Milestones of Flight: 10/26

2007 - 26-28: An estimated 85,000 air and space enthusiasts attended the 2007 Holloman Air and Space Expo.

This was the first ever live-fly air and space show in the nation. The expo was a showcase of Air Force capabilities and the 49th Fighter Wing. It also was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Air Force and the 50th anniversary of space flight.

2007 - A Dutch environment group launched a campaign on Friday called "Proud to be a non-Flying Dutchman" to get the travel-happy Dutch to reduce their air miles for the sake of the climate.

2007 - By early 2011, the U.S. Air Force aims to make sure its entire fleet of bombers, fighters, transports and other aircraft can use a domestically produced 50-50 blend of synthetic and petroleum-based fuel.

William Anderson, an assistant Air Force secretary, said the goal was to reduce energy demand, look for cleaner power sources and to reuse captured carbon commercially, for instance to enhance the growth of biofuels or improve oil well production.

2007 - Seven Chinese have applied to become space tourists on a planned commercial flight in the United States in 2009.

2007 - A Khrunichev–made Proton K launch vehicle, carrying three satellites of the Russian government’s GLONASS constellation, was launched from Baikonur.

The launch marks the 328th Proton mission. The rocket performed normally. The launcher has high power capacity and remarkable operational capabilities. Proton is currently used for implementation of national programs and commercial launches of satellites for customers worldwide. The next Proton launch with GLONASS spacecrafts is scheduled for the third quarter of this year.

2007 - Britain's largest organic food association, the Soil Association, said it will continue to put its stamp of approval on products sent by air freight, but only if the food sales help poor farmers.

Only about 1 percent of organic food is air-freighted to the U.K., but the association is worried about the market's future growth. The "ethical standards" seek to ensure that workers are not subject to exploitative conditions and that they are guaranteed a fair wage. After a consultation period, the new rules could take effect in January 2009.

1978 - Konstantin Davidovich Bushuyev, Russian engineer, died this date.

Graduated from Moscow Aviation Institute in 1941. In 1945 assigned to the new NII-1 to work on rocket technology, rising to be chief of a project bureau under Korolev in 1948. Became a Deputy Chief Designer to Korolev in 1954, then in 1973 Chief Designer for the N1 booster. Worked on a range of OKB-1 satellites and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1973-1975.

1976 - First flight of the pre-series Yak-42¹ at the Smolensk aircraft factory.

1972 - Igor Ivan Sikorsky, a Russian-born U.S. pioneer in aircraft design, died this date.

He is best known for his successful development of the helicopter. His earliest successes were with fixed-wing aircraft, including his prize-winning S-6-A (1912) which led to a position as head of the aviation subsidiary of the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works. In this position, as a result of a mosquito-clogged carburetor and subsequent engine failure, he had the radical idea of an aircraft having more than one engine. Thus he produced the first multi-engine airplane, the four-engined The Grand. This revolutionary aircraft featured such things as an enclosed cabin. a lavatory, upholstered chairs and an exterior catwalk atop the fuselage so passengers could take a turn about in the air.

Sikorsky collected clippings of helicopter rescues, and had his staff maintain a running tally of all lives saved by helicopter. It's now close to 2 million. On the day he died, Sikorsky was drafting a congratulatory letter to pilots who had assisted at the Andraus Building fire. It was the last of thousands of such notes that he sent over the years. According to family and friends, Sikorsky's greatest source of satisfaction was the fact that the helicopter was from the beginning a unique instrument for the saving of lives.

1968 - Leader in development of instruments for use on Chinese sounding rockets and artificial satellites Zhao Jiuzhang (Chao Chiu-Chang) killed by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

1968 - Soyuz 3, second manned Soyuz, launched.

Rendezvoused with the unmanned Soyuz 2 but failed to dock. The failed docking was blamed on manual control of the Soyuz by Georgi Timofeyevich Beregovoi, who repeatedly put the spacecraft in an orientation that nulled the automatic docking system. Beregovoi used nearly all of his orientation fuel in his first attempt to dock - of 80 kg allocated, only 8 to 10 kg was remaining.

1967 - SAMs engaged U.S. Navy aircraft attacking the Hanoi power plant, and North Vietnam's leading missile officer, 61st Battalion's Nguyen Xuan Dai (later awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces) shot future Senator John McCain's A-4 Skyhawk out of the sky over Hanoi.

1964 - Russell L. Schweickart spent eight days in a Gemini space suit to evaluate Gemini biomedical recording instruments.

While in the suit, the NASA astronaut flew several zero-g flight profiles, went through a simulated four-day Gemini mission, and experienced several centrifuge runs.

1955 - Dr. Stephen Kern Robinson, Ph.D., American astronaut, NASA Group 15--1995, is born in Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with Navy carrier and U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft attacks on the retreating Japanese ships. U.S. forces sink many Japanese ships, including four carriers, three battleships, 10 cruisers and nine destroyers, for a total of 26 capital ships.

1944 - Nine V-2's launched at London.

Battery 444 sets a new launch record - 9 V-2's in one day, three of them within 25 minutes.

1944 - Special Task Air Group 1 makes last attack in month-long demonstration of TDR drone missile against Japanese shipping and islands in the Pacific. Of 46 missiles fired, 29 reached their target areas:

Two attacked a lighthouse on Cape St. George, New Ireland, making one hit which demolished the structure; nine attacked anti-aircraft emplacements on beached ships achieving six direct hits and two near misses; and 18 attacked other targets in the Shortlands and Rabaul areas making 11 hits

1943 - First flight of Dornier Do 335 Pfeil (Arrow) fast bomber. In just nine months the first prototype was built. Features tandem "push - pull" engine arrangement (propellers in front and back). Fastest propeller-driven warplane in Europe during WW II with a maximum speed of 417 mph at an altitude of 26,000 feet. Nothing in the Allied inventory could catch it.

The flight testing phase went very well. The plane flew and handled better than expected. There were no structural problems, and only one crash occurred due to an overheated engine which caught fire. The first production version, the A-1 was delivered in November 1944. Luckily too few and too late to help the Third Reich. The Arrows armament included two fuselage mounted 20mm cannons, two wing mounted 15mm cannons, and if that weren't enough a 30mm engine mounted cannon.

If production had been expedited from the start this heavily armed plane would have played serious havoc with the Allied bombing missions.

A total of ninety aircraft were rolled out including prototypes, test planes, and trainers. Due to critical delays in materials a mere total of thirty-eight production Do-355's were delivered to the Luftwaffe.

The Arrow had a number of unusual distinctions. It was the only military aircraft of the time to have a push-pull power-plant/airframe. It was one of the few aircraft of WWII to have an ejection seat. It was the only aircraft that had explosive bolts in the rear fuselage designed to separate the tail section in order to facilitate a successful bail-out if necessary.

Fortunately (for the Allies), Hitler himself, demanded that the Arrow be redesigned for a bombing role which stalled the program for almost two years. This prevented the Arrow from reaching it full potential as early as 1944.

1942 - Japanese war planes damage the Hornet,² the last U.S. carrier manufactured before America's entry into WW II, so extensively in the Battle of Santa Cruz that it must be abandoned.

As was the case in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, the engagement at Santa Cruz was fought exclusively by aircraft taking off from carriers of the respective forces; the ships themselves were not in range to fire at one another.

Japanese aerial fire damaged the USS Enterprise, the battleship South Dakota, and finally the Hornet. In fact, the explosions wrought by the Japanese bombs that rained down on the Hornet were so great that two of the Japanese bombers were themselves crippled by the blasts, and the pilots chose to dive-bomb their planes into the deck of the American carrier, which was finally abandoned and left to burn. The Hornet, which weighed 20,000 tons, had seen battle during the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo (its commander at the time, Marc Mitscher, was promoted to admiral and would be a significant player in the victory over Japan) and the battle of Midway.

1940 - First flight of the prototype North American P-51 Mustang.

1939 - Valeri Mikhailovich Beloborodov, Russian cosmonaut, Air Force Group 4--1967, is born in Oloviyanna, Chita, Russia.

1938 - First flight of the prototype Douglas A-20 Havoc.

1931 - First flight de Havilland Tiger Moth DH.82 prototype G-ABRC.

1926 - Yuri Aleksandrovich Letunov, Russian cosmonaut, Journalist Group--1965, is born in Tomsk, Tomsk, Russia.

1925 - The two U.S. Navy entries in the Schneider Cup Race at Bay Shore Park, Maryland, flown by Lieutenants George Cuddihy and Ralph A. Ofstie, were forced out of the race on the last lap with engine trouble.

1925 - Schneider Trophy race flown at Baltimore, USA. Won by Jimmy Doolittle (USA) in a Curtiss R3C at 374.2 km/h (232.6 mph).

1922 - Lt. Cmdr. Godfrey de Chevalier makes the first landing aboard a carrier, USS Langley (CV 1), while underway off Cape Henry, Virginia.

1921 - A compressed air, turntable catapult, in its first successful test, launched an N-9 seaplane piloted by Commander H. C. Richardson from a pier at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

1921 - In first successful test, a compressed-air, turntable catapult, launches a N-9 seaplane.

1918 - Vincent L. Johnson is born.

He managed the Launch Vehicle and Propulsion Programs Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and had primary responsibility for the program management of Scout, Delta, and Centaur launch vehicle development. He retired from NASA in 1974, after having served as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science.

1907 - Henry Farman flies his Voisin Farman I flying machine just under 2,530 feet, at Issy, breaking the world distance record. For this flight he won a cup sponsored by Ernest Archdeacon of the Aéro-Club.

1904 - W. Leland Lee Atwood is born.

Chief Engineer at North American Aviation from 1948-1971. Supervised development of the P-51, Navaho, F-86, X-15, XB-70, Apollo, Space Shuttle

1892 - Otto Friedrich Schaper, Rocket engineer, is born in Hanover, Germany.

1877 - Gaetano Arturo Crocco, Italian pioneer in aeronautics and space science, is born.

He designed revolutionary airships and patented an early cyclic pitch design for helicopter rotors (1906). While the design of helicopters was in its infancy, Crocco recognized that a way to change the pitch cyclically on the blades was needed if a helicopter was to work properly in forward flight. He designed a number of airships in the early part of the 20th century and switched to designing rocket engines in the 1920s. Crocco founded the Italian Rocket Society (1951) and made many contributions to the theory of spaceflight
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¹ The Yak-42 became infamous in Spain when on 26 May 2003 an Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines Yak-42-D crashed near Macka, Trabzon (Turkey) while carrying 62 Spanish troops from Afghanistan to Zaragoza Air Base. All 75 on board died. At the time, the Spanish presence in the ISAF missions was being disputed among Spanish politicians. There were accusations of the ministry of Defence hiring cheap unfit crafts. The scandal damaged the image of minister Federico Trillo.

² The Hornet lost at Santa Cruz was the CV-8; another Hornet, the CV-12, launched August 30, 1943, led a virtually charmed life, spending 52 days under Japanese attack in many battles in the Pacific, with nary a scratch to show for it. That is, until June 1945, when it was finally damaged--by a typhoon.