2013 – The Government of Myanmar admits for the first time that Myanmar Air Force jets and attack helicopters conducted air strikes against rebel Kachin Independence Army forces in northern Myanmar on 30 December 2012, but claims that all of its other air operations in the area since late December 2012 have focused only on flying in supplies to Myanmar Army forces fighting Kachin rebels.[1]
2010 – Danube Wings Flight 8230: In Slovakia, a package containing the explosive RDX was placed in the luggage of a passenger at Poprad-Tatry Airport by Serbian police as part of a training exercise. Due to an error, the package was not recovered and the luggage was loaded onto a Danube Wings flight to Dublin. The error was not realized until the plane had departed. The Garda Síochána were not informed until 5 January, causing a bomb alert in Dublin. The innocent passenger was arrested but later released when the Slovak Government admitted he was blameless.
2008 – Asian Spirit Flight 321, an NAMC YS-11 departing from Manila, piloted by Captain Alexandro Tiglao with First Officer Dominick Mendoza as co-pilot, overshot the runway at Masbate Airport at 7:30 a. m., due to heavy tailwinds with gusts reaching 14 knots while landing on runway 21. Although none of the 47 passengers were seriously injured, the accident destroyed the aircraft’s nozzle, the plane’s right propeller and its right and nose wheel, and caused the plane’s fuel tank to leak.
2004 – An OH-58D Kiowa 90-0370 from 1–17 Cavalry Regiment (assigned to 1–82 Aviation Brigade) shot down near Fallujah, killing a pilot.
1999 – Death of Karl-Heinz Bringer, German rocket engineer.
1989 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-204, a Russian twin-engined medium-range jet airliner capable of carrying 210 passenger, first Russian fly-by-wire airliner.
1975 – Death of Theodor "Theo" Osterkamp, German WWI and WWII fighter ace, one of only a few men to score victories in both World Wars.
1972 – Death of James Butler White, DFC, RNAS, British RNAS WWI flying ace.
1968 – Col. Henry Brown and Lt. Col. Joe B. Jordan became the first U.S. Air Force pilots to use an General Dynamics F-111A's emergency escape module when their aircraft, 65-5701, c/n A1-19, of the Air Force Flight Test Center crashes near Edwards AFB, California, due to a weapons gun bay fire.
1967 – The contracts for the development of the Boeing SST and its engines are awarded
1967 – The National Supersonic Transport program, formed by President John F. Kennedy for the purpose of subsidizing the design of a Concorde-fighting supersonic airliner, awards a contract to Boeing for its 2707 SST design. Despite 115 orders from 25 different airlines, the program would lose its funding in 1971, forcing Boeing to lay off 60,000 workers.
1965 – Denis Healey, the UK's Secretary of Defence cancels the nation's fighter and military transport programs and orders the purchase of the US-built F-4 Phantom and C-130 Hercules in their place.
1964 – A USAF Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 52-968, c/n 43877, of the 28th Air Transport Squadron, en route from Tachikawa Air Force Base near Tokyo, Japan, to Hickam Air Force Base, Honolulu, Hawaii with nine on board and 11 tons of cargo, disappears over the Pacific Ocean after making a fuel stop at Wake Island. Due at Hickam at 0539 hrs. EST, the Globemaster II is last heard from at 0159 hrs. EST. Fuel exhaustion would have been at 1000 hrs. EST and the aircraft is presumed down at sea. An automatic SOS signal is detected emanating from an aircraft-type radio with a constant carrier frequency of 4728 kilocycles, issuing an automatically keyed distress message, and a dozen aircraft of the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard are sent to search from Hickam and from Guam, Midway, and Johnston Island. Poor weather and limited visibility hampers search efforts. The U.S. Navy's USS Lansing also participates in the search. The eight missing Air Force crew and one U.S. Navy man escorting a body back to the U. S. are officially declared dead on 21 January. This was the first C-124 accident since May 1962.
1963 – The Battle of Ap Bac in South Vietnam is the first time that Viet Cong forces stand and fight against a major South Vietnamese attack. At the outset, Viet Cong ground fire shoots down a United States Army UH-1 attack helicopter and four U. S. Army CH-21 transport helicopters as they arrive at their landing zone. South Vietnamese Air Force C-123 Provider transport planes drop about 300 South Vietnamese paratroopers later in the day.
1959 – Launch of Luna 1 (E-1 series), first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta, first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon. First of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations.
1954 – A new coast to coast record in the US is set by Colonel Willard W. Milliken of the Air National Guard, flying a North American F86 Sabre jet and covering 2,530 miles (4,070 km) from Los Angeles to New York City in 4 hours 8 min. (time includes stop for fuel at Offutt AFB).
1953 – First flight of the Sud-Ouest Djinn, a French single-seat light prototype helicopter. The rotors were driven by compressed-air jets at the end of each blade.
1953 – The first of an order of about 430 US Sabre fighters, the RAF’s first supersonic jet, arrives at RAF Abington, England.
1950 – A North Star aircraft of No. 412 Sqron made the first Royal Canadian Air Force round-the-world flight in a flying time of 125.2 hours. The flight was carrying Hon. Lester Pearson to Commonwealth foreign ministers conference in Ceylon.
1945 – U. S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29s based at Calcutta, India, bomb Bangkok, Siam.
1945 – Japanese aircraft attack United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bases on Saipan for the last time.
1944 – (2-13) Allied aircraft systematically attack rail communications in central Italy in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Germany from supplying and reinforcing its forces fighting in southern Italy.
1943 – McDonnell gets a contract to build the Navy's first jet fighter.
1933 – After modifications, HMS Courageous reenters service with the Royal Navy as the world’s first aircraft carrier equipped with hydraulically controlled arresting gear.
1929 – Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout flew a Golden Eagle 12 hours and 11 min at the Metropolitan Airport in Los Angeles, setting a new non-refueling endurance record for women.
1929 – Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May left in an Avro Avian with another flying club member, Vic Horner, to deliver diphtheria vaccine to Fort Vermilion, Alberta, 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) north. His flight had become known across Canada as "the race against death".
1918 – The British government establishes an air ministry. Lord Rothermere is Secretary of State for Air. Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard is Chief of the Air Staff.
1914 – Gustav Hamel took Miss Trehawke Davis aloft to experience a loop, and she thus became the first woman in the world to do so.
1903 – Birth of Pjotr Michailowitsch Stefanowski, Soviet WWII test pilot.
1898 – Birth of Franz Büchner, one of the most successful German fighter aces of WWI.
1896 – Birth of Sir Lawrence James Wackett KBE, DFC, AFC, Australian WWI pilot and aircraft designer, widely regarded as "father of the Australian aircraft industry".
1893 – Birth of Cyrus K. Bettis, American aviator winner of the 1924 Mitchell Trophy Race and the 1925 Mackay Trophy.
1891 – Birth of Didier Daurat, French pioneer of commercial aviation.
1886 – Birth of Thomas Gillies Rae, Scottish WWI flying ace.
1882 – Birth of Frederick Walker Baldwin, also known as Casey Baldwin, Canadian engineer, hydrofoil and aviation pioneer, first Canadian to pilot an heavier-than-air flying machine.
1880 – Birth of Louis Charles Breguet, French aircraft designer and builder, one of the early aviation pioneers.
