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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

Aircraft spotter on the roof of a building in London. St. Paul's Cathedral is in the background.
Aircraft spotter on the roof of a building in London. St. Paul's Cathedral is in the background.
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England) is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and autumn of 1940 to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from a speech made on 18 June 1940 in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, "The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin..."

Had it been successful, the planned amphibious and airborne landings in Britain of Operation Sea Lion would have followed. The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces. It was the largest and most sustained bombing campaign attempted up until that date. The failure of Nazi Germany to destroy Britain's air defence or to break British morale is considered its first major defeat.

British historians date the battle from 10 July to 31 October 1940, which represented the most intense period of daylight bombing. German historians usually place the beginning of the battle in mid-August 1940 and end it in May 1941, on the withdrawal of the bomber units in preparation for the attack on the USSR. (Full article...)

Selected image

Convair B-36 with experimental tracked landing gear, to reduce ground pressure for soft-field use.

Did you know

... that Paul Haenlein was the first to create a dirigible airship powered by an internal combustion engine? ...that PWS-10 designed in late 1920s was the first Polish fighter to enter serial production? ... that Samuel Frederick Henry Thompson, a British flying ace of World War I, scored 30 kills in five months of service and won both the DFC and MC?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Frank Whittle speaking to employees of the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory (now known as the NASA Glenn Research Center), USA, in 1946
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a Royal Air Force officer and was one of the inventors of jet propulsion. By the end of the war, Whittle's efforts resulted in engines that would lead the world in performance through the end of the decade.

Born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, Whittle left Leamington College in 1923 to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. A requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, in which he described what is today referred to as a motorjet.

Whittle and Hans von Ohain met after the war and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas. Ohain eventually convinced him that his work was independent and after that point the two became good friends.

Selected Aircraft

Dash 8 300 landing at Bristol (UK)
Dash 8 300 landing at Bristol (UK)

The de Havilland Canada DHC-8, popularly the Dash 8, is a series of twin-turboprop airliners designed by de Havilland Canada in the early 1980s. They are now made by Bombardier Aerospace which purchased DHC from Boeing in 1992. Since 1996 the aircraft have been known as the Q Series, for "quiet", due to installation of the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to near those of jet airliners.

Notable features of the Dash 8 design are the large T-tail intended to keep the tail free of propwash during takeoff, a very high aspect ratio wing, the elongated engine nacelles also holding the rearward-folding landing gear, and the pointed nose profile. First flight was in 1983, and the plane entered service in 1984 with NorOntair. Piedmont Airlines (formerly Henson Airlines) was the US launch customer for the Dash 8 in 1984.

The Dash 8 design had better cruise performance than the earlier Dash 7, was less expensive to operate, and more notably, much less expensive to maintain. The Dash 8 had the lowest costs per passenger mile of any feederliner of the era. The only disadvantage compared to the earlier Dash 7 was somewhat higher noise levels, but only in comparison as the Dash 7 was notable in the industry for extremely low noise due to its four very large and slow-turning propellers.

  • Length: 107 ft 9 in (32.84 m)
  • Wingspan: 93 ft 3 in (32.84 m)
  • Height: 27 ft 5 in (8.34 m)
  • Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A turboprops, 5,071 shp (3,781 kW) each
  • Cruise speed: 360 knots (414 mph, 667 km/h)
  • Maiden Flight: June 20, 1983

Today in Aviation

September 18

  • 2009 – N349TA, a CASA 212 Aviocar 200 operated by Bering Air, departs the runway at Savoonga, Alaska, and is substantially damaged when the undercarriage collapses.
  • 2003 – A Tupolev Tu-160, bort number '01', of the 121st regiment, 22 heavy bombers division, on a proving flight out of Engels Air Base after the replacement of one of its four engines, crashes near Stepnoye settlement, Sovetskoye, Saratov oblast, killing the four crew. There were no armaments aboard. Just before the crash the crew reported an engine fire to ground control, after which contact with the pilots was lost. The wreckage of the bomber was found 35 km from its base. No injuries on the ground. The main staff of the air force identified the dead as crew commander, Lt. Col. Yuriy Deyneko, co-pilot Maj. Oleg Fedusenko [the Russian TV channel gave this name as Fedunenko in its 1000 GMT newscast], and the navigators as Maj. Grigoriy Kolchin and Maj. Sergey Sukhorukov. This was the first Blackjack loss in 17 years of operations.
  • 2002 – First run of the improved General Electric GE90-115 B, for the second generation of the Boeing 777 airliner. It was the world’s most powerful jet engine until its successor, the GE9X.
  • 1984 – Joe Kittinger completes first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.
  • 1977 – The “Voyager I” spacecraft snapped the first photograph showing the earth and moon together.
  • 1976 – The legendary test pilot Albert Boyd dies.
  • 1962 – By order of the United States Defense Department, the United States Armed Forces begin use of a unified designation system, the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system, for their aircraft. The biggest change is that the Department of the Navy’s designation system employed by the U. S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard is abandoned, with all aircraft brought under the system employed by the U. S. Air Force and U. S. Army.
  • 1962 – U. S. Marine Corps helicopters fly a combat mission from Da Nang, South Vietnam, for the first time, airlifting South Vietnamese troops into the hills south of Da Nang.
  • 1961 – U. N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • 1955 – Argentine Naval Aviation aircraft attack an Argentine Army column during the Revolución Libertadora against Juan Perón, halting the column before it can capture a naval air base.
  • 1947 – W. Stuart Symington becomes the first United States Secretary of the Air Force.
  • 1944 – Second Folland Fo.108, P1775, 'P', one of only twelve built by newly founded Folland company, as dedicated engine-testbed type, specification 43/37, crashes this date. Of the twelve, five were lost in accidents, including three in a 21 day period in August and September 1944, giving rise to the nickname, the Folland "Frightener".
  • 1943 – (18-19) U. S. Navy aircraft from the carriers USS Lexington (CV-16), USS Princeton (CVL-23), and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) make seven strikes against Tarawa Atoll, destroying nine Japanese aircraft on the ground, sinking a merchant ship in the lagoon, and leaving facilities on the atoll ablaze and many Japanese dead. They also photograph potential landing beaches on the island of Betio. Four American aircraft are lost.
  • 1939 – RCAF Manning Pool (later No. 1 Manning Depot) was formed at Toronto, Ontario.
  • 1930 – Ruth Alexander died when her NB-3 Barling struck a hillside shortly after takeoff on 1930 from Lindbergh Field, San Diego on a scheduled cross-country flight to New York City via Wichita, Kansas. She was eulogized as a “pioneer of the airways of this epic age. ”
  • 1928 – The first flight of the Zeppelin LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin is made. It is the most successful rigid airship ever built, flown commercially on a regular basis from Europe to South America. It flies over a million miles and carries some 13,100 passengers before its demise 1940.
  • 1919 – Over Curtiss Field, Long Island, a U. S. Navy Curtiss 18-T-1 triplane piloted by Roland Rholfs, a Curtiss test pilot, sets a world altitude record recognized by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Altitude as 31,420 feet, [FAI Record File Number 15676] although contemporary reports claimed a higher altitude of 34,910 feet (10,640 m), which would have made him the first person to reach 35,000 feet in an open cockpit. Oxygen was provided in a bottle connected to a tube that Rohls sucked on at altitude.

References

  1. ^ "U.S.: Copter crash in Iraq kills seven". CNN.com. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  2. ^ "Seven U.S. troops killed in Iraq helicopter crash". Reuters. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  3. ^ "US deaths in Iraq helicopter crash". Al Jazeera. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  4. ^ Stephen Farrell (2008-09-18). "7 U.S. soldiers killed in helicopter crash in Iraq". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
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