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Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 12

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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.
  • 1982Braniff 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.
  • 1959Capital 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.

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