Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May

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An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Aviation Portal
2024 day arrangement


May 1

  • 2013 – A Boeing X-51A WaveRider unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft detaches from a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress and reaches Mach 4.8 (3,200 mph; 5,100 km/h) powered by a booster rocket. It then separates cleanly from the booster, ignites its own engine, accelerates to Mach 5.1 (3,400 mph; 5,400 km/h), and flies for 240 seconds – setting the record for the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight in history – before running out of fuel and plunging into the Pacific Ocean off Point Mugu, California, after transmitting 370 seconds of telemetry. The flight – the fourth and last planned X-51A test flight and the first successful one – completes the X-51 program.[1][2][3]
  • 2007 – A Dassault Mirage III of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (Argentine Air Force) crashes at 1110 hrs. at Morón Air Base after making a low pass during a "baptism of fire" day celebration, observing the opening of combat in the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War. The pilot, Lt. Marcos Peretti, apparently encountered a fogbank after making the pass. He did not eject after steering the aircraft away from populated areas and was killed. Defence Minister Nilda Garré who presided over the main celebration ordered all Mirage aircraft grounded until a full investigation into the accident is completed "The causes of the accident are under investigation", said minister Garré adding that "Mirages are grounded until we determine how the accident happened; the pilot was in contact until a minute before the accident".
  • 2006 – Death of Bruce A. Peterson, American engineer and NASA test pilot. He flew a wide variety of airplanes including the F5D-1, F-100, F-104, F-111 A, B-52, NT-33 A Variable Stability Trainer, the wingless lifting bodies and numerous general aviation aircraft as well as several types of helicopters and sailplanes.
  • 2003 – US President George W. Bush rode in the co-pilot seat of a Viking that landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), where he delivered his "Mission Accomplished" speech announcing the end of major combat in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That Navy flight is the only one to use the callsign "Navy One".
  • 1989 – A Tyndall Air Force Base McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle crashed in the Gulf of Mexico about 65 miles southeast of Tyndall, killing the student pilot who was identified as 2nd Lt. Sean P. Murphy, 23, of Warsaw, Indiana. At the time of the crash the pilot was engaged in a mock dogfight with his instructor who was flying a second F-15. The pilot was assigned to Tyndall's 95th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron.
  • 1983 – 1983 Israeli Air Force F-15 crash: During air-to-air combat training over the Negev Desert, an Israeli Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-15D Baz, 957, "Markia Schakim" (Hebrew: מרקיע שחקים, "Sky Blazer"), of 106 Squadron, collides with an Douglas A-4 Ayit at between 13 and 14 thousand feet altitude, causing the attack jet to explode (the pilot reportedly successfully ejected), and tearing off the starboard wing of the fighter ~2 feet outboard of the engine nacelle. Pilot Zivi Nedivi goes to afterburner to try to stop spinning aircraft, and unaware of the condition of the jet due to fuel leaks obscuring the extent of the damage, makes a blistering 250-260 knot landing at nearest air base at Ramon, tearing off the arrestor hook and coming to a stop just 20 feet from the runway threshold. Pilot later comments that had he known the true state of the aircraft, he and his weapons operator would have ejected. F-15 is reportedly repaired and returned to service in ~two months.
  • 1982 – BAE Sea Harriers attack Falklands targets for the first time and shoot down two Argentine Mirage III fighters. They are the first air-to-air kills of the Falklands War.[5]
  • 1980 – Spectacular crash of USMC AV-8A Harrier at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. During a vertical takeoff the aircraft rolled, dropped to the runway, bounced into a ditch, burst into flames, flipped, slid through a hangar and into a parking lot, where it damaged more than twenty vehicles.
  • 1970 – B-52 Stratofortress strikes and helicopter assaults against North Vietnamese forces are part of the first day of the American and South Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. The last U. S. Army helicopter will not leave Cambodia until June 29.
  • 1965 – A Lockheed YF-12 sets a new international airspeed record of 2,070 mpg (3,331 km/h).
  • 1960 – 1960 U-2 incident: A CIA Lockheed U-2A, 56-6693, Article 360, flown by Francis Gary Powers is shot down by a SA-2 (Guideline) missile near Degtyarsk in the Soviet Union during an overflight codenamed Operation GRAND SLAM, the twenty-fourth and most ambitious deep-penetration flight of the U-2 program. Powers parachutes down and is captured. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces on 7 May to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and thus the world, that a "spyplane" has been shot down but intentionally makes no reference to the pilot. Powers is later produced in a 'show trial'. On 10 February 1962, twenty-one months after his capture, Powers is exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany.
  • 1959 – North Vietnam organizes No. 919 Transport Regiment as the first unit of the Vietnam People’s Air Force.
  • 1957 – In the 1957 Blackbushe Viking accident, an Eagle Aviation Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes after engine failure at Blackbushe Airport; of the 35 on board, only a passenger survives.
  • 1954 – The Myasishchev M-4, the first Soviet bomber designed to reach the United States and return to the Soviet Union, is displayed to the public for the first time. In reality, it lacks the range to reach the United States and return.
  • 1952 – The IATA agrees on new "tourist class" fares, which are adopted by Pan Am on its NewYork-London "Rainbow service"
  • 1950 – Third and final de Havilland DH 108, TG283, crashes near Hartley Wintney, Hants, during stall tests, kills replacement RAE OC, Squadron Leader George E. C. "Jumbo" Genders. Aircraft entered uncontrollable spin, pilot bails out, parachute fails.
  • 1949 – The Air Arm, Hong Kong Defence Force is established with Royal Air Force (RAF) assistance.
  • 1947 – United Airlines begins daily scheduled service between San Francisco and Honolulu.
  • 1945 – The U. S. Navy’s mixed-propulsion Ryan FR Fireball becomes the first aircraft incorporating jet propulsion to qualify for use aboard aircraft carriers.
  • 1945 – Hamburg radio of Germany announces to the world the death of Adolf Hitler.
  • 1943 – No. 432 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.
  • 1943 – (1-7 ) The U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Eleventh Air Force drops 200,000 pounds (90,719 kg) of bombs on Japanese forces on Attu in the Aleutian Islands in support of the upcoming American invasion of the island.
  • 1942 – No. 130 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Bagotville, Quebec.
  • 1942 – Squadron No. 588 of the Soviet Air Force, an all-woman night-bombing unit equipped with Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, is formed in the USSR.
  • 1936 – RAF Training command is formed.
  • 1934 – Fank Akers made a hooded landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Maryland, in the first demonstration of the blind landing system intended for carrier use and under development by the Washington Institute of Technology.
  • 1930 – Entered Service: Curtiss F8C Helldiver, the first United States Navy dive bomber designed as such, with Fighter Squadron 1 (VF-1 B) aboard USS Saratoga (CV-3)
  • 1923 – HMS Hermes enters service with the Royal Navy. She is the first ship designed from the waterline up as an aircraft carrier and the first aircraft carrier with an island superstructure to enter service.
  • 1922 – Deruluft (Deutsche-Russische Luftverkehrs, "German-Russian Airlines") commences operations.
  • 1916 – German Airship Schütte-Lanz SL3 is stranded near Riga as structure of the ship degraded because of atmospheric exposure.
  • 1915 – Air Mechanic William Thomas James McCudden of the Royal Flying Corps the elder brother of James McCudden VC died when his Bleriot had engine trouble and crashed at Fort Grange, Gosport.
  • 1912 – First flight of the Avro Type F, single seat British aircraft from Avro and the first aircraft in the world to feature a completely enclosed cabin.
  • 1897 – Birth of Eugen Bönsch, Austro-Hungarian WWI fighter ace who also served in WWII
  • 1875 – Birth of Harriet Quimby, early American aviator and movie screenwriter, first woman to gain a pilot's license in the United States

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Hypersonic X-51 programme ends in success", Flight International, 3 May 2013.
  2. ^ "X-51A Waverider Achieves Hypersonic Goal On Final Flight," Aviation Week & Space Technology, 2 May 2013.
  3. ^ Anonymous, "WaveRider Goes Hypersonic," Aviation History, September 2013, p. 12.
  4. ^ Wikipedia Operation Black Buck article.
  5. ^ Hastings, Max, and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983, no ISBN, pp. 145-147.

May 2

  • 2011 – Operation Neptune Spear. 2 modified Black Hawk helicopters ("stealth" versions) carrying Navy seals lands in at Abbottabad, Pakistan, and kill Terrorist Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Lade, founder of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets.
  • 2010 – A Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter of the United States Army carrying two soldiers of the 116th Aviation Group, was participating in a routine drill when it crashed on a ramp while taxiing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, shortly before 1400 hrs. Both crew were taken to hospital. Pilot 1st Lt. Jonathan Shively Jr., 33, of Jamestown, died of injuries, but second pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Roger Carpenter, 46, of Spartanburg, was in stable condition.
  • 2009 – Uli Dembinski, German aerobatic pilot, establishes a record of 333 loops with his Yak-55.
  • 2005 – Two F/A-18C Block 39/40 Hornet fighter jets of VMFA-323, BuNos 164721 and 164732, collide over south-central Iraq, during a sortie from USS Carl Vinson, killing the two pilots.[2]
  • 1999 – The same day an American F-16 was shot down near Šabac and an A-10 Thunderbolt II was heavily damaged, operation control lost contact of an UAV in the Adriatic Sea, close to the coast and minutes from landing. Local fishermen witnesses give credit to the rumors this was a covered Dassault Mirage F1B (codename yogsothoth) damaged in dogfight over Beograd. Reports of airplane discharging something at sea were collected by coast guard, as well as the bail out of two pilots. Following the accident, never credited by the air force, it was confirmed that jet fighters were dropping unused weapons into the sea before landing.
  • 1998 – The 100th and final B-1 B was delivered.
  • 1981 – A 55-year-old Australian man, Laurence James Downey, enters a lavatory aboard Aer Lingus Flight 164, a Boeing 737-200 with 107 other people on board, five minutes before landing at London Heathrow Airport in London, England, douses himself with petrol (gasoline), and walks into the cockpit with a cigarette lighter in his hand. He demands that the airliner fly to Iran, then specifies France when the flight crew tells him that the aircraft lacks the fuel to fly to Iran. The plane lands at Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport in Le Touquet, France, where Downey demands that Pope John Paul II make public the Third Secret of Fatima. After 10 hours, French police storm the plane and arrest Downey without injury to anyone.
  • 1975 – Death of Emil Meinecke, German WWI flying ace and Fokker test pilot post WWI.
  • 1970 – ALM Flight 980, a Douglas DC-9 operated by Overseas National Airways, ditches near St. Croix, Virgin Islands, killing 23, including two infants and one crew member; 40, including 4 crew members, survive.
  • 1968 – Death of Edwin Charles "Ted" Parsons, American former French Foreign Legionnaire, WWI flying ace, Rear Admiral of the US Navy, Hollywood aviation technical advisor, FBI Special Agent, and author.
  • 1967 – Delivery to the USAF of the A-37 A and named Dragonfly begins.
  • 1964 – A North Vietnamese frogman sinks the U. S. Navy aviation transport USS Card (T-AKV-40) – formerly the escort aircraft carrier USNS Card (CVE-11) – pierside while she unloads helicopters at Saigon, South Vietnam. She soon is refloated and repaired.
  • 1958 – Roger Carpentier beats Watkin’s two-week-old world altitude record when he flies to 79,452 feet in a Sud-Ouest SO 9050 in Istres, France.
  • 1956 – A USAF Boeing B-47E-85-BW Stratojet, 52-0450, c/n 450732, of the 98th Bomb Wing (also reported as of the 372d Bomb Squadron, 307th Bomb Wing), crashes short of runway, Lincoln AFB, Nebraska. One account states that it was on instrument approach. Another states that it came down "three miles short of the Northwest runway after departing on an evening training mission. Eyewitnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to belly in for a landing, crashed, then exploded and burned. The crash site was on farmland owned by Edmund Nelson, ½ mile west of 79 Hi-way and 2 ½ miles north of U.S. 34." KWF are Captain Marion J. Perdue, aircraft commander, 33, San Antonio, Texas; 2nd Lieutenant Linwood M. McIntosh, co-pilot, 22, Dallas, Texas; Captain Charles H. Stonesifer, navigator/bombardier, 35, Maricopa, California; and Staff Sergeant William F. Rockholt, crew chief, 24, Fellows, California. All crew were from the 345th Bomb Squadron.
  • 1945 – Death of Eric James Brindley Nicolson, British WWII fighter pilot, only Battle of Britain pilot and the only pilot of RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross, killed in the crash of a RAF B-24 Liberator in which he was flying as an observer.
  • 1945 – The British East Indies Fleet’s 2first Aircraft Carrier Squadron – consisting of the aircraft carriers HMS Emperor, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker – begin support of Operation Dracula, a British assault on Rangoon, Burma. Their aircraft fly 110 sorties, bombing Japanese forces in support of a British amphibious landing.
  • 1942 – The Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho sinks with the loss of 101 lives after the U. S. Navy submarine USS Drum (SS-228) had torpedoed her late the previous evening 40 nautical miles (74 km) off Omaezaki, Japan. There are 472 survivors.
  • 1941 – The Anglo-Iraqi War between British forces and a pro-Axis Iraqi government begins with 41 Royal Air Force Station Habbaniya- and Shaibah-based Royal Air Force planes launching a surprise attack against Iraqi forces surrounding Habbaniya and Iraqi airfields. Royal Iraqi Air Force aircraft respond. By the end of the day, the British have destroyed 22 Iraqi aircraft on the ground, losing five of their own.
  • 1936 – American parachutist, Clement Joseph 'Clem' Sohn, makes his first jump in England, at Hanworth airfield near London. Unusually, Sohn attached wings to his body, which were deployed when he opened his arms and legs and allowed him to glide.
  • 1932 – Death of Otto Jindra, Austro Hungrian WWI flying ace who, post war, became Czechoslovakian citizen and was instrumental in raising a Czechoslovak Air Force.
  • 1927 – Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue, leading the U. S. Army Pan American Flight, a public relations goodwill mission to promote U. S. aviation in South America, Flying 5 Loening OA-1 A seaplanes complete the mission after having traveled 22,000 miles (35,200 km) in 59 flight days, stopping at 72 cities along the route.
  • 1919 – A U.S. Army seaplane en route on afternoon flight from Balboa, Panama to France Field, near present-day Colón, Panama, with three aviators on board, suffers engine failure shortly after departure. Pilot Lt. J. R. L. Hitt attempts landing on Miraflores Lake but aircraft falls short and hits the front of the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal at ~1700 hrs. Airframe crumples "like a house of cards", according to account published by the Panama Star & Herald on 3 May. Hitt, Lt. Thomas Cecil Tonkin, and Maj. Harold Melville Clark (4 October 1890 - 2 May 1919) are all thrown from the plane into the water of the lock. "Lieutenant Tonkin was undoubtedly killed instantly by the twisting timbers of the machine. ...Major Clark sank to the bottom of the lock, and it's not known whether he was killed in the crash or whether he drowned", stated the article. Hitt was severely injured in the crash, but was rescued by bystanders. The Panama Star & Herald reported that a diver was sent to retrieve Clark's body. The Army rules his death as an accident due to internal injuries caused by "aeroplane traumatism", according to a War Department report on Clark's death dated 8 May 1919, and awards his mother $10,000. Clark is buried 29 May 1919, with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Clark had made the first-ever inter-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands on 15 March 1918, in a Curtiss N-9 of the 6th Aero Squadron. Fort Stotsenburg, established in the Philippines in 1902, is renamed Clark Air Base with the establishment of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.
  • 1918 – Death of Edgar Scholtz, German WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Fokker DR. I
  • 1918 – Death of Federico Fenu, Italian Balloonist.
  • 1917 – Camp Borden Aerodrome was formally taken over by RFC Canada – The first of the new training fields.
  • 1916 – Eight German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties. The Zeppelin L 20 is wrecked in a storm off Stavanger, Norway on the return journey.
  • 1909 – John Moore-Brabazon the first resident British citizen to make a recognized powered heavier-than-air flight in the UK, flying from The Aero Club’s ground at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin biplane Bird of Passage.
  • 1895 – Birth of Orvil Arson Anderson, American pioneer balloonist.
  • 1892 – Born Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, was a German pilot and is still regarded today as the "ace of aces". He was a very successful fighter pilot, military leader and flying ace who won 80 air combats during World War I.
  • 1891 – Birth of General Sir Hesperus Andrias 'Pierre' van Ryneveld, South African military commander, WWI fighter ace, raid pilot and WWII high-ranking officer.
  • 1883 – Birth of Alessandro Cagno (nickname Sandrin), Italian racing driver and aviation pioneer.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Engine fault 'caused Sudan crash'". BBC News, 3 May 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  2. ^ "Second Pilot Identified in F/A-18 Crash". United States Navy. 2007-05-05. Retrieved 2007-12-10.

May 3

  • 2010 – Death of Günter F. Wendt, German-American engineer noted for his work in the U. S. manned spaceflight program. "There is no reason to say I am narrow-minded. Just do it my way and you will have no problem at all."
  • 2009 – XM715, a Handley Page Victor, briefly becomes airborne during a fast taxi run at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, United Kingdom. The aircraft is not airworthy and was not intended to have flown.
  • 2009 – Táchira helicopter crash: A Fuerzas Terrestres Venezuela Mil Mi-17 Hip helicopter crashes on a border patrol with Colombia with 18 fatalities including the Venezuelan General Domingo Faneite. The accident occurred near the town of El Alto de Rubio, in Táchira state, Venezuela.
  • 2007 – Death of Walter Marty Schirra, Jr., American test pilot, US Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo), fifth American and the ninth human to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times.
  • 2007 – A Chicago businessman who owned a ranch near Twin Bridges and his passenger were killed Thursday morning when the small jet they were flying crashed while trying to land at the Beaverhead County Airport at Dillon. At about 1040 mountain daylight time (MDT), a Cessna Citation S550, N22HP, collided with terrain during a circling instrument approach at Dillon, Montana.
  • 2006 – Armavia Flight 967, an Airbus A320, crashes into the Black Sea near the Russian city of Sochi, killing all 113 on board.
  • 2005 – Airwork Flight 23, a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner crashes in Taranaki, New Zealand killing both crew members.
  • 2002 – 2002 Jalandhar India MiG-21 crash: An Indian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 pilot ejects after takeoff, with the aircraft crashing into a Jalandhar bank building, killing eight on the ground.
  • 1998 – STS-90, Space Shuttle Columbia mission is back on earth
  • 1986 – Air Lanka Flight 512, a Lockheed L-1011, is bombed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, killing 21 of 148 on board.
  • 1985 – Aeroflot Flight 8381, a Tupolev Tu-134, collides with a Soviet Air Force Antonov An-26; both aircraft crash near Zolochev, Ukraine, killing all 94 on board both aircraft.
  • 1983 – The first CC 134 Challenger Jet was delivered to 412 Squadron.
  • 1982 – A Gulfstream II from Algerian government is shot down above the border between Iran and Turkey. Both Iran and Iraq rejected responsibility.
  • 1982 – Iraq shoots down an aircraft bound for Tehran, Iran, carrying Algerian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ben Yahia and 12 of his colleagues. The incident ends an Algerian attempt to mediate between Iran and Iraq and bring an end to the Iran-Iraq War.
  • 1977 – Shortly after 1100 hrs. English Electric Canberra PR.9 aircraft, XH137, of No. 39 Squadron was returning to its base at RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon, after a routine training flight. About two miles from the end of the runway, it crashed by some houses in the estate of Oxmoor in the village of Hartford, north-east of Huntingdon. Three young children were killed and five people were injured, of whom two are detained in hospital. The two RAF members of the crew were also killed, said Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Frederick Mulley.
  • 1976 – A Pan Am Boeing 747SP makes a record around-the-world flight, taking 1 day 22 hours.
  • 1973 – Death of Louis Prosper Gros, French WWI flying ace who served also in WWII.
  • 1968 – Death of Bernard Artigau, French WWI flying ace, pioneering commercial pilot who also served in WWII
  • 1968 – Braniff Flight 352, a Lockheed L-188A Super Electra en route from Houston, Texas to Dallas, breaks up in mid-air in a thunderstorm and crashes near Dawson, Texas; killing its five crew and 80 passengers. Nine years earlier Braniff Flight 542 crashed 49 miles (79 km) away in Buffalo.
  • 1965 – The U. S. Marine Corps's first attack helicopters, modified UH-1 Es of Marine Observation Squadron 2 (VMO-2), arrive at Da Nang, South Vietnam, to begin operations in the Vietnam War.
  • 1961 – The Boeing Airplane Company changes its name to Boeing Company.
  • 1955 – The first pre-series Sud-Ouest SO 9050 Trident II was flown.
  • 1952 – The first landing at the North Pole is made by Americans Lt. Col. William P. Benedict and Lt. Col. J. O. Fletcher on a ski-and-wheel equipped Air Force Douglas C-47.
  • 1950 – HMS Ark Royal (R09) is Launched at Birkenhead. Audacious-class aircraft carrier, Royal navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier and world's first aircraft carrier to be commissioned with an angled flight deck.
  • 1950 – The 2nd prototype Blackburn B-54 Y. A.8. with a crew of three makes his first flight.
  • 1949 – Birth of Albert Sacco, Jr.,American chemical engineer who flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia on shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995.
  • 1949 – First launch, of Viking 1.( Viking Rocket) It attained an altitude of 50 miles (80 km). The altitude was limited by a premature engine cut-off, eventually traced to steam leakage from the turbine casing.
  • 1948 – Second Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, BuNo 37971, NACA 141, crashes on takeoff on 20th flight for NACA (46th total take-off) at Edwards AFB, California, due to compressor disintegration that cut control runs in fuselage, killing NACA pilot Howard C. Lilly. Lilly is the first NACA pilot to die while on duty, and the first pilot who had flown at supersonic speed to be killed.
  • 1945 – Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers sink the German passenger ships SS Cap Arcona and SS Deutschland and the German cargo ship SS Thielbek in the Bay of Lübeck, unaware that the ships are carrying more than 10,000 concentration camp prisoners. About 5,000 people die aboard Cap Arcona (the second-greatest loss of life in a ship sinking in history) and about another 2,750 aboard Thielbek, and there also is a heavy loss of life aboard Deutschland.
  • 1945 – (3-4) The fifth Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 125 kamikazes. They sink three destroyers and two smaller ships and damage the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable, the light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62), four destroyers, a destroyer-minelayer, and three smaller ships.
  • 1943 – During an inspection tour, Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews (1884–1943) is killed in crash of Consolidated B-24D-1-CO Liberator, 41-23728, of the 330th Bomb Squadron, 93d Bomb Group, 8th Air Force,[193] out of RAF Bovingdon, England, on Mt. Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes peninsula after an aborted attempt to land at the RAF Kaldadarnes, Iceland. Andrews and thirteen others died in the crash; only the tail gunner, S/Sgt. George A. Eisel, survived. Others KWF included pilot Capt. Robert H. Shannon, of the 330th BS, 93rd BG; six members of Andrews' staff, including Maj. Ted Trotman, B/Gen. Charlie Barth, Col. Marlow Krum, and the general's aide, Maj. Fred A. Chapman; and Capt. J. H. Gott, navigator. Andrews was the highest-ranking Allied officer to die in the line of duty to that point in the war.[194] At the time of his death, he was Commanding General, United States Forces, European Theatre of Operations. Camp Springs Army Air Field, Maryland, is renamed Andrews Field (later Andrews Air Force Base), for him on 7 February 1945.
  • 1942 – Tragedy at Kufra - Three Bristol Blenheim Mk. IVs, Z7513, Z7610, and T2252, of No. 15 Squadron, South African Air Force, detached to support Allied ground forces garrisoning the oasis at Kufra in Libya, become lost whilst on a familiarization flight and land in the Libyan Desert. They are not found until 11 May by which time only one of twelve crew survive. Z7610 and T2252 are flown out in May but damaged Z7513 is abandoned in place.
  • 1942 – In a raid on the Arctic convoy PQ 15, six Heinkel He 111 s of the Luftwaffe’s I. Gruppe, Kampfgeschwader 26, make Germany’s first torpedo bomber attack of World War II. They sink two merchant ships outright and damage a third, which a German submarine later sinks. Three of the He 111 s are lost.
  • 1937 – Death of Cosimo Rennella, Italian born Ecuadorian WWI flying ace, and pioneering aviator in South America Pre and post WWI war.
  • 1941 – (3-6) RAF aircraft continue to attack Iraqi positions surrounding RAF Habbinya and Iraqi airfields, eventually forcing Iraq forces to withdraw on May 6.
  • 1928 – Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps aircraft see action in China during the Tsinan Incident.
  • 1928 – USN LT’s Arthur Gavin and Zeus Soucek, takes off in a PN-12 seaplane for a world duration record for Class C seaplanes.
  • 1926 – Birth of Georgi Konstantinowitsch Mossolow, Soviet test Pilot.
  • 1924 – Birth of Robert Kenneth "Ken" Tyrrell, British WWII flying mechanic, Formula 2 racing driver and founder of the Tyrrell Formula One constructor
  • 1923 – U. S. Air Service Fokker T-2 pilots Lts. Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready complete the first non-stop flight across the United States in 26 hours, 50 min, 38.4 seconds from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Wickenburg, Arizona.
  • 1918 – Atlantic City, New Jersey became the first US municipal airport (Bader Field).
  • 1918 – Death of Samuel Parry, Welsh WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident in a Bristol F.2b.
  • 1918 – Death of Omer Paul Demeuldre, French WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Spad.
  • 1907 – The Wright brothers are elected honorary members of the Vienna Aviation Club, Austria.
  • 1896 – Birth of Louis Marcel Germain 'Marcel' Doret, French Aerobatic, Record breaker and test pilot.
  • 1896 – Birth of Karl Allmenröder, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1891 – Birth of William Graham Westwood, South African WWI flying ace
  • 1866 – Birth of Richard von Kehler, German Balloon pioneer.
  • 1812 – Birth of William Samuel Henson, pre-Wright brothers aviation engineer and inventor.
  • 1695 – Birth of Henri Pitot, French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the Pitot tube.

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/04/18050052-two-bodies-found-at-us-plane-crash-site-in-kyrgyzstan-third-crew-member-still-missing?lite
  2. ^ Associated Press, "Kyrgyzstan: 2 Americans' Bodies Found at Crash Site," The Washington Post, May 5, 2013, p. A8.
  3. ^ Sly, Liz, and Suzan Haidamous, "Syrian Report: Israel Bombs Outskirts of Damascus For Second Time in Recent Days," washingtonpost.com, May 5, 2013, 10:00 a.m. EDT.
  4. ^ "'IAF strike in Syria targeted arms from Iran'". Jerusalem Post. May 4, 2013.
  5. ^ Cohen, Gili (May 5, 2013). "'Israel overnight strike targeted Iranian missile shipment meant for Hezbollah'". Ha'aretz. Retrieved May 5, 2013.

May 4

  • 2012 – A United States Air Force F-16 of the 421 Fighter Squadron crashed at the Utah Test and Training Range, pilot ejected safely.
  • 2009 – Northwest Airlines Flight 557, an Airbus A320-211, registration N311US, is substantially damaged in a heavy landing at Denver International Airport, United States. Vertical deceleration in excess of 3G is recorded. The aircraft may be written off.
  • 2009 – A Russian Navy Kamov Kamov Ka-27 (Helix) Helicopter landing on the Baltic Fleet Frigate Yaroslav Mudryi, the main-rotor made contact with the ship superstructure, crashed on the deck and then rolled over the side into the sea. The 5 crew from the Kamov helicopter were successfully rescued from the sea.
  • 2006 – Hawaiian Airlines announces service to the mainland destinations of San Diego, Seattle and Portland with their four additional Boeing 767-300 airliners.
  • 2004 – US Airways becomes the 15th member of the airline coalition Star Alliance.
  • 2003 – Frontier Airlines increases service to Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Their regional operation Frontier JetExpress also adds regional jet service to Boise, Oklahoma City and Tucson, while discontinuing service to Oakland.
  • 2002 – Launch: Spot-5 satellite, with 2.5 m, 5 m and 10 m capability
  • 2002 – EAS Airlines Flight 4226, a BAC 1-11 500 series, crashes into the Gwammaja neighborhood at Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff; the ensuing crash resulted in the deaths of 75 passengers and at least 73 civilians on the ground.
  • 2002 – Launch of Aqua (EOS PM-1), multi-national NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the precipitation, evaporation, and cycling of water.
  • 1989 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-30 at 14:48:59 EDT. Mission highlights: Magellan Venus probe deployment.
  • 1986 – American Eagle Flight 5452, a CASA C-212 operated by Executive Airlines, crashes on landing at Eugenio María de Hostos Airport in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, killing both pilots. The other four people on board, all passengers, survive with minor injuries.
  • 1982 – Argentinian Navy Super Étendard aircraft fatally damage the British destroyer Sheffield with an Exocet missile southeast of the Falkland Islands. Sheffield sinks on May 10.
  • 1982 – The British lose their first Sea Harrier of the Falklands War, shot down by ground fire during a bombing raid over Goose Green. The pilot is killed.
  • 1978 – First prototype Lockheed Have Blue stealth test bed, c/n 1001, on its 37th flight, hit the runway a little too hard at Groom Lake, Nevada, and had to lift off for another pass rather than go into a skid, but had bent the right main gear strut. The landing gear had been retracted after the "touch and go", and now the right main gear leg wouldn't extend. Despite many attempts, there was no way to get the gear down. Critically low on fuel, Lockheed test pilot Bill Park decided to eject and let the aircraft crash into the desert. Park suffered a serious back injury and concussion, ending his career as a test pilot. The airframe was bulldozed under the desert. News of the crash leaked to the press, and some vague comments were made about the possible existence of "stealth" aircraft.
  • 1976 – Launch of LAGEOS 1, or Laser Geodynamics Satellites, scientific research satellitesdesigned to provide an orbiting laser ranging benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Eart.
  • 1972 – An Aeroflot Yakalov Yak-40 (CCCP-87778) crashes due to windshear at Bratsk, Russia, killing all 18 on board.
  • 1969 – 4-11 – The Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown's crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy F-4 Phantom, taking 4 hours 47 min.
  • 1967 – The Lunar Orbiter 4 launches on a 180-day mission to take photographs of The Moon for research purposes. It would take over 500 photos before striking the surface.
  • 1966 – Death of William Edward George "Pedro" Mann, British WWI flying ace, one of the first to fly an inverted formation at Hendon. He also served in WWII and helped to develop mobile radar and signals units that served as models for the entire RAF.
  • 1962 – (4–5) During the Carupanazo revolt against Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan Air Force aircraft attack rebel positions at Carúpano.
  • 1961 – Project Strato-Lab: To test the Navy's Mark IV full-pressure suit, A world balloon record of 113,739.9 feet is set in a two-place open gondola balloon Strato Lab V by U. S. Navy Commander Malcolm David Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather. The flight lasted 9 hours 54 min and covered a horizontal distance of 140 miles (230 km). Unfortunately, Victor Prather drowned during the helicopter transfer after landing.
  • 1959 – First flight of the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, civilian utility aircraft built by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland.
  • 1959 – Birth of Maurizio Cheli, Italian engineer, air force officer, a European Space Agency astronaut and a veteran of one NASA space shuttle mission.
  • 1956 – Birth of Michael Landon Gernhardt, NASA astronaut.
  • 1955 – Death of Louis Charles Breguet, French aircraft designer and builder, one of the early aviation pioneers.
  • 1953 – English Electric Canberra B2 WD952, fitted with Rolls-Royce Olympus engines set a world altitude record – 63,668 ft (19,406 m).
  • 1969 – 4-11 – The Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown's crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy F-4 Phantom, taking 4 hours 47 min.
  • 1950 – Prototype reconnaissance platform Northrop YRB-49 A, makes its first flight.
  • 1949 – USAF North American F-82F Twin Mustang, 46-468, out of Mitchel Field crashes into an unfinished house on Fulton Avenue near Duncan Road, a residential neighborhood of Hempstead, New York near Hofstra University; the plane burst into flames but neither the pilot, 2nd Lt. Andrew Wallace, nor his radar observer, 1st Lt. Bryan Jolley, were killed. In fact, Wallace used a brick from the house to smash the right canopy and rescue Jolley.
  • 1949 – In the Superga air disaster, an Italian Airlines Fiat G.212 CP carrying the Torino football team crashes into the Superga hills near Turin, killing all 31 on board, including 18 players.
  • 1949 – The Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines) Fiat G212CP carrying the Torino A. C. football squad flew into a thunderstorm on the approach to Turin and encountered conditions of low cloud and poor visibility. It crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin killing all 31 aboard
  • 1945 – The British Home Fleet carries out its last operation of World War II, a raid by 44 Avengers and Wildcats from the aircraft carriers HMS Queen. HMS Trumpeter, and HMS Searcher against Kilbotn, Norway, sinking a German depot ship and submarine. It is the last air raid against Norway of World War II.
  • 1945 – (4-5) Carrier aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet strike airfields on the Sakishima Gunto.
  • 1944 – F/L LJ Bateman and crew in a Vickers Wellington of No. 407 Squadron sank the German submarine U-846 west of the Bay of Biscay
  • 1943 – S/L BH Moffit and crew in Consolidated Canso of No. 5 (BR) Squadron, Eastern Air Command, sunk the German submarine U-630 in the West Atlantic Ocean.
  • 1942 – Three Bristol Blenheims of No. 15 Squadron, South African Air Force, on a familiarisation flight from Kufra, Libya, become lost over the Libyan Desert and are forced to land due to fuel exhaustion. One of them is found on May 9 with its entire crew of three dead of exposure, and the other two on May 11 with eight of the nine men with them dead of gunshots or exposure.
  • 1942 – (May 4-11, 1942) The Kufra tragedy occurred in May 1942 during World War II when eleven of twelve South African aircrew flying in three South African Air Force No. 15 Squadron Bristol Blenheim Mark IV aircraft died of thirst and exposure after the flight became lost following a navigational error near the oasis of Kufra in Libya and made a forced landing in the Libyan Desert.
  • 1937 – Die Heinkel-Werke Oranienburg, important factory for aircraft construction, is inaugurated.
  • 1936 – 4-7 – Amy Johnson sets a new England-South Africa speed record of 3 days 6 hours 26 min in a Percival Gull Six.
  • 1928 – Death of Leonard Warden Bonney, pioneering aviator, while making the first flight of his 'Bonney Gull '.
  • 1926 – Birth of Milton Orville 'Milt' Thompson, NASA research pilot, first person to fly a lifting body.
  • 1924 – Etienne Oehmichen, flew for he first time a helicopter following a circular trajectory with a length of about one km after about 7 min and 40 seconds in the same place to land.
  • 1918 – Death of Karl Patzelt, Austro-Hungarian WWI flying ace, killed in action.
  • 1917 – Birth of Siegfried Freytag "The Malta Lion", WWII German fighter ace and member of the French Foreign Legion during the French indochina war.
  • 1916 – Zeppelin LZ-32 is shot down and destroyed by British naval gunfire.
  • 1911 – The U. S. War Department approves a suggestion that S. C.No.1 (the Wright Flyer accepted by the Army August 2, 1909) be put at the disposal of the Smithsonian Institution for exhibition purposes following refurbishment.
  • 1904 – Birth of Joaquín García-Morato y Castaño, leading Nationalist fighter ace of the Spanish Civil War. He is credited with 40 air victories, four gained while flying Heinkel He 51 s and 36 with the Italian Fiat CR.32.
  • 1901 – Birth of Jerzy Bajan, prominent Polish sports and military aviator, winner of the Challenge 1934 contest.
  • 1899 – Birth of Reginald Carey Brenton Brading, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1899 – Birth of Fritz Adam Hermann Opel (Von Opel) German pilot and engineer remembered mostly for his spectacular demonstrations of rocket propulsion that earned him the nickname "Rocket Fritz".
  • 1892 – Birth of Otto Rosenfeld, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1890 – Birth of François Marie Noel Battesti, French WWI flying ace
  • 1883 – Birth of Jan Olieslagers, Belgian motorcycle racer, aviation pioneer (who set world records with both types of machinery) and WWI flying ace.
  • 1860 – Birth of Hans Georg Friedrich Groß, German balloonist and airship constructor.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dailey, Haven, and Bob Seavey, "Solar Plane Lands in Ariz., 1st Leg of Major Trip," Associated Press, May 3, 2013, 9:48 p.m. EDT.
  2. ^ solarimpulse.com Phoenix

May 5

  • 2013 – Israeli aircraft strike Mount Qassioun, which overlooks Damascus, Syria, targeting surface-to-surface missiles sent from Iran to Hezbollah.[1][2] The Syrian government claims the strike targeted a scientific research facility.[3]
  • 2009 – United States Marine Corps Bell AH-1W SuperCobra belonging to HMM-166, based at MCAS Miramar, California, crashes at 1154 hrs. PST into the Cleveland National Forest, California, killing both pilots.
  • 2008 – Philippine Airlines’ regional carrier PAL Express began operations with 8 daily flights between Manila and Malay with Bombardier Dash-8-400 turboprops.
  • 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507, a Boeing 737-800 (5Y-KYA) scheduled to fly to Nairobi, Kenya, crashes just after takeoff from Douala, Cameroon. All 114 occupants are killed after the pilot departs without clearance and then does not realize the aircraft is banking hard to the right in time for correction due to improper auto-pilot inputs. The aircraft strikes a forested swamp a few miles to the south of the airport, where a reporter would find one year later that aircraft wreckage and human remains are still present.
  • 2007 – Eos Airlines begins flights from London Stansted to Newark, New Jersey with their 48-seat Boeing 757-200 aircraft.
  • 2006 – Siberia Airlines renames their airlines to S7 Airlines, and repainting their aircraft to a bright green, which is partly so the aircraft can be spotted among the tundra of Russia in the event of a crash.
  • 2006 – During the Children's Day flight exhibition (Suwon Air Base, South Korea), Capt. Kim Do-hyun of the Republic of Korea Air Force's Black Eagles display team is killed when he loses control of his Cessna A-37B Dragonfly.
  • 2005 – First flight of the Dassault Falcon 7X, a large-cabin, long range business jet manufactured by Dassault Aviation
  • 1998 – A Peruvian Air Force Boeing 737-282, FAP-351, c/n 23041, line number 962, chartered from Occidental Petroleum, crashes at ~2130 hrs. during poor weather near Andoas, Peru killing 75 of the 88 people on board.
  • 1994 – A 1st Fighter Squadron pilot from Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida, safely ejected from his McDonnell-Douglas F-15C Eagle of the 1st FS, 325th FW, before it crashed into the Gulf of Mexico about 5 miles south of Port St. Joe, Florida. On a training mission, student pilot lost control due to G‑induced loss of consciousness; was rescued from the gulf by an MH-53 Pave Low Helicopter from the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field.
  • 1993 – Jet Airways begins commercial airline operations with four Boeing 737-300 airliners.
  • 1990 – A Douglas DC-6 (N84BL) operated by Aerial Transit Company crashes after takeoff from Guatemala City, Guatemala, killing all 3 on the aircraft and an additional 24 on the ground. The cargo flight destined for Miami, Florida, develops engine trouble and strikes the ground while trying to make its way back to the airport.
  • 1988 – Birth of Jessica Dubroff, a seven-year-old pilot trainee who died attempting to become the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States.
  • 1985 – Due to air traffic control errors, a Tupolev Tu-134 operating as Aeroflot Flight SSSR-65856 with 79 people on board and a Soviet Air Forces Antonov An-26 with 15 people on board collide at 13,000 feet (3,962 m) near Zolochev in the Soviet Union’s Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, killing all 94 people on board the two planes. Among the dead are the Estonian table-tennis player Alari Lindmäe, two Soviet Army generals, and Nikolai Dmitrijev, a Hero of Socialist Labor and one of the Soviet Union’s most decorated civil airline pilots who had been the captain of the Tu-134.
  • 1983 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 855,a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, loses power from all engines 30 minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport; the pilot is able to return to Miami after restarting one engine; no casualties are reported on board.
  • 1972 – Alitalia Flight 112, a Douglas DC-8 flying from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport crashes into Mount Longa, about 5 km (3.1 mi) south-west of Palermo while on approach, killing all 115 passengers and crew; it remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.
  • 1969 – USAF North American F-100D-70-NA Super Sabre, 56-3214, one of two 452nd TFS, 81st TFW, RAF Lakenheath, Super Sabres on gunnery mission over Holbeach Range, Cambs., UK, suffers engine failure, forcing pilot Capt. R.E. Riggs to eject. Fighter impacts into farmland, missing group of workers by 400 yards (370 m), airframe demolished in explosion, only fin and rudder assembly intact.
  • 1968 – A Grumman Gulfstream II becomes the first executive jet to make a non-stop Atlantic crossing after completing a 3,500-mile (5,633 km) flight from Teterboro, New Jersey to London Gatwick.
  • 1967 – Launch of Ariel 3, first artificial satellite designed and constructed in the UK.
  • 1965 – Birth of Colonel Fei Junlong, Chinese military pilot and an astronaut. He flew on the second manned spaceflight of the Shenzhou program.
  • 1965 – Iberia Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, crashes after striking a tractor on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, during a go-around in foggy weather; 30 of 49 passengers and crew die.
  • 1961 – Commander Alan Shepard, Jr., U. S. Navy, becomes the second man to explore space when he rides his Mercury Freedom 7 capsule, launched by a Redstone missile, to 115 miles above the Earth. It is three weeks since Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight.
  • 1960 – Birth of Douglas H. Wheelock, American astronaut and the commander of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 25.
  • 1959 – A Kamov Ka-15S, Soviet 2 seat Helicopter, Set a record of 170.455 km/h over 500 km.
  • 1958 – A Royal Air Force Miles Marathon T.2 (XA253) crashes after landing at Topcliffe RAF Station in the UK after the crew accidentally retracted the landing gear instead of raising the flaps.
  • 1958 – Birth of Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad (pilot), Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer (WSO) who is officially classified as missing in action since October 1986, but widely presumed dead. (lost on a mission over Lebanon, captured by Shiite group Amal and was later handed over to the Hezbollah)
  • 1958 – Lt. Gerald Stull steers his failing Convair F-102A-75-CO Delta Dagger, 56-1348, of the 327th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, away from residential homes while attempting a landing at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, at 1330 hrs., and aims it for Lake Monona, ejecting at the last moment, too late to save himself. Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at Tyndall AFB, Florida, on 5 August, a trust fund was established to provide an education for the pilot's infant son. A memorial to Stull's heroism is installed at Hudson Park near the lake 51 years later.
  • 1955 – An agreement was concluded between the United States and Canada for the construction and operation of distant early warning (DEW) radar defense line.
  • 1953 – Christopher Draper, WWI Ace & WWII Pilot, ("the Mad Major"), upset at the government's treatment of veterans, protest by flying under the Thames bridges.He flew a rented, 100 h. p. Auster monoplane under 15 of the 18 bridges. It was a spectacular stunt; the bridge arches were only 40 to 50 feet high; Draper was flying 90 mph and dodged around a ship. According to news accounts, he pulled off his stunt as a means of seeking attention and soliciting job offers. He was arrested, charged with flying too low in an urban area, and assessed a nominal ten guineas court costs.
  • 1950 – Prototype Scottish Pioneer II (VL515), civil registered as G-AKBF makes its first flight.
  • 1949 – Birth of Oleg Atkov, Russian cosmonaut. (Soyuz T-10/Soyuz T-11)
  • 1945 – (5-6) The British aircraft carriers HMS Emperor, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker resume support of Operation Dracula, bombing Japanese forces south of Rangoon and attacking shipping off Burma’s Tenasserim coast.
  • 1942 – Rabaul-based Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft raid Port Moresby, New Guinea.
  • 1942 – Operation Ironclad, the British invasion of the Vichy French-controlled island of Madagascar, begins with a destructive surprise strike at dawn by aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable on French airfields in the vicinity of Diego Suarez.
  • 1942 – Royal Air Force Mustang Mark I – The British version of the North American P-51 A Mustang – Tactical reconnaissance aircraft of No. 26 Squadron see combat over the English Channel. It is the first combat action by any version of the P-51 Mustang.
  • 1941 – Major George Putnam Moody (13 March 1908 - 5 May 1941), an early Air Force pioneer, is killed while flight-testing a Beechcraft AT-10-BH Wichita advanced two-engine training aircraft at Wichita Army Airfield, Kansas when it stalls/spins. Major Moody earned his military wings in 1930 and flew U.S. airmail as a member of the United States Army Air Corps in 1934. Valdosta Airfield, Valdosta, Georgia, opened 15 September 1941, is renamed Moody Army Airfield on 6 December 1941 in honor of Maj. Moody. The AT-10 is used extensively at Moody AAF during World War II.
  • 1941 – Two Dutch pilots succeeded in evading an escorting German-flown Fokker G. I and escaped to England. Their G.IB was taken to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, for examination, and used subsequently by Phillips and Powis (Miles Aircraft) at Reading for research into wooden construction.
  • 1940 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal begins a week and a half of support to Allied forces in the Narvik area of Norway.
  • 1936 – The Second Italo-Abyssinian War ends in an Italian conquest of Ethiopia as Italian forces enter Addis Ababa. Facing no opposition, the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) has played a decisive role in Italy’s victory in the eight-month war, but has engaged in a brutal campaign – In which Benito Mussolini’s sons Vittorio and Bruno and son-in-law Count Ciano voluntarily participate – of indiscriminate terror bombing and widespread use of mustard gas.
  • 1934 – Carina Massone Negrone establishes her first altitude record (5 544 m) with a Seaplane Class C.
  • 1931 – Death of Glen Kidston, record-breaking aviator and motor racing driver from Britain. His borrowed de Havilland Puss Moth broke up in mid-air while flying through a dust storm over the Drakensberg mountains (South Africa).
  • 1931 – Richard Waghorn lost control of his Hawker Horsley biplane bomber in high winds. He and his passenger parachuted from the aircraft but was seriously injured and died 2 days later.
  • 1930 – First solo flight from England to Australia by a woman begins with British Amy Johnson in her de Havilland D. H.60G Moth 'Jason'. She flies from Croydon, England to Darwin, Australia in 19 days.
  • 1928 – USN LT’s Arthur Gavin and Zeus Soucek, with a PN-12 seaplane, flew a total of 36 hours and 1 min, setting the world duration record for Class C seaplanes.
  • 1923 – Birth of Nikolai Vasilevich Sutyagin, Soviet WWII fighter pilot, Korean war fighter ace and high-ranking officer.
  • 1918 – Death of Giovanni Nicelli, Italian WWI flying ace, killed in action
  • 1913 – Birth of Robert William Prescott, American WWII flying ace, founder and president of Flying Tiger Line, pioneer of the air cargo industry.
  • 1904 – Birth of Squadron Leader Robert Kronfeld, AFC, Austrian-born gliding champion and sailplane designer. He became a British subject and an RAF test pilot.
  • 1887 – Birth of Charles Richard Fairey, British aircraft manufacturer, involved with the development of many of the companies most important products including; aircraft, rotorcraft, marine craft, mechanical engineering and rocketry.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "'IAF strike in Syria targeted arms from Iran'". Jerusalem Post. May 4, 2013.
  2. ^ Cohen, Gili (May 5, 2013). "'Israel overnight strike targeted Iranian missile shipment meant for Hezbollah'". Ha'aretz. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
  3. ^ Sly, Liz, and Suzan Haidamous, "Syrian Report: Israel Bombs Outskirts of Damascus For Second Time in Recent Days," washingtonpost.com, 5 May 2013, 10:00 a.m. EDT.

May 6

  • 2010 – A PZL-104 (Polish designed and built short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) Civil Aviation utility aircraft) carrying The former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage crashed at Hinton-in-the-Hedges Airfield, Northamptonshire.
  • 2009 – World Airways Flight 8535, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, registration N139WA, makes a hard landing at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, United States, causing overhead panels to detach. A go-around is initiated and the aircraft subsequently lands safely. The damage to the aircraft was described as substantial.
  • 2007 – A French Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter transporting Multinational Force and Observers crashes into a truck while making an emergency landing near El-Thamad, Egypt killing all nine people on board.
  • 2006 – SkyValue USA and their fleet of one Boeing 737 (leased from Xtra Airways) ceases operations, citing poor demand and even blaming hot weather forcing them to fuel-stop on flights from Las Vegas, NY to Mesa and Phoenix, AZ
  • 2006 – The U. S. Air Force retired the last Lockheed Martin C-141 Starlifter The Hanoi Taxi landed for the last time and was received in a formal retirement ceremony at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, located at WPAFB in Riverside, Ohio near Dayton.
  • 2004 – An Air Cush Let 410UVP (9XR-EF) stalls on takeoff in Jiech, Sudan, due to an imbalance after a shift in its cargo load. The plane is sent crashing into the ground, killing 6 of the 10 occupants.
  • 2003 – OH-58D Kiowa 94-0163 of N Troop, 4th Squadron, 3d ACR crashes near Al Asad and burns out. One crewmember injured.[4]
  • 2001 – Soyuz TM-31 is back on Earth.
  • 1993 – STS 55, 55th overall flight of the US Space Shuttle and the 14th flight of Columbia lands at Edwards AFB.
  • 1988 – Widerøe Flight 710, a Dash 7, crashes in Torghatten, Norway in thick fog, killing all 36 passengers in the worst-ever Dash 7 accident.
  • 1988 – Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook HC.1 ZA672 hit a pier at Hanover Airport while taxiing and was destroyed, 3 crew killed.
  • 1988 – Sikorsky CH-53D Stallion from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 46 crashed into South China Sea killing all 17 on board.
  • 1983 – Death of Harris George "Clem" Clements, British WWI flying ace
  • 1983 – Death of Sergei Petrovich Izotov, Russian aircraft turbine engine designer
  • 1982 – second prototype (SP-PSB) of the Helicopter PZL Swidnik W-3 "Sokol" makes his first flight.
  • 1982 – Royal Navy Sea Harrier FRS.1s, XZ452, '007', and XZ453, '009', of 801 Naval Air Squadron on combat air patrol from HMS Hermes of the Falklands task force, collide in poor visibility, killing pilots Lt. Cmdr. John Eyton-Jones in 452 and Lt. Alan Curtis in 453. Another source states that they were from the HMS Invincible.
  • 1981 – Death of Jens Frederick "Swede" Larson, American WWI flying ace
  • 1981 – A mechanical failure caused an abrupt nose pitch-down of United States Air Force Boeing EC-135N ARIA, 61-0328, call sign AGAR 23, of the 4950th Test Wing, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, from Flight Level 290, disappearing from radar at 10:49:48 EDT to crash in a farmer's field, in Walkersville, Maryland. All 21 aboard were killed. A memorial is scheduled to be built at Walkersville Heritage Farm Park pending funds.
  • 1968 – Astronaut Neil Armstrong ejects from Bell Aerospace Lunar Landing Research Vehicle No. 1, known as the "Flying Bedstead", at NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, Ellington AFB, Houston, Texas, as it goes out of control. Had he ejected 1/2 second later, his chute would not have deployed fully. Armstrong suffers a bit tongue.
  • 1966 – Birth of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Skvortsov, Russian cosmonaut.
  • 1966 – USMC McDonnell RF-4B-24-MC Phantom II, BuNo 153090, of VMCJ-3, MCAS El Toro, California, on out-and-back familiarization flight from MCAS Yuma, Arizona, is lost ~2 miles off of Del Mar, California in the Pacific when the pilot gets into an aerobatic maneuver stall. Both crew eject. Cause of the accident was pilot factor in that he failed to control the aircraft properly resulting in a spin. He then failed to execute properly the spin recovery technique. His instrument scan and awareness of what his airplane was doing were also seriously deficient. Wreckage discovered in 1994 by the UB88 dive group.
  • 1963 – Death of Paul Ward Spencer 'George' Bulman CBE, MC, AFC and Bar, British WWI pilot, air racer and chief test pilot for Hawker aircraft.
  • 1960 – Death of Marcel Marc Dhôme, French WWI flying ace, racing car driver, who also served in WWII and during the Korean war.
  • 1959 – SNECMA C.450-01 Coleoptere made its first free vertical flight at Melun-Villaroche.
  • 1959 – Boeing B-47E-75-BW Stratojet, 51-7041, of the 306th Bomb Wing aborts takeoff at MacDill AFB, Florida, burns to right of runway. Three crew escape but co-pilot is killed.
  • 1957 – Birth of Didier Delsalle, French Helicopter test pilot, first pilot to land a Helicopter on Mount Everest.
  • 1955 – United Airlines begins the first nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco.
  • 1955 – Birth of Donald Alan Thomas, American engineer and a former NASA astronaut.
  • 1952 – Birth of Chiaki Mukai, Japanese doctor, and JAXA astronaut. She was the first Japanese woman in space, and was the first Japanese citizen to have 2 spaceflights.
  • 1951 – Convair B-36D-25-CF Peacemaker, 49-2660, of the 7th Bomb Wing, Carswell AFB, Texas, crashes while landing at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, in high winds, 23 of 25 crew killed.
  • 1949 – Birth of David Cornell Leestma, American astronaut.
  • 1949 – Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) operates its first flight with a leased Douglas DC-3 with weekly service between San Diego and Oakland with a stop in Burbank, California. They would later be absorbed by USAir in May of 1987.
  • 1946 – Birth of Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry, French Air Force pilot And CNES astronaut.
  • 1945 – 1st Lt. Vincent J. Rudnick, on local training and acrobatics flight out of King's Cliffe, Great Britain, in North American P-51D Mustang, 44-13720, coded 'MC-X' and named "Mine 3 Express", of the 20th Fighter Group, loses control at top of a loop at ~1445 hrs. near Stoke Ferry, aircraft goes into irrecoverable spin, pilot bails out, airframe impacting near cottage of Springside. In June 1985, crash site excavated and some wreckage located.
  • 1945 – Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine. (British Liberator aircraft Sqdn. 224/T)
  • 1944 – Mitsubishi A7 M1 Reppu (designed as the successor to the Imperial Japanese Navy's A6 M Zero) officially flies for the first time.
  • 1944 – First flight of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, American experimental bomber aircraft, designed for a high top speed, with two engines within the fuselage driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers mounted at the tail, leaving the wing and fuselage clean and free of drag-inducing protrusions.
  • 1943 – Curtiss XP-60D, 41-19508, crashed at Rome Air Depot, New York. Was second XP-53 - later redesignated XP-60D.
  • 1942 – Four U. S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses attack the Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō south of Bougainville, but do not damage her.
  • 1942 – First flight of the Kawanishi N1K (“Mighty Wind”), an Allied reporting name “Rex”
  • 1941 – First flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. In its 25 years of service, more than 15, 600 were made by Republic Aviation in Farmingdale, NY.
  • 1941 – (Overnight) through 11-12 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command mounts four major raids on Hamburg, Germany, over the course of six nights, averaging 128 bombers per raid. The second, third, and fourth raids combined kill 233, injure 713, and leave 2,195 homeless.
  • 1940 – Trans World Airlines receives their first Boeing 307 Stratoliner, one month after Pan Am becomes the launch airline.
  • 1937 – The Zeppelin Hindenburg bursts into flames and crashes while attempting a landing at Naval Air Engineering Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey; of the 97 people on board, 35 are killed; one person on the ground also dies.
  • 1936 – First flight of the Latécoère 298, French seaplane that served during WWII. It was designed primarily as a torpedo bomber, but served also as a dive bomber against land and naval targets, and as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft
  • 1935 – First flight of the Curtiss P-36 Hawk, also known as the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, American Fighter aircraft.
  • 1930 – First flight of the Boeing Monomail, American single, low set, all metal cantilever wing. Retractable landing gear and a streamlined fuselage.
  • 1926 – Flying a Blackburn Dart, Flight Lieutenant Gerald Boyce makes the first night deck landing in history, landing aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Furious off the south coast of England.
  • 1919 – The first commercial flight, from Canada to United States, occurs as a Canadian Curtiss aircraft flies 150 pounds of raw furs from Toronto to Elizabeth, New Jersey. It is not a non-stop flight.
  • 1918 – Death of Jean Chaput, French WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his SPAD XIII.
  • 1918 – Death of William Lewis Wells, British WWI flying ace from wounds received in action.
  • 1917 – Birth of Rex Theodor Barber, American WWII fighter pilot, best known as a member of the top-secret mission to intercept the aircraft carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
  • 1912 – Birth of Paul M. Fitts, known as one of the pioneers in improving aviation safety
  • 1908 – The Wright brothers fly for the first time since 1905, at Kitty Hawk. Wilbur pilots the 1905 Flyer III, modified so that the pilot and a passenger can sit erect, on a flight of just over 1,000 feet.
  • 1906 – Death of Carl Berg, German entrepreneur and airship builder
  • 1899 – Birth of Edward Grahame Johnstone, British WWI fighter ace
  • 1895 – Birth of Ernest Charles Hoy DFC, Canadian WWI flying ace, and airmail flight pioneer.
  • 1894 – Birth of Richard Raymond-Barker, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1894 – Birth of Sir Alan John Cobham, KBE, AFC, English aviation pioneer.
  • 1894 – Birth of George Clifton Peters, Australian WWI flying ace
  • 1888 – Birth of Johann Frint, Austro-Hungarian WWI flying ace.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Miller, Greg, "U.S. Set to Keep Kill Lists For Years,' The Washington Post, October 24, 2012, p. A8.
  2. ^ "British helicopter that crashed in Iraq last year was shot down, investigation concludes". International Herald Tribune. 2007-04-27. Archived from the original on 2008-02-26. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  3. ^ "PRESS RELEASE: Special Operations Soldier dies in Iraq" (Press release). U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office. 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2010-07-16. Two aviators from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) died May 14, 2006, when their AH-6M Little Bird helicopter was shot down by enemy fire during combat operations in Yousifiyah, south of Baghdad, Iraq.[...]
  4. ^ "1994 USAF Serial Numbers". Retrieved 17 February 2010.

May 7

  • 2011 – Swiss “Jetman” Yves Rossy completed an eight-minute flight along the Grand Canyon, Flying his jet-propelled wing attached to his back, and steering only by moving his body.
  • 2011 – Launch of GEO-1, first Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite, designed to provide key capabilities the areas of missile warning, missile defense and battlespace characterization.
  • 2005 – Lockhart River air disaster: Aero Tropics Air Services Flight 675 crashes into the side of a mountain while on approach to Lockhart River Airport in Australia, killing all 15 occupants. The Swearingen SA.227DC Metro 23 (VH-TFU) strikes the ridge at a height of 1,200ft, well below the minimum safe altitude of 2,060ft, and is blamed on the crew not noticing their AGL (above ground level) and increased descent rate.
  • 2002 – China Northern Airlines Flight 6136, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes near Dalian, China, after a passenger sets fire to the cabin with gasoline; all 103 passengers and 9 crew are killed.
  • 2002 – EgyptAir Flight 843, a Boeing 737-566, crashes near Tunis, Tunisia, while landing in rough weather; of the 62 people on board, 14 perish.
  • 1999 – Express Airlines, later to become Pinnacle Airlines, announces that they will be the launch operator of the Bombardier Regional Jet (CRJ) for Northwest Airlines.
  • 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-49 at 7:40 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Intelsat VI repair; first flight of Endeavour. First 3 person EVA. ASEM space station truss experiment EVA, record four EVAs total for mission.
  • 1991 – The brand new Space Shuttle Endeavour, built to replace the destroyed Challenger, arrives at Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
  • 1990 – Air India Flight 132 catches fire on landing at Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport in India. An improperly installed fuse pin on the #1 engine on the Boeing 747 causes a fuel line to rupture after the reverse thrust is activated on landing. All 215 people on the aircraft remain unhurt, although the aircraft is completely destroyed.
  • 1986 – Capt. Håkan Lundqvist is forced to eject from Saab Draken, 131, of F10 Wing of the Svenska Flygvapnet during an air defence sortie at low level in J2 sector outside the west coast of Sweden when he inadvertently flies through his wingman's vortices and goes into a superstall. Time from ejection until the fighter strikes the water is only 3 to 5 seconds. Pilot, suffering from spinal compression due to the ejection, is rescued by a ferry and then transferred to an F10 Wing helicopter.
  • 1982 – 2 Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible are lost, they are believed to have collided while descending through cloud.
  • 1981 – Austral Lineas Aereas Flight 901, a BAC-111 (LV-VOX) crashes 9 miles out on approach to Buenos Aires-Jorge Newbery Airport in Argentina. While in a holding pattern over the Río de la Plata, the aircraft succumbs to a violent thunderstorm, killing all 31 onboard after crashing into the river.
  • 1979 – Air France is the first airline to operate the Lockheed L-1011-500, a long-range version of the TriStar with shorter fuselage, more powerful engines, and improved aerodynamics.
  • 1975 – Launch of Satellite ANIK A3 (first generation of a series of synchronous orbit communications satellites developed by Hughes Aircraft Company for individual nations to use within their territorial boundaries)
  • 1975 – Second prototype General Dynamics YF-16A Fighting Falcon, 72-01568, on practice flight prior to deployment for the Paris Air Show, suffers failure of main undercarriage leg to extend. General Dynamics test pilot Neil Anderson flies aircraft until fuel is nearly exhausted then makes expert grass belly-landing at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. Aircraft is not heavily damaged and pilot is uninjured. Airframe is then sent to Rome Air Development Center Newport Site for use in radar tests. This was the first F-16 mishap.
  • 1964 – Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F27, crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard, after a passenger shoots both the captain and first officer before turning the gun on himself.
  • 1963 – Death of Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization.
  • 1963 – Telstar 2 (communications satellite) is launched.
  • 1960 – The Soviet Union exposes an American cover-up about the status of a USAF Lockheed U-2 spy plane that was shot down over Russia six days prior. Assuming the aircraft was destroyed and the pilot killed, the US said a weather recon aircraft was lost, added NASA titles to a different airframe for media photos, and said the aircraft reported problems with oxygen before disappearing. Russia then came forward, adding information previously held back, that the pilot had survived and much of the spy aircraft was intact, proving the American scheme. Pilot Francis Gary Powers would be returned to the United States in February of 1962.
  • 1959 – Birth of Tamara Elizabeth "Tammy" Jernigan, American scientist and former NASA astronaut and a veteran of 5 shuttle missions
  • 1958 – U. S. Air Force Major Howard C. Johnson of the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron set a new world record for altitude, flying a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to 27,813 m (91,249 feet).
  • 1958 – An Indian Air Force de Havilland Vampire crashed into the Delhi Flying Club hangar at Safdar Jung Airport, Delhi while attempting an emergency landing following an in-flight fire. Both Vampire crew died and four engineers working in the hangar and 11 aircraft were destroyed.
  • 1946 – The Central Flying School is reformed at RAF Little Rissington.
  • 1946 – The Empire Central Flying School is renamed the Empire Flying School.
  • 1945 – All German forces surrendered unconditionally. The instrument of surrender was signed at Berlin, Germany on 8 May, V. E. Day.
  • 1944 – Flight test program of the Mikoyan/Gurevich I-222, high-altitude Soviet fighter aircraft, Evolution of the MIG-3, begins. All proposals for series production were discarded at the end of war.
  • 1943 – The first developmental prototype Finnish Valtion Lentokonetehdas VL Myrsky (State Aircraft Factory Storm), a low-wing single-seat cantilever monoplane fighter, completed on 30 April 1943, crashes "a week later."
  • 1943 – Colonel Frank Gregory made the first helicopter landing aboard ship with a Sikorsky R-4, in Long Island Sound, USA.
  • 1942 – Death of Jean Assollant (Bernache-Assollant), French aviation pioneer, WWII pilot, well known for having flown the 'Oiseau canari' on a north atlantic crossing. Killed in his MS 406 by British fighters during the Battle of Madagascar.
  • 1942 – The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first battle ever fought between aircraft carriers, begins between a U. S. force centered around the aircraft carriers USS Lexington (CV-2) and USS Yorktown (CV-5) and a Japanese force with the aircraft carriers Shōhō, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku. Early in the morning, a 56-plane strike from Shōkaku and Zuikaku sinks a destroyer and fatally damages an oiler. Later in the morning, a 93-plane strike from Lexington and Yorktown sinks Shōhō – The first Japanese carrier ever sunk – prompting an American dive bomber pilot to send one of World War II’s most famous radio messages, “SCRATCH ONE FLATTOP. ” In the evening, confused Japanese carrier pilots mistake Yorktown for their own carrier and begin to fly a landing pattern before realizing their mistake.
  • 1942 – On Madagascar, Diego Suarez falls to invading British forces. Since the invasion began on May 5, aircraft from the British aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Illustrious have suppressed Vichy French aircraft, supported British ground forces ashore, attacked coastal artillery, a wrecked a French sloop, and sunk a French armed merchant cruiser and two French submarines.
  • 1941 – The second prototype MiG I-200, fitted with a prototype of the temperamental Mikulin AM-37 engine and first flown on 6 January 1941, experiences severe vibration problems and, despite efforts to cure the problems, it fails during a flight this date, and the airframe is destroyed in the ensuing crash.
  • 1941 – 40 RAF aircraft attack Iraqi reinforcements headed for Habbaniya, inflicting about 1,000 casualties and paralyzing the Iraqi column. Over the next few days, British aircraft destroy the remainder of the Royal Iraqi Air Force.
  • 1940 – A Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber of RAF Coastal Command drops the first 2,000 pound bomb to be delivered by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during WWII. The target is an enemy cruiser near Nordeney, but the weapon missed the warship.
  • 1938 – First flight of the Arpin A-1, a two seat low-wing monoplane which was powered by a single radial engine in pusher configuration.
  • 1937 – Birth of Aviard Gavrilovich Fastovets, Soviet test pilot.
  • 1936 – Amy Mollison lands at Wingfield Aerodrome, Cape Town, South Africa, to set a new record of 3 days, 6 hours, 26 min for a flight from England.
  • 1936 – 7-8 – Stanislaw Skarzynski flies the South Atlantic from Senegal to Brazil in a small single-seater tourist airplane RWD-5bis, in 20 hours 30 min, over a distance of 3,582 km (2,238 miles). The RWD-5bis was the smallest plane to have ever flown the Atlantic – Empty weight below 450 kg (990 lb), loaded 1100 kg. It is a part of 17,885 km Warsaw – Rio de Janeiro flight from April 27 to June 24.
  • 1931 – Death of Richard Dick Waghorn AFC, English aviator, a pilot with the Royal Air Force who flew the winning aircraft in the 1929 Schneider Trophy seaplane race. Died from injuries after his crash 2 days before.
  • 1927 – Varig is founded as the first Brazilian airline.
  • 1920 – Mitchel Field, New York held the first Intercollegiate Air Meet.
  • 1918 – First flight of the Curtiss 18, unofficially known as the Wasp and by the United States Navy as the Kirkham, early American triplane fighter aircraft designed by Curtiss Engineering for the US Navy
  • 1917 – First night bombing raid on London by an aeroplane takes place.
  • 1916 – Birth of Fred Hargesheimer, USAAF WWII pilot. Shot down over Papua New Guinea in June 1943. He became a philanthropist who helped out the village which had hidden him from the Japanese for many months.
  • 1916 – Birth of Siegfried F. Erdmann, German Engineer specialized in supersonic Aerodynamics.
  • 1916 – Birth of Johannes Wiese, German WWII fighter ace.
  • 1913 – HMS Hermes, formerly a protected cruiser, recommissions as the Royal Navy’s first experimental seaplane carrier.
  • 1912 – An American Wright biplane, flown by Lieutenant Thomas De Witt Milling at College Park in Maryland, becomes the first aeroplane to be armed with a machine gun
  • 1910 – First airplane flight in Cuba. For a few minutes, Frenchman André Bellot rose into space in a 60HP Voisin biplane. He took off from the Almendares Hippodrome and fell almost immediately but he was not hurt.
  • 1910 – The Antoinette Company builds a simulator at Mourmelon air school for pilots to practice the controls of an Antoinette monoplane.
  • 1909 – The Royal Navy awards a contract to build its first rigid airship to Vickers.
  • 1894 – Birth of Wendel Archibald Robertson, American WWI flying ace
  • 1893 – Birth of Karl Paul Schlegel, German WWI fighter ace and balloon-buster.
  • 1878 – Birth of Karl Gustav Vollmöller, German playwright, screenwriter and early aircraft designer.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Whitlock, Craig, "Drone Crashes Pile Up Abroad," The Washington Post, December 1, 2012, p. A8.

May 8

  • 2011 – China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 (CZ3456) was a flight from Chongqing to Shenzhen Huangtian Airport (now Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport), Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China crashed while attempting to land in a thunderstorm. The aircraft crashed on its third landing attempt in severe weather with a high vertical speed. The first landing attempt caused damage to the plane’s hydraulic systems, landing gear, and flaps. The main warning, hydraulic system, and gear warnings all sounded. The crew decided on a go-around and warned the passengers to prepare for a crash landing. The aircraft skidded off the runway, broke into three pieces and caught fire, killing 33 passengers and 2 crew members.
  • 2010 – After being recovered and completely rebuilt over an eight-year period and an estimated 18,000 man hours by Pemberton and Sons Aviation in Spokane, Washington, a Boeing Model 40 (mail plane and first aircraft built by the Boeing company to carry passengers) had an aerial rendezvous with Boeing's newest passenger aircraft, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
  • 2009 – Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 9061, a McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30, registration HZ-APW, departs the runway at King Khalid International Airport, Saudi Arabia, while taxiing and suffers a main gear collapse and engine fire. The damage is described as “substantial”.
  • 2004 – Death of William J. "Pete" Knight, U. S. politician, combat pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. Knight holds the world's speed record for flight in a winged, powered aircraft.
  • 2004 – First (glide) Flight of Hopper (phoenix), proposed European Space Agency orbital and reusable launch vehicle. Dropped from 2.4 km (8,000 ft) by a helicopter, it landed precisely and without incident after a GPS-guided 90 sond glide.
  • 1987 – Death of Hugh William Lumsden "Dingbat" Saunders, South African WWI fighter ace, High-ranking officer during and post WWII.
  • 1983 – Death of James Andrew Healy, American WWI flying ace, WWII officer. He has been technical advisor for the movie 'Wings'.
  • 1980 – (8-12) Maxie Anderson and his son, Kristian Anderson, make the first nonstop balloon crossing of North America, flying from Fort Baker in California to Sainte-Félicité, Quebec, Canada.
  • 1978 – National Airlines Flight 193, a Boeing 727, lands short on approach to Pensacola, Florida, United States in Escambia Bay, as a result of pilot error; three passengers out of fifty-eight people on board drown.
  • 1975 – Second prototype General Dynamics YF-16A Fighting Falcon, 72-01568, on practice flight prior to deployment for the Paris Air Show, suffers failure of main undercarriage leg to extend. General Dynamics test pilot Neil Anderson flies aircraft until fuel is nearly exhausted then makes expert grass belly-landing at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. Aircraft is not heavily damaged and pilot is uninjured. Airframe is then sent to Rome Air Development Center Newport Site for use in radar tests. This was the first F-16 mishap.
  • 1973 – The Airbus A300 B prototype makes the type’s first fully automatic landing in Toulouse, France.
  • 1972 – Four members of Black September hijack Sabena Flight 571, a Boeing 707 with 86 other people on board flying from Vienna, Austria, to Tel Aviv, Israel. After the plane arrives as scheduled at Lod Airport in Lod, Israel, the hijackers threaten to blow up the plane if Israel does not release 315 Palestinians from prison. The next day, 16 Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos led by Ehud Barak and including Benjamin Netanyahu, storm the plane in Operation Isotope, killing two hijackers and capturing the other two; Netanyahu and three passengers are wounded and one of the wounded passengers later dies of her wounds.
  • 1958 – An Indian Air Force de Havilland Vampire crashed into the Delhi Flying Club hangar at Safdar Jung Airport, Delhi while attempting an emergency landing following an in-flight fire. Both Vampire crew died and four engineers working in the hangar and 11 aircraft were destroyed.
  • 1956 – A USAF Martin B-57C-MA Canberra, 53-3858, crashes on the Ship Shole island bombing range near Langley AFB, Virginia, killing both crew. From the accident report: "Cause of accident - Undetermined: The aircraft was observed to be flying in a northeasterly direction at an estimated 500 feet altitude and traveling at a high rate of speed. It was probable that the speed was 425 knots indicated, because this was the prebriefed airspeed since the aircraft was on the run-in route on the LABS bombing range. Witnesses observing the aircraft reported that everything appeared to be normal. The aircraft was then seen to abruptly dive and disappear; this was followed by an immediate explosion. The instructor pilot and the pilot of this dual control B-57C received fatal injuries."
  • 1953 – First flight of the SNCASO Farfadet, gyrodyne type aircraft featuring a tip-jet driven, three-bladed rotor, a fixed wing and a turboprop engine driving a nose-mounted propeller
  • 1952 – Birth of Charles Joseph "Charlie" Camarda, American engineer and a NASA astronaut who flew his first mission into space on board the Space Shuttle mission STS-114.
  • 1947 – A North American P-51D-30-NA Mustang, 44-74652, of the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, based at Shaw Field, South Carolina, crashes at ~noon near Cassatt, South Carolina in Kershaw County. Col. W. M. Turner, executive officer at Shaw Field, said that ambulances and firefighting equipment went to the scene but that his information was that the pilot, Max J. Christensen, was not injured. He said that he was awaiting a full report on the crash.
  • 1945 – Flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109, Luftwaffe fighter pilot Erich Hartmann scores his final aerial victory, shooting down a Soviet Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter over Brno, Slovakia. He is the highest-scoring ace in history, with 352 kills. He surrenders to Allied forces soon afterward.
  • 1945 – First flight of the Yokosuka R2Y, a reconnaissance aircraft built in Japan late in WWII.
  • 1945 – VE Day – Germany surrenders, ending the War in Europe
  • 1945 – First prototype (of three) Curtiss XF15C-1, BuNo 01213, crashes on a landing approach to Buffalo, New York due to fuel starvation, killing test pilot Charles Cox. Two other prototypes modified with a T-tail to correct problems, but this last Curtiss design for the U.S. Navy never enters production. Second prototype was scrapped but the third and final airframe is preserved at the New England Air Museum in Connecticut.
  • 1944 – Vought OS2U-2 Kingfisher, BuNo 3092, suffers midair collision with OS2U-3 Kingfisher, BuNo 5422, 1/2 mile S of NAS Pensacola, Florida.
  • 1943 – A USAAF Douglas C-33, 36-85, c/n 1518, of the 482d Air Base Squadron, is written off at Hill Field, Ogden, Utah, when the undercarriage retracts on take off.[59][198] Pilot was William B. Cline.
  • 1943 – A 60-plane U. S. strike from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, sinks two Japanese destroyers and badly damages a third off Kolombangara.
  • 1943 – Allied aircraft begin a bombing campaign against Pantelleria, the first of 5,285 sorties they will fly against the island before it is invaded on June 11.
  • 1942 – WWII German Fighter ace Adolf Dickfeld scores 11 on that single day.
  • 1942 – On the morning of the second and final day of the Battle of the Coral Sea, the two sides launch airstrikes at almost the same time. The strike by 84 aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown badly damages Shōkaku. Shortly afterwards, the 70-plane strike from Shōkaku and Zuikaku sinks Lexington – The first American aircraft carrier ever sunk – And badly damages Yorktown, after which both sides retire with the Japanese abandoning their plans for an amphibious invasion of Port Moresby. Shōkaku’s damage and Zuikaku’s aircraft losses will keep them out of combat for two months, forcing them to miss the Battle of Midway in June. The Battle of the Coral Sea ends as the first naval battle in which ships of the opposing sides never sight one another.
  • 1941 – Death of Armando Boetto and Franco Cappa, Italian WWII pilots, killed in acton in their S. M.79 s while attacking a British convoy near Malta.
  • 1941 – No. 407 (Coastal) Squadron was formed in England.
  • 1937 – Lieutenant Colonel Mario Pezzi of Italy sets a world altitude record of 15,655 m (51,362 feet) in a Caproni Ca.161.
  • 1935 – The U. S. Commerce Department announces in Washington, D. C. that blind-landing radio equipment developed by a U. S. Army Air Corps team under Captain Hegenberger is to be installed at all major airports between New York and Los Angeles.
  • 1935 – Amelia Earhart makes a non-stop flight from Mexico City to Newark in New Jersey, in 14 hours 19 min.
  • 1929 – Flying the Wright Apache, Lt Apollo Soucek set the world altitude record for landplanes by flying to the height of 39,140 feet (11,930 m).
  • 1926 – The first federal legislation regulating civil aeronautics is passed by the U. S. Congress. The Air Commerce Act authorizes the Weather Bureau to provide meteorological service over routes designated by the Secretary of Commerce.
  • 1919 – Death of Bernard Paul Gascoigne Beanlands, Canadian WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident at RAF Northolt
  • 1918 – Death of Roderick McDonald, Canadian WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Sopwith Camel.
  • 1915 – Lieutenant (jg) Melvin L. Stolz, student aviator, is killed in a crash of the AH-9 hydroaeroplane at Pensacola, Florida
  • 1914 – A civilian pilot, René Caudron, makes the first French shipboard takeoff in an airplane from a ramp constructed over the foredeck of the seaplane carrier Foudre, using a Caudron G.3 amphibian floatplane.
  • 1913 – John Henry Towers flew a long-distance flight of 169 miles in a Curtiss flying boat from the Washington Navy Yard down the Potomac River and then up the Chesapeake Bay to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 3hrs 5 min.
  • 1911 – US Naval Aviation Service created and the Navy's first airplane, a Curtiss Model D, is ordered.
  • 1896 – Birth of Viktor von Pressentin von Rautter, German WWI fighter ace
  • 1895 – Birth of James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger, American pioneer of aviation. He was also a leader of North American Aviation for a number of years.
  • 1895 – Birth of Percy Henry Olieff, British WWI flying ace
  • 1891 – Birth of James Robert Smith, Canadian WWI flying ace
  • 1888 – Birth of Maurice Jean-Paul Boyau, French rugby union player, WWI flying ace and one of the most successful balloon busters.
  • 1885 – Birth of Phillip von Doepp, German Engineer and aircraft designer, specialized in inverted wings, expert in guided missile aero design during WWII.

References[edit]

May 9

  • 2003 – UH-60A Black Hawk 86-24507 of 571st Medical Company (AA) crashes into Tigris River, the vicinity of Samarrah, Iraq killing two pilots and crew chief. One more soldier was injured.[1]
  • 1991 – Death of Aviard Gavrilovich Fastovets, Soviet test pilot.
  • 1987 – LOT Flight 5055, an Ilyushin Il-62M, crashes near Warsaw during landing because of engine failure. All 183 passengers and crew members perish in the worst ever accident involving the Ilyushin Il-62.
  • 1981 – Thunderbird 6 a United States Air Force Northrop T-38A Talon of the Thunderbirds demonstration team crashed during a display at Hill AFB, Utah, United States, pilot killed.
  • 1964 – de Havilland’s Chief Test Pilot Bob Fowler took the first flight of the Cariboo.
  • 1964 – A Republic F-105B-15-RE Thunderchief, 57-5801, Thunderbird 2, one of nine delivered to the Thunderbirds demonstration team in mid-April 1964, suffers structural failure and disintegrates during 6G tactical pitch up for landing at airshow at Hamilton AFB, California, killing pilot Capt. Eugene J. Devlin. The failure of the fuselage's upper spine causes the USAF to ground all F-105s and retrofit the fleet with a structural brace, but the air demonstration team reverts to the North American F-100 Super Sabre and never flies another show in F-105s.
  • 1958 – A USAF North American F-100F-10-NA Super Sabre, serial number 56-3810, crashed 8 miles (13 km) NNE of Kadena AB,Japan. Instructor/test Pilot:Capt Theodore Christos and rear seat pilot Capt James Looney ejected but were killed. Crash Investigation Board report indicated cause of crash was undetermined.
  • 1957 – Boeing KC-97F-55-BO Stratotanker, 51-0258, c/n 16325, en route from Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco, to Terceira-Lajes AFB, Azores, ditches at 0616 hrs. in the Atlantic 550 km (343.8 mls) SE of the Azores Islands following a double engine failure, no fatalities amongst the seven crew. The airplane floated for ten days and was sunk by USS Wisconsin.
  • 1957 – 1st Lt. David Steeves departs Hamilton AFB, California for Craig AFB, Alabama, in T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star, 52-9232, and disappears without a trace. Declared dead by the Air Force, he emerges from the Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains 54 days later, having ejected from the jet after an in-flight emergency. He stumbled on a ranger cabin during his ordeal where he found fish hooks, a canned ham and a can of beans. Unable to locate the downed trainer, officials eye him with suspicion and rumors that he traded to jet to the Russians, or flew it to Mexico, dog the pilot and ruin his military career. He returns to civilian life and eventually dies in an aircraft accident in 1965. Finally, in 1977, Boy Scouts hiking in the national park discover the canopy of his T-33, too late to vindicate the pilot's story and reputation.
  • 1952 – French Leduc 0.16 research ramjet again suffers landing gear collapse on touchdown and is damaged. After several more flights in 1954, it will be retired to the Musée de l'Air.
  • 1952 – Maj. Neil H. Lathrop attempts low-level aileron roll in second prototype Martin XB-51-MA, 46-686, crashes at end of runway at Edwards AFB, California with fatal result.
  • 1931 – Hawker Hart light bomber prototype, J9052, modified as a naval fleet spotter-cum-fighter Hawker Osprey to Specification O.22/26, returned to Hawker after trials, is wrecked this date in take off accident with crossed aileron controls. Orders for 133 are placed, in four Marks, serving in operational units until May 1939, as well as small orders for Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
  • 1923 – First flight of the: Blériot 115, a French 4 engine 8 passengers biplane airliner.
  • 1918 – U.S. Army Maj. Harold Melville Clark accomplishes first three-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands when he and mechanic Sgt. Robert Gray depart from Fort Kamehameha in a Curtiss N-9 of the 6th Aero Squadron, make a stop in Maui, and then continue to the island of Hawaii. Clark encounters fog and darkness over the island, causing him to crash in the jungle near Hilo. Two days after the crash, Clark and Gray emerge from the Hawaiian jungle unhurt. According to Harold Richards in "The History of Army Aviation in Hawaii", Clark accomplished another "first" on this flight as he had agreed to deliver two letters from Oahu residents to their relatives on Hawaii. After emerging from the jungle, Clark delivers the letters to their intended recipients. Thus, Clark carried the first letters by airmail in the Hawaiian Islands.
  • 1916 – Using a bombsight developed by Bourdillon and Tizard, a British Short 184 seaplane hits a target in with a 500 pound bomb from a height of 4,000 feet.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Three soldiers killed, one injured in UH-60A crash". United States Central Command. 2003-05-09. Retrieved 2009-06-02.

May 10

  • 2012 – The women's international record-holder for number of flight hours logged as a pilot in a lifetime, Evelyn Bryan Johnson, dies at the age of 102. Between her first solo flight on 8 November 1944 and her retirement from flying in the mid-1990s, she had logged 57,635 hours (about 6½ years) in the air, flying about 5,500,000 miles (8,856,683 km). Only one person, Ed Long (1915-1999), had logged more hours (over 65,000, or about 7 years) in the air during a lifetime.[1]
  • 2010 – A Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II from 23rd Wing 75th Fighter Squadron s/n 79-0141 of the US Air Force crashed during take off at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. Pilot ejected safely.
  • 2010 – A Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter of the United States Army made a controlled landing after being hit by enemy fire in Helmand Province . All crewmembers were safely returned to base. Helicopter was intentionally destroyed by international forces.
  • 2009 – YV-1467, a BAe 3201 Jetstream 31, crashes near Útila Airport, 2009 Honduras during an illegal drug smuggling flight carrying almost 1,700 kilograms (3,700 lb) of cocaine. One of the three occupants are killed.
  • 1995 – A Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, 85-0822, callsign Spear 26, from the 49th Fighter Wing, Holloman AFB, New Mexico, crashes 7 miles S of Zuni, New Mexico, while on a training mission. The pilot, Capt. Kenneth W. Levens, 35, of the 9th Fighter Squadron, was killed in the crash. The autopilot apparently disengaged, aircraft enters inverted near-vertical dive, impacts on the Zuni Indian Pueblo in a 70 degree dive with 120 degrees starboard bank at more than 600 mph at 2225 hrs, creating a 30-foot crater. A Kirtland AFB H-60 Blackhawk finds the impact site shortly after 0000 hrs.
  • 1990 – Flight Lieutenants Julie Ann Gibson and Sally Cox become the first female pilots to fly solo in Royal Air Force (RAF) jet aircraft. Both officers flew Jet Provosts as part of their flying training at No.1 Flying Training School, RAF Linton-on-Ouse.
  • 1977 – The first woman navigator candidates report to Mather AFB, California, to begin undergraduate navigator training.
  • 1974 – “Turbo” Tarling flew his 5,000th T-33 hour.
  • 1972 – Vietnam People's Air Force Shenyang J-6 of the 925th Fighter Regiment, piloted by Nguyen Manh Tung, runs out of fuel after CAP mission, deadsticks from altitude of 1,400 meters, descends too rapidly, and overruns runway at Yen Bai airfield, North Vietnam, overturning and exploding, killing pilot instantly.
  • 1970 – Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7969, Article 2020, crashed near Korat RTAFB, Thailand, after a refuelling resulted in a subsonic high-speed stall. Pilot Lawson and RSO Martinez eject safely.
  • 1967 – Northrop M2-F2, NASA 803, during the 16th glide flight, crashes on landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, due to a pilot-induced oscillation coupled with misjudged height and drift. Airframe rolls over six times, footage used for television program "The Six Million Dollar Man". Pilot Bruce Peterson survives. Project is cancelled.
  • 1967 – First (of five) LTV XC-142As, 62-5921, crashes on 149th flight during simulated downed-pilot recovery mission test. Rapid descent from 8,000 feet to avoid ground-fire ends badly when aircraft pitches over violently at low altitude, impacting in heavily wooded, marshy area at Mountain Creek Lake, near Dallas, Texas, killing three crew. Airframe destroyed by impact and post-crash fire. KWF are contract pilot Stuart Madison, co-pilot Charles Jester, and hoist operator John Omvig. Investigation finds cause to be failure of tail propeller control system, causing overspeed condition which generated unexpected and uncontrollable nose-down pitch.
  • 1961 – Air France Flight 406, a Lockheed Starliner, crashes into the Sahara Desert near the Edjele oilfield in Algeria after a bomb goes off on board. All 78 passengers and crew were killed in the crash.
  • 1961 – A Convair B-58 cruises at a speed of 1,302 miles per hour (2,095 km/h) and wins the Blériot trophy, created 30 years ago for the first airplane to maintain a speed of more than 2,000 kilometres per hour (1,200 mph) for more than 30 min in a closed circuit.
  • 1956 – First of two F-101 A Voodoo| service-test reconnaissance Voodoos flew.
  • 1945 – Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lewiston-based Howard GH-2 Nightingale ambulance, overloaded for runway length, crashes on takeoff from Rangeley, Maine airstrip, killing Lt. Eugene B. Slocum, AMM3C Louis F. Ceurvorst, Pfc. James V. Haney of the USMC and one more unidentified.
  • 1945 – Sighting a Japanese Kawasaki Ki-45 (Allied reporting name “Nick” fighter flying high over Okinawa, U. S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Robert R, Klingman in a Vought F4U Corsair gives chase for over 185 miles and intercepts the Ki-45 at 38,000 feet (12,000 m). Finding his guns frozen, he climbs well above the Corsair's service ceiling of 41,600 feet (12,700 m) and cuts off the Kawasaki Ki-45′s tail with his propeller in several passes, causing it to crash. He then belly lands safely at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. He receives the Navy Cross for the action.
  • 1945 – 10 – 11 – The sixth Japanese Kamikaze attack off Okinawa includes 150 kamikazes. They damage two destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), which suffers 353 killed, 43 missing, and 264 wounded. One of the most heavily damaged aircraft carriers to survive the war, Bunker Hill is out of service for the rest of World War II.
  • 1942 – The commander of Luftflotte 2, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, reports to Berlin that “the neutralization of Malta is complete, ” marking the end of the heavy German air campaign against the island that had begun the previous December. The same day, the newly arrived Spitfires confront Axis aircraft with a superior force over the island for the first time in months, shooting down 12 German aircraft for the loss of three Spitfires.
  • 1943 – First Curtiss YC-76 Caravan constructed at the Louisville, Kentucky plant, 42-86918, loses tail unit at 1729 hrs. due to lack of "forgotten" securing bolts during test flight, crashes at Okolona, Kentucky, killing three Curtiss test crew, pilot Ed Schubinger, co-pilot John L. "Duke" Trowbridge, and engineer Robert G. Scudder. Miserable attempt at building all-wood cargo design is cancelled by the USAAF on 3 August with only nineteen completed, all grounded by 12 September 1944. Four C-76s at the St. Louis, Missouri plant are granted one-time flight clearance and flown directly to Air Training Command bases for use as instructional airframes.
  • 1943 – First Consolidated XB-32 Dominator, 41-141, crashes on take-off at Lindbergh Field, San Diego, probably from flap failure. Although bomber does not burn when it piles up at end of runway, Consolidated's senior test pilot Dick McMakin is killed. Six others on board injured. This was one of only two twin-finned B-32s (41-142 was the other) - all subsequent had a PB4Y-style single tail.
  • 1941 – At 2305 hrs. Messerschmitt Bf 110D, Werknr 3868, 'VJ+OQ', appears over Eaglesham, Renfrewshire. Pilot bails out and when challenged by David McLean, Head Ploughman of a local farm, as to whether he is German, the man replies in good English; "Yes, I am Hauptmann Alfred Horn. I have an important message for the Duke of Hamilton". Horn is taken to McLean's cottage where McLean's wife makes a pot of tea, but the German requests only a glass of water. Horn has hurt his back and help is summoned. Local Home Guard soldiers arrive and Horn is taken to their headquarters at the Drill Hall, Busby, near Glasgow. Upon questioning by a visiting Royal Observer Corps officer, Major Graham Donald, Horn repeats his request to see the Duke. Donald recognises "Hauptmann Horn" to be none other than Rudolf Hess. The remains of Hess' Messerschmitt Bf 110 are now in the Imperial War Museum.
  • 1941 – 550 German bombers drop more than 635,036 kilograms (1,400,015 lb) of bombs on London, killing 1,500 people and seriously injuring 1,800.
  • 1932 – Sole Lockheed Y1C-12 Vega, 31-405, c/n 158, of the 59th Service Squadron, a Lockheed DL-1 Vega acquired by the Army Air Corps for service tests and evaluation, is moderately damaged at Langley Field, Virginia, while piloted by Thomas D. Ferguson. Aircraft eventually scrapped at Langley Field on 16 May 1935.
  • 1919 – The recently formed Avro Transport Company in Manchester opens Britain's first scheduled air service. A fare of four guineas (£4.20) is being charged for the journey of 50 miles (80 km). The company is using four of Avro 504K aircraft, modified to carry two passengers.
  • 1911 – First U.S. Army pilot casualty, 2nd Lt. George Edward Maurice Kelly (1878–1911), London-born, and a naturalized United States citizen in 1902, is killed when he banks his Curtiss Type IV (or Curtiss Model D), Army Signal Corps serial number 2, sharply to avoid plowing into an infantry encampment near the present site of Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The Aviation Camp (aka Remount Station) at Fort Sam Houston is renamed Camp Kelly, 11 June 1917, then Kelly Field on 30 July 1917, and finally Kelly AFB on 29 January 1948. Airframe rebuilt, finally grounded in February 1914, refurbished, and placed on display in the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. Due to this crash, the commanding officer of Fort Sam Houston bans further training flights at the base, the flying facilities being moved to College Park Airport, College Park, Maryland in June–July 1911. A replica of this airframe is preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
  • 1899 – Birth of Zeus Soucek, US Navy aviator and record setter.
  • 1897 – Birth of Wilfred Beaver, British born Canadian WWI fighter ace, who became an American citizen and served in the USAF in WWII.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Lamger, Emily, "Obituary: Evelyn Bryan Johnson, 102; 'Mama Bird', a Prolific Pilot, Flew More Hours Than Any Other Woman," The Washington Post, May 14, 2012, p. B4.

May 11

  • 2011 – Libyan rebel forces capture Misrata Airport, which also serves as a Libyan Air Force base.[2]
  • 2010 – Death of Walker Melville "Bud" Mahurin, American WWII and Korean war fighter ace, (only USAF pilot to score in both the European and Pacific Theaters and the Korean War).
  • 2010 – A Dassault Mirage 2000 of the French Air Force crashed in a forest of Bougue close to Villeneuve-de-Marsan (Landes, Aquitaine), 6 km east of Mont de Marsan AB (LFBM), after technical problems. The pilot ejected safely and only received minor injuries.
  • 2009 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 at 18:01:56 UTC. Mission highlights: Last Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission (HST SM-04). Final Non-ISS flight.
  • 2007 – A Republic of China Air Force Northrop F-5 crashes onto a building at an army base in Hukou, Taiwan. The two crew members are killed, as well as two soldiers of the Singapore Army undergoing training at the base. Another nine Singapore Army soldiers are injured, one dies of his injuries 17 days later.
  • 1996 – ValuJet Flight 592, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes in the Everglades near Miami, because of a fire in its cargo hold. All 110 people on board are killed.
  • 1995 – Death of John Geoffrey Sadler Candy, British WWI flying ace who served during WWII.
  • 1990 – Philippine Airlines Flight 143, a Boeing 737, explodes and burns on the ground at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, killing 8 of 120 on board, marking the first loss of a Boeing 737-300.
  • 1987 – First flight of the Learjet 31, American ten seat (two crew and eight passengers) twin-engined, high speed business jet. Manufactured by Learjet (a subsidiary of Bombardier Inc.).
  • 1970 – Death of William Howard "Hank" Stovall, American WWI flying ace, Businessman and High Ranking officer in WWII.
  • 1970 – A category F5 tornado strikes Lubbock, Texas destroying about one quarter of the city. Nineteen of 23 U.S. Air Force trainers (probably Cessna T-41 Mescaleros) at Lubbock International Airport are destroyed, amongst 100 aircraft damaged.
  • 1969 – A Royal Navy F-4 Phantom of 892 Naval Air Squadron set a new world air speed record between New York and London in 4 hours and 46 min, winning the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race. It flew from the Floyd Bennet Naval Air Station to Wisley Aerodrome and was refuelled by a Handley Page Victor aerial tanker over the Atlantic.
  • 1964 – A Bell 533 modified with 2 small sweptback fixed wings to convert the aircraft into a compound helicopter, flew at 357 km/h.
  • 1964 – Jackie Cochran sets a new women's airspeed record of 1,429 mph (2,300 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter.
  • 1964 – A USAF Boeing C-135B-BN Stratolifter, 61-0332, c/n 18239, crashed on landing at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, hitting a taxi. 84 on board, 5 survivors, passengers in taxi also killed. Date of 11 August 1964 cited by Joe Baugher. The crash occurred while attempting to land during a rainstorm at approximately 1920 hrs.
  • 1960 – A United States Army Signals Corps balloon ascends to an altitude of 43,890 m (144,000 feet) before bursting setting a record breaking night time altitude ascent.
  • 1957 – Death of Victor Herbert Strahm, American WWI flying ace, who served in WWII and was chief test pilot for the USAAF.
  • 1953 – First prototype of the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear, Tu-95/1, first flown 12 November 1952, crashes this date NE of Noginsk, Russia, during its 17th flight and burns due to an engine fire in the starboard inner turboprop. Engine falls off of wing, nine of twelve crew parachute to safety but three are killed, including test pilot Alexey Perelet.
  • 1948 – Maj. Simon H. Johnson, deputy commanding officer of the Eglin AFB, Florida, fighter section, is killed when his Republic F-84 Thunderjet disintegrates during an air demonstration on the Eglin reservation, in front of some 600 witnesses. The public information officer at Eglin stated that the pilot was "engaged in operational tests on the plane" when the accident occurred. Maj. Johnson, a resident of Shalimar, Florida, was originally from Houston, Texas. He had served a year in Italy flying 50 missions in North American P-51 Mustangs with the 31st Fighter Group, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the air medal with five clusters. He had attended the University of Texas and graduated from the U.S. Army flying school in 1940.
  • 1943 – In Operation Landcrab, American forces invade Attu. With an all-F4 F Wildcat airwing consisting of 26 F4 F-4 fighters and three F4 F-3P photographic reconnaissance aircraft, the escort aircraft carrier USS Nassau (CVE-16) supports operations on Attu until May 20; it is the first time that the U. S. Navy employs carrier-based photographic reconnaissance aircraft and the first time in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II of Operations that an escort carrier engages in combat. The U.S. Navy concludes that bombers should be included in future escort carrier air wings to make them more effective in supporting amphibious operations.
  • 1936 – First flight of The Bristol Type 138 High Altitude Monoplane, British high-altitude research aircraft, single-engine, low-wing monoplane with a fixed, tailwheel undercarriage.
  • 1934 – Sole prototype of U.S. Navy Douglas XO2D-1, BuNo 9412, noses over on water landing near NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., after starboard landing gear would not retract, nor support runway landing. Pilot survives. Aircraft salvaged, rebuilt, but no production contract let.
  • 1932 – The USS Akron, arriving at Camp Kearny, San Diego, California, after a cross-continent transit attempts to moor, but proves too buoyant. The mooring cable is cut to avert a catastrophic nose-stand by the airship and the Akron heads up. Most men of the mooring crew, predominantly "boot" seamen from the Naval Training Station San Diego, let go of their lines but three do not. One man was carried 15 feet (4.6 m) into the air before he let go and suffered a broken arm in the process while three others were carried up even farther. Two of these men — Aviation Carpenter's Mate 3d Class Robert H. Edsall and Apprentice Seaman Nigel M. Henton — lost their grips and fell to their deaths. The third, Apprentice Seaman C. M. "Bud" Cowart, clung desperately to his line and made himself fast to it before he was hoisted aboard the Akron one hour later. Akron managed to moor at Camp Kearny later that day. The stranded crewman provides the template for the very first rescue by George Reeves' portrayal of Superman in the first television episode of "Adventures of Superman", "Superman on Earth", first aired 19 September 1952.
  • 1928 – Death of Ulrich Neckel, German WWI fighter ace
  • 1918 – Death of Kurt Nachod, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace, from injuries after the crash of his Hansa-Brandenburg C. I 2 days before
  • 1917 – Death of Edmund Nathanael, German WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Albatros D.III by a SPAD VII.
  • 1911 – Édouard Nieuport, a racing cyclist before he went into aircraft construction (co-founder with his brother Charles of the eponymous Nieuport aircraft manufacturing company), sets a new speed record of 74.4 mph (119.7 km/h) flying his "Nieuport 11-N, " monoplane powered by a 28-hp engine.
  • 1906 – Birth of Jacqueline Cochran, pioneer American aviator, considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. She was an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
  • 1896 – Birth of Heinrich Henkel, German WWI flying ace
  • 1892] – Birth of Walter Ewers, German WWI flying ace
  • 1875 – Birth of Harriet Quimby, early American aviator and movie screenwriter, first woman to gain a pilot's license in the US and first woman to fly across the English Channel.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Times of Israel and Associated Press staff, "Israel grounds drone fleet after crash," Times of Israel, May 12, 2013, 10:03 p.m.
  2. ^ "Libya Rebels 'Capture Misrata Airport'". BBC News. Retrieved 14 May 2011.

May 12

  • 2011 – A Eurocopter X3 (X-Cube), French experimental compound helicopter, flew at a speed of 430 km/h (267 mph).
  • 2011 – An EMBRAER Super Tucano from Brazilian Air Force crashed close to Manibu countryside, near the cities of Ceará-Mirim and Pureza, 50 km north of Natal. The pilot, Danilo Bello Seixas, died during his first solo flight.
  • 2010 – After taking off from the base at Rimini, an Italian Air Force NH 500 helicopter of 15º Stormo (83º Centro CSAR) flew about fifty feet above the ground when the engine suddenly quit. The helicopter autorotated to impact. Both occupants escaped unhurt.
  • 2009 – A South African Air Force Agusta Westland AW109E, helicopter, 4022, crashes at the Woodstock Dam, near Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aircraft from No. 17 Squadron SAAF was travelling from Durban International Airport to a satellite base of the 87 Helicopter Flying School SAAF at Dragon's Peak, Drakensberg for a week long training exercise. Flying with two another aircraft at low level and at high speed over the surface of the Dam, the helicopter stuck the water and crashed, then sinking into the lake killing the 3 crew.
  • 2002 – The hangar housing Buran OK-1K1 in Kazakhstan collapses, due to poor maintenance. The collapse kills eight workers and destroys the orbiter as well as a mock-up of an Energia carrier rocket.
  • 1998 – A Mauritanian Air Force Antonov An-24B, RA-12973, c/n 9346505, crashes near Néma, Mauritania during a sandstorm killing 39 of the 42 people on board.
  • 1987 – Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 155657, of VA-142, misses trap on the USS Lexington, both crew eject as jet leaves deck, lightened airframe climbs away, even on reduced power, to crash in the Gulf of Mexico ~50 miles S of NAS Pensacola, Florida. Footage of this accident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvEDNdyFBU&feature=related.
  • 1982 – Braniff Airways ceased all operations, thus ending 54 years of service in the American airline industry. Braniff flights at DFW that morning were suddenly grounded, and passengers on the jets were forced to disembark, being told that Braniff now ceased to exist.
  • 1970 – Indian Air Force prototype HAL HF-24 Marut HF 001, BR 461, is lost due to unknown circumstances in the sea off of Goa while on routine ferry flight. Squadron Leader K. L. Narayan is lost with aircraft.
  • 1965 – After loss of control as a result of a gyroscope problem, Luna 5 crashed. It was the second Soviet spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon.
  • 1964 – American flyer Joan Merriam Smith lands her Piper Apache to complete the second round-the-world flight by a woman. she took 56 days.
  • 1959 – Capital Airlines Flight 75, a Vickers Viscount 745D flying from New York City to Atlanta, breaks up in flight over Chase, Maryland, due to loss of control in severe turbulence; all 31 on board are killed.
  • 1953 – Bell X-2, 46-675, exploded in belly of Boeing EB-50D Superfortress mothership during captive LOX topping-off test and was dropped into Lake Ontario. Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler's body dropped with airframe and Bell flight engineer Frank Wolko is also apparently carried over the side in the explosion. Neither body recovered. The EB-50D, 48-096, limps into Niagara Falls Airport, New York – never flies again. Death of Jean "Skip" Ziegler, American test pilot, killed in the explosion of the Bell X-2 during a captive-carry flight test.
  • 1950 – AAfter the United States Air Force gives Convair a contract to install an Allison J33-A-29 jet engine with afterburner in place of the Allison J33-A-23 in the Convair XF-92A, 46-0682, test pilot Chuck Yeager attempts ferry flight from Edwards AFB, California to the Convair plant at San Diego but engine fails immediately after take off, forcing an emergency landing on the dry lakebed. Airframe is subsequently trucked to San Diego.
  • 1936 – First flight of the Loire 102, French flying boat designed as a mail plane by Loire.
  • 1902 – Brazilian Augusto Severo and French engineer Georges Saché fly the semi-rigid airship Pax, which Severo designed, over Paris for its maiden flight. When they begin to lose control of the airship, it catches fire and explodes 1,200 feet (366 m) above Montparnasse Cemetery, killing both men instantly.

References[edit]

May 13

  • 1992 – A U.S. Navy instructor pilot is killed after two Navy Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentors collide over a densely wooded field 6 miles SW of NAS Whiting Field, Florida.
  • 1982 – Launch of Soyuz T-5, Russian manned spaceflight into Earth orbit to the then new Salyut 7 space station.
  • 1982 – A United States Navy HH-46 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, one killed.
  • 1975 – (13 – 14) U. S. Navy P-3 Orion patrol aircraft discover Mayaguez off Cambodia’s Puolo Wai island. For two days, U. S. Navy and U. S. Air Force aircraft exchange fire with Khmer Rouge ground and sea forces in the vicinity of Mayaguez.
  • 1975 – Sikorsky CH-53C, 68-10933, c/n 65-231, Knife 13, of the 21st Special Operations Squadron, departs from Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base with a crew of five and 18 USAF Security Police onboard to assist in the recovery operation of the SS Mayaguez. The helicopter disappears from the airfield's departure radar 40 miles W of the airfield. All on board are KWF. The Air Force issues a "temporary flight restriction" order, service parlance for a grounding order, on 22 May 1975, for 40 HH-53 and 12 CH-53, following an inspection crew reaching the jungle crash site. A main rotor blade separated from the head in flight.
  • 1957 – Three USAF North American F-100 Super Sabres set a new world distance record for single-engine aircraft by covering the 6,710 mi (5,835 nmi, 10,805 km) distance from London to Los Angeles in 14 hours and 4 min. The flight was accomplished using in-flight refueling.
  • 1955 – On seventh and final flight of Northrop N-69A test vehicle for the Northrop XSM-62 Snark, only two of which were successful, mission was cut short when the missile collided with its T-33A photo plane.
  • 1954 – First flight of the Kellett KH-15 "Stable Mable". This helicopter was designed to test the new gyro-stabilizing system, a kind of small rotor mounted concentrically and intended to stabilize the main rotor.
  • 1943 – 20 Japanese Mitsubishi G4 M (Allied reporting name “Betty”) torpedo bombers fly from Paramushiro to attack American ships, but bad weather forces them to turn back without launching an attack.
  • 1940 – The Sikorsky VS-300, which made its first flight the previous year, makes its first untethered flight.
  • 1938 – (13-15) A Japanese Gasuden Koken aircraft breaks the closed-circuit world distance record of 11,651 km (7,240 mi).
  • 1913 – Sikorsky Russky Vityaz, the world’s first four-engined aircraft and the first aeroplane with a lavatory.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Solar Impulse: Premier vol international réussi pour l'avion solaire," planet-techno-science.com, 14 May 2011 (French language).
  2. ^ Anonymous, "The FAI Ratifies Solar Impulse's World Records," fai.org, 22 October 2010, 00:23.
  3. ^ "NATO Strike Kills at Least 16 in Brega: Report". Reuters. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  4. ^ "NATO Says Brega Strike Directed at Command Bunker". Reuters. Retrieved 20 May 2011.

May 14

  • 2010 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-132 at 10:21:22 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF4: Mini-Research Module 1.
  • 2009 – A Royal Air Force BAE Systems Harrier GR9 (ZG478/68) from No. 1 Squadron based at RAF Cottesmore makes a heavy landing at Kandahar International Airport, Afghanistan due to an engine failure forcing the pilot to successfully eject from the aircraft.
  • 1985 – Second of three Northrop F-20 Tigersharks, 82-0063, c/n GG1002, N3986B, during stopover at Goose Bay, Labrador, en route to the Paris Air Show, crashes at 1350 hrs. Atlantic Daylight Time at the end of sixth practice flight of the day, in circumstances much like the loss of the first prototype on 10 October 1984. Hesitating in the inverted position at the top of a series of 9G vertical rolls, airframe dove erratically into the ground, coming down in an upright, wings-level, nose-up attitude on snow-covered ground, killing Northrop test pilot Dave Barnes. Again, G-induced pilot unconsciousness was suspected, investigation finding no sign of airframe failure.
  • 1979 – Progress 6 (Soviet unmanned cargo spacecraft) docks with Salyut 6.
  • 1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
  • 1959 – Convair YB/RB-58A-10-CF Hustler, 58-1012, c/n 19, of the 43rd Bomb Wing, destroyed by fire at the Convair plant, Carswell AFB, Texas. Fuel leak on the ramp during refuelling followed by accidental ignition kills two Convair ground support personnel.
  • 1957 – A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126310 of VF-871, strikes a hilltop during ground-attack exercises near Terence Bay, Nova Scotia, killing pilot SubLt. Conrad Bissett.
  • 1945 – The final Arctic convoy of World War II, Convoy JW 67, departs Scapa Flow for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union escorted by the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen. It returns to the United Kingdom later in the month as Convoy RA 67. Queen's presence as an escort is deemed necessary in case any German submarine commanders opt to ignore Germany's surrender and attack the convoy.
  • 1941 – During testing, the Grumman XP-50 prototype (39-2517) is lost, falling victim to a turbo-supercharger explosion that destroyed the aircraft. The test pilot Bob Hall bailed out while the XP-50 plunged into Smithtown Bay in Long Island Sound.
  • 1944 – The German Luftwaffe employs circling torpedoes in a predawn attack on Allied ships at Naples, Italy, but scores no hits.
  • 1941 – German aircraft begin daily bombing of Crete to soften it up for the upcoming German airborne assault on the island.
  • 1940 – Fifty-three German Heinkel He.111 bombers drop nearly 100 tons of bombs on Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The attack kills nearly 1,000 people, destroys 20,000 buildings, and leaves 78,000 people homeless.
  • 1938 – First prototype Focke-Wulf Fw 187 V1, D-AANA, crashes at Bremen, Germany, when test pilot Paul Bauer, having completed test series, makes high-speed run across airfield, pulls up too sharply, stalls, spins in next to the control tower.
  • 1936 – First flight of the Miles Whitney Straight M.11,two-seater light aircraft with a dual-control, 'side-by-side' cockpit configuration.
  • 1909 – Pilot S.F.Cody makes first flight of more than a mile in Britain using British Army Aeroplane No 1, flying from Laffan's Plain to Danger Hill in Hampshire at average height of 30 ft (9.1 m). Later in the afternoon, the Prince of Wales asks Cody to repeat the flight, but in so doing, Cody is forced to turn quickly to avoid some troops in his path, smashing the tail against an embankment. Aircraft rebuilt at Farnborough with design changes to improve performance.
  • 1908 – Charles Furnas becomes the first North American passenger in an aeroplane, piloted by Wilbur Wright. Wilbur Wright flew Charles W. Furnas for a distance of 2.5 miles in a Wright Model B.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Vergakis, Brock, "US Launches Drone From Aircraft Carrier," Associated Press, May 14, 2013, 10:13 p.m. EDT
  2. ^ "ARMY AIR CREWS: Cayuse Crewmembers Line of Duty Deaths". Retrieved 2010-07-16.

May 15

  • 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Colombiana Dassault Mirage 5COAM (FAC-3031) on a routine training flight from the Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 1, crashed shortly after take-off from the Palanquero airbase, Puerto Salgar, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. The aircraft from the Escuadrón de Combate 112 suffered a technical fault causing a fire which forced the pilot to successfully eject from the plane without injury.
  • 2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-27 Flogger crashed shortly after take-off and the pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft. The accident occurred near the Konkani village, Jodhpur, India and resulted in injuries to 7 local villagers.
  • 1997 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 at 4:07:48.62 am EST. Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.
  • 1989 – US Navy North American CT-39E Sabreliner, BuNo 158383, 'JK', of VRC-40, NAS Norfolk, Virginia, runs off runway at Andrews AFB, Maryland, at 1100 hrs. Crew of four and one passenger uninjured.
  • 1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus spacecraft prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.
  • 1981 – Prototype of an improved variant PZL-106 Kruk (Polish agricultural aircraft) was flown with redesigned wings using shorter struts.
  • 1970 – The Dymshits – Kuznetsov aircraft hijacking affair (Leningrad Process) was an attempt to hijack a civilian aircraft by a group of Soviet refuseniks in order to escape to the West.
  • 1965 – The U. S. Navy deploys its first aircraft carrier to Dixie Station in the South China Sea off South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. It is a single-carrier station for the provision of air support in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and will remain in use until August 1966.
  • 1962 – During refuelling at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, Boeing B-47E-135-BW Stratojet, 53-6230, of 340th Bomb Wing catches fire, 10,000 gallons of fuel ignite. Four firemen are killed and 18 others injured when fireball engulfs all within 100 feet of burning aircraft.
  • 1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. It carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research. Its tape recorder failed, making it unable to measure the Van Allen radiation belts.
  • 1956 – Fifth Lockheed U-2A, Article 345, 56-6678, delivered to the CIA on 16 December 1955, crashes at Groom Lake, Nevada, killing Agency pilot Wilburn S. "Billy" Rose. Aircraft had just departed Groom with a full fuel load, but an underwing pogo hung up. Pilot attempted to return to try to shake it loose, but let angle of bank increase too much and fully fuelled starboard wing kept dropping.
  • 1956 – A RCAF Avro CF-100 Mk. IVB Canuck, 18367, of 445 Squadron, out of CFB Uplands, falling from 33,000 feet (10,000 m) crashed into Villa St. Louis, a convent of the Grey Nuns of the Cross in Orleans, Ontario, Canada at roughly 2300 hrs. (reports vary). 15 people were killed; both crewmen of the aircraft, a priest, 11 nuns and one other woman.
  • 1953 – An errant United States Air Force Republic F-84E-30-RE Thunderjet, 51-628, of the 22d Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 36th Fighter-Bomber Group, collides with two USAF C-119 Flying Boxcars of the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, flying in formation near Weinheim, Germany, sending all three planes down in flames. Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar, 51-8235, was struck by the fighter, which then hit struck C-119C, 51-8241, three Flying Boxcar crew killed, three injured. F-84 pilot James W. Chilton parachutes to safety.
  • 1945 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Emperor attack the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro in the Indian Ocean, but achieve only one near-miss.
  • 1944 – Ex-RAF de Havilland Mosquito B.IV, DK296, formerly flown by 105 Squadron as 'GB-G', delivered to the Soviet Union for testing on 19 April 1944 by Soviet flight crew, is written off this date in landing accident at Sverdlovsk when pilot A. I. Kabanov loses control with engines at low power setting, turns to port, runs off runway, shears off undercarriage and skids to a stop on its belly. Pilot and navigator P. I. Perevalov unhurt. This was the ninth flight of DK296 (which never received a Soviet serial) since it arrived in Russia and was the only Mosquito delivered to Russia. Kabanov was the Deputy Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Air Force at this time, and had much experience flying foreign types
  • 1940 – During British evacuation and demolition operations in Dutch ports, German dive bombers attack the British destroyer HMS Valentine, which is beached and wrecked at the mouth of the Scheldt.
  • 1923 – First course of Provisional Pilot Officers began training at Camp Borden.
  • 1921 – Laura Bromwell loops in New York State 199 times in 1 h, 20 min, setting a new women’s record for consecutive loops.

References[edit]

May 16

  • 2011 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 at 12:56:28 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF6, ELC 3, ROEU, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Final flight of Endeavour.
  • 2001 – A Turkish Air Force CASA CN-235M-100 crashes into a field in Malatya, Turkey killing all 34 on board.
  • 1977 – The landing gear failed on a New York Airways Sikorsky S-61 while it was taking on passengers on the roof of the Pan Am building. The aircraft rolled onto its side. Its spinning rotor blades killed four passengers waiting to board (including movie director Michael Findlay) and injured a fifth. Parts of a broken blade fell into the streets below, killing one pedestrian and injuring another.
  • 1958 – Captain Walter W. Irwin sets a new airspeed record of 1,404 mph (2,259 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter, the first record over 2,000 km/h.
  • 1954 – Birth of Dafydd Rhys "Dave" Williams, Canadian physician and a retired CSA astronaut. He had two space flights, both of which were Space Shuttle missions.
  • 1946 – A B-17G Flying Fortress crashes into White's Hill near Fairfax, California, while en route to Hamilton Field in Marin County, California, after running out of fuel. Two crew members are killed.
  • 1919 – A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
  • 1918 – The Imperial German Navy recommissions the light cruiser Stuttgart after her conversion into a seaplane carrier. She is the only German seagoing aviation ship capable of working with the fleet commissioned during either World War I or World War II.
  • 1915 – (16-17 overnight) Two Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504s interceot the Imperial German Navy Zeppelins LZ 38 and LZ 39, badly damaging LZ39 with four 20-lb (9-kg) bombs dropped on its envelope from above.

References[edit]

May 17

  • 2011 – A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle carrying a live AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile misses the runway at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti, Djibouti, by three miles (4.8 km) and crashes near a residential area. Its missile does not explode, and no one is injured.[1]
  • 2007 – Three people, the two pilots and a passenger, were killed Thursday in the accident of a small plane of freight, which was crushed little after its takeoff of Walikale, in the East of the democratic Republic of Congo, one learned near the company. A plane bound for Goma was crushed this Thursday morning in Kilambo, in territory of Walikale, with approximately 300 km in the west of the chief town of North-Kivu.
  • 1962 – RAF Blackburn Beverly C.1, XL132, c/n 1033, bound for RAF Thorney Island, suffers engine fire while on approach, ditches in Chichester Harbour, UK. Two crew killed.
  • 1958 – Four McDonnell F3 H Demon's and four F8U Crusaders make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic.
  • 1954 – Royal Navy Supermarine Attacker FB.1, WA533, of 736 Squadron is damaged upon landing aboard HMS Illustrious when port main gear collapses. Airframe is repaired, but sees no more operational flying.
  • 1950 – The air above Muroc Dry Lake, California, exploded in sonic booms as Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier put the XF-90 (long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort.) through high-speed dive tests, reaching Mach 1.12.
  • 1945 – Former Our Gang actor Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins (Robert E. Hutchins) is killed in a mid-air collision while trying to land a North American AT-6D Texan, serial number 42-86536, of the 3026th Base Unit, when it strikes North American AT-6C Texan, 42-49068, of the same unit, at Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California, during a training exercise. The other pilot, Edward F. Hamel, survives
  • 1944 – 99 B-24 Liberators of the U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Fifth and Thirteenth air forces strike Biak. On every day but one thereafter through the U. S. amphibious landings on Biak on May 27, the two air forces will conduct almost daily raids on Biak and the Vogelkop.
  • 1943 – Colonel Frank Gregory made the first helicopter landing aboard ship in Long Island Sound, USA with a Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter.
  • 1940 – (Overnight) 72 British bombers attack Bremen, Cologne, and Hamburg, killing at least 47 and injuring 127 in Bremen and Hamburg.
  • 1935 – Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), crashes on the first day it arrives at NAS Anacostia. Pilot Lee Gelbach is unable to recover from a flat spin which develops during a ten-turn right-hand spin demonstration - bails out safely. A third Grumman XF3F-1 prototype will be built, using some parts salvaged from second prototype, also with BuNo 9727 (3rd), but pilot Bill H. McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.
  • 1934 – First flight of the Avia 50, French single seat motor glider.
  • 1930 – Death of Max Valier, Austrian rocketry pioneer, killed when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin.
  • 1929 – Colin Spenser (Jack) Caldwell was testing Canadian Vickers Vedette (single-engine biplane flying boat) G-CYZF (CV 122), when on entering a spin he found he was unable to recover. He abandoned the machine by parachute and landed safely on an island in the St Lawrence and became the first Canadian to save his life by a parachute.
  • 1928 – First flight of the Vickers Vellore, British large biplane prototype designed as a freight and mail carrier.
  • 1928 – Lady Heath (formerly Mrs. Elliot-Lynn) lands in London, becoming the first woman to fly solo from Cape Town, South Africa to London, England in an Avro Avian 594 Avian III.
  • 1923 – Death of Thomas Scott Baldwin, U. S. Army major and pioneer balloonist. He was the first American to descend from a balloon by parachute.
  • 1919 – The War Department in Washington, D.C. orders the use of the national insignia on all U. S. military aircraft.
  • 1879 – Birth of Hans Grade, German aviation pioneer.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Whitlock, Craig, "Drone Crashes Pile Up Abroad," The Washington Post, December 1, 2012, p. A8.

May 18

  • 2011 – Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428, a Saab 340, crashes off Prahuaniyeu, Río Negro, Argentina while on approach to General Enrique Mosconi International Airport, Comodoro Rivadavia in heavy rain, killing all 22 passengers and crew on board.
  • 1996 – A Grumman F-14A-115-GR Tomcat, BuNo 161282, 'NF 101', of VF-154 crashes into the Pacific Ocean 500 miles W of Guam after suffering engine malfunction. Both crew eject safely.
  • 1973 – Death of Dieudonné Costes, French aviator, well known for long distance and record breaking flights (Costes with Maurice Bellonte, flew the Breguet 19 from Paris to New York City, as the first aircraft in more difficult westbound direction, between North American and European mainlands), as well as being a fighter ace during World War I.
  • 1972 – Aeroflot Flight 1491, an Antonov An-10A, suffers a inflight structural failure while descending to land at Kharkov Airport in the Ukraine. All 122 passengers and crew onboard are killed.
  • 1970 – National Airlines ends a 108-day strike by offering ground crews a 33% pay increase.
  • 1969 – Launch of Apollo 10, fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program, for testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself.
  • 1969 – USMC Lockheed KC-130F Hercules BuNo 149814, c/n 3723, of VMGR-352, collided head-on with McDonnell F-4B Phantom II BuNo 151001 of VMFA-542, MAG-13, from Chu Lai (both crew killed), while refuelling two F-4Bs of VMFA-314 over South Vietnam near Phu Bai. Two crew of F-4B BuNo 151450, survived after jettisoning bombs and ejecting, while the second F-4B recovered safely to Chu Lai. Lars Olausson states that the KC-130F was from VMGR-352, while Chris Hobson claims it was assigned to VMGR-152.
  • 1967 – Prototype of the Dassault Mirage F1, French air-superiority fighter and attack aircraft, crashes due to flutter, killing its pilot.
  • 1966 – Kosmos 11, soviet spacecraft re-enters earth's atmosphere and breaks up.
  • 1961 – Commander J. L. Felsman, US Navy, is killed in a McDonnell F4H-1F Phantom II, BuNo 145316, during the first attempt at "Operation Sageburner" speed record at Edwards Air Force Base, California, when his aircraft disintegrated in the air after pitch damper failure. This was the first fatal Phantom II accident.
  • 1958 – An F-104A Starfighter sets a world speed record of 2,259.82 km/h (1,404.19 mph).
  • 1958 – In a Zero Length Launch (ZEL) experiment, a U. S. Air Force North American F-100D Super Sabre becomes airborne with no runway or take-off roll at all, using its own engine in afterburner and boosted by a 130,000-pound- (58,967-kg)-thrust Astrodyne rocket.
  • 1953 – First flight of the Douglas DC-7, American 4 engine transport aircraft, last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas.
  • 1953 – Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
  • 1952 – Birth of Jeana Yeager, American aviatrix. most famous for co-piloting a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft.
  • 1951 – First flight of the Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant, British four-jet bomber, once part of the Royal Air Force's V bomber nuclear force, originally developed for use as high-level strategic bomber, but its role, like other V bombers, was changed to low-level attacks.
  • 1951 – Gloster E.1/44, TX145, following test flight out of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough, suffers damage when starboard undercarriage leg collapses on landing. Probably not repaired as it is struck off charge on 2 August and sent to the Proof and Experimental Establishment (PEE) at Shoeburyness.
  • 1947 – A U.S. Navy pilot and two school boys are killed when a Vought F4U Corsair fighter crashes onto a school playground in Burlington, Iowa, during an airshow at the Municipal Airport. The fighter, one of 35 aircraft from Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, performing a mock formation raid in front of 3,500 spectators to signal the start of National Naval Reserve week, went into a series of barrel rolls, then appeared to go out of control before it crashed onto the playground at the Perkins School where 14 youngsters were playing ball. At least five others were injured, and several homes were struck by debris from the crash.
  • 1942 – RCAF No. 423 (Coastal) Squadron was formed at Oban, England.
  • 1940 – First flight of the Pashinin I-21 (not to be confused with the Ilyushin TsKB-32, also known as "I-21") Soviet fighter prototype.
  • 1940 – First flight of Saab 17, Swedish bomber-reconnaissance aircraft.
  • 1935 – The Tupolev ANT-20, Maxim Gorky, the largest aircraft ever built to that time, flown by pilots I. V. Mikheyev and I. S. Zhurov, and three more planes (Tupolev ANT-14, Polikarpov R-5 and Polikarpov I-5) take off for a demonstration flight over Moscow. As a result of a poorly executed loop maneuver (a third such stunt on this flight) around the plane performed by an accompanying I-5 fighter, flown by Nikolai Blagin, both planes collide and the Maxim Gorky crashes into a low-rise residential neighborhood west of present-day Sokol station. Forty-five people are killed in the crash, including crew members and 33 family members of some of those who had built the aircraft. (While authorities announced that the fatal maneuver was impromptu and reckless, it has been recently suggested that it might have been a planned part of the show.) Also killed was the fighter pilot, Blagin, who was made a scapegoat in the crash and subsequently had his name used eponymously (Blaginism) to mean, roughly, a "cocky disregard of authority." However, Blagin was given a state funeral at Novodevichy Cemetery together with ANT-20 victims.
  • 1934 – Entered into service was the Douglas DC-2 with Transcontinental and Western Air.
  • 1929 – During the 1929 U.S. Army maneuvers, two Boeing P-12s of the 95th Pursuit Squadron, operating out of Norton Field (the first airfield to be built in central Ohio), collide over the Linden neighborhood on the north side of Columbus, Ohio, the propeller of 2nd Lt. Andrew F. Solter's XP-12A, 29-362, cutting into the rear fuselage of 2nd Lt. Edward L. Meadow's P-12 (possibly 29-361). Meadow is killed but Solter bails out and lands safely. Gen. Benjamin Foulois tells newsmen, "It's all in a day's work of the Air Corps. Although an unhappy occurrence, the accident will cause no change in the maneuver plans, which will be carried out as scheduled."
  • 1919 – Harry Hawker and Lt Cdr Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve attempt a non-stop Atlantic crossing but are forced to ditch their aircraft only 2,253 (1,400 miles) after leaving Newfoundland. London's Daily Mail newspaper awards them a prize of £5,000 for their attempt anyway.
  • 1912 – Birth of Robert Hoover?, Nasa Test Pilot.
  • 1910 – International talks open in Paris to draw up a legal basis for flight between countries.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Associated Press, "Suspected U.S. Drone in Yemen Kills 4 Militants," USA Today, May 18, 2013, 3:53 p.m. EDT

May 19

  • 2011 – (Overnight) NATO aircraft raid Libyan Navy bases at Tripoli, Khoms, and Sirte in the largest attack against Libyan government naval forces thus far in the Libyan Civil War. During the Khoms raids, British aircraft hit two corvettes at Khoms with laser-guided bombs and damage an inflatable-boat manufacturing facility, and NATO aircraft set a warship at Tripoli afire. NATO aircraft also hit a police academy in Tripoli's Tajoura neighborhood.[1]
  • 2009 – A United States Navy Sikorsky HH-60H Seahawk crashes into the Pacific Ocean 16 miles (26 km) SW of San Diego, California. The aircraft was on a routine training flight and returning to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz when the accident occurred off of Point Loma, California, killing all 5 members of its crew. Only 3 bodies were recovered.
  • 2008 – First flight of the Sukhoi Superjet 100, Russian modern fly-by-wire regional jet in the 75- to 95-seat category.
  • 2003 – CH-46E Sea Knight 156424 of HMM-364 crashes in Al-Hilla, killing four Marines; another Marine drowns trying to rescue the crew.[2]
  • 2000 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-101 at 6:11 am EDT. Mission highlights: ISS supply.
  • 1996 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-77 at 6:30:00.066 am EDT. Mission highlights: SPACEHAB; SPARTAN, Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau's second trip into space.
  • 1993 – Sikorsky VH-60A Sea Hawk, BuNo 163267,1] of HMX-1, MCAS Quantico, Virginia, crashes ~35 miles SW of Washington, D.C. during a routine inspection flight, killing Maj. William S. Barkley Jr., Capt. Scott J. Reynolds, Staff Sgt. Brian D. Haney, and Sgt. Timothy D. Sabel.
  • 1982 – A Royal Navy Westland Sea King HC.4 ZA294, transferring from HMS Hermes to HMS Intrepid during the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, crashes into the sea after a bird strike with a Black-browed Albatross. The crash results in 22 fatalities including 18 members of the 22 Squadron SAS, one fatality each from the Royal Signals and Royal Air Force.
  • 1978 – First prototype Sikorsky YUH-60A Black Hawk, 73-21650, crashes during testing at the Sikorsky plant, Stratford, Connecticut, killing three company personnel. Army investigation reveals that during routine maintenance the night before the fatal flight, the airspeed sensor for the tailplane actuating system was inadvertently left unconnected. As the aircraft transitioned from hover to forward flight, the tailplane did not automatically change its angle and as speed built up, it forced the helicopter's nose down until an attitude was reached from which recovery was impossible. A manual back-up system was available and functioning, and could have been used to correct the tailplane angle, but for unexplained reasons it was not used, possibly due to failure to analyze the nature of the problem in time. Minor modifications are introduced as a result of this accident.
  • 1971 – Boeing announces that it has canceled its Supersonic Transport (SST) project.
  • 1971 – Launch of Mars 2, Soviet unmanned lander and orbiter, first human artifacts to impact the surface of Mars.
  • 1967 – American aircraft strike military targets in downtown Hanoi.
  • 1961 – Venera 1, first planetary probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union, passed within 100,000 km of Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit.
  • 1958 – Vickers Viscount N7410 of Capital Airlines collides in mid-air with a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star of the Air National Guard. All eleven on board the Viscount are killed when it crashes at Brunswick, Maryland, as is one of the two crew members of the T-33. (This is repeated on 20 May)
  • 1956 – First flight of the Aerfer Sagittario 2, Italian prototype all-metal single-seat lightweight fighter aircraft, first Italian aircraft to break the sound barrier in controlled flight.
  • 1952 – First flight of the Grumman XF10F Jaguar, American prototype swing-wing fighter aircraft.
  • 1951 – RCAF No. 410 Squadron began re-equipping with North American Sabre fighters. It was the first RCAF squadron to receive this new fighter.
  • 1949 – A JRM Mars sets a new record of 308 for the largest number of people to be carried on a single aircraft.
  • 1947 – The crash of a Beechcraft C-45F Expeditor, 44-87142, of the 4000th AAF Base Unit, two miles S of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, kills three officers and two enlisted men of the 4140th Base Unit, Wright Field, Ohio, who had departed that base at 1805 hrs. on a flight to Selfridge Field, Michigan, to make advance preparations for air shows throughout the country. The twin-prop, twin-tailed aircraft came down in an open area during a driving rainstorm at ~2105 hrs. and broke into six major pieces. One crew attempted to parachute but was unsuccessful. The plane impacted within 500 yards of St. Mary's academy girls' school on the outskirts of Windsor
  • 1945 – First flight of Tupolev TU-10, a Soviet twin-engine, high speed daylight bomber, an evolution of the TU-2.
  • 1943 – Northrop N-9M-1, one-third scale flying testbed for the Northrop XB-35 flying wing design, crashes approximately 12 mi (19 km) W of Muroc Army Air Base, California, killing pilot Max Constant. First flown 27 December 1942, airframe had only logged 22.5 hours, and little data was accumulated before the loss. Post-crash investigation suggested that: "...while Constant was conducting stalls and aft centre of gravity stability tests, aerodynamic forces developed full aft, which were too strong for Constant to overcome, trapping him in the cockpit. To prevent this happening on future flights, a one-shot hydraulic boost device was installed to push the controls forward in an emergency."
  • 1937 – Prototype Sud-Est LeO H-47 flying boat sustains fatigue failure damage to hull bottom on take-off and, upon landing at Antibes at 19,000 kg (42,000 lb), took in water that displaced the centre of gravity, sinking the aircraft.
  • 1934 – First flight of the Russian Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, Soviet eight-engine aircraft, at this time the largest aircraft in the world. Capable of carrying 80 passengers, it was used mainly as a mobile propaganda office.
  • 1918 – First prototype Sopwith Salamander, E5429, crashes during test program while with No. 65 Squadron when the pilot has to avoid a tender crossing the aerodrome responding to another crash.
  • 1918 – Raoul Lufbery, commander of the US 94th Aero Squadron|94th (Hat in the Ring) Aero Squadron and second highest scoring American ace with 17 victories, is killed in air combat.
  • 1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 Large America flying boat bombs and sinks the German submarine U-36 in the North Sea near the North Hinder light ship while flying a “Spider Web” patrol. U-36 becomes the only German submarine sunk by an aircraft during World War I. (This is repeated on 20 May)
  • 1910 – Birth of Jean Niland (Aka James Williams), French early parachutist and record setter.
  • 1891 – Birth of Oswald Boelcke, WWI German flying ace and one of the most influential patrol leaders and tacticians of the early years of air combat.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "NATO Bombs Gadhafi Warships". MSNBC. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Marine Deaths in Iraq, Marines killed in Action, May 18–19, 2003". Retrieved 2007-07-31.

May 20

  • 2009 – The 2009 Indonesia C-130H Hercules crash was an aircraft accident in Indonesia on May 20, 2009. The Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules airplane was carrying 112 people (98 passengers and 14 crew) and crashed at about 6:30 local time (23:30 UTC), while flying from Jakarta to eastern Java. The crash resulted in at least 98 deaths, 5 of which occurred on impact when the plane ploughed through a neighborhood, striking at least four houses before skidding into a paddy, in the village of Geplak. Two people on the ground were killed. At least 70 others had been taken to a local hospital. Authorities believe that there is still 1 missing body.
  • 1982 – A Dassault Mirage III of the Brazilian Air Force crashed, two crew killed.
  • 1978 – McDonnell Douglas delivers its 5,000th F-4 Phantom II aircraft, twenty years after the first flight of the prototype.
  • 1971 – Boeing announces that it has canceled its Supersonic Transport (SST) project.
  • 1967 – American aircraft strike military targets in downtown Hanoi.
  • 1965 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705, a Boeing 720-040 B on an inaugural flight carrying mostly journalists and owners of travel agencies and crewed by what the airline considered its best crew members, crashes short of the runway while descending to land at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 119 of the 125 people on board and injuring all six survivors.
  • 1959 – A USAF Lockheed C-130A Hercules 57-0468, c/n 3175 overshot the runway at Ashiya AB, Japan . The pilot tried to pull up, but the C-130 crashed into Air Force barracks. 9 fatalities.
  • 1958 – Vickers Viscount N7410 of Capital Airlines collides in mid-air with a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star of the Air National Guard. All eleven on board the Viscount are killed when it crashes at Brunswick, Maryland, as is one of the two crew members of the T-33.
  • 1958 – A United States Air Force Lockheed T-33A-5-LO Shooting Star, 53-5966, operated by the Maryland Air National Guard collided in mid-air with a Capital Airlines Vickers Viscount, registered N7410 operating flight Capital 300 at 8,000 ft (2,400 m) four miles (6 km) east of Brunswick, Maryland. All 11 on board the Viscount were killed and the T-33 co-pilot, the T-33 pilot ejected and survived.
  • 1951 – U. S. Air Force Captain James Jabara becomes the first fighter ace to score his five victories in a jet (an F-86 Sabre) against jets (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 s).
  • 1949 – A USAF Fairchild C-82A Packet, 48-572, c/n 10207, of the 1227th Air Base Group, Goose Bay, Labrador, veers off runway during takeoff at primitive Arctic Isachsen airstrip, Isachsen weather station, Ellef Ringnes Island, Northwest Territory, Canada, at 1745 hrs. Zulu. Despite crew attempts to keep the aircraft from drifting to the left, the port landing gear catches a snow bank, increasing veer, then port propeller strikes snow pack at 90 mph and 2800 rpm, ripping engine from mount and making aircraft uncontrollable. Three crew uninjured but aircraft written off, abandoned on site. Hull used for a shelter for a time. Wreckage still on site. The C-82 had delivered an engine and parts to repair a stranded Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster, 42-72614, with a failed number 2 engine. The position of the Skymaster had required a downwind takeoff run.
  • 1946 – Grumman J4F-2 Widgeon amphibian out of NAS Brunswick, Maine, makes forced landing on Sebago Lake due to engine trouble and suffers moderate damage. Crew uninjured.
  • 1946 – In an accident very similar to the B-25 Mitchell that struck the Empire State Building in 1945, a USAAF Beech C-45F Expeditor, 44-47570, of the 4108th AAF Base Unit, Air Material Command, piloted by Manuel R. Campbell, on a navigation training flight from Lake Charles Army Air Field, Louisiana,[97] crashes in fog at ~2010 hrs. into the 58th floor of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building at 40 Wall Street, Manhattan, New York City, whilst attempting to land at Newark Army Airfield, New Jersey. Four crew KWF, no injuries on the ground.
  • 1945 – 29 aircraft from the British aircraft carriers HMS Ameer, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker conduct devastating strikes against Japanese shipping, airfields, and communications in southern Burma and Sumatra.
  • 1944 – American aircraft raid Marcus Island.
  • 1941 – Italian CANT Z.1007 high-level bombers sink the British destroyer HMS Juno southeast of Crete.
  • 1941 – Germany invades Crete in Operation Merkur (“Mercury”), the Luftwaffe’s first large airborne assault and the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, dropping 10,000 paratroopers and 750 glider troops onto the island; 610 bombers, dive bombers, and fighters, 500 transport aircraft, and 80 gliders support the operation. The Germans encounter such unexpectedly heavy opposition by British and Commonwealth troops on the island that they fear the operation will fail.
  • 1932 – Amelia Earhart, flying a Lockheed Vega, becomes the first woman to make a solo flight across the North Atlantic, flying from Harbour Grace in Newfoundland to Derry in Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 min.
  • 1929 – The Peruvian Army’s aviation branch and the Peruvian Navy’s Naval Aviation Corps are combined to form the Peruvian Aviation Corps, forerunner of the Peruvian Air Force.
  • 1929 – Charles Lindbergh marries Anne, daughter of Dwight W. Morrow, U. S. Ambassador to Mexico and author of an influential report on American aviation on 27 May 1929.
  • 1927 – (20-21) Charles Lindbergh flies across the Atlantic nonstop from New York City to Paris. It is the first solo transatlantic flight. In his Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis, he covers 3,600 miles in 33 hours, 29 min and wins the Orteig Prize of $25,000.
  • 1927 – Flight Lieutenant Roderic Carr sets out to set a new distance record, attempting to fly from England to India in a Hawker Horsely. Three days later, he will be rescued from the Persian Gulf.
  • 1924 – French Captain Georges Pelletier d'Oisy and Adjutant Lucien Besin crash their Breguet 19.A.2 on a golf course in Shanghai, ending their attempt to fly around the world eastbound. They had covered 10,580 miles (17,037 km) in 26 days since leaving Paris.
  • 1918 – German bombs fall on London for the last time in World War I. During their one-year-long heavier-than-air bombing campaign against England, the Germans have dropped 84,745 kg (186,830 lbs) of bombs and lost 61 bombers.
  • 1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 Large America flying boat bombs and sinks the German submarine U-36 in the North Sea near the North Hinder light ship while flying a “Spider Web” patrol. U-36 becomes the only German submarine sunk by an aircraft during World War I.
  • 1784 – The first women to ascend in a tethered balloon are the Marchioness de Montalembert, the Contess de Montalenbert, the Contess de Podenas, and Mademoiselle de Ligarde. Their Montgolfier balloon lifts to the length of the restraining rope.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Associated Press, "News Summary: United Airlines Resumes 787 Flying After 4-Month Halt," washingtonpost.com, May 20, 2013, 3:14 p.m. EDT.

May 21

  • 2011 – NATO conducts 147 air sorties over Libya, targeting two command-and-control facilities in and near Tripoli, an ammunition storage facility near Tripoli, a naval asset near Sirte, two air defense radars near Al Khums, and a tank and a military truck near Zintan. Since NATO took command of air strikes in Libya on 31 March 31, its aircraft have conducted 2,975 strike and 4.757 other sorties.[1]
  • 2010 – A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion accidentally released a sonobuoy shortly after departure from NAS Jacksonville, Florida, which fell 500 feet (150 m) and crashed through the roof of a home in Mandarin, Florida, coming to rest in a bedroom next to a bed. Resident Marwan Saman said his daughter had just gotten out of that bed about a half hour earlier. The Navy sent an explosives demolition team to retrieve the 3-foot (0.91 m)-long, 40-pound cylinder. No injuries were reported, and the Navy was making arrangements to pay for the damage. A malfunctioning launch tube was theorized for the drop.
  • 2009 – An Air Force test pilot student is killed when his Northrop T-38A Talon jet trainer crashes N of Edwards Air Force Base, California, ~ nine miles N of the base, near California City.
  • 2008 – A Serbian Air Force single-seat SOKO J-22 Orao ground attack aircraft flown by Major Tomas Janik crashed near the village of Baranda. The aircraft that crashed was wearing serial 25114 and was operational with the 241 Fighter-Bomber Aviation Squadron, of 98th Air Base Lađevci. The flight went well until 1130 hours local time when pilot Major Janik experienced problems with his plane and was forced to eject. The aircraft went down in the vicinity of the village Baranda and was completely destroyed.
  • 2007 – A CH-47D Chinook 87-00102 from B Company, 4–123rd Aviation Regiment crashes in Iraq due to failure of both engines. Five crewmen injured. Helicopter was blown in-place.[2]
  • 1995 – (21-22) Historic Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, "Kee Bird", of the 46th/72d Reconnaissance Squadrons, abandoned in 1947 and recently restored to flying condition after a number of highly calamitous setbacks, is severely damaged by fire while attempting to take off from a frozen lakebed in Greenland. Its remains are abandoned to sink into the melting ice.
  • 1982 – British ground troops begin landing at San Carlos on East Falkland Island, and the Argentinian Air Force begins a seven-day-long bombing campaign again British ships in Falkland Sound and San Carlos Water; it will be the Royal Navy’s largest combat engagement since the end of World War II in August 1945. On the first day, the Argentinians sink the British frigate Ardent but lose 16 aircraft.
  • 1981 – Ecuadorian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6 crashed into high ground in bad weather with the loss of all 18 on board.
  • 1977 – Concorde makes a special trip from New York to Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight on the same route in the Spirit of St. Louis; the airliner takes just 3 hours, 44 min, compared with Lindbergh’s time of 33 hours, 29 min.
  • 1965 – The last flight of an RCAF Harvard was made.
  • 1964 – Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery damages a U. S. Navy RF-8 Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft over Laos. The RF-8 A, flown by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann, burns for 20 min in the air but lands safely aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63).
  • 1957 – First Sud-Aviation (Sud-Ouest) SO.9050 Trident II -001, rocket-powered short-range interceptor, is destroyed during a test-flight out of Centre d'Essais en Vol (Flight Test Center) when its highly volatile fuels, Furaline and nitric acid, accidentally mix and explode, killing test pilot Charles Goujon. Project is discontinued following this accident.
  • 1949 – A Sikorsky S-52 sets a new helicopter altitude record of 21,200 ft (6,468 m).
  • 1946 – Royal Dutch Airlines, KLM, inaugurates a scheduled service to New York. It is the first European airline to open post-war flights to New York.
  • 1945 – Entered Service: Avro Lincoln with the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Development Unit
  • 1945 – Entered Service: Grumman F8 F Bearcat with U. S. Navy Fighter Squadron 19 (VF-19)
  • 1941 – German airborne forces belatedly capture Maleme airfield on Crete, allowing an airlift of 5,000 German mountain troops to begin.
  • 1941 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Argus flies off 43 Royal Air Force Hawker Hurricanes to Malta from a point south of Sardinia.
  • 1940 – The British aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and HMS Furious fly off Royal Air Force aircraft for service ashore at Bardufoss, Norway, with Glorious delivering the Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron and Furious the Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron.
  • 1927 – Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • 1923 – A Curtiss bomber and two Curtiss scout aircraft of the Argentine Navy make a flight of just under 500 miles (805 km) along the coast of Argentina from Puerto Militar to Buenos Aires. It is a significant step forward in the development of Argentine aviation.
  • 1918 – President Woodrow Wilson creates a Bureau of Aircraft Production responsible for aeronautical equipment.
  • 1878 – Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, New York. He became the pioneer of the first years of powered flight and rival of the Wright brothers.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Brunnstrom, David (22 May 2011). "Factbox: Latest Military Activity in Libya for 22 May 2011". Reuters. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Boeing's CH-47D Chinook 87-00102". Retrieved 2009-06-02.

May 22

  • 1990 – The German Luftwaffe flies the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter for the last time before it is withdrawn from service; the airplane was nicknamed “the widow-maker” because of its terrible safety record – In its years of service, 110 Starfighter pilots were killed.
  • 1986 – US Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 162181, c/n I-674, of VA-65, bound for the USS John F. Kennedy at Puerto Rico, crashes on take-off from NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, at 1105 hrs., killing two crew and one motorist on Oceana Boulevard. Aircraft had no munitions but carried a full fuel load and burst into flame as it came down just outside the station perimeter, killing pilot Lt. James P. Hoban, 26, of River Vale, New Jersey, and bombardier-navigator Lt. Michael F. Wilson, 27, of Medford, New Jersey, as well as Navy wife Tammy Fowler, 25, of Virginia Beach, in the vehicle on Oceana Boulevard. Navy officials said that this was the first Navy plane crash in the area in more than two years. Witnesses reported that the Intruder's tail appeared to be on fire as it came down.
  • 1984 – ULockheed U-2R, 68-10333, Article 055, fifth airframe of first R-model order, first flight 8 May 1968, registered N812X; delivered to the CIA, 28 May 1968. To 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing mid-1974. To 9th SRW in 1976. Damaged at Akrotiri, Cyprus, 24 April 1980 - repaired. Crashes this date at Osan Air Base, South Korea, pilot Capt. David Bonsi survives. Aircraft suffers tailpipe failure on climb-out at ~3,000 feet forcing an ejection. This was the first of three such tailpipe-related crashes.
  • 1983 – A Canadian Forces Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter, 104813, of 439 Sqn., explodes in mid-air during airshow performance at Rhein-Main Air Base, Frankfurt, Germany, wreckage falling onto parked cars in woods near the airport, setting several afire and killing three adults and two children watching the display, Reuters news service reported. A Canadian Forces spokesman said that the CF-104, flown by Capt. Alan J. Stephenson, 27, was in a formation of five Starfighters, and that he was to do a solo display. He had done two complete circuits and had leveled off for a low-speed fly-past when the plane malfunctioned. He ejected safely. The spokesman said that a board of inquiry has been convened to investigate the cause of the crash.
  • 1982 – The first aircraft carrier to be launched in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is launched at Ferrol.
  • 1976 – NASA launches space vehicle S-179
  • 1970 – A USAF Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star of the 1st Composite Wing, Andrews AFB, Maryland, crashes just short of the north runway on approach to that base, killing pilot Maj. John H. McDowell Jr., 37, Clinton, Maryland, and Lt. Edwin D. Billmeyer, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland, and injuring three motorists on the ground.
  • 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 707, breaks up in mid-air near Unionville, Missouri after a passenger's bomb exploded in the lavatory; all 45 people on board are killed.
  • 1961 – (22 or 24) To celebrate the 50th anniversary of naval aviation in the United States, five United States Navy McDonnell F4 H-1 F Phantom II fighters fly across the United States in less than three hours in Operation LANA. The fastest, flown by Lieutenants Richard F. Gordon, Jr., (pilot) and Bobbie Long (radar intercept officer), sets a new record for a transcontinental flight across the United States, flying from Ontario, California, to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City in 2 hours 47 min at an average speed of 869.74 mph (1,400.28 km/hr) with three in-flight refuelings. They receive the 1961 Bendix Trophy for their flight.
  • 1958 – (22-23) Flying a Douglas F4D-1 Skyray, United States Marine Corps Major N. LeFaivre breaks five world climb-to-height records, including 15,000 m (49,221 feet) in 2 min 36 seconds.
  • 1957 – A U.S. Air Force B-36J-5-CF Peacemaker, 52-2816, (c/n 372), ferrying a Mark 17 nuclear bomb from Biggs AFB, Texas to Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, accidentally drops it through closed bomb doors, impacting 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Kirtland tower. High explosives detonate creating crater 25X12 feet, but no fuel capsule fitted, no injuries.
  • 1953 – S/L Keith R. Greenaway won the McKee Trans-Canada Trophy in recognition of his new methods of aerial navigation in the Arctic regions.
  • 1947 – The prototype Boeing XC-97 Stratofreighter, 43-27472, c/n 8483, on a flight out of Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, comes down in a wheat stubble field and bursts into flames.
  • 1943 – A U. S. Navy antisubmarine hunter-killer group scores a kill of an enemy submarine for the first time, when TBM Avengers of Composite Squadron 9 (VC-9} from the escort aircraft carrier USS Bogue (CVE-9) sink the German submarine U-569 in the North Atlantic Ocean. Aircraft of U. S. hunter-killer groups will sink – or cooperate with surface warships in sinking – 31 more German and two Japanese submarines in the Atlantic during World War II.
  • 1943 – 19 Mitsubishi G4 M “Betty” torpedo bombers based at Paramushiro make the only Japanese air strike of the Battle of Attu, attacking the U. S. Navy destroyer USS Phelps (DD-360) and gunboat USS Charleston (PG-51) off Attu. They lose two aircraft and score no hits.
  • 1941 – German dive bombers attack a British naval task force as it retires westward after raiding caiques carrying German troops north of Crete. They sink the light cruisers HMS Fiji and HMS Gloucester and the destroyer HMS Greyhound and damage the battleship HMS Warspite and the light cruisers HMS Carlisle and HMS Naiad.
  • 1937 – The Spanish Republican Air Force sends fighters on a risky flight across Nationalist-controlled territory to Republican bases in northern Spain to support the Basque defense against Nationalist forces there; seven of them arrive safely. Over the next several weeks, 50 more Republican aircraft – Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters and Polikarpov R-5 light bombers – will make the trip, with 45 arriving safely.
  • 1929 – Pan American Airways inaugurates a new passenger service from Miami, Florida to Managua, Panama with stops at Belize. The journey by a F. VII/3 ns takes 56 hours.
  • 1920 – Bristol F.2C Badger partial prototype, completed in 1919 for aerodynamic tests, using Armstrong-Siddeley Puma engine, but only the wings and undercarriage of the Badger design (and locally referred to as the Badger X - for experimental) crashes this date. It is entered on the civil register as K110, AFTER it has already been written off.
  • 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted US patent No. 821,393 for their airplane control.

References[edit]

May 23

  • 2013 – Solar Impulse aircraft HB-SIA completes the second and longest leg of its trip across the continental United States, arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas after a 957-mile (1,541-km) flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, at an average speed-over-ground of 52 mph (83.7 km/h), reaching an altitude of 27,000 feet (8,230 meters). The flight, which takes 18 hours 21 minutes, sets a new world distance record for a solar-powered flight, exceeding the previous record, also established by HB-SIA, in a flight from Switzerland to Spain on 25 May 2012.[1][2]
  • 2012 – A Pakistan Army School of Aviation Schweizer 300C crashed into the Chenab river in Pakistan, two occupants killed.
  • 2011 – France and the United Kingdom announce that they will begin to use attack helicopters in Libya to increase the accuracy of NATO airstrikes and allow more precise strikes against urban targets.[3]
  • 2006 – A Greek Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 52 Fighting Falcon, 514, of 343 Mira, and Turkish Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon, 93-0684, of 192 Filo, collide over the Aegean Sea as the Greek pilot attempts to intercept the Turkish, after an alleged airspace violation. The Greek pilot, Flight Lieutenant Konstantinos Iliakis, is presumed dead, but the Turkish pilot, 1st Lieutenant Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, is rescued.
  • 1969 – A drunken U.S. Air Force assistant crew chief, Sgt. Paul Adams Meyer, 23, of Poquoson, Virginia, suffering anxiety over marital problems, starts up a Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 63-7789, c/n 3856, of the 36th Tactical Airlift Squadron, 316th Tactical Airlift Wing, on hardstand 21 at RAF Mildenhall and takes off in it at 0655 hrs. CET, headed for Langley AFB, Virginia. At least two North American F-100 Super Sabres from RAF Lakenheath, a C-130 from Mildenhall, and two RAF English Electric Lightnings are sent aloft to try to make contact with the stolen aircraft. The Hercules crashes into the English Channel off Alderney (5000N, 0205W) ~90 minutes later. In the last transmission from Meyer, to his wife, in a link-up over the side-band radio, he stated "Leave me alone for about five minutes, I've got trouble." There is speculation whether the Hercules was shot down. Some wreckage was recovered but the pilot's body was never found. Meyer had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly earlier in the morning in the village of Freckenham and had been remanded to quarters, but sneaked out to steal the Hercules.
  • 1967 – President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s administration prohibits any American air attacks within a 10-mile (16-km) radius of Hanoi.
  • 1966 – (23-26) Round-the-world demonstration flight by a new Learjet 24 to exhibit its capabilities; flight time was 50 hours and 20 min.
  • 1958 – Flying a Douglas F4D-1 Skyray, USMC Major Edward N. LeFaivre breaks 5 world climb-to-height records, including 15,000 m (49,221 feet) in 2 min 36 seconds.
  • 1958 – A Nike Ajax missile of Battery B, 526th AAA Missile Battalion, exploded accidentally at a battery at Site NY-53 near Leonardo, New Jersey at 1315 hrs. on this date, setting off six other missiles of A Section, killing 6 soldiers and 4 civilians. The nearest missile in B Section had its booster ignited by flying shrapnel and it flew into a nearby hill, but the warhead fortunately failed to explode. This was the first fatal Nike Ajax accident. A memorial can be found at Fort Hancock in the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area.
  • 1958 – First flight of The PZL-102 Kos, Polish two-seat touring and training monoplane.
  • 1958 – Explorer 1 (first Earth satellite of the USA) stopped transmission of data when its batteries died. It remained in orbit for more than 12 years
  • 1950 – AWhile flying Supermarine Attacker F.1, WA469, to test airbrakes, Supermarine pilot Leslie R. Colquhoun makes a high-speed run over South Marston airfield, experiences a sudden nose-down pitch as the starboard wingtip folds upwards. Using only the rudder - the ailerons had jammed - he makes a wide circuit and touches down at ~200 knots (370 km/h), coming to a stop just short of the end of the runway with a burst tyre. He receives the George Medal for saving the aircraft under daunting circumstances.
  • 1948 – In the early evening, ex-RAF Handley Page Halifax C.MK 8, registered G-AIZO, ex-PP293, and operated by Bond Air Services Ltd. carrying a cargo of apricots from Valencia, Spain, crashes at Studham, Bedfordshire while on a Standard Beam Approach (SBA) to RAF Bovingdon in bad weather. After a steep turn to port and losing height rapidly, the Halifax sideslips towards the ground until, seeming to recover and flying straight and level and with engines at full power, the aircraft strikes the ground flat and disintegrates, breaking into its component sections. Miraculously, the crew escape alive. After initial suspicions that the cargo may have shifted in flight, the subsequent AAIB report blames loss of control by the pilot while the aircraft was too close to the ground for recovery.
  • 1947 – First flight of the SNCAC NC.1070, French twin engine carrier born bomber prototype.
  • 1945 – (23-25) The seventh Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves 165 kamikazes. They sink a destroyer-transport and two smaller ships and damage a destroyer and a destroyer-transport on May 25.
  • 1944 – First flight of the British Martin-Baker MB 5 (actually second Martin-Baker MB 3), prototype fighter aircraft.
  • 1943 – An aircraft sinks an enemy submarine with air-to-surface rockets for the first time, as a Fairey Swordfish from the British escort carrier HMS Archer sinks the German submarine U-752 in the Atlantic.
  • 1941 – German aircraft attack British positions around Fallujah for the first time, with little effect.
  • 1940 – S/L FM Gobeil, an RCAF exchange officer and CO of No. 242 Squadron RAF, was the first RCAF officer to enter combat. He engaged a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Berck, France.
  • 1933 – Birth of Bruce A. Peterson, American engineer and NASA test pilot. He flew a wide variety of airplanes including the F5D-1, F-100, F-104, F-111 A, B-52, NT-33 A Variable Stability Trainer, the wingless lifting bodies and numerous general aviation aircraft as well as several types of helicopters and sailplanes.
  • 1925 – Death of Rudolf Rienau, German WWI flying ace, Post War instructor, killed in a flying accident.
  • 1924 – The first scheduled air service in Canada began. Laurentide Air Service Ltd. (which still exists today) offered flights between Angliers, Lake Fortune and Rouyn, Quebec.
  • 1923 – Birth of Walter Wolfrum, German WWII fighter ace (127 credited), and later a successful aerobatics pilot, winning the German Championship in 1962 and taking second place in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1966.
  • 1915 – Italy enters World War I, declaring war on Austria-Hungary.
  • 1914 – Death of Gustav Hamel, pioneer British aviator, over the English Channel while returning from Paris in a new 80hp Morane-Saulnier monoplane he had just collected
  • 1908 – Crash of the AEA White Wing (or Aerodrome #2), early US aircraft. Unusual for aircraft of its day, it featured a wheeled undercarriage. The wings were equipped with ailerons controlled by a harness worn around the pilot's body; leaning in one direction would cause the aircraft to bank to follow.
  • 1908 – First Airship disaster in the USA. A Morrell airship, 450 ft. long, collapsed 300 ft. above the earth, hurling its 16 occupants at Berkekey Ca.
  • 1908 – Birth of Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix who set altitude and speed records, pupil of Michel Detroyat.
  • 1848 – Otto Lilienthal, key figure in the history of flying, is born in Anklam, Germany. He became the first man to fly (glide) with both regularity and control. The Wright brothers regarded his 1899 book as their bible.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Chow, Denise, "Solar Plane Completes Longest Leg of Cross-Country Flight," LiveScience.com via Yahoo News, May 23, 2013.
  2. ^ solarimpulse.com Dallas
  3. ^ Irish, John; Abbad, Mohammed (23 May 2011). "France and Britain To Use Attack Helicopters in Libya". Reuters. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  4. ^ Short SC.1

May 24

  • 2011 – Soyuz TMA-20, manned spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) is back on earth.
  • 2011 – NATO stages the largest air attacks against Tripoli since th beginning of the international intervention in the Libyan Civil War, with ore than 20 airstrikes hitting Tripoli near Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound. The Libyan government reports at least three people killed and dozens wounded.[4]
  • 2007 – A Peruvian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, FAP-303, c/n 483, crashes in dense jungle after taking off from Pampa Hermosa, Peru. Of the 20 people on board, 13 were killed.
  • 1997 – STS-84, NASA spaceflight mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Mir space station is back on earth
  • 1992 – Death of Francis Thomas Bacon, English engineer who developed the first practical hydrogen – oxygen fuel cell.
  • 1988 – TACA Flight 110, a Boeing 737, suffers dual engine failure due to water ingestion; the aircraft lands safely at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; all on board survive.
  • 1984 – United States Navy Lcdr. Daniel Joseph Harrington IV (1945–), Pilot of VC-5, ejected safely from a Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk out of Cubi Point, Philippines. Rear seat pilot Ltjg Dickerson was killed on impact with water. The TA-4J impacted near Grande Island, Subic Bay, Philippines in the water. Catastrophic engine failure was found to be the cause.
  • 1982 – Argentinian bombers sink the British frigate Antelope in Falkland Sound.
  • 1978 – TWA Flight 541: Barbara Ann Oswald hijacks a St. Louis, Missouri-based charter helicopter and orders its pilot, Allen Barklage, to fly it to United States Penitentiary, Marion, in Marion, Illinois, so that her husband, Garrett B. Trapnell – Imprisoned there for a 1972 airliner hijacking – can escape. Barklage wrestles Oswald’s gun from her as he lands the helicopter in the prison yard and shoots her to death. In December, her daughter Robin Oswald will hijack an airliner in an unsuccessful attempt to get Trapnell released.
  • 1976 – Two Concorde supersonic airliners – one in British Airways colors, the other in those of Air France – Land at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. They are the first Concordes to visit the USA.
  • 1969 – First flight of The SIAI-Marchetti SM.1019, an Italian STOL liaison monoplane built by SIAI-Marchetti for the Italian Army and based on the O-1 Bird Dog.
  • 1970 – A USAF Lockheed C-5A Galaxy makes an emergency landing at Dobbins AFB, Georgia, suffering an electrical malfunction that knocks out landing lights, causes minor damage to the nosegear and flattens four of 28 tires.
  • 1967 – First flight of the Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy, large, wide-bodied US cargo aircraft used for aerial transport of outsized cargo components.
  • 1963 – Central Intelligence Agency pilot Ken Collins is forced to eject from Lockheed A-12, 60-6926, Article 123, during subsonic test flight when aircraft stalls due to inaccurate data being displayed to pilot. Airframe impacts 14 miles (22.5 km.) S of Wendover, Utah. Official cover story refers to it as a Republic F-105 Thunderchief. Cause was found to be pitot-static system failure due to icing. Airframe had made 79 flights for a total time of 136:10 hours.
  • 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
  • 1962 – USAF Douglas C-124A-DL Globemaster II, 51-0147, c/n 43481, on local training flight out of Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, strikes Oku-Chichibu Mountains, killing seven crew.
  • 1961 – USAF Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-0174, of the 63d Troop Carrier Wing, MATS, Donaldson AFB, South Carolina, loses power on number two (port inner) engine, catches fire at 500 feet altitude one minute after 0230 hrs. take-off from McChord AFB, Washington, hits trees two miles south of runway, explodes, 18 of 22 on board KWF. The transport was en route to Lawton Municipal Airport, Lawton, Oklahoma, with 12 soldiers from Fort Sill, who had been taking part in Exercise Lava Plains at the Yakima Firing Center. In addition, the Globemaster carried a truck, several jeeps and two trailers. One additional badly burned survivor died en route to hospital. Air Force Board of Investigation, relying heavily on two eyewitness accounts of the aircraft's final moments, determined the accident was probably caused by a ruptured fuel line resulting in engine failure during takeoff, the plane's most vulnerable period. One of the four survivors was Master Sergeant Llewellyn Morris Chilson (1920–1981), whom President Harry S Truman (1884–1972) referred to as a "one-man army." On December 6, 1946, in a ceremony at the White House, President Truman had bestowed seven combat decorations on Sergeant Chilson for killing 56 German soldiers and helping to capture 243 others during five months of combat during World War II (1941–1945). Sgt. Chilson received three Distinguished Service Crosses, two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit. He had previously received two Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Unit Citation, the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the French Army's Croix de guerre with palms. Chilson, described as one of the nation's greatest soldiers, died 2 October 1981, while visiting friends in Florida.
  • 1960 – After the pilot of his Avro CF-100 suffered a lack of oxygen, navigator F/O CM Alexander assisted him to make a safe landing. Alexander was awarded the Air Force Cross.
  • 1958 – First complete VTOL cycle flight the Bell X-14 (Bell Type 68), experimental VTOL. The main objective of the project was to demonstrate horizontal and vertical takeoff, hover, transition to forward flight, and vertical landing.
  • 1956 – Colette duval, French parachutist sets a record. Jumping off from 35OOO Feet she opens the parachute at 800 Feet after an over 3 min fall.
  • 1956 – First flight of the Piper PA-24 Comanche, four-seat, low-wing, all-metal, light aircraft of monocoque construction with retractable landing gear.
  • 1951 – Birth of Ronald Anthony Parise, Ph. D., Italian American scientist who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a payload specialist
  • 1951 – Entered Service: English Electric Canberra with the Royal Air Force’s No. 101 Squadron.
  • 1945 – Death of Robert Ritter von Greim, German Field Marshal, WWI flying Ace, army officer, and last commander of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) during WWII.
  • 1945 – (24-25) British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft make the final strikes of the war against the Sakishima Gunto, where all Japanese airfields have now been knocked out.
  • 1945 – (overnight) Five Imperial Japanese Army Mitsubishi Ki-21 (Allied reporting name “Sally”) bombers carrying Giretsu Kuteitai special airborne attack troops make a suicide raid on Kadena and Yontan airfields on Okinawa. Four are shot down, but the fifth belly lands on the principal runway at Yontan and disgorges ten giretsu troops, who destroy seven and damage 26 planes, blow up two fuel dumps, and kill two Americans and wound 18 before being killed. Japanese planes also bomb Ie Shima during the night.
  • 1944 – American aircraft raid Wake Island.
  • 1941 – Nine Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious score a torpedo hit on the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic Ocean, aggravating damage she had sustained early in the day in the Battle of Denmark Strait.
  • 1940 – Adolf Hitler endorses the “Halt Order, ” stopping the German ground advance in France against Allied forces surrounded at Dunkirk to allow the Luftwaffe to finish them off. He does not rescind the order until May 26.
  • 1940 – Erman bombers sink the British destroyer HMS Wessex off Calais and damage a British and a Polish destroyer while they support British troops fighting there.
  • 1939 – The Royal Navy takes practical control of British naval aircraft for the first time since the dissolution of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918. British naval aircraft, since 1918 under Royal Air Force control and since 1924 known collectively as the “Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force, ” officially become the Royal Navy’s Air Branch, although the term “Fleet Air Arm” remains in widespread informal use and finally will be adopted officially in 1953.
  • 1939 – First flight of The Caproni-Reggiane Re.2000 Falco I, Italian WWII interceptor/fighter, all metal, low-wing, monoplane with a Curtiss-style retractable undercarriage.
  • 1939 – Experiments were carried out to install 20 mm cannons on the Hurricane L1750. It had flown with two of these mounted in the wings.
  • 1939 – The English Imperial Airways Short Seaplane Cabot is successfully refueled in mid-air by a Handley Page bomber modified to carry 891 gallons of aviation fuel.
  • 1937 – A Spanish Republican air raid against Palma, Majorca, hits the Italian armed merchant cruiser Barletta – A unit of the non-intervention patrol around Spain.– killing six of her crew.
  • 1936 – First flight of The Fieseler Storch Fi 156, small German WWII liaison aircraft. It remains famous to this day for its excellent STOL performance
  • 1932 – The Dornier Do X flying boat returns from his promotional flight from New York and ditch on the Müggelsee, Berlin.
  • 1930 – Amy Johnson lands her de Havilland Moth 'Jason' in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.
  • 1928 – Stevenson Aerodrome, an airfield in the Rural Municipality of St. James, named after the late Western Canada Airways pilot who had died in a test flight at The Pas, began operations.
  • 1920 – First flight of the Boeing Model 8, American biplane aircraft designed by Boeing specifically for their first test pilot, Herb Munter.
  • 1920 – Death of Emile Taddéoli, Swiss aviation pioneer, active as a pilot, instructor, test pilot, and also the probably most prominent pioneer using seaplanes in Switzerland. Killed during a demonstration flight at an air show in Romanshorn aboard his Savoia S.13 flying boat, disintegrating in flight at an altitude of 700 m (2,300 ft).
  • 1919 – Avro Civil Aviation Service begins the first domestic airline service in Britain.
  • 1918 – Death of Thomas Colvill-Jones, British WWI flying ace from wounds received in action.
  • 1918 – József Kiss, Austro-Hungarian 5th highest scoring ace, is shot down in combat. He had scored 19 victories.
  • 1918 – In Russia, Order No. 385 of the Bolshevik People’s Commissariat on Military and Naval Affairs creates the Main Directorate of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Air Fleet, the predecessor of the Soviet Air Forces.
  • 1918 – The United States Department of War recognizes the Bureau of Aircraft Production and the Division of Military Aeronautics as constituting the United States Army Air Service.
  • 1912 – Anthony Fokker crashes his Goedecker-built B1912 monoplane at Berlin, just 10 days after demonstrating it to the German Army.
  • 1910 – First flight of the Blackburn First Monoplane (also known as Monoplane No 1), a British experimental aircraft which lasted for around one minute, and ended in a crash in which the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
  • 1910 – Prince Charles of Romania becomes the first royal aeroplane passenger, in a Farman piloted by M. Osmontat at Bucharest.
  • 1897 – Birth of Cecil Guelph Brock, Canadian WWI flying ace who participated at the dogfight which conducted to Manfred Von Richtofen's death.
  • 1894 – Birth of Oliver Colin "Boots" LeBoutillier, French WWI flying ace, Skywriter, Barnstormer who and piloted aircraft for eighteen movies. He gave Amelia Earhart her first instruction in a twin-engined aircraft and was a Civil Aviation Authority inspector in charge of Colorado and Wyoming.
  • 1887 – Birth of Edward Corringham "Mick" Mannock, British WWI fighter ace and maybe the highest-scoring British Empire ace of all time, also regarded as one of the greatest fighter pilots of WWI.
  • 1868 – Birth of Charles Edward Taylor, who built the first aircraft engine used by the Wright brothers and was a vital contributor of mechanical skills in the building and maintaining of early Wright engines and airplanes.
  • 1832 – Francois Arban, early French balloonist makes his first ascent.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Anonymous, "Two Held After RAF Typhoon Jets Escort Pakistan Plane Over UK," BBC News, 24 May 2013, 1324 ET.
  2. ^ Rossington, Ben, "London Stansted Airport: Pictured - The Dramatic Moment a Briton is Arrested On Tarmac Over 'Bomb Threat' to Flight," Mirror News, 25 May 2013, 11:00.
  3. ^ Gardner, Frank (24 May 2012). "Syrian general Hashem urges action to stop 'genocide'". BBC News. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  4. ^ "US Reaches Out to Libya Rebels Amid Airstrikes". MSNBC (24 May 2011). Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  5. ^ Hollway, Don, "Fox Two!", Aviation History, March 2013, p. 58.

May 25

  • 2012 – The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first solar-powered aircraft capable of both day and night flight thanks to its batteries charged by solar power, completes the first leg of its first intercontinental flight, arriving at Madrid, Spain, after a flight from Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland. During the flight, it sets a world distance record for a solar-powered flight between pre-declared waypoints of 1,099.3 km (683.1 mi) and a world distance record for a solar-powered flight along a course of 1,116 km (693 mi). The second and final leg of the flight will take HB-SIA to Rabat, Morocco, the following month.[1][2]
  • 2011 – First flight of the e-Genius, German manned electric airplane, two seated side by side high wing configuration aircraft completely manufactured of fibre composites and equipped with a retractable landing gear, propulsion realized by a permanent magnet synchronous motor with an electrical driven variable pitch propeller.
  • 2008 – Kalitta Air 2008 Boeing 747-209 F/SCD cargo overran runway 20 at Brussels Airport. The plane broke in three and came to a complete stop in a field bordering the runway. There were four crew members and one passenger on board, and no injuries were reported.
  • 2005 – A chartered Maniema Union Antonov An-28 aircraft, owned by Victoria Air, crashed into a mountain near Walungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo about 30 min after takeoff. All of the 22 passengers and 5 crew members were killed.
  • 2002 – China Airlines Flight 611, a Boeing 747-200B, disintegrates in mid-air above the Taiwan Strait, apparently because of metal fatigue; all 206 passengers and 19 crew members – a total of 225 – are killed.
  • 2000 – Reginald Chua hijacks Philippine Airlines Flight 812, an Airbus A330-301 with 290 other people on board, just before landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport near Manila, the Philippines. He demands the passengers place their valuables in a bag, and then attempts to jump from the plane via the rear door using a homemade parachute, but panics and instead clings to the door; a male flight attendant then pushes him from the door and he falls from the plane over Antipolo, Rizal. His body is found three days later near Llabac in Real, Quezon.
  • 1998 – PIA Flight 544, a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27, was hijacked shortly after it took off from Gwadar International Airport, by three armed men belonging to Baloch Students Organization (BSO). The aircraft, with 33 passengers and 5 crew members aboard, had just arrived from Gwadar International Airport, Baluchistan,and was sat to land in Hyderabad Airport, Sindh. The Army’s SSG’s Haideri Company, 7th Commando Zarrar Battalion, SSG Division, accompanied with elite members of Army Rangers stormed the aircraft, while the Pakistan Police surrounded the plane. The operation concluded with all three hijackers arrested and sentenced to death by Pakistan, with no human casualties.
  • 1998 – A Lao People's Liberation Army Air Force Yakovlev Yak-40, RDPL-34001, '001', c/n 9431835, crashes into a mountain during heavy rain killing all of the 26 on board, including Lt. Gen. Dao Trong Lich, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese Peoples' Army.
  • 1996 – Death of David Wayne Howe, American WWII flying ace and later test pilot for Bell.
  • 1995 – A combined force of NATO aircraft attack a Serb ammunition depot near Jahorinski Potok.
  • 1993 – In an 1844 hrs. flight deck accident aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt, the undercarriage of an McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet attempting a wave-off from the carrier due to still fouled deck, strikes the vertical fin on Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 164382, '500', shearing away a large portion of the empennage, as the A-6 was taxiing away from the arresting gear. The Hornet dropped its underwing tanks and safely recovered to the carrier. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ai7nnJNIwuU
  • 1986 – A prisoner in a Parisian jail escapes when his wife rescues him in a helicopter
  • 1982 – VASP Boeing 737-2 A1 on landing procedures at Brasília during rain, made a hard landing with nose gear first. The gear collapsed and the aircraft skidded off the runway breaking in two. Two passengers out of 118 occupants died.
  • 1982 – HMS Coventry (D118), Type 42 (Sheffield Class) destroyer of the Royal Navy, is sunk by Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawks during the Falklands War.
  • 1982 – A RAF Hawker-Siddeley/McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II piloted by Roy Lawrence and Alistair Inverarity was engaging a Royal Air Force SEPECAT Jaguar GR1, XX963, 'AL', piloted by Flt. Lt. D. Steve Griggs in training exercises. During the encounter the Phantom shot a live AIM-9 Sidewinder forcing the Jaguar pilot to eject.
  • 1979 – American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, crashes on takeoff from O'Hare International Airport after an engine falls off, killing all 271 on board and 2 on the ground; prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, this was the deadliest airliner occurrence in American history, and it remains the worst single-aircraft airliner accident on US soil.
  • 1976 – First Flight Boeing E-3 Sentry (E-3), U. S. military airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft based on the Boeing 707 that provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications.
  • 1973 – Launch of Skylab 2, first manned mission to Skylab, the first U. S. orbital space station.
  • 1968 – Tupolev Tu-16 "Badger" F, commanded by sub-Cmdr. Alexander Pliyev, crashes into the Norwegian Sea after a low pass by the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9). The bomber had flown by the ship just 15 meters above the sea.
  • 1966 – Launch of Explorer 32 (also known as Atmosphere Explorer-B (AE-B)), satellite launched by the United States for studying the Earth's upper atmosphere.
  • 1965 – The Soviet Union announces the construction of surface-to-air missile sites in North Vietnam around Hanoi.
  • 1964 – Birth of Ivan Bella, Slovak Air Force officer who became the first Slovak citizen to fly in space
  • 1961 – Brigadier General Barnie B. McEntire, Jr., commander of the South Carolina Air National Guard, is killed when his Lockheed F-104A-25-LO Starfighter, 56-0853, suffers engine failure on take off from Olmsted Air Force Base, Pennsylvania, and he stays with the jet to crash into the Susquehanna River rather than risk it crashing into populated areas of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Congaree Air National Guard Base near Eastover, South Carolina is subsequently renamed in his honor in October 1961 by Governor Ernest F. Hollings.
  • 1960 – A Vickers Valiant of No.214 Squadron, captained by Squadron Leader J. H. Garstin, takes off for the first non-stop flight between the UK and Singapore.
  • 1958 – USAF Lockheed RC-121D-LO Warning Star, 55-123, of the 551st AEWCW, burns out on the ramp at Otis AFB, Massachusetts, 0 dead.
  • 1955 – Convair B-36J-5-CF Peacemaker, 52-2818A, c/n 374, of the 6th Bomb Wing, call sign Abbott 27, on a routine training flight, crashes at ~2305 hrs. CST, in the SW corner of Glasscock County, Texas, on the Drannon Ranch, ~18.5 miles (29.8 km) SW of Sterling City, Texas. The aircraft had apparently disintegrated due to thunderstorm or tornadic activity, losing its outer wing panels and all tail control surfaces, and impacted in a flat attitude with little forward motion. Aircraft wreckage was found in a 25 X 3-mile (4.8 km) path on a heading of 66 degrees true. None of the 15 members of crew L-22 were able to escape the damaged bomber and all hatches and ports were found still in place. The wings and forward fuselage burned on impact, with only the rear fuselage remaining. The aircraft had been preparing to land at Walker AFB, New Mexico, when it was lost. Due to the extended period that the crash site was kept secured while crew remains were recovered and identified, and wreckage from the disintegration was searched for (almost a week), there was some question as to whether the B-36 was armed with a nuclear weapon, but there is no evidence to support this.
  • 1954 – United States Navy (USN) ZPG2 airship, flown by Commander M. H. Eppes and crew, lands at Key West Florida after being airborne for just over 200 hours.
  • 1951 – First delivery of The English Electric Canberra B2, first-generation jet-powered light bomber, to replace the Lincolns of No. 101 Squadron at Binbrook, Lincolnshire.
  • 1950 – The first prototype of Arsenal VG 90 turbojet strike fighter design for the Aéronavale, VG-90.01, F-WFOE, first flown 27 September 1949, crashes this date killing the pilot Pierre Decroo.
  • 1943 – (Overnight) 759 British bombers attack Düsseldorf, Germany. Pathfinder aircraft fail to concentrate markers on the target and the raid fails when the bombers spread their bombs widely throughout the countryside.
  • 1949 – Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress, 44-27299, of the 97th Bomb Group, Biggs AFB, Texas, suffers fire in number 4 (starboard outer) engine shortly after take-off for routine navigation and radar training mission. Unable to extinguish blaze, crew bails out but navigator's parachute does not open and he is killed - believed that he had struck his head on nose gear operating assembly while departing bomber. B-29 makes two-mile circle, then comes down 35 miles NE of El Paso, Texas, exploding on impact.
  • 1939 – Sole Grumman XSBF-1, BuNo. 9996, (the XSF-2 airframe modified with a triangular frame beneath the engine mounting to carry one 500 lb (227 kg) or two 100 lb (45 kg) bombs, flown 18 February 1936), crash lands near Leonardtown, Maryland, killing one crew.
  • 1938 – During the Spanish Civil War the Italian Aviazione Legionaria bombs of Alicante.
  • 1937 – The first letter to encircle the world by commercial air mail despatched from New York via San Francisco to Hong Kong, Penang, Amsterdam and Brazil is back to New York.
  • 1937 – First flight of the Gasuden Koken, Japanese long-range research aircraft, single-engined low wing cantilever monoplane with a retractable undercarriage designed to break the world record for longest flight.
  • 1929 – Lieutenant William Gosnell Tomlinson, USN, took first place in the Curtiss Marine Trophy race held at Naval Air Station Anacostia. He flew the XF7 C-1 with an average speed of 162.52 MPH. He completed the 100-mile race course before his nearest competitor had entered the final 20 miles
  • 1928 – First flight of the Sikorsky S-38, American twin-engined 8-seat amphibious aircraft sometimes called "The Explorer's Air Yacht" and Sikorsky's first widely produced amphibious flying boat.
  • 1928 – Umberto Nobile's Airship Italia crashes on the ice on the attempt to reach the North Pole. Radio operator Biagi salvages radio, constructs a radio mast and begins transmitting SOS.
  • 1927 – Lieutenant James Doolittle was the first person to do an outside loop in an Army Racer.
  • 1919 – A Handley Page V/1500, flying from Risalpur piloted by Captain Halley and with Lt E. Villiers as observer reached Kabul in three hours and bombed the Royal Palace during the Third Anglo-Afghan War, being the first decisive use of strategic bombing.
  • 1917 – French WWI fighter ace Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer, scores 4 victories this day.
  • 1917 – A mass air-raid by 21 Gotha G.V bombers attacks Folkestone in Kent, England, killing 95 people and injuring 174. Seventy-four British aircraft take off to intercept, but shoot down only one Gotha. It is the first of 22 German heavier-than-air raids on England during World War I.
  • 1917 – Death of René Pierre Marie Dorme, French WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his SPAD VII.
  • 1913 – Birth of Oskar-Heinz (Heinrich) "Pritzl" Bär, German Luftwaffe flying ace who served throughout WWII in Europe. He flew over a thousand combat missions, and fought in all major German theatres of the war, including the Western, Eastern and Mediterranean fronts. On 18 occasions he survived being shot down and he was credited with 220 aerial victories, around 16 of which were in a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.
  • 1912 – First plane of the Royal Norwegian Navy to arrive in Norway is the HNoMS Start, an Etrich Taube (fighter, bomber, surveillance plane and trainer).
  • 1910 – Orville Wright takes his 82-year-old father for his first airplane ride. Also on this day, Wilbur and Orville fly together for the only time in a six-and-one-half minute flight at Simms Station, near Dayton, Ohio.
  • 1905 – Ferdinand Ferber makes his first aerial tests in Chalais-Meodon, France with his No.6 bis glider fitted with a 12-hp Peugeot motor.
  • 1902 – Birth of Henri Guillaumet, pioneer of French aviation in the Andes, the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic.
  • 1898 – Birth of Harry Christopher Travers Gompertz, British WWI flying ace (Observer).
  • 1889 – Birth of Léon Jean Pierre Bourjade, French WWI fighter ace and leading balloon busting ace. Post-war, he completed his theological studies and devoted the remainder of his life to service as a medical missionary to lepers.
  • 1889 – Igor Sikorsky, American aviation engineer who developed the first successful helicopter was born.
  • 1866 – The Aereon N°2, American dirigible airship, flew over New York City.
  • 1864 – Birth of Anne Löwenstein-Wertheim Princess of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (born Lady Anne Savile), British aviation pioneer.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Solar Impulse: What Happened in 2012?
  2. ^ Solar Impulse: Solar Impulse's HB-SIA Obtains Two New World Records

May 26

  • 2011 – The United Kingdom announced plans to send four Apache helicopters to aid in the conflict.[1]
  • 2009 – 9Q-CSA, an Antonov An-26 operated by Services Air crashes short of the runway at Matari Airport, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing three of the four people on board. The aircraft is destroyed in the crash. It had previously been placed on a blacklist by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and Antonov.
  • 2009 – A Força Aérea Brasileira Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante (C-95) FAB 2332) a twin-engined turboprop transport made a heavy landing at Base Aérea do Campo dos Afonsos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The accident occurred when the landing gear failed to operate.
  • 2008 – Chelyabinsk Antonov An-12 crash: A Moskovia Airlines An-12 cargo aircraft crashed near Chelyabinsk, Russia, killing all nine crew members when after departure to Perm it turned back and crashed near the airfield.
  • 2007 – San Francisco International Airport runway incursion occurred when SkyWest Airlines (operating as United Express) Flight 5741 (SKW5741), an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia turboprop aircraft, nearly collided with Republic Airlines (operating as Frontier Airlines) Flight 4912, an Embraer 170 Regional Jet, at the intersection of runways 1L and 28R at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), South San Francisco, California. There were no reported injuries to occupants and no reported damage to either aircraft. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials described the runway incursion as the most serious incident of its kind in at least a decade, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) initiated an investigation into the incident.
  • 2007 – An OH-58D(I) Kiowa 93-0989 from 1–17th Cavalry Regiment is shot down with small arms near Baquba, killing the two crewmen.[4]
  • 1991 – Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, disintegrates in mid-air over Uthai Thani Province, Thailand, killing all 223 people on board. A thrust reverser had accidentally deployed in flight, causing the disaster. It is the first fatal crash of a Boeing 767.
  • 1986 – Helicopter prison escape from a Parisian jail. Escapee Michel Vaujour was flown to freedom via his wife, a newly graduated helicopter pilot.
  • 1981 – Grumman EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 159910, of VMAQ-2 Detachment Y, crash landed on flight deck of USS Nimitz, off the Florida coast, killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others (some reports say 42, some 48). The crash was the result of the aircraft missing the last arresting cable, while ignoring a wave-off command. Two Grumman F-14 Tomcats struck and destroyed (BuNos. 161138 and 160385), 3 F-14s, 9 LTV A-7 Corsair IIs, 3 S-3A Vikings, 1 Grumman A-6 Intruder and 1 SH-3 Sea King damaged. Forensic testing conducted found that several members of the deceased flight deck crew tested positive for marijuana (the officers on board the aircraft were never tested, claimed one report). The responsibility for the accident was placed on the deck crew. The official naval inquiry stated that the accident was the result of drug abuse by the enlisted crewmen of the Nimitz, despite the fact that every death occurred during the impact of the crash and not one member of the deck crew was killed fighting the fire. As a result of this incident, President Ronald Reagan instituted a "Zero Tolerance" policy across all of the armed services—which started the mandatory drug testing of all US service personnel. In another report, however, the Navy stated that pilot error, possibly caused by an excessive dosage of brompheniramine, a cold medicine, in the blood of pilot Marine 1st Lt. Steve E. White, of Houston, Texas, "may have degraded the mental and physical skills required for night landings." The report described brompheniramine as "a common antihistamine decongestant cold medicine ingredient." "Last October [1981], Rep. Joseph P. Addabbo, (D-N.Y.) said that an autopsy conducted on the pilot's body disclosed up to 11 times the recommended dosage of a cold remedy in his system." This report seems to belie the above account that no testing was done on the flight crew.
  • 1972 – Cessna builds its 100,000th aircraft, the first company in the world to achieve this figure.
  • 1972 – Two American UH-1 B attack helicopters use TOW antitank missiles to destroy 12 North Vietnamese tanks outside Kontum, South Vietnam, allowing South Vietnamese forces to counterattack and secure the city.
  • 1970 – The prototype Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner reaches a speed of 1,335mph, becoming the first commercial transport in the world to exceed Mach 2.
  • 1970 – Operation Menu, the 14-month-long covert American bombing campaign by B-52 Stratofortresses against North Vietnamese Army sanctuaries in Cambodia, comes to an end. The B-52 s have flown 3,800 sorties and dropped 108,823 tons (98,723,578 kg) of munitions during the campaign.
  • 1969 – Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.
  • 1965 – Sir Geoffery de Havilland dies aged 82.
  • 1964 – A Boeing B-47E-110-BW Stratojet, 53-2296, c/n 4501109, of the 509th Bomb Wing, inbound to RAF Upper Heyford from Pease AFB, New Hampshire, suffers uneven throttle advance on attempted go around, port engines fail to respond, wing drops and bomber cartwheels between two loaded B-47s before striking storage building which the day before had contained JATO bottles. Prompt response by rescue personnel and apparatus douse the fire and three of four crew are pulled from the wreckage alive: pilot Capt. Robert L. Lundin, North Platte, Nebraska, co-pilot 1st Lt. James V. Mullen, Des Moines, Iowa, and passenger Lt. Col. Robert E. Johnson, Los Angeles, California. Navigator Capt. Lowell L. Mittlestadt, 27, of Elmhurst, Illinois, is KWF. One firefighter is hospitalized after being overcome from smoke and a dozen others are treated for minor injuries and smoke while fighting the blaze.
  • 1961 – Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter Canadian prototype (Canadair CL-90) was test flown at Palmdale, California.
  • 1961 – A U. S. Air Force bomber flies across the Atlantic in a record of just over three hours.
  • 1958 – Entered Service: Republic F-105B Thunderchief with the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron USAF at Eglin AFB
  • 1951 – Sally Ride, astronaut, the first American woman in space is born.
  • 1942 – The Northrop XP-61 Black Widow night fighter prototype flies for the first time.
  • 1941 – Eight aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Formidable raid the Axis airfield at Scarpanto. Retaliating German dive bombers badly damage Formidable and a destroyer; the following day they also damage the battleship HMS Barham.
  • 1941 – German dive bombers set the British infantry landing ship HMS Glenroy on fire, preventing her from bringing reinforcements to Crete.
  • 1940 – (May 26-June 4) Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk evacuation, takes place, as 308,888 Allied soldiers are evacuated to the United Kingdom from Dunkirk by sea under continuous German air attack. During the evacuation, German aircraft sink six British and three French destroyers and eight personnel ships and put 19 British destroyers and nine personnel ships out of action.
  • 1937 – Spanish Republican air raids by Soviet pilots narrowly miss the German patrol ship Albatross at Palma and damage the German “pocket battleship” Deutschland off Ibiza, killing 31 and wounding 66 aboard Deutschland.
  • 1932 – First flight of the Farman F.220, a French high wing 4 tandem engine 40 seat high wing monoplane airliner
  • 1929 – A Junkers W 33 (much modified and sometimes referred to as a W 34) established a world altitude record, piloted by Willy Neuenhofen, at 41,800 ft (12740 m)
  • 1923 – Lieutenant H. G. Crocker landed in Gordon, Ontario, to complete a non-stop transcontinental south/north flight from Houston, Texas, of 11 hours, 55 min.
  • 1920 – First flight of the Boeing GA-1 (company designation Model 10), American armored triplane powered by a pair of modified Liberty engines driving pusher propellers, first of the Engineering Division's heavily-armored GAX series (ground attack, experimental) aircraft.
  • 1920 – Alfred Fronval, French aviator, sets in Madrid a record of 962 loopings in 3 h 52 min.
  • 1915 – Oberleutnant Kästner and Lt Georg Langhoff score the first German air-to-air victory of World War I.
  • 1909 – The Zeppelin LZ-5 sets an endurance record by completing a 600-mile (970 km) nonstop trip in 38 hours.
  • 1904 – The Wright brothers make their first successful flight in the Wright Flyer II. It is the first of 100 flights they will make in the Flyer II during 1904.
  • 1898 – Birth of John Sidney Owens, American WWI flying ace.
  • 1895 – Birth of Rudolf Besel, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1892] – Birth of Eustace Slade Headlam, Australian WWI flying ace.
  • 1874 – Birth of Henri Farman, French pilot, aviator, aircraft designer and manufacturer with his brother Maurice Farman.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Libya: NATO Planes Target Gaddafi's Tripoli Compound". BBC News. 28 May 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  2. ^ Hallion, Roy P., "Does the Hypersonic Transport Have a Future?", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 42.
  3. ^ Warwick, Graham, "First X-51A Hypersonic Flight Deemed Success," Aviation Week, 26 May 2010.
  4. ^ "US helicopter shot down in Iraq". BBC.com. 2005-05-27. Retrieved 2008-02-04. Two helicopters were conducting operations near Baquba, 60km (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Both were hit; one crashed and the other managed to land safely at a nearby airbase. Two soldiers died in the crash, the US military said.

May 27

  • 2011 – NATO aircraft conduct 151 sorties over Libya, striking a command and control facility in Tripoli, ammunition storage facilities near Sirte, Mizda, and Hun, a rocket launcher and two truck-mounted guns near Misrata, and four surface-to-air missile launchers near Zintan. NATO jets also destroy the guard towers surrounding Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli. NATO aircraft have flown 8,585 sorties over Libya since NATO took command of the operations there on 31 March.[1]
  • 2004 – Delta Air Lines begins service between Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Haven, Connecticut.
  • 1999 – Julie Payette flew aboard Discovery on STS-96. She became the first Canadian to visit the International Space Station.
  • 1999 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-96 at 06:49 EDT. Mission highlights: ISS supply.
  • 1999 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21MF, C-1539, of 17 Golden Arrows Sqn., is shot down by a Pakistani FIM-92 Stinger while searching for downed MiG-27 pilot during the Kargil conflict. Aircraft comes down at 1105 hrs., some 7.5 miles (12 km.) inside Pakistani-Administered Azad Kashmir. Although pilot Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja ejected safely, Pakistan claimed he had been killed. After his body was returned 28 May, "initial examination found bullet wounds, which suggested he had been shot after ejecting. This was the first time since 1971 that India had lost an aircraft to hostile fire.
  • 1979 – The prime minister of Mauritania, Ahmed Ould Bouceif, dies in an airplane crash in the Atlantic Ocean off Dakar, Senegal.
  • 1977 – Aeroflot Flight 331, an Ilyushin Il-62, crashes while on approach to Havana, Cuba, killing 68 out of 70 people on board, plus one person on the ground. It remains the fourth-worst air accident in Cuba's history.
  • 1970 – A USAF Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, 67-0172, c/n 500-0011, catches fire while taxiing at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, due to an electrical fire in the cargo compartment. Five crew escape, but seven firefighters suffer minor injuries fighting blaze. Aircraft destroyed.
  • 1961 – The first crossing of the English Channel by a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft is made by the Short SC.1, which is flown by A. Roberts from England to Paris for the Paris Air Show.
  • 1955 – A Boeing B-47E-10-DT Stratojet, 52-054, returning from a night navigation training mission after slightly more two hours aloft crashes on the runway at Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, at 0254 hrs. while landing. Brake parachute failed and it overran the runway - no injuries. Joe Baugher cites date of 24 May. John Kodsi, aircraft commander, and Sgt. Edward Seagraves, plus two other crew survive.
  • 1954 – The government awarded Canadair a contract to produce 13 maritime patrol/ASW aircraft based on the Bristol Britannia. It was designated Canadair CL-28 ARGUS.
  • 1945 – (27-29) The eighth Japanese Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves 110 kamikazes. They sink a destroyer and damage two destroyers, three merchant ships, and an attack transport.
  • 1945 – The third prototype Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, 42-78847, is destroyed in a crash during an air show at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, killing pilot Capt. William C. Glasgow and two civilians on the ground. Pilot attempted a slow roll after a low pass in formation with a P-38 and a North American P-51 Mustang on each wing, impacted at end of runway and plowed through line of cars on U.S. Alternate Highway 4. Dick Bong was flying the Lightning and Don Gentile was the Mustang pilot. Bong will die in a P-80 crash on 6 August. Gentile will be killed in a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star air crash on 28 January 1951.
  • 1944 – The Japanese launch only minor air attacks against U. S. forces landing at Biak, damaging a submarine chaser.
  • 1942 – 108 German aircraft attack Convoy PQ-16 in the Arctic Ocean.
  • 1942 – (27-29) After the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) arrives at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, with serious damage from the Battle of the Coral Sea that her task force commander estimates will take 90 days to repair, the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard repairs her in two days, making her available for the Battle of Midway.
  • 1941 – The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by British naval and air forces.
  • 1941 – Twelve Italian Fiat CR.42 bombers arrive at Mosul support Iraqi forces against the British under the command of the German Fliegerführer Irak.
  • 1940 – (Overnight) 120 British bombers attack Bremen, Hamburg, Duisburg, Dortmund, Neuss, and other German cities. During the raid, Aircraftman Stan Oldridge, rear gunner of a Whitley of No. 10 Squadron, scores the first aerial victory of World War II over a German night fighter, shooting down what was probably a Messerschmitt Bf 109D near Utrecht early on May 28.
  • 1931 – A full-scale wind tunnel goes into operation at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Laboratory at Langley Field, Virginia.
  • 1924 – Adrienne Bolland wins the women’s record for looping from Laura Bromwell, performing the feat 212 times in 1 h, 1 min in her Caudron 127 in Paris.
  • 1919 – A U. S. Navy seaplane completes the first transatlantic flight.
  • 1912 – The world’s first seaplane carrier, the French Navy’s Foudre, embarks her first floatplane, a Canard Voisin.
  • 1877 – A major milestone in Japanese aviation history is accomplished with the first flight of a military balloon. It has a capacity of 14,000 cu.ft. and is inflated with coal gas.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Press release (28 May 2011). "Operational Media Update for 27 May" (PDF format; requires Adobe Reader). NATO. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Incident Date 060527 HMLA-169 AH-1W – BuNo 164591 Maintenance test flight crashed into Lake Habbaniyah". Retrieved 2010-05-12. A memorial service for two fallen Marines of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169, Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), was held at the chapel here, June 3 [2006].The service was held for Capt. Nathanael J. Doring, a pilot from Apple Valley, Minn., and Cpl. Richard A. Bennett, a mechanic and native of Girard, Kan., who died during a maintenance test flight. They were killed when the AH-1W Super Cobra they were flying crashed May 27.

May 28

  • 2010 – The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first solar-powered aircraft capable of flying both day and night thanks to batteries charged by solar power that provide it with power during darkness, makes its first flight powered entirely by solar energy, charging its batteries in flight. The flight takes place at Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland.[1]
  • 2009 – A Nigerian Air Force Van's Aircraft RV-6A Air Beetle crashed near Kaduna, Nigeria on a training flight, both occupants killed.
  • 1999 – An Indian Air Force Mil Mi-17 Hip helicopter is shot down by Pakistan air defence units using an FIM-92 Stinger missile during the Kargil conflict. Four IAF personnel were killed.
  • 1991 – An Sikorsky MH-60G Pave Hawk based at Eglin AFB, Florida, crashes off Antigua in the Caribbean, injuring six of eight aboard, but no fatalities. Although initially reported to have been on a training mission, an accident report obtained by the Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in August, revealed that the crew was sightseeing, taking pictures over beachside hotels and harbors, when the accident occurred.
  • 1982 – No. 410 Squadron became first CF Voodoo squadron to disband.
  • 1971 – World War II hero and movie star Audie Murphy is among six people killed in the crash of a light plane near Catawba, Virginia.
  • 1959 – Twenty-five ex-RCAF Beech Expeditors flew across the Atlantic under the Military Assistance Program, to Portugal and France.
  • 1948 – The Royal Netherlands Navy commissions its first fleet aircraft carrier, HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81), which formerly had served in the British Royal Navy as HMS Venerable. She replaces the first Dutch carrier, the escort carrier HNLMS Karel Doorman (QH1).
  • 1945 – A Curtiss SB2C-4 Helldiver, BuNo 19866, suffers from a stalled engine during a target run and crashes into Lower Otay Reservoir near San Diego, California. Navy pilot E. D. Frazar, of Richmond, Texas, and U.S. Army gunner Joseph Metz, of Youngstown, Ohio, survive, swim ashore, and hitchhike back to Ream Field. The plane is raised from the reservoir on 20 August 2010. The dive bomber will be transported to Pensacola, Florida for restoration by the National Museum of Naval Aviation.
  • 1944 – Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, 'Red 3', formerly carrying RQ+DR, werke nummer 163306, crashes into Lake Trzebun in Pomerania, northwest Poland in 0831 hrs. takeoff accident from airfield at Gebbert (now Jaworze), killing pilot Feldwebel Ernst Pleines of 2 Staffel, Jagdgruppe West. (Luftwaffe Verlustmeldung 174 - Casualty Report 174.) He was buried 15 June at Gebbert. Wreck discovered June 1999 in 56 feet (17 m) of water, subsequently recovered by Gdańsk-based Klub Pletwonurków Rekin (Shark Divers' Club) for the Polish Eagles Aviation Foundation for restoration and display.
  • 1938 – The Bristol 146 was built by Bristol to an Air Ministry order for a prototype single-seat eight-gun fighter meeting F.5/34 issued in 1934. The specification further called for an air-cooled engine for overseas use. The Type 146, K5119, incorporated the experience of metal-skinned monoplanes that Bristol had gained with the earlier Type 133, but was quite different in detail. Delivered to Martlesham in April 1938, it came close to meeting the specified requirements, but was not ordered into production. On this date, following an Empire Air Day display at Filton Aerodrome, the sole Type 146, while taxiing, struck a "set-piece" display and was damaged beyond economic repair. It was the last single-engined fighter to be built by Bristol.
  • 1931 – A Bellanca with a Packard DR-980 diesel engine flew for 84 h: 32 m without landing for fuel setting a record.
  • 1921 – Seven men, five of the Army and two civilians, were killed in the wreck of an Army Curtiss Eagle ambulance airplane, USAAS 64242, 64243 or 64244, near Indian Head, Maryland, 40 miles southeast of Washington, in a terrific wind and electrical storm at 1825 hrs. The dead were: Lieutenant Colonel Archie Miller, U.S.A., M. H., Washington, D.C.; Maurice Connolly of Dubuque, Iowa, formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives; A. G. Batchelder of Washington, chairman of the Board of the American Automobile Association; Lieutenant Stanley M. Ames of Washington, pilot of the wrecked plane; Lieutenant Cleveland M. McDermott, Langley Field, Virginia; Lieutenant John M. Pennewill, Langley Field, Virginia; and Sergeant Mechanic Richard Blumenkranz, Washington. Army Air Service officers said the accident was the worst in the history of aviation in the United States and that it was one of the few in which all of the passengers in a falling plane had been killed almost instantly. The ship struck the ground nose first and the impact was so great that the big 400-horsepower Liberty motor in the front end of the craft was torn from its chassis and thrown back into the cockpit on top of the pilot and the passengers. All the bodies were mutilated. The Curtiss-Eagle was returning from a trip to Langley Field, near Newport News, Virginia where it had departed at 1630 hrs., and had just crossed the Potomac River, when it ran into the storm which had passed over Washington an hour before.
  • 1921 – Geo Mestdagh, Belgian aviation pioneer, dies.
  • 1920 – The first Lewis & Vought VE-7 (Vought Experimental No.7) is delivered to the U. S. Navy.
  • 1914 – Glenn Curtiss successfully flies the refurbished Langley Aerodrome for a distance of approximately 150 ft. at Keuka Lake, Hammindsport, New York.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Grady, Mary, "Solar Impulse Flies On Pure Sunlight," avweb.com, May 31, 2010.

May 29

  • 2012 – A Pakistan Air Force F-7PG of the 31 Fighter Wing was destroyed by fire during maintenance at Quetta airbase.
  • 2007 – OH-58D(R) Kiowa 93-0978 from B Troop, 2–6 Cavalry Regiment is shot down between Baquba and Muqdadiyah with small arms, killing the chopper's two pilots.[3][4][5]
  • 2003 – A man attempts to hijack Qantas Flight 1737, a Boeing 717, in Melbourne, Australia, intending to crash the plane in Tasmania. He is overpowered by the flight crew and passengers, but injures three people.
  • 2001 – A US Navy McDonnell-Douglas FA-18C Hornet from VFA-106 crashed near Fort Pierce, Florida, during a ferry flight from NAS Oceana, Virginia, to NAS Key West, Florida. Pilot was killed.
  • 2001 – Three crew are killed when a Republic of Korea Army Boeing Vertol CH-47D Chinook, of the 301st Aviation Regiment, Icheon, crashes in Seoul, South Korea while installing a torch-shaped sculpture on the Han River Olympic Bridge, built to commemorate the 1988 Olympic Games. The Chinook had just lowered the flame-shaped statuary onto the bridge central tower when its rotors hit the sculpture and then the tower. The front rotor clipped the top of the sculpture and separated from the helicopter which then fell onto the span, breaking in two, with the rear bursting into flame on the bridge and the forward half falling into the river. No other casualties were reported. The bridge had been closed during the installation work. The dead were identified as pilot Chun Hong-yop, co-pilot Nam In-ho and Sgt. 1st Class Kim Woo-soo. Army scuba divers were working to recover the wreckage. Footage of this crash is widely available on the web.
  • 1986 – (29-June 1) The 5th FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Castellón de la Plana, Spain.
  • 1981 – The Bell X-14B, NASA N704NA, originally USAF 56-0422, upgraded from the A-configuration with an onboard computer and digital fly-by-wire control system installed to enable emulation of landing characteristics of other VTOL aircraft, and used in this test role, is damaged beyond repair in a landing accident this date. Airframe was saved from being scrapped and is now under restoration at the Ropkey Armor Museum, Crawfordsville, Indiana.
  • 1980 – Canadian Armed Forces accepted the first CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft at CFB Greenwood, NS.
  • 1977 – The keel of the first aircraft carrier to be built in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is laid at Ferrol.
  • 1975 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6700, Article 367, seventh airframe of first USAF contract, delivered to USAF at Groom Lake in February 1957, but apparently transferred to the Central Intelligence Agency by June 1957, then to Strategic Air Command in fall 1960, converted to U-2C by October 1966. Flyable storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, 1969. Converted for Advanced Location and Strike System (ALSS) project, 1972. Crashed in a heavily wooded area of West Germany ~100 miles NE of Bonn this date, Capt. Robert "Terry" Rendleman, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, escaping unhurt after experiencing flight control problems, aircraft entering Mach tuck at high altitude, forcing pilot to eject. He was taken to hospital in Wiesbaden in good condition, an Air Force spokesman said. Aircraft was on Constant Treat deployment of the ALSS system.
  • 1969 – A USAF General Dynamics F-111 on a training flight out of Nellis AFB, Nevada, crashes from low altitude when deficient wind-shield bulged down from the top of the canopy bow and instantly crazed. Tactical Air Command replaces 50 F-111 windshields in 1969 and 93 in 1970.
  • 1953 – The first of two 40 passenger de Havilland Comets arrived in Ottawa. With the arrival of this Aircraft, the RCAF became the first air force in the world to operate jet transports and the first operator to make scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings.
  • 1947 – United Airlines Flight 521, a Douglas DC-4, was a scheduled flight departing from LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland, Ohio. While attempting to take off from runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only six of those survived. It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. This record stood for less than 24 hours when an Eastern Airlines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland killing all 54 aboard.
  • 1947 – Twelve members of the Colombian army air force are injured in the crash landing of their transport at Bogotá, Colombia, after it collided in mid-air with a buzzard.
  • 1947 – A Boeing F-13A Superfortress, 45-21848, c/n 13742, of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, crashes shortly after take off from Ladd Field, Alaska, coming down 3 miles E of Fairbanks, Alaska. Three crew were reported missing while nine others were injured.
  • 1947 – An Army Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster courier plane, 42-72553, c/n 10658, of the 6th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, 5th Air Force, with 33 passengers and eight crew on board crashes into a mountain SW of Tokyo, Japan. An Army announcement said that it had not been determined whether or not there were any survivors. A revised count reported that there were 40 aboard the C-54, 28 enlisted, eight officers, and four civilians, all killed in the crash. They were reported to be burned beyond recognition. The flight, inbound from Korea, had apparently exploded as it approached Tachikawa Airfield for a landing.
  • 1947 – A captured, modified V-2 rocket, launched from White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, at 2030 hrs. CST, fails to reach its maximum altitude, and comes down ~three minutes later, impacting in Tepeyac cemetery, ~six miles S of Juarez, Mexico. Unburnt fuel explodes, with the blast being felt in both Juarez and El Paso, Texas. Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner, commander at White Sands, confirmed by telephone the launch of the rocket, but refused any further comment.
  • 1944 – Luftwaffe fighter ace Friedrich-Karl "Tutti" Müller (140 victories in 600 combat sorties) is killed in a landing accident at Salzwedel, when his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, Werknummer 410827, stalls on landing approach at low altitude. He is posthumously promoted to Oberstleutnant.
  • 1941 – The USAAC forms USAAC Ferrying Command|Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic to Britain.
  • 1943 – A merchant aircraft carrier, or “MAC-ship,” puts to sea with a convoy for the first time as MV Empire MacAlpine sets out from the United Kingdom with Convoy ONS 59 bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She carries four Swordfish aircraft of No. 836 Squadron.
  • 1943 – Japanese resistance on Attu ends.
  • 1941 – The United States Army Air Corps forms Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom.
  • 1941 – Geran dive bombers attack a British naval task force as it retires from Crete with evacuated British troops aboard. They fatally damage the destroyer HMS Imperial, sink the destroyer HMS Hereward, and damage the light cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Dido, and HMS Orion. A single bomb that strikes Orion kills 260 and wounds 280.
  • 1941 – Surviving elements of Fliegerführer Irak depart Iraq.
  • 1934 – The Collier trophy for the year’s outstanding aviation achievement is awarded in Washington, D.C. to Hamilton Standard Propeller Company for the development of the controllable-pitch propeller.
  • 1929 – Boeing Aircraft of Canada was incorporated by William Edward Boeing of Seattle, Henry Stonestreet Hoffar and Charles George Beeching of Vancouver, to design and build aircraft and to take over, as a going concern, the Hoffar-Beeching Shipyards at Vancouver.
  • 1925 – Alan Cobham lands the prototype de Havilland D.H.60 Moth after flying 1,000 miles to Zurich, Switzerland and back to Croydon, England in a single day.
  • 1923 – Reuben Fleet founds Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.
  • 1910 – Glenn Curtiss flies from Albany NY to New York City, a then-epic flight of about 150 miles. This could loosely be credited as the first air mail flight, for he unofficially carried a letter from Albany’s mayor to the mayor of NYC.
  • 1908 – The first passenger flight in Europe occurs as Henri Farman takes up Ernest Archdeacon for a brief flight at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Boone, John, "Pakistan: Senior Taliban Militants Killed By US Drone Strike," The Guardian, 29 May 2013, 15:28 EDT.
  2. ^ Khan, Ismail, and Ihsanullah Tipu Mejsud, "After Taliban Deputy’s Death, Hints of a Schism," The New York Times, May 30, 2013.
  3. ^ "Chopper attack, bombs kill 10 U.S. troops in Iraq". CNN.com. 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  4. ^ "10 GIs Die In Iraq On Memorial Day". CBS News. 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
  5. ^ "ARMY AIR CREWS: Kiowa Crewmembers Line of Duty Deaths". Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  6. ^ https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/28-may-1935/

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 |May 1
  • 2013 – A Boeing X-51A WaveRider unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft detaches from a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress and reaches Mach 4.8 (3,200 mph; 5,100 km/h) powered by a booster rocket. It then separates cleanly from the booster, ignites its own engine, accelerates to Mach 5.1 (3,400 mph; 5,400 km/h), and flies for 240 seconds – setting the record for the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight in history – before running out of fuel and plunging into the Pacific Ocean off Point Mugu, California, after transmitting 370 seconds of telemetry. The flight – the fourth and last planned X-51A test flight and the first successful one – completes the X-51 program.[1][2][3]
  • 2007 – A Dassault Mirage III of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (Argentine Air Force) crashes at 1110 hrs. at Morón Air Base after making a low pass during a "baptism of fire" day celebration, observing the opening of combat in the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War. The pilot, Lt. Marcos Peretti, apparently encountered a fogbank after making the pass. He did not eject after steering the aircraft away from populated areas and was killed. Defence Minister Nilda Garré who presided over the main celebration ordered all Mirage aircraft grounded until a full investigation into the accident is completed "The causes of the accident are under investigation", said minister Garré adding that "Mirages are grounded until we determine how the accident happened; the pilot was in contact until a minute before the accident".
  • 2006 – Death of Bruce A. Peterson, American engineer and NASA test pilot. He flew a wide variety of airplanes including the F5D-1, F-100, F-104, F-111 A, B-52, NT-33 A Variable Stability Trainer, the wingless lifting bodies and numerous general aviation aircraft as well as several types of helicopters and sailplanes.
  • 2003 – US President George W. Bush rode in the co-pilot seat of a Viking that landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), where he delivered his "Mission Accomplished" speech announcing the end of major combat in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That Navy flight is the only one to use the callsign "Navy One".
  • 1989 – A Tyndall Air Force Base McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle crashed in the Gulf of Mexico about 65 miles southeast of Tyndall, killing the student pilot who was identified as 2nd Lt. Sean P. Murphy, 23, of Warsaw, Indiana. At the time of the crash the pilot was engaged in a mock dogfight with his instructor who was flying a second F-15. The pilot was assigned to Tyndall's 95th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron.
  • 1983 – 1983 Israeli Air Force F-15 crash: During air-to-air combat training over the Negev Desert, an Israeli Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-15D Baz, 957, "Markia Schakim" (Hebrew: מרקיע שחקים, "Sky Blazer"), of 106 Squadron, collides with an Douglas A-4 Ayit at between 13 and 14 thousand feet altitude, causing the attack jet to explode (the pilot reportedly successfully ejected), and tearing off the starboard wing of the fighter ~2 feet outboard of the engine nacelle. Pilot Zivi Nedivi goes to afterburner to try to stop spinning aircraft, and unaware of the condition of the jet due to fuel leaks obscuring the extent of the damage, makes a blistering 250-260 knot landing at nearest air base at Ramon, tearing off the arrestor hook and coming to a stop just 20 feet from the runway threshold. Pilot later comments that had he known the true state of the aircraft, he and his weapons operator would have ejected. F-15 is reportedly repaired and returned to service in ~two months.
  • 1982 – BAE Sea Harriers attack Falklands targets for the first time and shoot down two Argentine Mirage III fighters. They are the first air-to-air kills of the Falklands War.[5]
  • 1980 – Spectacular crash of USMC AV-8A Harrier at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. During a vertical takeoff the aircraft rolled, dropped to the runway, bounced into a ditch, burst into flames, flipped, slid through a hangar and into a parking lot, where it damaged more than twenty vehicles.
  • 1970 – B-52 Stratofortress strikes and helicopter assaults against North Vietnamese forces are part of the first day of the American and South Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. The last U. S. Army helicopter will not leave Cambodia until June 29.
  • 1965 – A Lockheed YF-12 sets a new international airspeed record of 2,070 mpg (3,331 km/h).
  • 1960 – 1960 U-2 incident: A CIA Lockheed U-2A, 56-6693, Article 360, flown by Francis Gary Powers is shot down by a SA-2 (Guideline) missile near Degtyarsk in the Soviet Union during an overflight codenamed Operation GRAND SLAM, the twenty-fourth and most ambitious deep-penetration flight of the U-2 program. Powers parachutes down and is captured. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces on 7 May to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and thus the world, that a "spyplane" has been shot down but intentionally makes no reference to the pilot. Powers is later produced in a 'show trial'. On 10 February 1962, twenty-one months after his capture, Powers is exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany.
  • 1959 – North Vietnam organizes No. 919 Transport Regiment as the first unit of the Vietnam People’s Air Force.
  • 1957 – In the 1957 Blackbushe Viking accident, an Eagle Aviation Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes after engine failure at Blackbushe Airport; of the 35 on board, only a passenger survives.
  • 1954 – The Myasishchev M-4, the first Soviet bomber designed to reach the United States and return to the Soviet Union, is displayed to the public for the first time. In reality, it lacks the range to reach the United States and return.
  • 1952 – The IATA agrees on new "tourist class" fares, which are adopted by Pan Am on its NewYork-London "Rainbow service"
  • 1950 – Third and final de Havilland DH 108, TG283, crashes near Hartley Wintney, Hants, during stall tests, kills replacement RAE OC, Squadron Leader George E. C. "Jumbo" Genders. Aircraft entered uncontrollable spin, pilot bails out, parachute fails.
  • 1949 – The Air Arm, Hong Kong Defence Force is established with Royal Air Force (RAF) assistance.
  • 1947 – United Airlines begins daily scheduled service between San Francisco and Honolulu.
  • 1945 – The U. S. Navy’s mixed-propulsion Ryan FR Fireball becomes the first aircraft incorporating jet propulsion to qualify for use aboard aircraft carriers.
  • 1945 – Hamburg radio of Germany announces to the world the death of Adolf Hitler.
  • 1943 – No. 432 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.
  • 1943 – (1-7 ) The U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Eleventh Air Force drops 200,000 pounds (90,719 kg) of bombs on Japanese forces on Attu in the Aleutian Islands in support of the upcoming American invasion of the island.
  • 1942 – No. 130 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Bagotville, Quebec.
  • 1942 – Squadron No. 588 of the Soviet Air Force, an all-woman night-bombing unit equipped with Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, is formed in the USSR.
  • 1936 – RAF Training command is formed.
  • 1934 – Fank Akers made a hooded landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Maryland, in the first demonstration of the blind landing system intended for carrier use and under development by the Washington Institute of Technology.
  • 1930 – Entered Service: Curtiss F8C Helldiver, the first United States Navy dive bomber designed as such, with Fighter Squadron 1 (VF-1 B) aboard USS Saratoga (CV-3)
  • 1923 – HMS Hermes enters service with the Royal Navy. She is the first ship designed from the waterline up as an aircraft carrier and the first aircraft carrier with an island superstructure to enter service.
  • 1922 – Deruluft (Deutsche-Russische Luftverkehrs, "German-Russian Airlines") commences operations.
  • 1916 – German Airship Schütte-Lanz SL3 is stranded near Riga as structure of the ship degraded because of atmospheric exposure.
  • 1915 – Air Mechanic William Thomas James McCudden of the Royal Flying Corps the elder brother of James McCudden VC died when his Bleriot had engine trouble and crashed at Fort Grange, Gosport.
  • 1912 – First flight of the Avro Type F, single seat British aircraft from Avro and the first aircraft in the world to feature a completely enclosed cabin.
  • 1897 – Birth of Eugen Bönsch, Austro-Hungarian WWI fighter ace who also served in WWII
  • 1875 – Birth of Harriet Quimby, early American aviator and movie screenwriter, first woman to gain a pilot's license in the United States

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Hypersonic X-51 programme ends in success", Flight International, 3 May 2013.
  2. ^ "X-51A Waverider Achieves Hypersonic Goal On Final Flight," Aviation Week & Space Technology, 2 May 2013.
  3. ^ Anonymous, "WaveRider Goes Hypersonic," Aviation History, September 2013, p. 12.
  4. ^ Wikipedia Operation Black Buck article.
  5. ^ Hastings, Max, and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983, no ISBN, pp. 145-147.

May 31

  • 2011 – The Libyan government claims that NATO air raids have killed 718 civilians and injured more than 4,000 since the international bombing campaign to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya began.[1]
  • 2008 – Champion Air ceased operations because of high fuel prices and fuel inefficiency, the main two reasons the airline was terminated.
  • 2008 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-124 at 21:02:12 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 1J: JEM - Japanese module Kibo & JEM RMS.
  • 2002 – First flight of the Toyota TAA-1
  • 1977 – The Vietnam People's Air Force is separated from the Vietnamese Air Defense Force.
  • 1973 – Indian Airlines Flight 440, a Boeing 737, crashes while on approach to Palam Airport in New Delhi, India. 48 of the 65 passengers and crew on board are killed in the accident.
  • 1968 – Lockheed U-2, 56-6954, Article 394, fourth airframe of the USAF supplementary production, delivered to the USAF in March 1959. Built as a two-place airframe for ARDC at Edwards AFB, California - later designated a U-2D. Transferred to SAC in 1966 and converted to U-2C by January 1967. Crashed this date near Tucson, Arizona. Pilot Maj. Vic Milam ejects safely at 41,000 feet after losing control when airframe experiences uncontrolled pitch-up.
  • 1968 – Lockheed JQF-104A Starfighter drone, 56-0733, 'QFG-733', (so modified and designated on November 29, 1961), of the 3205th Drone Squadron, suffers a severe class A landing accident at Eglin AFB, Florida. Repaired.
  • 1957 – A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee fighter jet, BuNo 126313, Sqn. No. 104 of VF-870, spirals out of control after its right wing breaks in half during a high-speed flyby at naval air station HMCS Shearwater, Nova Scotia, Canada. The canopy is observed to separate from the aircraft, but the pilot, Lt. Derek Prout, fails to eject and is killed when the plane slams into McNabs Island. The crash is attributed to improperly manufactured fittings in the folding wing mechanism, and most RCN and US Navy Banshees are grounded until improved fittings can be installed.
  • 1946 – London Heathrow Airport is officially opened.
  • 1942 – Nos. 405, 408, 419 and 420 (Bomber) Squadrons participated in the first 1,000 aircraft attack on Germany, directed at Cologne.
  • 1942 – Since January 1, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has dispatched 12,029 sorties, losing 396 aircraft; German night fighters have shot down 167 of them, an average of 34 British bombers per month. Since February 1, aircraft losses in British bombing raids on Germany have averaged 3.7 percent.
  • 1941 – The Anglo-Iraq War ends with the collapse of Iraqi resistance.
  • 1939 – Italian forces, including the “legionary air force, ” depart Spain.
  • 1935 – Hickam Field is dedicated in the Territory of Hawaii.
  • 1928 – (May 31 and June 9) The first airplane flight across the Pacific is made by British Capt. Charles Kingsford-Smith and crew in a Fokker F-VIIB/3 m Southern Cross. They fly from Oakland Field, California to Brisbane, Australia, 7,389 miles (11,890 km), in 83 hours, 38 min. On the way, it becomes the first airplane to land in Fiji.
  • 1919 – NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes first crossing of the Atlantic.
  • 1919 – First wedding held in an aircraft. Flying 2000 ft above Houston Texas in a converted Hadley Page bomber, Marjorie Dumont and Lt. R. W. Meade were married by an Army chaplain.
  • 1918 – Douglas Campbell scores his fifth victory, becoming the first American pilot to become an ace while flying for an American unit.
  • 1916 – A Short Type 184 from the Royal Navy seaplane carrier Engadine achieves the only British aerial reconnaissance flight of the Battle of Jutland, reporting the sighting of three cruisers and ten destroyers of the German High Seas Fleet before a broken fuel pipe forces it to end the mission.
  • 1915 – First Zeppelin raid on London, made by LZ 38. Seven people killed, fourteen wounded.
  • 1910 – Glenn Curtiss wins a $10,000 (USD) prize from the New York World for flying in his Hudson Flyer from Albany, New York, to New York City in 2 hours 51 min, following the course of the Hudson River.
  • 1862 – Information obtained from Thadeus S. C. Lowe's balloon observation saves Union forces from defeat at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia during the U. S. Civil War. Union General George McClellan is warned by Lowe of Confederate General Albert Johnston's approaching troops.
  • 1811 – Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, the "tailor of Ulm" (Germany) crashes in his apparatus, a copy of Degen's, into the Danube. It was presumably a workable hang glider.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Staff (31 May 2011). "Libya Says Nato Air Raids 'Killed 700 Civilians'". BBC News (31 May 2011). Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Italy copter crash in Iraq kills 4". CNN.com. 2005-05-31. Archived from the original on March 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-19.
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