Milestones of Flight: 6/26

2008 - COSMOS 2440 satellite launched by Commonwealth of Independent States (former USSR) (CIS).

COSMOS 2440 will help warn Russian military forces of worldwide missile launches.

2008 - Two Seattle-area students have won scholarships from the Cascade Warbirds, a group of private citizens who own vintage military aircraft.

Taylor Barrett and Garrett LeFeber will use the scholarships to attend EAA's Air Academy in Oshkosh in July.

2008 - An Air India flight headed for Mumbai overshot its destination and was halfway to Goa before its dozing pilots were woken out of a deep slumber by air traffic control.

The high altitude nap took place approximately two weeks ago, the Times of India reported Air India today said a plane had overshot its Mumbai destination on June 4 but furiously denied it was because the pilots were sleeping, putting the glitch down to a brief communications breakdown.

2008 - European aerospace group EADS rolled out the A400M heavy airlifter for its first public viewing at the aircraft's new production facility in Seville, southern Spain.

The four-engine turbo-prop aircraft will add urgently needed tactical and strategic airlift capacity to seven European NATO nations, and is expected to replace the ageing fleet of C-130 Hercules that see action daily in Afghanistan and Iraq. But production has been delayed by 6 to 12 months, amid wrangling between developers over engine performance.

The big fuss over this aircraft lies mainly in its wings. They are made mostly of hi-tech carbon fibre and are manufactured in the U.K. There are metal elements, but there is more carbon fibre in this plane than anything Airbus has yet made. Airbus is betting that making wings out of carbon fibre will cut the fuel consumption by at least 20%.

2008 - A British TV network is planning is to launch its own celebrity-run airline for a reality show that will see 12 famous faces take on roles such as cabin crew and complaints handlers while real passengers pay to fly to destinations including Ibiza.

The eight-part series, which is being likened to a celebrity version of the ITV docusoap Airline, will see a plane chartered from an established airline and rebranded CelebAir, the name of the ITV2 series. CelebAir will have its own ticketing website and backroom operation.

2008 - Applying the "polluter pays" principle, European Union governments struck a provisional deal with lawmakers today to include aviation from 2012 in the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).

Aviation generates 3 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the 27-member bloc but has been kept out of the ETS so far because of concerns that its inclusion would damage the industry's ability to compete in international markets. But apparently not anymore.

2007 - President Nicolas Sarkozy opened a new terminal at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport today, clearly constructed with an eye on the new Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, where British Airways will group a large proportion of its services. The boarding satellite will be able to handle 8.5m extra passengers a year and the forthcoming Airbus superjumbo.

"A country that doesn't have projects is a country without ambition, a country that does not have a future," Sarkozy said after visiting the glass building at Charles de Gaulle, which cost EUR645 million euros (USD$868 million) to build.

Paris airports operator Aeroports de Paris (ADP) says the new terminal area, which is the size of 40 soccer fields, will be able to process 26 planes simultaneously when it is fully operational later this year, including six A380 superjumbos.

2007 - Scottish ruling could reopen the question of who ordered and carried out the bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.

An eight-member independent review commission will announce at noon (1000 GMT) on Thursday whether it will refer the case of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to the Scottish High Court as a possible miscarriage of justice.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 by Scottish judges sitting in a special court in the Netherlands and jailed for life. He has been serving his sentence in Scotland.

2007 - For the second time in four months, the FAA has revised its air traffic controller retirement projections for the current 2007 fiscal year, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said in a news release today.

2007 - Maj. Gregory D. Young, 142nd Wing, Oregon Air National Guard, crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a training mission this afternoon.

There was no ejection from the plane and Maj. Young died in the crash.

2001 - John Finley Yardley, retired engineer who played central role in fledgling days of space flight and set stage for space shuttle program, dies at 76-years-old.

Headed the Mercury, Gemini, and Skylab programs at McDonnell; led development of the space shuttle through its first flight at NASA.

2000 - First flight Turkish Aerospace Industries ZIU.

1999 - NATO reopened the main airport in Kosovo, 10 miles west of Pristina.

The first flight was a Russian cargo plane. An advance contingent of Russian troops flew into Kosovo to help reopen a strategic airport and join an uneasy alliance with NATO peacekeepers.¹

1994 - A C-5 from the 60th Airlift Wing, Travis AFB, California, flew a 34-ton Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine to Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Medical specialists there used the machine to treat victims of the 1986 nuclear reactor meltdown.

1993 - President Bill Clinton announced the U.S. had launched missiles against Iraqi targets because of "compelling evidence" Iraq had plotted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush.

1992 - Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III resigned, accepting responsibility for a "leadership failure" that resulted in the Tailhook sex-abuse scandal.

1988 - An Air France Airbus A320 on a demonstration flight at an airshow at Mulhouse-Habsheim crashes and kills four people, including the pilot and co-pilot.

1983 - Three U.S. Air Force C-130s moved 170 tons of food, medicine, and other relief supplies to help victims of a flood in northwestern Peru.

1972 - The shift of fighter-bomber squadrons, involving up to 150 U.S. planes and more than 2,000 pilots from Da Nang, to bases in Thailand is completed.

The shift was necessitated by the pending withdrawal of the U.S. infantry brigade that provided security for flyers at Da Nang. The departure of the U.S. unit was part of President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization program that he had instituted in June 1969. Under this program, the responsibility for the war was to be gradually transferred to the South Vietnamese so U.S. forces could be withdrawn.

1972 - The Air Force unveiled the F-15 superiority fighter in ceremonies at the McDonnell Douglas facility in St. Louis.

1971 - The last F-100 unit in Southeast Asia, the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing at Phan Rang AB, South Vietnam, ceased operations.

1968 - U.S. Air Force Captain Johnnie Clayton Cornelius, pilot, and Major Robert Francis Woods, instructor pilot,were flying a visual reconnaissance mission over Quang Binh Province, Vietnam, when their 0-2A Skymaster aircraft crashed in a remote mountainous area.

Their aircraft was seen to roll in on the target and suddenly go into a steep bank, crash into trees and explode. The crew of another aircraft in the flight saw no parachutes and reported hearing no emergency beeper signals. Immediate search efforts were unsuccessful. Between 1988 and 1993, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated the incident and surveyed the crash site. The team interviewed several Vietnamese citizens, two of whom turned over human remains and the pilots' identification tags. Between 1994 and 1997, joint teams re-surveyed the site two times to find a landing location to support a helicopter and recovery team. During their survey, one team found additional wreckage and life-support material. Between 2000 and 2004, joint teams excavated the site four times. They recovered additional human remains, personal effects and life support materials. In 2006, a joint team interviewed two former North Vietnamese soldiers who recalled the crash. The soldiers said that Woods and Cornelius were buried near the crash site. In 2007, another joint team excavated the burial site identified by the Vietnamese soldiers. The team recovered additional human remains. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the remains. Pilot's remains come home after 39 years.

1964 - U.S. Air Force C-130s delivered more than 950 tons of food to remote areas in Pakistan affected by flooding through July 24.

1963 - A Thor-Delta rocket launched NASA's SYNCOM II communications satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral. Five hours later, an apogee kick motor fired to place the satellite into a synchronous orbit.

1957 - Robert James Wood, American astronaut, Payload Specialist, is born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

1957 - U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Command's first WB-66 weather reconnaissance aircraft arrived for duty with the 9th Reconnaissance Squadron, 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Shaw AFB, South Carolina.

1956 - Dr. Bernard Andrew Harris Jr., M.D., American astronaut, NASA Group 13--1990, is born in Temple, Texas.

First African-American to walk in space.

1952 - William Arthur Pailes, American astronaut, DoD Group 2--1982, is born in Hackensack, New Jersey.

1950 - South Korea requested 10 F-51s from the U.S. Air Force to supplement the South Korean air force's AT-6s and liaison-type airplanes.

In continued preparation for air evacuation of U. .citizens from Korea, FEAF traded C-54s for C-47s from all over the Far East, because the latter could land on smaller airfields.

USAF SB-17 aircraft provided rescue cover for the initial evacuation by sea of U.S. citizens from Seoul. Beginning in the early morning, 682 people boarded the Norwegian merchant ship Reinholte, which finally left Inchon Harbor at 4:30 p.m., bound for Sasebo, Japan.

F-82G Twin Mustang fighters of the 68th Fighter All-Weather Squadron (FAWS) provided air cover for freighters, including the Reinholte. Fifth Air Force also flew escort and surveillance sorties, some over the straits between Japan and Korea and some over the Seoul area.

FEAF did send the ten requested F-51 Mustang fighters to the ROK forces.

1948 - The Berlin Airlift begins with the first planes taking off from bases in England and western Germany and landing in West Berlin.

Two days earlier the Soviet Union blocked all road and rail travel to and from West Berlin, which was located within the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. The Soviet action was in response to the refusal of American and British officials to allow Russia more say in the economic future of Germany. The U.S. government was shocked by the provocative Soviet move, and some in President Harry S. Truman's administration called for a direct military response. Truman, however, did not want to cause WW III. Instead, he ordered a massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin. It was a daunting logistical task to provide food, clothing, water, medicine, and other necessities of life for the over 2 million fearful citizens of the city. For nearly a year, Allied planes landed around the clock. Over 200,000 planes carried in more than one-and-a-half million tons of supplies.

1948 - The 7th Bomb Group at Carswell AFB, Texas, received Strategic Air Command's first B-36A Peacemaker.

With its 160-foot length and 230-foot wingspan, the six-engine Peacemaker was the world's largest warplane. The bomber had an intercontinental capability.

1947 - First flight of the La-160 from the S.A. Lavochkin OKB.

Developed as Project Strela. Swept wing test aircraft and fighter prototype. The La-160 was a swept-wing development of the La-152. It was the first swept-wing Soviet fighter. Used mainly for research, because the aircraft was too small to carry much fuel or armament.

1946 - The U.S. Army Air Force and Navy adopt the “knot” and “nautical mile” as standard aeronautical units for speed and distance. A nautical mile is about 6.080 ft. (1,853 m), and knot is the equivalent of one nautical mile per hour.

1945 - American B-29 Superfortress bombers launch the first in a series of nighttime raids against Japanese oil refineries.



1942 - First flight of the prototype Grumman XF6F-1 Hellcat.

1939 - Ansar Ilgamovich Sharafutdinov, Russian cosmonaut, Air Force Group 3--1965, is born in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

1936 - The first flight of the first practical helicopter with two side-by-side rotors is made in Germany.

Designed by Henrich Focke, the Focke-Achgelis FW-61 makes many flights, the longest being one hour and 20 minutes. It had a normal airplane fuselage and tail unit and was powered by a 160 hp Siemens-Halske Sh.14A engine mounted in the nose. Two three-bladed rotors were mounted on the tipe of inclined steel-tube outrigger pylongs. Piloted by Ewald Rohlfs, it established several FAI-recognized records for helicopters during 1937. In 1938 Hanna Reitsch flew the Fw 61 from Stendal to Berlin, flying forwards, backwards, and sideways.

First flight Airspeed AS 6 Envoy.

1934 - First flight Airspeed AS.6 Envoy light, twin-engined transport aircraft.

The Envoy was designed by N.S. Norway and A.H. Tiltman as a twin-engined development of the Courier. It used the same wooden construction, outer wing panels and aft-retracting main undercarriage legs.

1925 - Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev, Russian cosmonaut, Air Force Group 1--1960, is born in Chelizshevo, Vologda, Russia.

1918 - Canadian flying ace Lt. Edward Carter Eaton is was killed in action by Fritz Rumey of Jasta 5.

This was Rumey's 25th and final victory.

1918 - Imperial German Air Service ace (13 victories) Oberflugmeister Kurt Schönfelder, a naval pilot attached to Jasta 7, was killed in combat when his black Fokker D.VII, distinctively marked with a gold star on the fuselage, was shot down by the Sopwith Camels of 210 Squadron.

1918 - Imperial German Air Service ace (10 victories) Leutnant Werner Steinhäuser was killed in action when his Fokker DR.I was shot down over Neuilly, France.

1917 - Birth of P.A. Solov’ev, General Designer of the AO Aviadvigatel’ Engine Design Bureau.

1914 - Lyman Spitzer, Jr, American astrophysicist, is born.

He advanced knowledge of physical processes in interstellar space and pioneered efforts to harness nuclear fusion as a clean energy source. He made major contributions in stellar dynamics and plasma physics. He founded study of the interstellar medium (gas and dust between stars from which new stars are formed). Spitzer studied in detail interstellar dust grains and magnetic fields as well as the motions of star clusters and their evolution. He studied regions of star formation and was among the first to suggest that bright stars in spiral galaxies formed recently. Spitzer was the first person to propose the idea of placing a large telescope in space and was the driving force behind the development of the Hubble Space Telescope.

1911 - As spectators watch in amazement, Lincoln Beachey flies his Curtiss pusher biplane over Horseshoe Falls, the most spectacular of the Niagara Falls.

1909 - The first commercial sale of an airplane in the United States is made as Glenn H. Curtiss sells one of his planes to the Aeronautic Society of New York for $7,500.

This action spurs the Wright brothers to begin a patent suit to prevent him from selling airplanes without a license.

1902 - William P. Lear, self-taught American electrical engineer, is born in Hannibal, Missouri.

He is best known for the Lear Jet Corporation he founded, the world's first mass-producer of business jet aircraft. Beginning in 1930, over a 20 year period, he secured more than 100 patents for aircraft radios, communications and navigation equipment. Lear's other inventions include the miniature automatic pilot for aircraft, the first commercial automobile radio, and the eight-track stereo tape player.

1898 - Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft engineer and designer, is born in Frankfurt-am-Main.

He studied at the Munich Institute of Technology, and in 1926 joined the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke as its chief designer and engineer. In 1938 the company became the Messerschmitt-Aitken-Gesellschaft, producing military aircraft. His Me109 set a world speed record in 1939, and during WW II he supplied the Luftwaffe with its foremost types of combat aircraft. In 1944 he produced the Me262 fighter, the first jet plane flown in combat, and the Me 163 Komet.

By the end of WW II, his factories were devastated, and Messerschmitt was arrested in 1945. Subsequently, he was tried in a Nazification court in 1948, found to be a reluctant beneficiary" of the regime and was forbidden to design aircraft.

Messerschmit rebuilt his company as a manufacturer of pre-fabricated houses, sewing machines and motor scooters. He was later employed to design jet aircraft for the Spanish and Egyptian governments.

By 1958, Messerschmitt had returned making aircraft, with NATO contracts for co-production of aircraft.

Between 1968 and 1969, as a result of mergers, the conglomerate Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm GmbH was built. This company manufactured aircraft, missiles, spacecraft, railroad vehicles and highway vehicles, and for the rest of his career, Messerschmitt was honorary chairman.

He died on 15 September 1978, leaving his personal fortune to be used for the restoration of cultural monuments in Europe.

1897 - Royal Flying Corps ace (15 victories) Lt. Alfred Stanley Mills is born in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

1893 - Italian Air Service ace (6 victories) Sergente Cosimo Rizzotto is born in Colognola ai Colli, Italy.

1869 - Largest hydrogen balloon ever to make a free (untethered) ascent, makes a short flight from the Champs de Mars in Paris, France. It has a capacity of 424,000 cubic feet (c. 130,000 cubic meters).

1810 - Joseph Montgolfier, French ballooning pioneer, died this date.

Wth his younger brother, Étienne.made an initial experiment with a balloon of taffeta filled with hot smoke. This was given a public demonstration on June 5, 1783. This was followed by a flight carrying three animals as passengers on September 19, 1783, shown in Paris and witnessed by King Louis XVI. On November 21, 1783, their balloon carried the first two men on an untethered flight. In the span of one year after releasing their test balloon, the Montgolfier brothers had enabled the first manned balloon flight in the world.
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¹ The Kosovo war, like the war in Iraq, did not have U.N. sanction. Russia, in particular, opposed the war, thus making U.N. Security Council passage of an enabling resolution impossible. Russia and Serbia are historical allies and under the guise of "fellow Slav," Moscow has promoted itself as Serbia's protector. It's an excuse Russia has used to get involved in many conflicts, including WW I. In 1999, however, the United States did not take Russia seriously when it considered how to handle Serbia. In 1999, under Boris Yeltsin, Russia didn't need to be taken seriously.

The war didn't go quite as expected by the U.S. The Serbs were supposed to capitulate after the first few days of bombardment, and they didn't. They reasoned that neither the U.S. nor NATO was prepared to mount a ground attack into Kosovo. After two months of bombings, a diplomatic initiative was launched via Moscow, whose channels into Belgrade remained active since the Serbs retained some trust in the Russians. In a complex round of diplomacy, the Serbs agreed to withdraw their forces from Kosovo as long as the occupying force included a substantial Russian contingent.

So, the Russians sent troops from their base in Bosnia through Serbia to Kosovo, arriving at the airport in Pristina as the bombing ended. Hah, joke on the Russians, NATO didn't integrate them into the peacekeeping presence known as KFOR, instead, NATO marginalized them.

The Russians haven't forgotten this. From their point of view, they'd been double-crossed. They had gotten the Serbs to agree to a withdrawal on the proviso that the Russians would be a substantial part of KFOR. This was crucial because it was understood that they would guarantee the one part of the agreement that was a dealmaker to the Serbs--Serbia would withdraw from Kosovo, but it would not give up sovereignty. Russian nationalists--even of the mildest sort--recoiled at what they saw as the American double-cross when NATO bypassed the Russians.

Many issues sank Yeltsin, but Kosovo was critical. One of Putin's missions, then, has been to rebuild Russia's international standing. Putin wants to demonstrate to Europe and the United States that they cannot simply ignore understandings reached with Russia. The Russian opposition to Kosovo's independence was made clear eight years ago -- and it remains clear now. Second, the Russians want to demonstrate that alliance with them has meaning as they attempt to expand their sphere of influence.

KFOR continues to occupy Kosovo. NATO is trying to bring the conflict to a conclusion by granting Kosovo independence. Their argument is that Kosovo, whatever its historical significance to Serbs, now has a majority of Albanians. In addition, the Albanians had been mistreated by the Serbs, so they cannot be returned to Serb control. Therefore, the only reasonable thing is for Kosovo to be granted independence. President Bush signaled Putin that he is committed to Kosovar independence by his visit to Albania. Condoleezza Rice has said that Kosovo will never be returned to Serbian rule.

Russia hasn't forgotten what it considers the double-cross of Kosovo and would like an opportunity to confront the West again--but this time win! Should Russia choose to make an issue of Kosovo, it looks like it has the diplomatic, economic and military options to force the West to back down. At least at this point in time. Putin would love to demonstrate that it doesn't matter what the U.S. President or secretary of state wants.

Nobody, Europe, Russia or the United States really cares about Kosovo, but Putin's Russia does care about reasserting its international power.