Portal:Aviation

The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), are generally credited with making the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical airplane, along with many other aviation milestones.

In 1878 Wilbur and Orville were given a toy "helicopter" by their father. The device was made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its twin blades, and about a foot long. The boys played with it until it broke, then built their own. In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the initial spark of their interest in flying.

The B-36 was the only American aircraft with the range and payload to carry such bombs from airfields on American soil to targets in the USSR, as storing nuclear weapons in foreign countries was diplomatically delicate. The nuclear deterrent the B-36 afforded may have kept the Soviet Army from fighting alongside the North Korean and Chinese armies during the Korean War. Convair touted the B-36 as an "aluminum overcast," a "long rifle" to give SAC a global reach. When General Curtis LeMay headed SAC (1949-57) and turned it into an effective nuclear delivery force, the B-36 formed the heart of his command. Its maximum payload was more than four times that of the B-29, even exceeding that of the B-52.

• Span: 230 ft 0 in (70.10 m)
• Length: 162 ft 1 in (49.40 m)
• Height: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
• Engines: 6× Pratt & Whitney R-4360-53 "Wasp Major" radials, 3,800 hp (2,500 kW) each
• Cruising Speed: 230 mph (200 kn, 380 km/h) with jets off
• Range: 6,795 mi (5,905 nmi, 10,945 km) with 10,000 lb (4,535 kg) payload
• First Flight: 8 August 1946

January 11

• 2013 – Helicopter-borne French commandos conduct a raid in Somalia to rescue the French intelligence agent Denis Allex from al-Shabaab, supported by U.S. Air Force combat aircraft. Allex dies during the raid, most likely killed by his captors. One French commando is killed in action, another is missing in action, and 17 al-Shabaab members are killed.^[1][2]
• 2013 – Syrian rebels capture the government air base at Taftanaz.^[3]
• 2013 – France intervenes in the Northern Mali conflict to support the Government of Mali against Islamist rebels. Attacks by French Army Aérospatiale Gazelle attack helicopters and French Air Force Mirage 2000D fighter-bombers blunt a rebel offensive that threatens to take Mali's capital, Bamako; French bombing includes raids around Konna. One Gazelle is shot down by small arms fire and its pilot is killed.^[4][5]
• 2011 – First Flight: of the Chengdu J-20 in China.^[6]
• 2011 – Global Observer, American unmanned aircraft system has successfully completed its historic first flight powered by the aircraft's hydrogen-fueled propulsion system at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) in California
• 2009 – Zest Airways Flight 895, an AVIC I MA-60, registration RP-C8893, crashes on landing at Godofredo P. Ramos Airport, Philippines, hitting an airport building. Over twenty people are injured and the aircraft is damaged beyond repair.
• 2008 – Airbus delivers its second A380 (MSN005) to Singapore Airlines.
• 2007 – In a test of an anti-satellite missile, China destroys its weather satellite Fengyun 1C.
• 1996 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-72 at 4:41:00.072 EST. Mission highlights: Retrieved Japan's Space Flyer Unit, 2 EVAs.
• 1995 – Shortly after takeoff from Bogota, an Intercontinental de Aviacion DC-9-14 (reg HK-3839X) crashes into jungle near Cartagena, Colombia following an altimeter failure at night. The sole survivor of the 52 souls on board: a 9-year-old girl. The plane had been originally deliverd to Eastern Air Lines and was flown later by Continental Airlines (reg N8901E).
• 1992 – The US FAA approves a helicopter rating for a pilot based solely on flight simulator performance for the first time.
• 1990 – The US Defense Department awards Bell Helicopter a $US 123 million development contract for the V-22 Osprey
• 1989 – First flight of The AASI Jetcruzer 450, American 6 seat single turboprop light civil transport made by AASI with an unusual configuration, wsingle turboprop engine driving a pusher propeller, prominent canards, and fins mounted at the ends of its swept wings, noteworthy in being the first aircraft to have achieved a spin resistance certification from the United States FAA.
• 1988 – Death of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, USMC WWII fighter ace.
• 1982 – In the Iran-Iraq War, Iraqi Air Force aircraft hit the Panamanian cargo ship Success with two missiles in the Persian Gulf. Her crew abandons ship.^[7]
• 1981 – Death of Hubert Cecil Hunt, British WWI flying ace.
• 1978 – First flight of the Gulfstream American Hustler, American prototype mixed-power executive/utility aircraft designed by American Jet Industries (later Gulfstream American). The aircraft had a nose-mounted turbprop and with a tail-mounted turbofan.
• 1969 – Death of William Roy 'Sambo' Irwin, Canadian WWI fighter ace.
• 1968 – Launch of GEOS 2 (GEOS-B), NASA Geodetic earth monitoring satellite.
• 1968 – Lockheed SR-71B, 61-7957, Article 2008, one of only two dual control pilot trainers, is lost on approach to Beale Air Force Base, California, due to fuel cavitation induced engine failure. Instructor pilot Lt. Col. Robert G. Souers and student Capt. David E. Fruehauf eject safely.
• 1967 – Death of William Wendell Rogers, Canadian WWI flying ace.
• 1965 – First transitional flight by taking off vertically, changing to forward flight and finally landing vertically of the Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) XC-142, American tiltwing experimental aircraft designed to investigate the operational suitability of vertical/short takeoff and landing transports.
• 1962 – A B-52 H Stratofortress lands at Torrejon Air Base, Spain. From Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, it sets a new world distance record without refueling of 12,532.28 miles (10,895 nmi, 20,177 km).
• 1962 – A 707 – 320 B took over the role of U. S. government VIP and presidential transport, designated VC-137 C, better known as “Air Force One”. A second VC-137 C was delivered
• 1959 – Lufthansa Flight 502, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, crashes on approach to Rio de Janeiro-Galeão International Airport, Brazil, 36 of the 39 on board are killed.
• 1957 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking T-11 crashed at Aeroparque, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 1955 – Two Royal Air Force No. 42 Squadron Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft disappear without trace during a routine exercise off Fastnet Rock on the southwest coast of Ireland, and are presumed to have collided in mid-air. An engine from one of the aircraft finally will be found in 1966.
• 1951 – A Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress bomber, 45-21771, c/n 13671, of the 3512th AMS, 3510th AMG, returning to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, after a seven-hour training flight, crashed 10 miles SW of Seguin, Texas. At 8,000 feet the pilot, Captain Norman A. Bivens, cut off the automatic pilot and began descending through an overcast, flying on instruments. Bivens reported losing all flight instruments and the aircraft became uncontrollable. Six of the crew members were killed, while five others parachuted to safety.
• 1948 – Death of Karl Menckhoff, German WWI fighter ace, one of the oldest pilots in the Imperial German Aviation Service.
• 1947 – The 1947 BOAC Douglas C-47 crash: a BOAC Douglas C-47 A crashes into Barley Hill near Stowting, Kent due to fuel starvation, killing 8 of 16 on board.
• 1947 – First flight of the McDonnell F2 H Banshee
• 1945 – U. S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29 s based at Calcutta bomb Singapore.
• 1944 – In one of the largest air raids to date, 570 USAAF bombers strike Brunswick, Halberstadt, and Oschersleben..
• 1944 – James Howell 'Jim' Howard single-handedly flew his P-51 B into some 30 Luftwaffe fighters that were attacking a formation of American B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the 401st Bomb Group over Oschersleben, Germany for over Half an Hour, scoring 3/4 and damaging 1. Out of ammunition, he continued to dive on enemy airplanes.
• 1944 – 10 United States Navy PB4Y-1 Liberators bomb Roi and attack shipping in Kwajalein Atoll's lagoon, sinking a Japanese gunboat.
• 1942 – Japanese aircraft drop 324 naval paratroopers as part of a successful assault against Dutch forces defending the Menado Peninsula on Celebes
• 1941 – First flight of the Polikarpov I-185, Soviet prototype fighter aircraft
• 1941 – Fliegerkorps X aircraft continue attacks on the Gibraltar-to-Malta convoy, damaging the light cruiser HMS Gloucester and fatally damaging the light cruiser HMS Southampton.
• 1938 – Pan American World Airways Flight 1, a Sikorsky S-42 flying boat named the Samoan Clipper, explodes over Pago Pago, American Samoa; all 7 on board die, including Pan Am's first pilot, Ed Musick.
• 1938 – Death of Edwin Charles Musick, Chief Pilot for Pan American World Airways and pioneer of many of Pan Am's transoceanic routes including the famous route across the Pacific Ocean on the China Clipper. Killed in the explosion of the Samoan Clipper, A Sikorsky S-42 flying boat, while dumping fuel before attempting an emergency landing.
• 1935 – 11-12 – Amelia Earhart makes the first solo flight across the Pacific from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California.
• 1934 – A flight of six US Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats arrives in Pearl harbour from San Francisco, setting a new distance record for formation flying, 2,400 miles (3,862 km), also setting a new speed record for this crossing of 24 hours 35 min.
• 1933 – First flight of the Vickers Type 207, British single-engined two-seat biplane designed as a ship-born torpedo bomber prototype.
• 1931 – First flight of The Abbott-Baynes Scud 1, British parasol-winged single seat glider intended to introduce pilots to soaring flight.
• 1928 – First air mail service to Magdalen Islands, Quebec, commenced.
• 1926 – Birth of Lev Stepanovich Dyomin, Soviet cosmonaut.
• 1922 – Birth of Neville Frederick Duke DSO, OBE, DFC & Two Bars, AFC, FRAeS, Czech War Cross, British WWII fighter pilot, top Allied flying ace in the Mediterranean Theatre and test pilot.
• 1919 – Death of Dante Nannini Sandoval, Guatemala WWI fighter pilot who served in the Italian Regia Aeronautica, he could have been the "First American pilot" to join a regiment of aviators during WWI. At least, he was the first "American" on the Italian front
• 1918 – Death of Hans Kummetz, German WWI flying ace, Killed in action in Italy.
• 1902 – Inspiration for many an aviator and plane-spotter, Popular Mechanics magazine is published for the first time.
• 1901 – Birth of Kwon Ki-ok, first Korean female aviator, as well as being the first female pilot in China.
• 1900 – Birth of Enea Silvio Recagno, Italian raid Aviator.
• 1896 – Birth of William Samuel Stephenson, Canadian WWI fighter ace, businessman, inventor, spymaster, considered as the real-life inspirations for James Bond.
• 1895 – Birth of Laurens Hammond, American engineer and inventor (most famously, the Hammond organ, the Hammond Clock, and the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizer, the Novachord). In WWII he helped design guided missile controls and was awarded patents for infrared and light sensing devices for bomb guidance, glide bomb controls, a camera shutter and a new type of gyroscope.
• 1895 – Birth of Johann Risztics, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace, known with fellow pilots Fredrich Hefty and Ferdinand Udvardy as the Arany Triumviratus (Golden Triumvirate). He also was a Raid Aviator After WWI.
• 1894 – Birth of Lawrence Kingsley Callahan, American WWI flying ace.
• 1893 – Birth of Georg Meyer, German WWI fighter ace.
• 1892 – Birth of Edward Rochfort Grange, Canadian WWI flying ace credited with five aerial victories. His postwar career included success as a businessman, and a return to aviation as a civilian inspector and auditor for the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII.
• 1884 – Birth of Bernetta Adams Miller, American pioneering woman aviator who was the 5th licensed woman pilot in the USA.
• 1804 – Death of James Tytler, Scottish apothecary and editor of the second edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, first person in Britain to steer a hot air balloon.
• 1759 – Birth of Vincenzo Lunardi, Italian balloonist pioneer.