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Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/June 15

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June 15

  • 2011 – A NATO commander confirms that NATO warplanes have bombed an ammunition store at Waddan, Libya.[6]
  • 2007 – A US F-16, serial 89-2031, from the Ohio ANG crashed on takeoff at night. The pilot, Maj. Kevin Sonnenberg, was killed. The cause was not hostile fire and is believed to be pilot spatial disorientation.[7][8]
  • 1992 – Ghana Airways inaugurates flights to JFK Airport (NYC).
  • 1992 – First Berlin Air Show in 60 years.
  • 1984 – Entered Service: Saab 340 with Crossair.
  • 1978 – The third prototype Mikoyan MiG-29, '03 Blue/903', utilized for powerplant testing, crashes on its ninth flight when one of the engines suffers an uncontained compressor failure and fragments sever the control runs. The fighter flicks into an irrecoverable spin. Test pilot Valeriy Menitskiy ejects safely.
  • 1972 – A carry-on suitcase bomb explodes on Cathay Pacific Flight 700Z, a Convair 880, at 29,000 feet (8,800 m) over Vietnam; all 81 on board perish.
  • 1971 – Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter, 56-0756, c/n 183-1044, assigned to Aerospace Research Pilot School, Edwards AFB, California, suffers second rocket explosion this date, blowing the whole rocket motor and part of rudder off in flight at 35.000 ft and Mach 1.15. Pilot Capt. Howard C. Thompson lands safely but as the NF-104 project is due to end soon aircraft is written off and portions of it used to create the composite "760" sitting on a pole at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB.
  • 1970 – The Soviet MVD arrests a group of 12 Soviet “refuseniks” at Smolny Airport outside of Leningrad before they can board a 12-seater Aeroflot Antonov An-2 for a flight to Priozersk. Pretending to be a wedding party, they had purchased all 12 tickets available for the flight and intended to hijack the plane as a means of escaping to the West.
  • 1965 – Two U. S. Army UH-1D Iroquois helicopters collide in mid-air over Fort Benning, Georgia, in the United States, killing 18 people.
  • 1959 – A monument was unveiled at Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, N. S. commemorating the flight of the Silver Dart in 1909.
  • 1953 – The Royal Navy aircraft carriers HMS Eagle, HMS Illustrious, HMS Implacable, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Indomitable, HMS Perseus, and HMS Theseus, the Royal Canadian Navy aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent, and the Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney and 37 squadrons of Fleet Air Arm and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve aircraft – Including Fireflies, Sea Furies, Seafires, Attackers, Vampires, Skyraiders, Sea Hornets, Meteors, Avengers, Gannets, Wyverns, Sea Venoms, Sea Hawks, and Dragonflies – Take part in the Coronation Review of the Fleet for Queen Elizabeth II. The ceremonies include a fly-past by 300 naval aircraft.
  • 1949 – Sole prototype reconnaissance Gloster Meteor FR Mk. 5, VT347, breaks up in the air during its first flight, killing pilot Rodney Dryland on either 13 or 15 July 1949. This version is not proceeded with.
  • 1946 – No. 437 Squadron was disbanded.
  • 1944 – The United States Army Air Forces’ Twentieth Air Force begins the strategic bombing offensive against Japan, with China-based B-29 Superfortresses attacking Yawata (now Kitakyūshū) on Kyūshū. It is the second air raid against Japan proper in history, and the first since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942.
  • 1944 – U. S. forces land on Saipan.
  • 1944 – Carrier aircraft of U. S. Navy Task Groups 58.1 and 58.4 strike Chichi Jima, Haha Jima, and Iwo Jima, shooting down 10 Japanese aircraft, destroying seven on the ground and 21 seaplanes on the water, and setting fire to three small cargo ships and a hangar. Three U. S. aircraft are lost.
  • 1944 – Japanese torpedo bombers attack Task Force 58, inflicting no damage and suffering heavy losses.
  • 1944 – Royal Air Force Bomber Command strikes the harbor at Boulogne, France, at dusk, sinking 25 German R-boats and small craft and damaging 10 others, completing the destruction of the German naval surface forces threatening the Allied landings at Normandy.
  • 1943 – First flight of the Arado Ar 234 but sources disagree, with dates as late as 30 July 1943.
  • 1943 – No. 434 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.
  • 1942 – No. 135 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Patricia Bay, BC.
  • 1942 – No. 147 (BR) Squadron was formed at Sea Island, Vancouver, BC
  • 1940 – (15-18) Royal Air Force fighter cover allows the evacuation by sea from France to the United Kingdom of 52,104 troops from Cherbourg and St. Malo, France, without loss.
  • 1938 – Nationalist aircraft sink the Republican gunboat Laya at Valencia, Spain.
  • 1931 – Canadian Airways pilot E. W. Stull in a Fokker F.14 A, flew the first radio beam from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
  • 1928 – Mail is successfully transferred from an airplane in flight to a train as Lt. Karl S. Axtater flies directly over an Illinois Central train and transfers a mail bag to a railway clerk.
  • 1928 – An Imperial Airways AW Argosy piloted by Gordon Olley races the London and North Eastern Railway’s Flying Scotsman train the 390 miles from London to Edinburgh; the Argosy takes 84 min to refuel twice en route and beats the train by only 15 min.
  • 1921 – The First U. S. Black female pilot, Bessie Coleman, received her license.
  • 1919 – First flight across the Atlantic (Alcock and Brown).
  • 1916 – First flight of the Boeing Model 1, William Boeing’s first aircraft.
  • 1910 – The world’s youngest flyer, 15-year-old Frenchman Marcel Hanriot, gets his pilot’s brevet, no. 15.
  • 1785Pilâtre de Rozier and Jules Romain become the first known aeronautical fatalities when their balloon crashes during an attempt to cross the English Channel.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Kang, Cecilia, "Google To Use Balloons To Provide Free Internet Access To Remote Or Poor Areas," washingtonpost.com, June 14, 2013.
  2. ^ Lawson, Helen, and Associated Press, "Project Loon Takes to the Skies: Now Google Launches BALLOONS in Bid to Bring Internet to the Remotest Places On Earth," dailymail.co.uk, 15 June 2013, 09:26 EST
  3. ^ Goldhill, Olivia, "Google's 'Internet Balloons' Offer Remote Areas Web Access," The Telegraph, 15 June 2013, 7:00 a.m. BST.
  4. ^ Osley, Richard, and Kevin Rawlinson, "'I’ll set this plane on fire': Note causes transatlantic Egyptair plane diversion to Glasgow Prestwick Airport," independent.co.uk, 15 June 2013.
  5. ^ Anonymous, "Prestwick airport incident: 100 passengers exit from Egyptair plane after aircraft is forced to land following discovery of note threatening to start a fire," dailyrecord.co.uk, 15 June 2013, 17:16.
  6. ^ Carey, Nick; Boudlal, Youssef (14 June 2011). "NATO Strikes Tripoli, Libyan Rebels Make Gains". Reuters. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  7. ^ "DoD Identifies Air Force Casualty". U.S. Department of Defence. 2007-06-16. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
  8. ^ "Pilot killed in an F-16 fighter crash on takeoff in Iraq, Air Force says". International Herald Tribune. 2007-06-16. Retrieved 2007-06-17.