials include depictions of well known balloons, including Count Lennox's "Eagle", 1835, and Professor Lowe's "Mammoth Balloon", 1859. The 19th century fascination with fantastic flying machines is documented by a double-sided full-color 1843 broadside, favorably comparing the "Great Aerial Navigator or Atmospheric Machine"--a fantastical machine based on Willir's 1784 engraving "Pro bono publico"--with W. S. Henson's "Aerial" and by a modern reproduction of an 1841 print of the "Great Steam Duck" of Louisville. The materials also document the ceremonial (the coronation of Napoleon and Josephine, 1804; Carlos E. Pellegrini, "Fiestas Mayas en Buenos Aires", 1841) and military (the battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, 1862; Eugène Godard building balloons in the gare d'Orléans, Paris, during the Franco-Prussian War, 1871) uses of balloons. Balloons are also represented in several satirical prints, including James Gillray's 1810 caricature of the installation of Lord Grenville as Chancellor of Oxford University and "Ascending and Descending, or Balloon and Dragoon, A scene at Portobello Baracks, June 27th, 1822".

The bulk of the 20th-century materials consists of portolios of lithographic prints, including one of military aircraft built by Consolidated Vultee, circa 1941-1945; another of military and civilian aircraft built by Lockheed Aircraft Corp., circa 1948; and several containing reproductions of paintings of historic aircraft by Charles H. Hubbell, published by Thompson Products, Cleveland, Ohio, sponsor of the Thompson Flying Trophy. The materials also include 13 hand-colored pochoir prints by French artists Ernest and Marguerite ("Gamy") Montaut, photographic images of U.S. and British airships, dirigibles, and fixed-wing aircraft from The Mentor and various publications of the Royal United Service Institution, circa 1919-1931, and computer-generated renderings of a U.S. military "flying wing", circa 1980.