2009 – An Afghan National Army Air Corps Mil Mi-17 Hip Helicopter crashes in Herat Province in western Afghanistan. The incident occurred in bad weather and travelling at low-altitude in a mountainous region resulting in 13 fatalities including the Afghan General Fazaludin Sayar.
2008 – An Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 30J Fighting Falcon, 87-0347, of the 482nd Fighter Wing, Air Force Reserve Command, based at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico near Key West at ~1930 hrs. during a training mission. The pilot, Major Peter S. Smith, ejects and is recovered by a U. S. Navy helicopter, transported to a local hospital for examination, and released. A board of officers is appointed to investigate the accident.
2002 – First flight of the Airbus A318, French twin engine medium jet airliner.
1999 – The first U. S. Super Hornet squadron is established at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif.
1991 – First hot-air balloon 'Virgin Pacific Flyer' to cross the Pacific Ocean takes off from Japan to Northern Canada with Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson, flying in the trans-oceanic jet streams, it recorded the highest ground speed for a crewed balloon at 245 mph (394 km/h).
1991 – A Soviet Air Force Tupolev Tu-16K Badge crashes at Tartu Air Base, Estonia, on landing when wheels lock up. Pilot and copilot eject, but four other crew are killed.
1981 – A Sikorsky S61 N of British Airways Helicopters and Bell 212 s of Bristow Helicopters are involved in the rescue of nine men from a sinking ship 185 km (115 miles) north-east of the Shetlands
1977 – Skyline Sweden-operated Linjeflyg Flight 618, a Vickers Viscount 838, crashes in Kälvesta, Sweden just outside Stockholm, killing all 22 on board.
1973 – President Richard M. Nixon‘s administration orders a halt to all bombing and shelling of North Vietnam and all mining of North Vietnamese harbors.
1970 – Death of William Thomas Piper Sr., American airplane manufacturer, and founder, eponym, and first president of Piper Aircraft Corporation. Piper served in the Spanish-American War and WWI.
1969 – Launch of Soyuz 5, Soviet spacecraft which mission was to dock with soyuz 4, with cosmonaut Boris Valentinovich Volynov, first Jewish in space.
1966 – The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash occurred ON 17 JAN 1966 when a B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling at 31,000 feet (9,450 m) over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impacting the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area by radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 2½-month-long search.[4][better source needed][5][6]
1966 – Avianca Flight 4, a Douglas C-54, suffers engine failure and crashes off Cartagena, Colombia, killing 56 of 64 on board.
1962 – The U. S. Army suffers its first combat fatalities in an aircraft in Vietnam when an H-21 C Shawnee transport helicopter is shot down by Viet Cong ground fire near Dak Roda, South Vietnam, with three killed. [Note: some sources say the first Shawnee was shot down near the Laotian border in Jul 1962. See: http://www.historynet.com/ch-21-shawnee-the-flying-banana.htm.]
1954 – First flight of the Nord Gerfaut, French delta-wing experimental research aircraft.
1953 – Two Royal Air Force planes, an Avro Lancaster maritime patrol aircraft of No. 38 Squadron and a Vickers Valetta transport aircraft, collide over the Strait of Sicily in heavy rain and poor visibility and crash. The accident kills all 19 people aboard the Valetta and the Lancaster’s entire crew of seven.
1952 – French Leduc 0.16 research ramjet suffers landing gear collapse on its first flight and is damaged.
1950 – Death of Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, Aviation pioneer, 2nd rated pilot in the history of the USAF, Chief of the Air Corps (1938 – 1941), Commanding General of the USAF during WWII.
1949 – First non-stop trans-Canada flight conducted by EP&E North Star commanded by F/O J. A. F. Jolicouer. Vancouver to Halifax: 8 hours 32 min.[7][8]
1945 – The German submarine U-1172 torpedoes the British escort aircraft carrier HMS Thane in the Irish Sea near the Clyde Lightvessel. Thane never again is seaworthy.
1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft in bad weather strike Japanese forces in China, Formosa, and the Pescadores, sinking two destroyers, a transport, and a tanker and destroying 16 Japanese aircraft in the air and 18 on the ground in exchange for the loss of 12 U. S. aircraft.
1943 – Operating from Guadalcanal, United States Marine Corps Major Joe Foss shoots down three Japanese Mitsubishi A6 M Zero fighters, bringing his victory total to 26, all scored since October 13, 1942; he is the first American to match Eddie Rickenbacker’s World War I score of 26. Although Foss never shoots down another plane, his total is enough to make him the second-highest-scoring Marine Corps ace in history and the highest-scoring one to score all of his victories while in Marine Corps service.
1943 – Prototype Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-4 Wackett Bomber, A23-1001, crashes on a test flight to assess powerplant performance and evaluate aerodynamic effects of a new fixed leading edge slat. During return to CAC airfield at Fisherman's Bend, Australia, pilot Sqn. Leader Jim Harper detects fuel leak in port Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine; as problem worsens he attempts shut-down and feathering of propeller but actuation of feathering switch causes explosion and uncontrollable fire. Crew of three attempts evacuation at 1000 feet (300 m), but only pilot Harper succeeds in parachuting, CAC test pilot Jim Carter and CAC power plant group engineer Lionel Dudgeon KWF. Airframe impacts ~three miles SW of Kilmore, Victoria. Wreckage recovered by No. 26 Repair and Salvage Unit on 18 January, delivered to No. 1 Aircraft Depot, RAAF Laverton, on the 19th. Final action taken on 26 January when the Air Member for Supply and Equipment approves "conversion to components" for what remains of the CA-4.
1937 – First flight of the Beechcraft Model 18, or "Twin Beech", American 6-11 seat, twin-engine, low-wing, conventional-gear aircraft.
1937 – First flight of the Lioré et Olivier LeO 45, a French twin engine medium bomber, low-wing monoplane, all metal in construction, equipped with a retractable undercarriage.
1935 – First flight of the RWD-13, Polish touring three-seater high-wing monoplane, biggest commercial success of the RWD.
1934 – The single Dewoitine D.332 Emeraude, French eight-passenger 3 engine airliner, struck a hill near Corbigny in a violent snowstorm on the final return stage of the inaugural Paris-Saigon service.
1934 – Death of Maurice Noguès, French Aviator, in the crash of the Prototype Dewoitine D 332 'Émeraude' on a return flight from Saigon to Paris.
1931 – Gen. Italo Balbo leads the first formation flight across the South Atlantic. Twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.55 s lands in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil coming from Orbetello, Italy
1928 – Death of Paul Marie Raphael Santelli, French WWI Balloon buster.
1919 – Maj A. S. C. MacLaren and Cpt Robert Halley arrive in Delhi, completing the first England-India flight, in a Handley Page V/1500
1916 – First plane to be launched from a submarine (U-12) is a Friedrichshafen FF.29, German lightweight two-seat floatplane.
1914 – The first regularly scheduled passenger airline in the United States begins service. The Benoist Company, flying its Benoist flying boat, runs a line between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.
1898 – Birth of George Donald Tod, American WWI Flying ace.
1896 – Birth of Sidney Emerson Ellis, Canadian Flying ace.
1896 – Birth of Fritz Kieckhäfer, German WWI flying ace.
1895 – Birth of Cyril Burfield Ridley, British WWI flying ace.
1894 – Birth of Phillip Bernard "Bruce" Prothero, Scottish WWI flying ace.
1892 – Birth of Claud Robert James Thompson, Australian WWI flying ace.
1889 – Birth of Aleksandr Alexandrovich Kozakov, most successful Russian WWI fighter ace.
1881 – Birth of John Rodgers, officer in the United States Navy and early aviator.
1799 – The French Army‘s Company of Aeronauts is abolished.
