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2009 - UFO Landing Pad...?
2009 - Obama's Air Force One flight to Chicago and back Monday to cost $236,000.
Secret Service protection, motorcades and helicopter transports not included.
2007 - A single-engine plane that crashed in a Southwest Portland, Oregon neighborhood, killing all three people on board.The crash killed William Shepard, his wife, Jeannine, and their 12-year-old grandson, Benjamin Shepard, when the small plane crashed in a residential neighborhood west of the 645-acre Tryon Creek State Natural Area. The four-seat private plane was a Lancair IV fixed-wing turbo prop. It took off from Hillsboro Airport just before 9 a.m., and flew in and out of the clouds, then crashed in the backyard of a home on Southwest Lancaster Road about five minutes after takeoff. Shepard, 64, and his wife, 63, were from Idleyld Park in Douglas County. Benjamin Shepard was from Aloha. They were on their way to Kansas to take Benjamin to a space camp. Their flight plan called for them to refuel in Idaho.
2007 - First flight Boeing A160T Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft from an airfield near Victorville, California.The A160T is a turbine-powered version of the piston-powered A160 helicopter. The Hummingbird features a unique optimum speed rotor technology that significantly improves overall performance efficiency by adjusting the rotor system's revolutions per minute at different altitudes, gross weights and cruise speeds. The autonomous unmanned aircraft, measuring 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diameter, eventually will fly more than 140 knots with a ceiling of 25,000 to 30,000 ft. (high hover capability up to 15,000 ft.) for up to 20 hours.
2007 - The last operational F-16A Fighting Falcon flew its final mission from Arizona's Tucson Air National Guard Base today, taking off for indefinite storage at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
The 162nd Fighter Wing, having flown the A and B models since taking on the F-16 training mission in 1985, retired its one remaining F-16A and two F-16B model aircraft, completing its conversion to the more modern F-16C and F-16D.
2007 - First flight of KC-30B aerial refueling tanker, the first of five being assembled by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co EADS for the Royal Australian Air Force.
1998 - U.S. F-16 fighter jets took off as part of a 13-nation, 85 warplane NATO show of force over Albania and Macedonia. Meanwhile Serb forces attacked 4 Kosovo villages with grenades and helicopter gunships and began sealing off the border to Albania.
1996 - Gerhardt Drawe, Rocket engineer, died this date.German expert in guided missiles during WW II. Member of the German rocket team, arrived in America under Project Paperclip on November 16, 1945.
1984 - The first Peacekeeper with a Mark-21 Reentry Vehicle completed a flight test at Vandenberg AFB, California.The Peacekeeper (designated LGM-118A) is a four-stage intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying up to ten independently-targetable reentry vehicles with great accuracy. Its design combines advanced technology in fuels, guidance, nozzle design, and motor construction with protection against the hostile nuclear environment associated with land-based systems. The Peacekeeper is much larger than Minuteman, over 70 feet long and weighing 198,000 pounds. It is a four stage missile like the Minuteman III, with the first three stages being solid propellant and the fourth stage bu hypergolicly fueled with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. Although capable of carrying eleven Mark 21 RVs, treaty limits mandated deploying the Peacekeeper with only ten RVs. The entire missile is encased in a canister in the silo to protect it against damage and to permit "cold launch". The Minuteman II and III ignite their first stage engines while in the LF, but the Peacekeeper is ejected by pressurized gas some fifty feet into the air before first stage ignition.
1984 - U.S. Air Force Military Airlift Command C-130s flew 4.5 tons of pumps and other equipment from Dyess AFB, Texas to Kansas City, Missouri, to assist in flood fighting efforts in northwest Missouri.
1978 - U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command demilitarized and removed the last Hound Dog missiles from its inventory at the 42nd BMW, Loring AFB, Maine.
1978 - SOYUZ 29 launched.
Cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalyonok and Alexander Ivanchenkov docked with Salyut 6 space station on June 17. Returned to Earth in Soyuz 31, November 2, after 4-1/2 months' stay and visits by two pairs of cosmonauts where there. Return landing in Kazakhstan.
1972 - A 42nd Bombardment Wing B-52G crew from Loring AFB, Maine, launched the first operational short range attack missile at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
1971 - The first Titan III-D space booster launched from Vandenberg, AFB, California.
It was a two-stage liquid-fueled, core vehicle with two additional outboard strap-on thrust pods of solid propellant.
1971 - Vasili Vasilyevich Parin, Russian scientist, died this date.
1970 - A C-130 flew the final Blind Bat flare mission over the Barrel Roll area of Laos. The Pacific Air Forces' C-130s involved in this mission returned to Naha AB, Okinawa.
1969 - The second C-5A set several records; heaviest takeoff at 762,800 pounds and heaviest landing with 600,000 pounds.
1967 - A DC-3 transport plane (9G-AAD) of Ghana Airways is added to the Biafran air force, after being hijacked from Port Harcourt International Airport.
1965 - U.S. planes bomb targets in North Vietnam, but refrain from bombing Hanoi and the Soviet missile sites that surround the city. On June 17, two U.S. Navy jets downed two communist MiGs, and destroyed another enemy aircraft three days later. U.S. planes also dropped almost 3 million leaflets urging the North Vietnamese to get their leaders to end the war. These missions were part of Operation Rolling Thunder, launched in March 1965, after President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a sustained bombing campaign of North Vietnam. The operation was designed to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of the North Vietnam and to slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. During the early months of this campaign, there were restrictions against striking targets in or near Hanoi and Haiphong, but in July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include the bombing of North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities. In the spring of 1967, it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas. The White House closely controlled Operation Rolling Thunder and at times President Johnson personally selected the targets. From 1965 to 1968, about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson halted it entirely on October 31, 1968, under increasing domestic political pressure.
1965 - U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command declared the 400th Strategic Missile Squadron to be operational at Francis E. Warren AFB, Wyoming.
This act ended the deployment of 800 Minuteman Is in 16 squadrons.
1963 - The Air Force launched its 200th Thor missile.
1960 - First flight of the Mi-10 helicopter.
1959 - The 463rd Tactical Carrier Wing at Sewart AFB, Tennessee, received the first C-130B.
1953 - The USS Princeton launched 184 sorties and established a single-day Korean War record for offensive sorties flown from the deck of a carrier.
1953 - Major James Jabara, the third ranking American ace of the Korean War, shot into the left wing, engine and canopy of Lt. Dick Frailey’s North American F-86 Sabre, mistaking it for a MiG-15.
Several rounds passed between Frailey’s arm and chest, ripping through his instrument panel. With 64 missions over Korea under his belt, Frailey was an experienced combat veteran. Ironically, he was flying Jabara’s usual aircraft on this mission and often flew as his wingman. The Air Force tried to keep the incident secret because it reflected poorly on Jabara, a celebrated war hero. Moreover, Air Force officials didn’t want the public to know about one of the factors that had contributed to this case of mistaken identity: American pilots frequently violated the rules of engagement prohibiting flight into Chinese airspace. Frailey’s flight leader had taken his four Sabres north of the Yalu River on a MiG sweep. Jabara saw the flight’s contrails tracking from the north across the border to the south and assumed they were a formation of MiGs. His pursuit curve put him on Frailey’s tail.
1952 - In aerial combat, 2nd Lt. James F. Dad Low,¹ 335th FIS, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, destroyed his fifth MiG, becoming the 17th ace of the Korean War just six months after completing flight training.
Unlike the older pilots, many of them WW II veterans, Low became proficient in the use of the new A-4 automatic ranging gunsights on the E and F models of the F-86 Sabre.
1951 - WW I Royal Air Force ace Canadian Harold Leslie Edwards died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As an observer flying Bristol Fighters with 20 Squadron, Edwards was credited with downing 21 Fokker D.VIIs before he was wounded in action, taking a bullet through the lungs on October 21, 1918. When the war ended, he returned to Canada and became a car salesman.
1944 - Forty-seven B-29 crews based in India and staging through Chengdu, China, attack steel mills at Yawata in the first B-29 strike against Japan.1945 - U.S. B-29 Superfortress bombers drop 3,000 tons of bombs on Osaka, Japan.
1944 - The first B-29 Superfortress raid on Japan is conducted. Bombers from the US 20th Air Force in China attack Yawatta on Kyushu.
1943 - The 58th Bombardment Wing, the Army Air Forces' first B-29 unit, is established at Marietta, Georgia.
1943 - First flight of Germany's Arado Ar 234 Blitz: Strahlbomber jet bomber.
Designed by Arado Flugzeugwerke engineers Walter Blume and Hans Rebeski and proposed to the Air Ministry in early 1941 this was an extemely clean and straightforward aircraft of all-metal stressed-skin construction, with a smooth flush-rivited exterior skin. The tapered wing was mounted on top of the slender fuselage, and the two turbojet engines were underslung below the wing in near nacelles about the same distance from the centerline that one might have expected with a piston engine.³ Total production of this aircraft was 210, but many failed to see combat duty.
1940 - A U.S. Navy bill passes into law. This provides for a much expanded air corps, with 10,000 planes and 16,000 more aircrew.
1938 - Von Braun is discharged from the Luftwaffe.
1936 - First flight Westland Lysander.
Renowned for its ability to operate from small, unprepared airstrips. This exceptional short-field performance made possible clandestine missions behind enemy lines that placed or recovered agents, particularly in occupied France. Like other British army air co-operation aircraft, it was given the name of a military leader; in this case, the Spartan general Lysander.
1936 - First flight Vickers Wellington.
Remembered by the RAF and the people of Britain as the Wimpey--a nickname derived from an American cartoon character possessing the proud name J. Wellington Wimpey. It was widely used as a night-time bomber in the early years of WW II, before being displaced as a bomber by the larger four-engined heavies such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington continued to serve throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft. It was the only British bomber to be produced for the entire duration of the war.
1935 - First flight of the ANT-37 (DB-2) long distance bomber with two piston engines.
Two built. During flight testing it crashed due to horizontal tail vibrations. It was updated as the ANT-37bis "Rodina(Motherland)" and in 1938 it beat the record of women long distance flights. Production cancelled in favour of the TsKB-30/DB-3. The DB-2 was a development of the ANT-25 long-range aircraft.
A civilian research pilot for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California from 1968 until 1986. He was involved in many research programs, including those with experimental wings, propulsion and digital computer flight control systems. Among the NASA aircraft that he flew were the F-111, F-14, F-8 DFBW and SCW, YF-12A, the oblique wing AD-1, Controlled Deep Stall Sailplane, sub-scale F-15 RPV spin research vehicle and the X-24B Lifting Body.
1928 -Mail is successfully transferred from an airplane in flight to a train as Lt. Karl S. Axtater flies directly over an Illinois Central train and transfers a mail bag to a railway clerk.
1928 - An Imperial Airways AW Argosy piloted by Gordon Olley races the London and North Eastern Railway’s Flying Scotsman train the 390 miles from London to Edinburgh; the Argosy takes 84 minutes to refuel twice en route and beats the train by only 15 minutes.
The AW Argosy was 3 engined biplane airliner was Armstrong-Whitworth's first aircraft design, stemming from a declaration by Imperial Airways that all it's aircraft would be multi-engined designs on the grounds of safety. They were intended to replace the older single-engined de Havilland aircraft that Imperial Airways had inherited from its constituent companies, mainly Daimler Airways.
1924 - First Soviet passenger aircraft, the Latyshskiy Strelok AK-1 is delivered to Dobrolet at the M.V. Frunze Central Airfield.
1922 - Test pilot V.I. Semenchenko is born in Russia.
1919 - Capt. John Alcock (pilot) and Lt. Arthur W. Browne (navigator) successfully completed the first, non-stop, transatlantic, airplane flight.
They flew from Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland in 16 hours and 12 minutes and won the prize offered by the London Daily Mail. Their aircraft was a Vickers Vimy (which was originally designed as a bomber to be used during WW I.) They faced many problems. Their radio broke down shortly after take off. Fog and drizzle prevented the fliers from seeing anything for much of the journey. They aimed to land in a green field but instead it turned out to be a bog. The plane suffered some damage when it hit the ground and sank into the bog. Both Alcock and Brown came away unhurt.
1918 - First Soviet (Second All-Russian) aviation congress opened in Moscow, at which 253 delegates participated (including 120 military flyers and 30 aircraft factory workers).
The aviation congress approves the resolution to form TsAGI.
1917 - Fighter pilot I.A. Vishnyakov is born.
1916 - Shturmovik pilots I.F. Boronin and I.M. Kuznetsov are born.
1915 - Test pilot V.P. Fedorov is born in Russia.
1910 -The world’s youngest flyer, 15-year-old Frenchman Marcel Hanriot, gets his pilot’s brevet, no. 15.
1907 - Shturmovik pilot A.A. Devyat'yrov is born.
1906 - Melvin N. Gough, American manager, is born.
Gough earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins in 1926 and joined the wind tunnel staff of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory. Taking a leave of absence, he learned to fly with the Navy at Pensacola and became an NACA test pilot in 1929. He logged more than 6,000 hours of flying time and flew more than 300 different airplanes under test conditions. In 1943 he became director of flight research activities at Langley. He was assigned in 1958 as director of NASA activities at the Atlantic Missile Range, Cape Canaveral, Florida. In 1960 he became director of the bureau of safety at the Civil Aeronautics Board. Two years later, he joined the FAA as director of the new aircraft development service. He retired in 1963.
1898 - Hubertus Strughold, German-American physiologist, known as the "father of space medicine," is born.
In the late 1920's, he began investigating the physiological aspects of what he called the "vertical frontier" in Germany, when even simple aeromedicine was considered far-fetched. After WW II, the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine moved Strughold to America.² to join their staff. Among the fundamental studies initiated were those in acceleration, noise and vibration, atmospheric control, weightlessness and nutrition. He invented the space cabin simulator for testing human reactions in a manned satellite, and contributed enormously to such space-travel problems as weightlessness, visual disturbances, and disruption of normal time cycles.
1897 - Imperial German Air Service ace (5 victories) Leutnant Karl Christ is born in Darmstadt, German.
He served with the Luftwaffe during WW II.
1892 - French Air Service ace (7 victories) Adjudant James Alexander Connelly, Jr., is born Merion, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
1892 - Hubertus Strughold German-American physiologist, known as the father of space medicine is born.
In the late 1920's, he began investigaing the physiological aspects of what he called the "vertical frontier" in Germany, when even simple aeromedicine was considered far-fetched. After WW II, the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine moved Strughold to America.³ to join their staff. Among the fundamental studies initiated were those in acceleration, noise and vibration, atmospheric control, weightlessness and nutrition. He invented the space cabin simulator for testing human reactions in a manned satellite, and contributed enormously to such space-travel problems as weightlessness, visual disturbances, and disruption of normal time cycles.
1892 - Royal Flying Corps ace (6 victories) Capt. Claud Robert James Thompson is born in Australia.
1892 - Royal Flying Corps ace (20 victories) Major Keith Rodney Park is born in Thames, near Auckland, Australia.
Park scored 20 victories by the end of the war. 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.
1785 - First fatal aviation accident.
Two French aeronauts Jean Francois Pilâtre de Rozier and P.A. de Romain, attempting to cross the English Channel from France to England in a balloon were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed to the ground. Pilâtre de Rozier, the first man to fly, thus became a fatality in the first fatal accident in aviation history.
1752 - Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm.
Franklin's kite-flying experiment proved lightning and electricity were related while flying a kite with a key attached
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¹ 20th Century Fox's "The Hunters" remained the premier jet air-to-air combat film in terms of its aerial proficiency until the advent of "Top Gun" and its imitators. The movie was based on a novel by James Salter (the pen name of James Horowitz, West Point class of 1945. The novel and movie`s "bad guy," Lt. Pell, is a defiant, risk taking junior fighter jock, played in the movie by Robert Wagner (I`m a killer man! I cut em up,you know!)Both Low and Salter acknowledge that the "Pell" character is, in fact, James F. Low. Korean War historians speculate that Robert Mitchum`s character, Major Cleveland Saville, is based on one or two of the four USAF Medal of Honor recipients from the Korean War: either Maj. Louis J. Sebille, who died in his F-51 as commander of the 67th FBS, 18th FBW, or double ace Maj. George A. Davis, shot down in his F-86 as commander of the 334th FIS, 4th FIW. The movie`s 54th Fighter Group is apparently a contraction of the actual 4th and 51st F-86 Fighter Interceptor Wings from Korea. American F-84F Thunderchiefs were painted up and used for the Russian-built MiG-15 in both "The Hunters" and "The McConnell Story."
² The United States used Nazi scientists during the Cold War to beat the Russians in the space race. For that help, some Nazis avoided war crimes trials. During WW II, Strughold was the Nazi director of medical research for aviation, in Germany, and is said to have experimented on, tortured and killed Jews and Gypsies at the Dachau concentration camp. Prisoners were frozen to near death and rewarmed to see how quickly they would recover.
³ The prototype had an unconventional landing gear--on takeoff the Ar 234 was to ride on a large three-wheeled trolley, and it would land on a central skid, with small stabilizing skids under the engine nacelles. It was quickly realized that there would be no end of trouble with such a system. For example, in mass operations the airfield would quickly become filled with immobile planes which would obstruct following aircraft and present helpless targets to straffing aircraft.
³ The United States used Nazi scientists during the Cold War to beat the Russians in the space race. For that help, some Nazis avoided war crimes trials. During WW II, Strughold was the Nazi director of medical research for aviation, in Germany, and is said to have experimented on, tortured and killed Jews and Gypsies at the Dachau concentration camp. Prisoners were frozen to near death and rewarmed to see how quickly they would recover.
Cut and Paste Aviation Archive
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