2012 -- Congressional Research Service Report to Congress, U.S. Unmanned Aerial Systems.

"...reflecting the growing awareness and support in Congress and the Department of Defense for UAS (unmanned aerial systems), investments in unmanned aerial vehicles have been increasing every year. DOD spending on UAS has increased from $284 million in FY2000 to $3.3 billion in FY2010" [Gertler]
 
2012 -- Aviation safety has improved considerably last year, with a 40% decrease in fatalities in aircraft accidents, according to a report of the British cabinet Ascend, which estimates the same year as the most "safe "commercial aviation.

Also see AVIATION SAFETY Enhanced Oversight and Improved Availability of Risk-Based Data Could Further Improve Safety Report to Congressional Committees October 2011 GAO-12-24 [pdf].

And ASN releases preliminary airliner safety statistics 2011

2012 -- All 10,000 copies of ithe Ryanair 2012 Cabin Crew Charity Calendar have sold out, raising a further €100,000 for the Debra Ireland charity, who work with children suffering from the painful EB skin condition.


All the €100,000 proceeds from the  Ryanair 2012 Cabin Crew Charity Calendar bring the total raised by Ryanair’s  cabin crew to €500,000 since the first calendar was published in 2008. 

2011 -- Thai Airways flight attendants, told by the airline to lose weight, have lodged a formal complaint against their employers on the grounds of discrimination,  This isn't the first time an airline has ordered weight loss amongst its employees: In August, Turkish Airways told 28 flight attendants to lose weight.

2011 -- The White House finally responded to Russian declarations that the START agreement specifically limits the U.S. on missile defense.

Last week, the chair of the Duma’s International Affairs committee stated that Russia considered the preamble, with its language on limiting defensive systems to today’s status quo, legally binding. The Obama Administration's argument, that the preamble is not legally binding, is rather weak. See what you think. Here is the passage in the treaty that the Russians insist is a limitation on further development of missile defense: "Recognizing the existence of the interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms, that this interrelationship will become more important as strategic nuclear arms are reduced, and that current strategic defensive arms do not undermine the viability and effectiveness of the strategic offensive arms of the Parties," Do you agree with the White House that it isn't important, or do you think the Russians won this round of negotiations?

2011 -- The Norwegian daily Aftenposten published a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv that discusses a November 15, 2009 meeting between an American congressional delegation and Israel's military chief.

According to the daily, Gabi Ashkenazi told the delegation that Iran has 300 Shihab missiles that could reach Israel. He added that Israel's biggest threats were the Iranian-backed Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has more than 40,000 rockets that can reach almost any point in Israel. U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal that Israel believes it would have 10-12 minutes' warning should Iran launch a rocket attack against the country.

2011 -- Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show that the United States and Germany allegedly are developing together a spy satellite system despite strong opposition from countries such as France.

The Norwegian daily Aftenposten published the information today after the newspaper obtained full access to the website WikiLeaks' cache of some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. According to Aftenposten, the cables sent from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin said the satellites are to be operational by 2013. The project -- named HiROS -- reportedly would have the capability of detecting objects on the ground as small as 50 centimeters in diameter and provide images three to five times a day. The system also would have the ability to take infrared images at night, capture activity underground and send images much faster back to earth than satellites currently in service. U.S. and German officials deemed to present it to the public as a civilian project with environmental aims. In reality, the cables reportedly say the project is "under the total control" of the German intelligence service and the German aerospace center.

2011 -- This month, the C-17 Globemaster III celebrated its two millionth flight hour.

2011 -- Australian military aircraft are ferrying more supplies to a flood-hit city in Queensland as river levels continue to rise.

2011 -- Expedia drops American Airlines fares.

The online travel agency Expedia says its decision over the weekend to drop AA entirely from its search results was a response to the airline's "anti-consumer" and "anti-choice" strategy. AA's fares also will not appear on other booking sites owned by Expedia, including Hotwire.com and TripAdvisor.com. Expedia's move is the latest in an escalating fight between airlines and online travel agencies over fees. Airlines are looking to steer customers to their own booking sites to cut out the middlemen and lower distribution costs. Travel agencies say their search results provide consumers with more options and lower prices. American Airlines has created its own distribution channel called Direct Connect, and wants Expedia, Orbitz and other travel agencies to get flight information directly from it rather than using the global distribution systems such as Travelport or Sabre. Travelport is the largest investor of Orbitz, which is publicly traded.

2011 -- China is conducting high-speed taxi tests with what appears to be a stealth aircraft dubbed the J-20. Photos taken from the fence line at the Chengdu aircraft plant in Sichuan province were allowed to circulate last week by China’s internet authority, meaning the Chinese want the world to know about it.

The disclosure may have something to do with Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ upcoming China visit, set for Jan. 9-12. The aircraft is reminiscent of US stealth designs, resembling the nose of the F-22 and the inlets of the F-35. However, it also features canards and an empennage suggesting the abandoned Russian MiG I-42 fighter project, purportedly a stealth concept. The aircraft seems optimized for front-quarter low observability, as the tailcones are standard round exhausts; however, it's not clear whether they are thrust-vectoring. It’s also impossible to tell what materials the Chinese may be using in the airframe, or what kind of radar might be under the nose, and wing-shaping details will have to wait on more photos. The aircraft seems not to be a concept demonstrator like the Russian S-37 Berkut, but a more mature and integrated design. The US Air Force had no comment on the new airplane.

2004 -- Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.

1999 -- NASA's Mars Polar Lander is launched aboard a Boeing Delta II booster from Cape Canaveral.

The MPL is scheduled to touch down in the Martian southern polar region in December.

1993 -- President George Bush and Soviet President Boris Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to reduce nuclear bombers, missiles, bombs and warheads.

1981 -- With fuel costs soaring, Pan Am retires the Boeing 707 from its fleet.

Pan Am was slow in doing this, i.e., American Airlines had accelerated the retirement of the Boeing 707 fleet in 1980. By August 1981, American had retired all its Boeing 707s aircraft, including their freighters. There were some airlines that waited even longer than Pan Am, i.e., Trans World Airlines flew the last scheduled 707 flight for passengers by a U.S. carrier on October 30, 1983, although 707s remained in scheduled service by airlines from other nations for much longer.

1975 -- The Association of Naval Aviation was formally founded "to stimulate and extend appreciation of Naval Aviation . . . past, present and future." The non-profit organization became open to any officer, enlisted person or civilian who contributed to, or was interested in, United States Naval Aviation.

1965 -- Russian chief designeSemyon Ariyevich Kosberg is killed in an automobile crash.

Chief Designer 1941-1965 of OKB-154. Led work on engines for ICBMs and launchers. The unexpected death of Kosberg, who's engines have reliably taken nine Soviet cosmonauts into orbit, is a particular blow to the Soviet space program.

1965 -- Early space medicine pioneer Semyon Ariyevich Kosberg died.

Russian physician. First Director of IMBP 1963-1965.

1958 -- Austrian engineer Alexander Meissner died.

He improved the design of antennas for transmitting at long wavelengths, devised new vacuum-tube circuits and amplification systems, and developed the heterodyne principle for radio reception. In 1911 Meissner designed the first rotary radio beacon to aid in the navigation of the Zeppelin airships

1952 -- First flight Bristol Type 173 G-ALBN Belvedere a British twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

It was designed for a variety of transport roles including troop transport, supply dropping and casualty evacuation. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1961 to 1969.

1949 -- The United Kingdom-based U.S. 3rd Air Division is transferred from United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) to United States Air Force (USAF) headquarters and assumes the status of a major air command. From this date, USAF Boeing B29 Superfortress operations from the United Kingdom came under the control of the Strategic Air Command (SAC).

1945 -- Fifty-seven of 97 B-29s bombed Nagoya, Japan, in a test-bombing mission to determine the efficacy of fire bombing over conventional high-explosive bombing.

The inconclusive results gave the Japanese the mistaken impression that their fire-prevention system was adequate.

1944 -- Major Gregory Pappy Boyington--top Marine Corps ace--is shot down by a Zero flown by Captain Masajiro Kawato--or maybe not.

1943 -- Alan Magee, a B17 ball gunner, survived a fall of 22,000 feet without a parachute. His fall was broken by the glass roof of St Nazaire Railway Station.

1941 -- Canada and the U.S. acquire air bases at Gander and Goose Bay, St. John's Newfoundland on a 99 year lease.

1923 -- French Lieutenant Thoret makes the first soaring flight of more than 5 hours in a Hanriot HD-14 biplane as he flies with his engine stopped in a slope lift (using hill-side air currents) in Biskra, France.

1918 -- Canadian Capt. Frank Granger Quigley, Royal Flying Corps Sopwith Camel Ace, scored his 10th of 33 aerial victories.

1918 -- One of only seven airman in WW I who won three awards of the Distinguished Service Cross, Royal Naval Air Service Ace Major Robert John Orton Compston scored his 18th and 19th aerial victories.

1918 -- French Air Service Lt. Maurice Jean Paul Boyau scored his 12th victory.

1918 -- Hauptmann Bruno Loerzer scored his 21st aerial victory.

1918 -- The first and only pilot during the war to receive the Prussian Order of the Crown, 4th Class with Swords, Lt. Rudolf Friedrich Otto Windisch, scored his 7th victory.

1918 -- Royal Flying Corps Ace from New Zealand Keith Rodney Park scored his 17th victory, but that was followed by being shot down, for the 2nd time, this time by Kurt Ungewitter of Schusta 5.

Park ended WW I with 20 victories. He remained in the Royal Air Force, eventually attaining the rank of Air Chief Marshal. During WW II, he commanded the Royal Air Force during the evacuation at Dunkirk and later assumed command of Number 11 Fighter Group, defending London and southern England during the Battle of Britain. Upon retiring from the RAF, he returned to New Zealand.

1918 -- South Africa's highest scoring ace during WW I, Capt. Andrew Frederick Weatherby Proccy Beauchamp-Proctor scored his 1st of 54 victories.

1905 -- In efforts to interest the U.S. government in the use of airplanes for the military, Wilbur Wright speaks to Congressman Robert M. Nevin, who asks him to prepare a letter for submission to the secretary of war that Nevin would deliver and endorse. (Sometime between the 18th and 21st of the month).

The proposal said:

Hon. R. M. Nevin
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

The series of aeronautical experiments upon which we have been engaged for the past five years has ended in the production of a flying machine of a type fitted for practical use. It not only flies through the air at high speed, but it also lands without being wrecked. During the year 1904 one hundred and five flights were made at our experimenting station at Huffman prairie, east of this city, and though our experience in handling the machine has been too short to give any high degree of skill, we nevertheless succeeded, toward the end of the season, in making two flights of five minutes each, in which we sailed round and round the field until a distance of about three miles had been covered, at a speed of thirty-five miles an hour. The first of these record flights was made on November 9th, in celebration of the phenomenal political victory of the preceding day, and the second on December 1st, in honor of the one hundredth flight of the season.

The numerous flights in straight lines, in circles, and over “S” shaped courses, in calm and in winds, have made it quite certain that flying has been brought to a point where it can be made of great practical use in various ways, one of which is that of scouting and carrying messages in time of war. If the latter features are of interest to our Government, we shall be pleased to take up the matter either on a basis of providing machines of agreed specification, at a contract price, or, of furnishing all the scientific and practical information we have accumulated in these years of experience, together with a license to use our patents; thus putting the Government in a position to operate on its own account.

If you can find it convenient to ascertain this is a subject of interest to our own Government, it would oblige us greatly, as early information on this point will aid us in making our plans for the future.

Respectfully yours,

Wilbur and Orville Wright

(The “phenomenal political victory” to which the letter refers was the election of Theodore Roosevelt to be President of the United States.)

On January 21, the congressman forwarded the letter to the Secretary of War, William H. Taft, who forwarded it to the War Department’s Board of Ordnance and Fortification. The Board sent the following reply to the congressman on January 24:

Hon. R. M. Nevin, etc.

My dear Sir:

Referring to your letter of the 21st instant to the Honorable Secretary of War inviting attention to the experiments in mechanical flight conducted by Messrs. Wilbur and Orville Wright, which has been referred to the Board or Ordnance and Fortification for action, I have the honor to inform you that, as many requests have been made for financial assistance in the development of designs for flying machines, the Board has found it necessary to decline to make allotments for the experimental development of devices for mechanical flight, and has determined that, before suggestions with that object in view will be considered, the device must have been brought to the stage of practical operation without expense to the United States.

It appears from the letter of Messrs. Wilbur and Orville Wright that their machine has not been brought to the stage of practical operation, but as soon as it shall have been perfected, the Board would be pleased to receive further representations from them in regard to it.

Very respectfully,

G. L. Gillespie,
Major General, General Staff
President of the Board

The War Department did not want to pay for research and development; it wanted to buy a working airplane. In 1898, the department had awarded a $50,000 research and development contract to Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for the design and construction of a working airplane for military purposes. Langley spent the money, but failed to produce a working airplane. The embarrassing outcome of the last attempted test flight, conducted on December 8, 1903, was that the pilot had to be rescued from the freezing Potomac River. Press reports of Langley’s failures resulted in public humiliation and severe Congressional criticism of the department. Once bitten and now twice shy, the War Department was unenthusiastic about their proposal to build airplanes for the Signal Corps.

                                                                 Works Cited

Gertler, Jeremiah, "U.S. Unmanned Aerial Systems," CRS Report for Congress, January 3, 2012,

September 25

2011 -- 9/25 - 10/1:  Aviation's richest prize is up for grabs at the Sonoma County Airport in California, where the CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) Foundation will stage NASA's Google-sponsored Green Flight Challenge.

The NASA-funded purse of $1.65 million includes a $1.3 million first prize for the aircraft with the best combination of speed and efficiency that meets or exceeds the Challenge's objective of achieving 200 passenger-miles per gallon with an average speed of at least 100mph over a range of 200 miles--twice the best fuel efficency achieved in past CAFE challenges.

2011 -- A small plane in Nepal  carrying foreign tourists near Mount Everest  crashed, killing all 19 occupants, authorities said. 

2010 -- A U.S. Minotaur 4 rocket carrying the Space Based Space Surveillance satellite has been launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast.

The satellite was designed to detect and monitor debris, satellites and other space objects that could be a threat to national security, communications and weather satellites. Monitoring from space avoids the limitations that ground observing systems experience due to weather, the atmosphere and time of day.

2010 -- A Russian Soyuz capsule with three crew landed safely back on Earth from the International Space Station on Saturday after unprecedented problems undocking kept astronauts an extra day in orbit.

A new Russian Soyuz TMA-01M spaceship equipped with a new digital computing and telemetric system will blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on October 8.

2010 -- Swedish police evacuated a Pakistan International Airlines jet diverted to Stockholm due to a bomb alert and detained a passenger on suspicion of preparing aircraft sabotage, officials said.

1997 -- The OC-135B Open Skies treaty verification aircraft flew over Edwards AFB, California.

The specialized aircraft, from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and manned by a joint U. S. Air Force and Turkish crew, conducted the overflight sortie as part of a test run for the Open Skies program as part of the international Chemical Weapons Convention.

1991 -- 25-27: After widespread looting and rioting broke out in Kinshasa, U.S. Air Force C-141s transported 100 Belgian troops and equipment into Kinshasa.

U.S. planes also carried 300 French troops into the Central African Republic and hauled back American citizens and third country nationals from locations outside Zaire.

1978 -- A Pacific Southwest Airlines jet collides in mid-air with a small Cessna over San Diego, killing 153 people. The wreckage of the planes fell into a populous neighborhood and did extensive damage on the ground.

David Lee Boswell and his instructor, Martin Kazy, were in the process of a flying lesson in a single-engine Cessna 1732 on the morning of September 25, practicing approaches at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field airport. After two successful passes, Boswell aimed the Cessna toward the Montgomery Field airport northeast of San Diego.

At the same time, Pacific Southwest Flight 182 was approaching San Diego. The jet, a Boeing 727, was carrying 144 passengers and crew members from Sacramento, after a stopover in Los Angeles. Though air-traffic controllers at Lindbergh had told Boswell to keep the Cessna below 3,500 feet altitude as it flew northeast, the Cessna did not comply and changed course without informing the controllers.

The pilots of Flight 182 could see the Cessna clearly at 9 a.m., but soon lost sight of it and failed to inform the controllers. Meanwhile, the conflict-alert warning system began to flash at the air-traffic control center. However, because the alert system went off so frequently with false alarms, it was ignored. The controllers believed that the pilots of the 727 had the Cessna in view. Within a minute, the planes collided.

The fuel in the 727 burst into a massive fireball upon impact. A witness on the ground reported that she saw her "apples and oranges bake on the trees." The planes nose-dived straight into San Diego’s North Park neighborhood, destroying 22 homes and killing seven people on the ground. All 144 people on the 727 were killed, as well as both of the Cessna’s pilots.

1971 -- WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace Robert Henry Magnus Spencer Saundby died at Burghclere, Hampshire, U.K.

1966 -- Russian physician cosmonau Dr. Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich died.

Graduated from Military Medical Academy, Leningrad, 1960. Candidate of medical sciences degree, 1975. Civilian Physician, Educated First Moscow Medical Institute. Doctor at IMBP. Participated in 1966 Antarctic-Expedition on behalf of the IMBP. In 1967 was a participant of Thor Heyerdahl's Ra Expedition, sailing from Africa to America in a reed boat. Later chief of a department at IMBP, Moscow. Retired in 1993. Later director of television soap opera "Travelclub", in which he also played the role of the doctor.

1959 -- A P-5M Marlin patrol aircraft (the last of the jumbo “flying boats”) of the US Navy was conducting a patrol off Whidbey Island, Washington, while carrying a supposedly unarmed nuclear depth charge. For undisclosed reasons, the aircraft was ditched into Puget Sound. The crew was rescued, but the nuclear weapon was never recovered.

1958 -- Capt. Ronald J. Layton flew a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo supersonic military fighter 2,000 miles from Bermuda Island to Fort Worth, Texas in three hours, nine minutes to set a record for nonstop, nonrefueled flight in a supersonic jet.

1950 -- U.S. Air Force planes from the American aircraft carrier USS Sicily (CVE-118) supported the ground attacks all day, targeting North Korean defences with jellied petrol bombs and rockets, as United Nations forces took control of the South Korean capital Seoul.

The North Korean Peoples' Army had been in control of Seoul since June 26, just 24 hours after they invaded South Korea.

The re-capture of Seoul from the North Koreans did not signal the end of the conflict and in November 1950 troops from Communist China entered a war which would eventually cost two million lives.

1947 --Gen. Carl Spaatz is appointed the first U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff.

1944 -- Germany's first operational jet fighter unit Kommando Nowotny is organized.

Named for its leader; Major Walter Nowotny, a 250-victory ace.  The Unit employs Me-262A-1 jets.

1942 -- British bombers attempt to take out the local headquarters of the German secret state police, the Gestapo, in Norway. They miss--but send some Nazis running for their lives.

Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, in a stunning blitzkrieg campaign, a response to Britain's laying of mines in Norwegian waters--which was itself a response to Norway's iron-ore trade with the Axis power. But in one short month, the British and French troops that had landed in Norway to aid in its defense were chased out, as well as Norway's royal family, who set up a government-in-exile in London. The Germans immediately established a Reich commissioner to rule the occupied territory. The commissioner outlawed all political parties but one--the pro-Nazi National Unity Party. It was led by Vidkun Quisling, the former Norwegian minister of war. His name would become synonymous with acquiescence and collaboration. Quisling, now a German puppet, ruled as a Nazi wannabe, an overlord who would brook no dissent, even sending thousands of his own countrymen to German concentration camps. A majority of Norwegians despised both Quisling and his German masters. Teachers and clergy resigned their positions in the state-sponsored church in order not to be implicated in the new fascist regime.

One means of keeping defiant locals of newly occupied countries under control was the use of the Gestapo. An office was typically set up in conquered nations to terrorize the populace. On September 25, during a Nazi Party rally in Oslo, the first of a series of daring daytime raids that used the de Havilland Mosquito to bomb individual buildings in occupied Europe. This particular raid targeted the Gestapo Headquarters in Oslo, and was mounted at the request of the Norwegian government in exile. The aim was to destroy Gestapo records about the Norwegian (kept in Gestapo headquarters, but not as yet acted upon)resistance.

The raid was flown by four Mosquito B Mk IVs of No. 105 Squadron, and was commanded by Squadron Leader George Parry. The aircraft were flown to Leuchers, in Scotland, to reduce the distance that would have to be flown, but even after that the raid would still be the longest Mosquito mission yet flown, covering 1,100 miles. The aircraft would be in the air for four and three-quarter hours.

Each aircraft was armed with four 500lb bombs with 11 second delayed action fuses – this would be such a low level attack that impact bombs had the potential to damage the aircraft that had dropped them. These bombs would be the Achilles heal of the mission.

Despite crossing the north sea at under 100 ft, the Mosquitoes were still intercepted by two Fw 190s. One Mosquito was shot down, crashing in a Norwegian lake. A low level chase followed, only ending when the remaining German fighter hit a tree.

The remaining three aircraft reached Oslo, and found their target. Four bombs hit the Gestapo Headquarters. Unfortunately, of those four bombs three bounced out of the building before exploding, and the one bomb to remain inside the building failed to explode. The Brits did put a scare into the Nazis, though, who ran from the city, leaving their Party's rally in ruins.

Although the raid had failed to achieve its main objective, it was considered dramatic enough to be used to reveal the existence of the Mosquito to the British public during a BBC Home Service broadcast the following day. It also demonstrated the newfound ability of the RAF to reach pinpoint targets in occupied Europe. The Mosquito would be used for a series of equally dramatic pinpoint raids over the next few years.

1940 -- The Filton work, in South Gloucestershire, England, are bombed by the Luftwaffe and 91 factory employees are killed. 58 Hienkel He 111's of KG55 dropped 100 tons of HE and 25 tons of oil bombs. Shortly afterwards, a squadron of Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft was stationed at Filton Aerodrome, to defend the area.

Prior to WW II there was a belief that German bombers had insufficient range to reach Filton, however, the invasion of France by the Nazis in 1940 changed the situation. Nevertheless, as war approached anti-aircraft guns were set up in a field pasture up on Filton Hill, adjacent to Filton Golf Club, to defend the aircraft factories. Aircraft produced during WW II included the Blenheim, Beaufort, Beaufighter and Brigand. Filton Aerodrome was upgraded to a concrete runway during 1941/42. 1942, prior to D-Day, Filton became USAF airfield No. 803, housing the 21st, 22nd and 33rd Mobile Reclamation and Repair Squadrons of the 9th Air Force. American aircraft such as P-51 Mustangs, P-47 Thunderbolts and B-17 Flying Fortresses became regular visitors.

a number of U.S. aircraft, imported into the U.K. via Avonmouth docks, were assembled at Filton Airfield.

1932 -- A new altitude record is set for autogyros when Captain Lewis A. Yancey, flying a Pitcairn PCA2, climbs to 6,553 metres (21,500 feet).

1931 -- Robert Esnault-Pelterie and Jean-Claude Barre begins experiments with liquid propellant rocket engines under funding from the Department of War.

In 1929 Robert Esnault-Pelterie proposed the idea of the ballistic missile for military bombardment. By 1930, Robert and Jean-Jacques had persuaded the French War Department to fund a study of the concept. In 1931, the two began experimenting with various types of rocket propulsion systems, including liquid propellants. The same year he ran a demonstration of a rocket engine powered with gasoline and liquid oxygen. During an experiment with a rocket design using tetra-nitromethane he lost three fingers from his right hand during an explosion. Unfortunately their work failed to galvanize an interest in rocketry within France.

1918 -- Canadian, Royal Air Force flying Ace gunner, 2nd Lieutenant Harold Leslie Edwards scored his 16th, 17th, and 18th victories.

1918 -- Lt. Edward V. Richenbacker attacked seven German aircraft near Billy, France, while on a voluntary patrol. Despite the odds, he dived on them and shot one of the Fokkers out of control and then attacked one of the Halkberstadts and also shot it down.

For this action he later received the Medal of Honor.

1917 -- Royal Flying Corps Lieutenant Leonard Monteagle Barlow scored his 15th, 16th, and 17th victories.

1903 -- The Wright brothers arrive at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to begin tests of their first powered aircraft.

August 23

2012 --  A team that has created a supersonic jet design resembling a flying shuriken has been awarded a US$100, 000 grant from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to continue development of the aircraft. Aside from looking suitably futuristic, the concept plane’s four-pointed star design serves a practical purpose. By rotating in mid air, the plane can transition between broad-wing subsonic and shorter wingspan supersonic configurations.

2011 --  The search area for a missing Cessna 210 carrying six Civil Aviation  officials will be extended on Wednesday after the body of one was found over 17 nautical miles from Playa de Muerto, Darien.

The dead man was identified as Victor Rodriguez, one of six Civil Aviation officials who were in the Cessna 210 which crashed into the sea on Friday August 19.

2011 -- White House is looking at international "trusted traveler" program: 

The Obama administration is looking at streamlining some regulations, including a program to make it easier for travelers from abroad to enter the U.S. The international "trusted traveler" program for low-risk air travelers will save more than seven minutes per person, the Department of Homeland Security says.

2011 -- T wo major industry events took place simultaneously last week – MAKS 2011 in Russia and Unmanned Systems North America – and Flight International had teams at both, to deliver comprehensive show reports. 

2011 -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a short range missile and a torpedo marine system today as Iran marked its  annual "Defence Industry Day," state media Reported.  .

 “Qader (Able) missile, built by the capable hands of Iranian experts, is a marine cruise missile with a 200 kilometer (120 mile) range, possessing high destructive ability which can be used against coastal targets and warships,”  including U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf region, the state television website reported. Ahmadinejad also unveiled a torpedo system called Valfajr (The Dawn) to be used by submarines.

2010 -- EasyJet stops disabled woman from flying because her wheelchair is "health and safety hazard" to ground staff.

2010 -- A Kentucky woman was detained by Tunica County Sheriff's Department after airport screeners found a loaded gun clip in her purse and a handgun in her luggage.

She got on the plane in Louisville and the gun was not detected there. The flight distance from Louisville, Kentucky to Tunica County, Mississippi is: 356 miles / 573 km.

2010 -- The U.S. Coast Guard awards EADS North America a $117 million contract for 3 more HC-144A Ocean Sentry Maritime Patrol Aircraft, with additional options for up to 6 more aircraft over the next 4 years.

2010 -- Marcel Albert, one of the leading French fighter pilots of WW II, flying Soviet-built planes in duels with German aircraft on the Eastern front, died in Harlingen, Texas, U.S.A. He was 92.

Albert was among four pilots of the Free French’s Normandie-Niémen fighter unit to be decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union, receiving the citation in 1944. Flying Yakovlev fighter planes he took part in shooting down 24 German planes.

Created by de Gaulle in 1942 to help repel Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Normandie-Niémen unit was composed of nearly 100 French fighter pilots, almost half of whom were killed in action.

1994 --  Eugene Bullard is posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, 33 years after his death, and 77 years to the day after his rejection for U.S. military service in 1917.

1993 --  The Russian Air Force flies open skies missions over Luftwaffe bases.

1966 -- The Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photograph of the Earth from the space.

The Orbiter program began in 1964; its purpose was to take pictures of as much of the Moon's surface as possible so that scientists could scout potential landing sites for the upcoming Apollo missions. Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched on August 10 and recorded images from the 18th to the 29th. There were five Orbiters in all — the last one launched on August 1, 1967 — and by the time the project was completed, they had images of 99 percent of the lunar surface. The data was recorded on large magnetic tapes, and the resolution wasn't great by modern standards, but it proved invaluable for mapping purposes. It's since been restored and digitized, and the level of detail has allowed scientists to study the weather patterns of that day.  On August 23, just as Orbiter 1 was about to pass behind the Moon, mission controllers sent the command to change the angle of the cameras so that they were pointing at the Earth rather than the surface below. They just managed to capture our home planet's first portrait: a silvery, cloud-swirled crescent rising over the Moon's pockmarked face. 

1958 -- President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, establishing the Federal Aviation Agency (Administration, after the DOT Act passed), to take effect on January 1, 1959. In addition, the bill freed the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) from its administrative connections with the Department of Commerce.

1954 -- First flight YC-130 Hercules from Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California.

1951 -- The X-1D rocket research plane caught fire on its first flight.

Its B-50 carrier plane had to jettison the X-1 to destruction over Edwards AFB, California.

1950 -- The 19th Bomb Group flew the first Razon mission.

With the exception of one bomb that hit a railroad bridge near Pyongyang, the WW II-era-radio control equipment failed to guide the bombs to the target.

1947 -- British aeronautical engineer Roy Chadwick was killed on a test flight near Woodford airfield, Manchester.  The accident was due to an error in an overnight servicing in which the aileron cables were inadvertently crossed.

Chadwick was the Chief Designer for the Avro Company and was responsible for most of their airplane designs. He is famous in particular for designing the Avro Lancaster bomber, its follow-up Avro Lincoln and preliminary designs of the Avro Vulcan V bomber. He also converted the Lincoln into the much-used Shackleton.

1938 -- The American racing and record-breaking pilot Frank Hawks is killed along with his mechanic when his Gwinn Aircraft Aircar becomes entangled in telephone lines shortly after taking off from East Aurora, New York. 

1937 -- First wholly automatic landing in history accomplished.

1923 -- First flight I-1 (Il-400), the first independent design from Nikolai Nikolayevich Polikarpov.

Polikarpov has worked at the RBVZ [Russko-Baltijskij Vagonnyj Zavod (Russo-Baltic Cart Works)] on the Ilya Muromets and later becomes chief engineer at the GAZ-1 plant.

1916 -- Germans form first regular fighter squadron, Jasta 1.

1913 -- Léon Letort carries out the first non-stop flight between Paris and Berlin when he flies his Morane-Saulnier monoplane fitted with an 80-hp Le Rhône engine the 560 miles between the two capitals in 8 hours.

1885 -- Sir Henry Tizard, English chemist, inventor and administrator, is born.

Around 1920, with David Pye, his work on aircraft fuels ultimately led to the octane rating system, which expresses the anti-knocking characteristics of the fuel. In the 1930-40's he advised the British government in the scientific aspects of air defence, particularly radar. He led a mission of leading British and Canadian scientists to the U.S.A. to brief official American representatives on devices under active development for war use and to enlist the support of American scientists. Thus began a close cooperation of Anglo-American scientists in such fields as aeronautics and rocketry. His influence probably made the difference between defeat or victory at the Battle of Britain in 1940.

1878 -- The British government uses its first military aviation budget (£150) to build and fly their first balloon, the Pioneer.

1783 -- Filling of the first hydrogen balloon began, with the gas produced by the action of sulphuric acid on iron.

Following the success of the Montgolfier brother's hot air balloon ascent on June 5, 1783, a 13-ft (4-m) diameter balloon was built by two brothers named Robert, under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences. Its construction was supervised by physicist Jacques A.C. Charles, who had suggested the use of hydrogen rathe than hot air. The process of filling the balloon took place over several days, beginning at the Place des Victoires, Paris. Because of the crowds, it was moved on the night of August 26, to the Champ de Mars, where it was eventually released, on August 27, 1783.

August 8

2012 --  The Dutch armed forces have performed their first surveillance mission in support of NATO's counter-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia using the Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle unmanned air system. 

Operations with the new UAS are being conducted by a detachment of 19 Royal Netherlands Army personnel deployed aboard the HNLMS Rotterdam.With a wingspan of more than 3m (9.8ft), the ScanEagle has a maximum endurance in excess of 16 hours. The aircraft relays live video images from an electro-optical/infrared sensor payload to system operators, and will be used to track the movement of suspected pirate ships.

Two Eurocopter AS532 Cougar transports from the Netherlands Defence Helicopter Command are also deployed aboard the Rotterdam to support the counter-piracy mission, operation Ocean Shield. 

2010 -- Billed as the "first new Amphibian design in 60 years," the Privateer incorporates lightweight carbon fiber composite construction, a shrouded rear-mounted propeller, unique float layout and a lower center of gravity with the aim of optimizing safety for both water and land operations.

2010 -- A Hughes 369HS crashed and caught fire after performing a looping at Borovaya Airfield, near Minsk, Belarus, during the CIS Helicopter Sports Open Cup 2010. It came down a few hundred metres from the spectators.

German pilot Gunter Zimmer, 74-years-old, was killed and the helicopter was destroyed by fire.

2010 -- An Alaska Airlines passenger plane was forced to abort takeoff on Sunday morning when an Eagle was sucked into one of its engines.

2008 -- Arthur Chin, recognized as America's first ace in WW II, was a postal worker in his hometown of Portland, Oregon after his aviation career finished. 

On January 29, 2008, Congressman Representative David Wu (D-Oregon) introduced House Resolution 5220 to name a United States Post Office in Aloha, Oregon after Major Arthur Chin as the "Major Arthur Chin Post Office Building", it was unanimously approved by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. President Bush signed it into law on May 7, 2008 The U.S. Postal Service renamed the Aloha, Oregon post office as the "Major Arthur Chin Post Office Building" on August 8, 2008.

2007 -- Barbara Morgan became the first educator to safely reach space was launched on the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour en route to the International Space Station.

In 1986, she was the alternate for the first teacher selected for a space mission, Christa McAuliffe (who died with six astronauts in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle 73-sec after its launch). Immediately after the Endeavour reached orbit, Mission Control announced: "For Barbara Morgan and her crewmates, class is in session." During the flight, Morgan spoke with students in Idaho, where she had taught elementary classes. In 1998, she moved to Houston for astronaut training.

1996 -- English aviation engineer and pilot who was a pioneer in the field of jet propulsion ¹Sir Frank Whittle died.

1986 -- First flight British Aerospace (BAe) Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP) advanced technology demonstrator fighter.

During this initial test flight the aircraft breaks the sound barrier, recording a speed of Mach 1.1.

1983 -- U.S. President Reagan reported the deployment of two AWACS electronic surveillance planes and eight F-15 fighter planes and ground logistical support forces to assist Chad against Libyan and rebel forces.

1980 -- The death of Jacqueline Cochran is announced. A successful businesswoman, she was also the first female to fly an aircraft at more than the speed of sound and held over 200 United States aviation records simultaneously.

1969 -- Handley Page Ltd goes into voluntary liquidation.

1969 -- The C-131A Samaritan flew its last domestic aeromedical evacuation mission.

Samaritans flew nearly 437,000 accident-free flying hours to airlift some 400,000 patients during their 14-year history in domestic service.

1962 -- In tests to reveal the relationship of speed, altitude and angle of attack to aerodynamic heating of an aircraft's exterior surfaces, Maj. Robert A. Rushworth built up a temperature of 900 degrees F, while flying the X-15 No. 2 at altitudes no higher than 90,000 feet and speeds not exceeding 2,898 mph.

1955 -- Over Edwards AFB, California, the X-1A rocket research plane exploded on its B-29 carrier. Test pilot Joseph Walker exited into B-29 bomb bay without injury.

The B-29 launch aircraft could not be landed with the damaged X-1A aboard, so the rocket plane was jettisoned and destroyed on impact.

The X-1A was the fourth rocket plane destroyed by explosions. The investigations following each crash found no common factor in the accidents. After the X-1A crash, the debris was brought in from the desert and laid out on a hangar floor. The X-1B which had returned from modifications only a week before the loss of the X-1A, was parked next to the debris. When the X-1B's liquid oxygen (LOX) tank was examined, tricresyl phosphate (TCP) was found in both the LOX tank and the LOX lines to the engine. TCP was used to treat the leather gaskets in the tank and LOX lines. Tests indicated that when the leather gaskets were in contact with LOX, the TCP was impact sensitive. The shock of the tanks pressurizing would, under certain conditions, cause it to explode. A reexamination of the four accident indicated that TCP explosions were responsible in each case. The leather gaskets were removed from the X-1B and the surviving X-2, and no further explosions occurred.

1944 -- Obergruppenfuehrer Kammler of the SS put in charge of the V-2 program.

All Army commanders in the rocket program were dismissed and replaced by SS officers.

1929 -- German airship Graf Zeppelin began a round-the-world flight.

1913 -- U.S. Army Signal Corps Lt. Harold Geiger flew an airplane for the first time in Hawaii at the Fort Kamehameha Aviation School. He flew a Curtis E two-seater, Signal Corps No. 8 over Pearl Harbor.

The first Army airplanes, pilots and crews arrived in Oahu in July 1913. The planes were based at Fort Kamehameha, near present-day Hickam Air Force Base.

Lieutenant Harold Geiger, who commanded the aviation assets, arrived in Oahu with two Curtiss float planes, a Curtiss Aeroplane Company mechanic, 12 enlisted men, canvas hangars and other support equipment. However, Geiger's aircraft were in poor shape. His flights were limited to short flights in Pearl Harbor and a longer flight to Diamond Head and back to Fort Kamehameha.

Geiger was ordered to cease all flying operations in late 1913. The planes were sold locally, and the engines were sent back to the North Island Flying School. The Hawaiian Islands wouldn't see any more Army aviation activity until 1917.

1910 -- The first aircraft tricycle landing gear is installed on the U.S. Army's Wright airplane.

This conversion from skids to a wheeled tricycle gear was made on the Army's Wright by Lt. Benjamin Foulois and mechanic O.G. Simmons.

1908 -- Wilbur Wright makes his first flight in Europe by flying the Wright Flyer A from the racetrack at Hunaudières, 5 miles south of Le Mans, France.

1709 -- First known ascent in a hot-air balloon was made in Portugal by Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão - indoors - as a demonstration before the Portuguese court
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¹

July 22

2012 --  U.S. military F-16  fighter jet crashed into the sea off northern Japan, some 470 nautical miles northeast of Nemuro, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) north of Tokyo. The pilot was waiting for rescue at sea after ejecting, the Japanese coast guard said.

2006 -- Manager of flight test and launch operations for the Atlas, Travis L. Maloy died.

2002 -- At McConnell AFB, Kansas, the YAL-1A, the world's first directed-energy combat aircraft, completed its first flight. The YAL-1A, a modified Boeing 747, carried an airborne laser to destroy enemy missiles in their boost phases.

1993 -- U.S. President Clinton said on June 19 a U.S. aircraft had fired a missile at an Iraqi anti-aircraft site displaying hostile intent.

U.S. planes also bombed an Iraqi missile battery on August 19, 1993.

1991 -- The Air Force confirmed that it has discovered cracks in some of its F-16 Falcon fighter planes and called them relatively minor, not enough to ground the fleet.

The cracks are at a point where the wing attaches to the plane's body. The cracks were discovered during routine maintenance checks. The Air Force expects eventually to reinforce the vulnerable spot at the wing joint on all 1,600 F-16s in the U.S. fleet, at a cost of $250 million.

An anonymous source at the at the Miramar Naval Air Station said cracks were discovered about seven months ago at the Top Gun fighter pilot school, and have been found in 13 of the 14 F-16s used at the school.

1989 -- The youngest pilot to fly around the world, 11-years-old, 4th grader, Tony Aliengena, returned to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, nearly seven weeks and 21,567 miles after taking off in a Cessna 210 Centurion.

The around-the-world trip had included good will stops in the Soviet Union. The plane crashed while trying to take off from Alaska while the boy's father was at the controls, giving his son a rest. There were no serious injuries, and the journey was completed. Early, while still age 9-years-old, he was the youngest pilot to cross the continental U.S.

1983 -- WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace (26 victories) William Ernest Bull Staton died, just shy of his 95th birthday.

1983 -- Dick Smith makes the first solo helicopter flight around the world, taking a leisurely 11 months.

The previous year, Ross Perot, Jr., with Jay Colburn had, flying together, established an around the world helicopter flight record. To make the flight possible both Smith and Perot had to hire an ocean-going vessel and predisposition it between Japan and the Aleutians for refueling. Choosing the route was made more difficult at that time, when Russia's airspace was closed. Smith's helicopter is now in the Sydney, Australia, aeronautical museum.

1974 -- 22-23: Helicopters from five US naval vessels evacuated approximately 250 Americans and Europeans from Lebanon during fighting between Lebanese factions after an overland convoy evacuation had been blocked by hostilities.

1948 -- Three B-50s (B-29Ds) from the 43rd Bomb Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, flew around the world.

Lt. Col. R. W. Kline's Gas Gobbler and 1st Lt. Arthur M. Neal's Lucky Lady, completed the flight on August 6, a 20,000-mile in 103 hours, and 50 minutes, The third aircraft crashed into the Arabian Sea.

1940 -- RAF used radar for the first time in shooting down an enemy bomber.

1935 -- Capt. Albert F. Hegenberger received the oak leaf cluster to his Distinguished Flying Cross, and won the 1934 Collier Trophy (his second) for developing and demonstrating a successful blind landing system based on the use of the Fairchild-Kruesi "radio compass.".

In 1927, Lieutenant Hegenberger and Lieutenant Lester J. Maitland were the first to fly 2,400 miles from California to Hawaii, the longest open sea flight to date, in the Bird of Paradise, a Fokker F.VII. They received the Mackay Trophy and the Distinguished Flying Cross from President Calvin Coolidge for this achievement.

1933 -- One-eyed pilot Wiley Post lands his single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft Winnie Mae after completing the first solo flight around the world¹ in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.

Post pioneers the early development of a pressure suit and proves the value of navigating instruments, especially the automatic pilot.

1920 -- Aviation enthusiast David R. Davis and airplane designer Donald W. Douglas team up to form the Davis-Douglas Company. Their goal is to build the first aircraft capable of flying non-stop across the U.S.

Davis put up $40,000 to start the company. Douglas has strong aircraft design credentials. A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was part of the Connecticut Aircraft Company’s design team for the navy’s first dirigible, the DN-1, and worked at the Glenn Martin Company in Los Angeles until it moved to the East Coast in 1916.

1914 -- Britain's first airplane passenger service is launched. The short-lived service flies from Leeds to Bradford and back, on half-hour intervals.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¹ He took off from New York's Floyd Bennett Field on July 15, bound, non-stop, for Berlin. Despite bad weather over the Atlantic, he made it in 26 hours, setting a record for a New York-to-Berlin flight. After a couple false starts, he departed Germany, only to be forced down in Moscow by trouble with his auto-pilot. While more repairs were needed in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, he reached Khabarovsk ten hours ahead of his previous record.

In Alaska, his radio direction-finder malfunctioned, and he got lost.

Worried about the 20,000 foot mountains in his way, he touched down at a 700-foot landing strip in a small mining town, Flat, Alaska. He smashed his prop and right landing gear in the process. Winnie Mae at Flat, Alaska

Some local miners repaired the aircraft, and the prop was flown to Fairbanks to be straightened.

After repairs, he continued on to Edmonton (July 22), and then flew over 2,000 miles non-stop to New York. 50,000 people greeted him when he landed back at Floyd Bennett Field at 11:50 PM, July 22, 1933. Only making eleven stops, despite some major mishaps, he had knocked 21 hours off his previous 1931 record, when he flew around the world in the Winnie Mae with his navigator Harold Gatty, completing the solo flight in 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes.

Wiley Post made his first solo flight in 1926, the year he got his flying license, signed by Orville Wright, despite wearing a patch over his left eye, lost in an oilfield accident. Post invented the first pressurized suit to wear when he flew around the world. Another credit was his research into the jet streams. He died with his passenger, humorist Will Rogers, August 15, 1935 in a plane crash in Alaska.

July 14

2012 -- The entire fleet of U.S. Air Force C-27J cargo aircraft has been ordered grounded following a mechanical failure of one aircraft’s flight control system. The failure occurred during a training mission on July 3 and was described as a “flight control problem” in a written statement released by Air Force officials.

2011 -- Authorities at Madrid's airport have found the body of a Cuban man in the undercarriage of a plane that arrived from Havana.  The man "probably died from being crushed" after apparently hiding in the rear landing gear of the Iberia flight before it left Cuba,

2011 -- Japan has ordered its diplomats not to use the aircraft in the South Korean airline Korean Air for a month, to protest against an overview of islets claimed by both countries.

2010 -- New GAO Reports:

• Commercial Aviation: Better Information about Airline-Imposed Fees and the Refundability of Government-Imposed Taxes and Fees Could Benefit Consumers, GAO-10-885T, (pdf)
• 
  
• Commercial Aviation: Consumers Could Benefit from Better Information about Airline-Imposed Fees and Refundability of Government-Imposed Taxes and Fees, GAO-10-785, (pdf)
• 
  
• Defense Acquisitions: Missile Defense Program Instability Affects Reliability of Earned Value Management Data, GAO-10-676, (pdf)

 2001  -- A prototype Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile interceptor successfully targeted and destroyed an unarmed Minuteman II ICBM over the central Pacific. Ten minutes after launch, the interceptor destroyed the warhead, traveling some 15,000 mph at more than 140 miles in altitude above the Earth. The 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg AFB, California, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization conducted the Ground-base Midcourse Defense Segment, formerly called the National Missile Defense Program, test.

1993 -- C-17 Globemaster III entered service with the U.S. Air Force.

1980 -- From Vandenberg AFB, California, the 394th Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Test Maintenance Squadron launched the last Block 5D-1 Defense Meteorological Satellite. A Thor booster failed to place it in orbit.

1977 -- A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook was downed over the Korean demilitarized zone by a North Korean MiG-21.  The CH-47's pilot was captured and the other three crew members, Robert Haynes, Joseph Miles and Ronald Wells, were killed. The pilot was released after 57 hours of captivity.

1974 -- Gen. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, the first Chief of Staff, died at Walter Reed General Hospital at the age of 83.

1970 -- The C-5A Galaxy completed its first transpacific flight of 21,500 miles, inaugurating service to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, Andersen AFB, Guam, Clark AFB, Philippines and Kadena AFB, Japan.

1965 -- The Mariner 4 satellite sent a transmission of the first close-up photograph of Mars. It consisting of 8.3 dots per second of varying degrees of darkness. The transmission lasted for 8.5 hours and depicted the regions on Mars known as Cebrenia, Arcadia, and Amazonis. The satellite was 134 million miles away from earth and 10,500 miles from Mars.

1953 -- Austrian-American mathematician and aerodynamicist Richard von Mises died. His early work centered on aerodynamics. He investigated turbulence, making fundamental advances in boundary-layer-flow theory and airfoil design. Much of his work involved numerical methods and this led him to develop new techniques in numerical analysis. He developed the Distortion energy theory of stress, which is one of the most important concepts used by engineers in material strength calculations.

1960 -- The Congo airlift started from Evreus, France during Operation Safari.

1951 -- Boeing delivered the first KC-97E tanker to Strategic Air Command's 306th Air Refueling Squadron at MacDill AFB, Florida.

1950 -- The 35th Fighter-Interceptor Group moved from Japan to a new airfield at Pohang, thus becoming the first U.S. Air Force fighter group to be based in South Korea during the war. The 6132nd Tactical Air Control Squadron, the first tactical air control unit in the war, activated at Taegu, AB to provide forward, ground-based air control for aircraft providing close air support of U.N. forces.

1948 -- First jet aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  Six de Havilland Vampire F3s of No 54 Squadron RAF, commanded by Wing Commander D S Wilson-MacDonald, DSO, DFC, via Stornoway, Iceland, and Labrador to Montreal on the first leg of a goodwill tour of Canada and the U.S.

1948 -- In the first West-East transatlantic flight of jets, 16 F-80s flew from Selfridge Field, Michigan, U.S.A.,  to Scotland through July 20. The trip across the Atlantic took nine hours, and 20 minutes.

1914 -- Goddard patents liquid fuel rocket.  Goddard receives U.S. Patent 1,103,503. Although mainly concerned with his concept of cartridge rockets, a brief section fully outlines the concept of liquid rocket propulsion.

1894 -- Neil Campbell, a professional balloonist, flew from Horsham, West Sussex, U.K.

Flight ended on the ascent, when he was dashed against a chimney in a strong wind. He suffered a fractured skull & thigh, in addition to numerous other injuries. Spent 5-weeks in a hospital, left directly to the divorce court to request release from alimony (1-Pound/week) until he could work again.