The online aviation athenaeum providing daily milestones and opinions of flight -- past and present, links to books, articles, documentaries, and other online resources celebrating and educating the public about the world-changing achievements of flight. Often providing a corrective view to the official hagiographies of flight.
2007 - Feeling thankful today? The Air Care Alliance can help you find a way to use your flying skills to help people in need.
2007 - The weakness of the U.S. dollar is threatening the survival of European planemaker Airbus, its chief executive, Tom Enders, told employees in a speech in Hamburg today.
The dollar hit new record lows against the euro on Thursday as the euro reached USD$1.4873, bringing the euro's year-to-date gains to around 12.5 percent.
Airbus is already shedding about 10,000 jobs and selling plants as part of its Power8 restructuring plan after delays to its A380 superjumbo drove the planemaker into a loss. Airbus says the weak dollar favors U.S. rival Boeing.
2007 - Ryanair lodged a case in the European Court of First Instance against the European Commissions reported failure to act on Ryanairs complaint about a further approximately EUR500 million worth of State aid to Olympic Airlines, granted through bogus arbitration proceedings involving certain services allegedly provided by Olympic to the Greek Government.
According to its latest Airbus Global Market Forecast, which the company presented to the press in London, some 22,700 new passenger and freight aircraft, valued at 2.6 trillion dollars, will be required by aircraft operators in the next two decades.
Developed in great secrecy for nearly a decade, the B-2 was designed with stealth characteristics that would allow it to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses unnoticed. At the time of its public unveiling, the B-2 had not even been flown on a test flight. It rapidly came under fire for its massive cost--more than $40 billion for development and a $1 billion price tag for each unit.
It wasn't until July 17, 1989 that the B-2 was successfully flown by Northrop Chief Test Pilot Bruce Hinds and Air Force Col. Richard Couch, director of the B-2 Combined Test Force. Although the aircraft had a wingspan of nearly half a football field, its radar signal was as negligible as that of a bird. The B-2 also successfully evaded infrared, sound detectors, and the visible eye. B-2 bombers are second generation stealth, made of carbon-graphite composites lighter than aluminum but stronger than steel. 136 separate computers onboard help the two crewman handle the complex plane. With just one aerial refuelling a B-2 can reach and strike accurately any target in the world. USAF B-2 Video.
The Pentagon originally wanted 132 planes. However, as time wore on and the Soviet Union collapsed, many members of Congress grew skeptical of the need for costly B-2s. In 1991, the original order for the production of 132 stealth bombers was reduced to 21 aircraft. The B-2 was used successfully in bombing missions during the 1990s. USAF B-2 Video
This Web site has a really good selection of links and photos.
1977 - Regular passenger service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began on a trial basis.
Scheduled Concorde flights started on January 21, 1976 for London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes. However, the U.S. Congress had banned Concorde landings in the US, mainly due to citizen protest over sonic booms. When the US ban was lifted in February 1977, for over-water supersonic flight, New York banning Concorde locally. Thus, Washington D.C. was the first destination for transatlantic service, beginning May 24, 1977, by Air France and British Airways. When New York conceded to the advantages of transatlantic Concorde traffic, daily flights operated until 2003 with a flight time just under 3.5 hours.
1953 - A great boon to ocean navigation for aircraft was the completion of four new LORAN stations in the Far East.
The stations were built at Mikayo Jima, Ryuku Islands; Bataan and Cantanduanes Islands, Philippines; and Anguar, Palau Island in the Carolinas chain. Now replaced by the more accurate LORAN-C network.
1952 - USAF Maj. Charles J. Loring deliberately crashed his damaged aircraft into enemy emplacements while leading a flight of four F-80 Shooting Star fighters dive-bombing enemy gun positions.
He was hit repeatedly by ground fire during his dive. Instead of withdrawing, Major Loring aimed his F-80 directly at the gun positions and crashed into them, destroying them upon impact. Major Loring received the Medal of Honor.
Major Loring also fought in the European theatre in WW II, from 1944 as a fighter pilot with the 36th Fighter Group's 22nd Squadron. He completed 55 combat missions before being shot down and taken prisoner. He was sent to Korea in May of 1952 with the 36th and 80th Squadrons, 8th Fighter Bomber Group.
1947 - French general Philippe Leclerc, who led the Allied force which liberated Paris in August 1944, was among those killed when a French military transporter crashed in the Sahara desert near Colomb-Béchar, Algeria.
1941 - German air ace Werner Mölders, the first ace to achieve a 100 kills, died when a Heinkel He-111 airliner lost an engine and crashed in bad weather while attempting to land at Breslau-Gandau, Germany.
Mölders had been on his way from Crimea to the Berlin state funeral of Ernst Udet, a great aerobatic pilot and the second highest scoring German ace of WW I.
1935 - A Pan American Martin 130 flying boat called the China Clipper began regular trans-Pacific mail service.
The plane, a 25-ton Martin M-130 flying boat with a wingspan of 130 feet, the largest aircraft in world service powered by four Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engines and piloted by Capt. Edwin Musick took off from San Francisco. It reached Manila, P.I., 59 hours and 48 minutes later. An estimated 20,000 persons watched the historic take-off. The following year (Oct. 21, 1936) commercial passenger service was established.
1932 - Following tests of the OP-1 autogiro in Nicaragua, Major Francis P. Mulcahy, USMC reported that the autogiro's chief value in expeditionary duty was in inspecting small fields recommended by ground troops as landing areas, evacuating medical "sitting" cases, and ferrying of important personnel.
1916- First flight of one of three prototypes of the Sopwith S.E.5, a tough, square-rigged, single seat fighter.
1914 - The title Director of Naval Aeronautics U.S. Navy is established.
1911 - D. Sokol'tsov makes the first radio transmission from an aircraft to the ground in Russia.
1909 - Wright Company is incorporated with a capital stock of $1,000,000. Formed to manufacture airplanes, the company’s president is Wilbur Wright and his brother Orville is the vice president.
Mikhail L. Mil' was one of the major influences in helicopter design and research for the Soviet Union during the fledgling days of early helicopter evolution. His influence is apparent in the designs that continue to emerge from the Mil Design Bureau in Moscow which was founded in 1947, all but one of which continue in the vein of his earliest design layout. His Bureau’s successes range from the immensely successful Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter to the world’s largest helicopter, the 100 ton Mi-12. Although detailed information was hard to come by for Mikhail Mil', it appears his first designs were created in the 1920’s and he continued to lead the Soviet Union, and many times the world in helicopter design until his death in 1970. By 1996, more than 25,000 helicopters of Mil design were built.
1899 - Wiley Post one of the most colorful figures of the early years of U.S. aviation is born.
VIDEO Creative Moments: Wiley Post - OETA-The Oklahoma Network 45 sec - Aug 31, 2006www.oeta.onenet.net He set many records. Between July 15-22, 1933, the first round-the-world solo flight (15,596 miles) was completed by Wiley Post, in his single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft Winnie Mae, in 7 days 18-hr 49-min. He had made an accompanied flight around the world in 1931. Wiley Post had 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 was coauthor (with his navigator, Harold Gatty) of Around the World in Eight Days. He died with his passenger, humorist Will Rogers, August 15, 1935, in a plane crash in Alaska. Centennial Stories: Wiley Post Crash VIDEO OETA-The Oklahoma Network 1 min 43 sec - Aug 27, 2006 www.oeta.onenet.net
1893 - Air Vice Marshal Raymond Collishaw CB DSO and Bar OBE DSC DFC RAF, is born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.
Canadian aviator who served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and later the Royal Air Force. He was the highest scoring RNAS flying ace and the second highest scoring Canadian pilot of WW I, in addition was leader of one of the most famous Allied fighter units of the war--the Black Flight of Sopwith Triplanes¹. As a member of the RAF during WW II, he commanded No. 204 Group (which later became the Desert Air Force) in North Africa. .......................................................................................................................................................................... ¹ When the Sopwith Triplane was first put in combat, its clear superiority over contemporary German fighters greatly alarmed the enemy. About 14 German aircraft constructors all set out to design triplanes to match the Sopwith. The plane's outstanding qualities were a high rate of climb combined with great manoeuvrability. The Sopwith Triplane was soon overshadowed by its most illustrious successor, the Sopwith Camel. Only 144 were built. The appearance of the Camel brought Triplane production to an immediate halt, and the planes began to be withdrawn from front-line service in July 1917.
The Sopwith Triplane was designed by Herbert Smith, who was also responsible for the Camel. The Sopwith Triplane saw service only with naval units.
The first R.N.A.S. units equipped with the new fighter went into action in April 1917. Performance was excellent, and the naval squadrons' successes enhanced the Triplane's reputation, especially during the battle of Arras. The Sopwith fighter was also associated with the fame of the Canadian ace Raymond Collishaw, who shot down seven enemy planes and damaged another 17 in May and June 1917. The Triplane's effect on the enemy was clearly summed up by an historian of the period who remarked that 'The sight of a Sopwith Triplane formation, in particular, induced the enemy pilots to dive out of range.
2007 - The weakness of the U.S. dollar is threatening the survival of European planemaker Airbus, its chief executive, Tom Enders, told employees in a speech in Hamburg today.
It wasn't until July 17, 1989 that the B-2 was successfully flown by Northrop Chief Test Pilot Bruce Hinds and Air Force Col. Richard Couch, director of the B-2 Combined Test Force. Although the aircraft had a wingspan of nearly half a football field, its radar signal was as negligible as that of a bird. The B-2 also successfully evaded infrared, sound detectors, and the visible eye. B-2 bombers are second generation stealth, made of carbon-graphite composites lighter than aluminum but stronger than steel. 136 separate computers onboard help the two crewman handle the complex plane. With just one aerial refuelling a B-2 can reach and strike accurately any target in the world. USAF B-2 Video.
The Pentagon originally wanted 132 planes. However, as time wore on and the Soviet Union collapsed, many members of Congress grew skeptical of the need for costly B-2s. In 1991, the original order for the production of 132 stealth bombers was reduced to 21 aircraft. The B-2 was used successfully in bombing missions during the 1990s. USAF B-2 Video
1941 - German air ace Werner Mölders, the first ace to achieve a 100 kills, died when a Heinkel He-111 airliner lost an engine and crashed in bad weather while attempting to land at Breslau-Gandau, Germany.
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