Milestones of Flight: 2/12

2009 - U.S. regional airline ASA operated a flight with an all-female African American crew.

The carrier says it is a first not just for ASA, but for any U.S.-based airline. The crew consisted of Captain Rachelle Jones, First Officer Stephanie Grant and flight attendants Diana Galloway and Robin Rogers. They flew Delta Connection Flight 5202 from Atlanta to Nashville, Tennessee, and returned Flight 5106 to Atlanta, using CRJ700 equipment.

2009 - Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Dianne Feinstein said at a hearing, perhaps unwittingly, that the CIA’s unmanned MQ-1 Predator drones used to hunt Taleban and Al Qaeda cells on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border were deployed from a base in Pakistan.

Pakistan quickly denied Feinstein’s account.

2009 - Air France/KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic and airport operator BAA called today for aviation emissions to be included in a broader climate pact, after growing criticism from green groups that the sector was not doing enough to fight global warming.

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The move is the first step by the world's airlines, which reportably account for around two percent of global pollution, to steer the debate on an emissions pact toward a deal they are happy with, rather than having one imposed on them.

Conservation groups such as WWF (the group with the cute panda graphic) say aviation has not been doing enough to tackle the sector's growing share of greenhouse gas pollution and must pay for its emissions like many other industries.

Emissions from international aviation are expected to keep rising as economies and populations grow.

Green groups and governments say airlines should be part of emissions trading schemes as a start.

The United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been working for more than a decade to develop a global scheme to tackle aviation emissions.

The four airlines and BAA are meeting in Hong Kong and in their communique laid out principles for a global approach that included balancing social and economic benefits of flying with the industry's responsibility to cut global emissions.

Many airlines say only a global approach is fair and criticize the European Union's decision to include aviation in the bloc's emissions trading scheme from 2012.

Airlines will have to pay for their emissions over the entire route, not just within EU airspace, a rule many Asian airlines flying long-haul routes to Europe say is unfair.

2009 - Dutch biotechnology firm Ingrepro plans to harness waste from sewers, farms and industry to produce biofuel and algae, which it hopes will eventually power airplanes, its chief executive said today.

2009 - Commuter jet crash in upstate New York.

No survivors; 44 passengers, 4 crew members were on board. Authorities said Continental Airlines Flight 3407 was operated by Manassas, Virginia-based Colgan Air. It was en route from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York.

2009 - A White House memo ordering federal agencies to stop implementing leftover regulations from the Bush administration appears to have blocked the FAA from issuing airworthiness directives for about two weeks.

The agency normally generates 30 or more safety orders every month, but only four such orders have been issued since Jan. 23. Following clarification by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the directives have started flowing again, and a spokesman for the Air Transport Association says "maintenance programs have not been interrupted" by the glitch.

2009 - The European Union said today leading nations should adopt a code of conduct for civil and military activities in space. Why? Hundreds of pieces of debris that were spewed into space when a U.S. satellite collided with a defunct Russian military satellite.

The crash, which Russian officials said took place on Tuesday at about 1700 GMT (12:00 p.m. EST) above northern Siberia, is the first publicly known satellite collision and has raised concerns about the safety of the manned International Space Station.

The collision happened in an orbit heavily used by satellites and other spacecraft and the U.S. Strategic Command, the arm of the Pentagon that handles space, said countries might have to maneuver their craft to avoid the debris.

The collision between the Iridium Satellite LLC-operated satellite and the Russian Cosmos-2251 military satellite occurred at about 485 miles above the Russian Arctic.

That is an altitude used by satellites that monitor weather, relay communications and perform scientific observations.

The orbit of the ISS can be changed by controllers from Earth but even a tiny piece of debris can cause significant damage to the space station as it travels at 8 km per second.

The collision occurred in a polar orbit not far from that of a defunct Chinese weather satellite shot apart by a ground-based ballistic missile in a Chinese weapons test in January 2007.

The United States used a missile to blow apart a tank of toxic fuel on a defective U.S. spy satellite last February.

2008 - A U.S.Navy EA6B Prowler crashed northeast of Andersen AFB, Guam. The crew ejected and the plane crashed about 20 miles northeast of Ritidian Point around 4 p.m. The men were rescued by HSC-25 helicopters about a half an hour after they ejected.

According to the Web site aerospaceweb.org, the EA-6B costs around $52 million dollars.

2008 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy told his Brazilian counterpart that France was willing to sell fighter jets to Brazil.

2008 - President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for an end to the monopoly enjoyed by Air France-KLM on flights between mainland France and the South American territory of French Guiana.

The monopoly has "lasted for too long, which has had consequences on prices and the regularity of the service between Cayenne and Paris," he said late Monday in the Guiana capital during a trip to the territory. Air France has been the sole airline that flies into French Guiana since the liquidation of Air Lib and the withdrawal from the route of Corsair. French Guiana, located on the northern coast of South America, is a French overseas department.

2008 - Russia and China have proposed a new treaty to ban the use of weapons in space.

The Bush administration reaffirmed its opposition to a draft treaty introduced at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament that would ban the deployment of weapons in outer space. China and Russia crafted the proposal for "prevention of the placement of weapons in outer space, the threat or use of force against outer space objects," in response to past U.S. objections that a space weapons ban is unnecessary because no space arms race presently exists.

"There is a link between the U.S. missile shield and the treaty. The Russians can see that the American project is getting off the ground, and they're worried," a European diplomat told Agence France-Presse.

2008 - Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. have presented their respective pilots unions with tentative terms of a proposed merger agreement, and union officials are reviewing the information to determine how the deal would affect the two airlines' combined 11,000 union pilots.

Complicating the matter for Delta and Northwest is that a vast majority of Northwest's nearly 30,000 employees are unionized, but only pilots at Delta are represented. Besides the pilots, Northwest's unionized workers include flight attendants, mechanics and baggage handlers.

2007 - The Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) is working on plans to give all three of the Kingdom's international airports into autonomous, state-owned, companies.

Straight to the source: Arabian Business Saudi prepares for airport privatisation by Rob Corder on Monday, 12 February 2007.

2007 - A court in Berlin ordered the closure next year of the German capital's Tempelhof airport, the scene of the post-World War II Berlin Airlift, rejecting arguments from companies claiming their business will be hurt.

Straight to the source: Bloomberg.com Berlin Court Says Tempelhof Airport Must Be Closed Next Year By Patrick Donahue Feb. 12

2006 - Lee B. James died this date.

A career Army officer, trained at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the California Institute of Technology who was assigned to the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Huntsville, Alabama, in 1956. In 1960 he became deputy director of the Army's newly formed Research and Development Division. In 1962 he was assigned to the Marshall Space Flight Center and the next year became deputy director of the Apollo Program in NASA Headquarters. In 1968 he returned to Marshall to head the Saturn Program Office, retired from the Army as a colonel, and only a year later was elevated as the director of the overall Program Office at Marshall. James retired from NASA in 1971 and accepted a faculty position at the University of Tennessee.

2002 - An Iran Air Tours Tupelov Tu-154 crashed into the Sefid Kouh mountains near Khorramabad. All 188 people aboard were killed.

There was nothing remarkable about the flight until the plane began approaching Khorramabad. Suddenly, the plane dropped off the air-traffic controllers’ radar screens. Witnesses from the village of Sarab-Doreh saw a huge explosion as the plane crashed straight into the snow-covered Mountain.

The crash site was so difficult to access that only experienced mountain climbers could be enlisted to help with the rescue. By the time they reached the scattered pieces of the plane, they found only the remains of the people on board. Among the dead were four Iranian government officials and four Spanish businessmen.

Many Iranians have blamed the use of a Russian-made jet for the disaster. However, approximately 1,000 of the jets have been produced and only 28 have been lost to crashes. This compares favorably with the record of Boeing (the manufacturer used by Iran before the 1979 revolution), which had lost 68 of the 1,500 727s produced before 2002. Furthermore, most of the Tupolev-154 crashes were not due to technical failure.

In this disaster, the cause of the crash has never been identified, although there is speculation that heavy fog may have played a role.

1998 - NASA planned a rocket launch from Tortuguero base in Puerto Rico. 10 more rockets were planned for launch over the next 30 days.

1993 - AO Aviaprom is established.

1987 - Ernst August Wilhelm Steinhoff, member of the German rocket team in the U.S. after WW II, died this date at Alamogordo, New Mexico, U.S.A.

German expert in guided missiles, worked at Peenemüende on submarine-launched rockets during WW II.

1973 - Edward S. Forman, early American rocket pioneer and one of the five founders of Aerojet, a company devoted to commercializing rocket technology, died this date.

1973 - A U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter lands in Hanoi to pick up the first returning POWs.

The release of U.S. POWs began as part of the Paris peace settlement. It began when North Vietnam released 142 of 591 U.S. prisoners at Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport. Part of what was called Operation Homecoming. She flew 100 POWs out of Hanoi on 12 February 1973, some of them tasting freedom for the first time in six years. Each POW put their shot-down date on the face of the oxygen panel during their flight to Clark AB in the Philippines. The first 20 POWs arrived to a hero's welcome at Travis Air Force Base in California on February 14.Operation Homecoming was completed on March 29, 1973, when the last of 591 U.S. prisoners were released and returned to the United States.

The Hanoi Taxi (tail #66-0177) was retired from active service in May 2006. She was the last of the 285 C-141s built by Lockheed to leave active service. For her retirement ceremony, the POWs she brought home were brought back for the ceremony and one last flight by this gracious lady. Most of them are old men now but their enthusiasm, emotions, and excitement were evident during this flight and retirement ceremony. She was then flown to Dayton, Ohio where she will spend her final days in the Air Force Museum.

1970 - The first of four C-124s arrived for duty with the 20th Operations Squadron at Clark AB, Philippines. Pacific Air Force retained the C-124 for moving outsized equipment after the inactivation of all C-124 squadrons at Military Air Command.

1969 - Under the Force Modernization Program, U.S. Strategic Air Command removed the last Minuteman Is from silos at Malmstrom AFB, Mont. Contractors then began upgrading the silos for Minuteman II missiles

1967 - First flight of the first production F-111A.

1965 - John Hays Hammond, Jr., U.S. inventor, died this date.

His development of radio remote control served as the basis for modern missile guidance systems. Son of the noted U.S. mining engineer John Hays Hammond, he established the Hammond Radio Research Laboratory in 1911. By 1914, he had laid the foundations for all subsequent radio control, able to send an unmanned yacht on a successful 120-mile trip from Gloucester to Boston and back. With WW I just begun, Hammond added an anti-interference feature to prevent jamming. He also invented a target-seeking system that allowed a remote-controlled ship to home in on an enemy ship's searchlights; and he began work on the first radio-guided torpedo.

1965 - U.S. Air Force scientists at Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, hit Explorer XXII with a ground-based laser, photographed the spot of reflected light and recorded it photo-electrically in relation to the surrounding stars.

1965 - After a presidential decision to deploy B-52s to Southeast Asia for ARC LIGHT conventional bombing missions, KC-135s arrived at Andersen AFB, Guam, to support the bombers

1961 - Sputnik VIII launched into Earth orbit by U.S.S.R., from which it placed 1,419-pound Venus probe on its course.

1961 - SPACE MILESTONE: VENERA 1 (USSR) launched from space platform in experiment projecting satellite into interplanetary space.

Venera 1 was the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. The 6424 kg assembly was launched first into a 229 x 282 km parking orbit, then boosted toward Venus by the restartable Molniya upper stage. Seven days after launch, at a distance of about two million km from Earth, contact with the spacecraft was lost. On May 19 and 20, 1961, Venera 1 passed within 100,000 km of Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit. This failure resulted in only the following objectives being met: checking of methods of setting space objects on an interplanetary course; checking of extra-long-range communications with and control of the space station; more accurate calculation of the dimension of the solar system; a number of physical investigations in space
1960 - A Delta Air Lines Convair 880 lands in Miami, Florida, from San Diego to set a new transcontinental speed record over the route of 3 hours 31 minutes.

1959 - The last six turning and four burning Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber in operational USAF service is retired to Amon Carter Field, where it is put on display; Strategic Air Command is now equipped with an all-jet bomber force.

1958 - The U.S. Department of Defense transferred the Jupiter Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles program from the Army to the Air Force.

1954 - First flight test of a high-energy fuel made by NACA Lewis Laboratory in an air-launched test vehicle.

1952 - First flight of the series-built MiG-17 at the Nizhniy Novgorod aircraft plant.

1947 - Tests of TR-1 turbojet engine designed by A.M. Lyuk'ka completed.

1935 - The USS Macon, the last U.S. Navy dirigible, on its 55th flight, crashed and sank off the coast of California, killing two people.

After takeoff from Point Sur, California, a gust of wind tore off the ship's upper fin, deflating its gas cells and causing the ship to fall into the sea. Two of Macon 's 83 crewmen died in the accident. The U.S. Navy lost the airships Shenandoah in 1925 and Akron in 1933. Some considered airships too dangerous for the program to continue at that point, and work on them in the United States halted temporarily.

1933 - Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev, cosmonaut, Air Force Group 1--1960, is born in Liski, Voronezh, Russia.

1931 - Test pilot V.G. Rabota is born.

1928 - Lady Heath, nee Sophie Mary Pierce Evans, also Mrs. Elliott-Lynn. becomes the first woman to fly solo from Cape Town, South Africa to London, England.

Lady Heath was a militant advocate of both women's rights and aviation. As soon as she gained her pilot's licence in 1925, as the inaugural pupil at the London Aeroplane Club, she started to campaign for the advance of civil aviation in general and for equality for women in air in particular.

In 1924 the International Commission for Air Navigation had specifically excluded women from "any employment in the operating crew of aircraft engaged in public transport," and had made the first requirement of physical fitness for an aspiring commercial pilot that "he must be of the male." Lady Heath pointed out to the commission that she had a degree in physiology, was a champion high-jumper as well as a pilot, had founded the Women's Amateur Athletic Association of Great Britain, and was the only woman member at the Olympic Congress in Prague in June 1925 to give evidence on the advisability of allowing women into world athletics.

She was subsequently summoned to prove that she could function competently as a pilot whatever the time of the month. She qualified theoretically for her B licence.

Still not able to carry paying passengers she set about to proving that women could fly as well as men. In May 1927 she set an altitude record of 16,000 feet. She completed successfully in several races, and in July made a 13-1/2 hour tour of 79 British aerodromes, flying 1,300 miles in a day. She planned to create a record, and attract as much publicity as possible, by a solo flight from Cape Town to London. The first solo flight from England to Cape Town was made by Flight Lieutenant R. Bentley, who reached Cape Town three months before Lady Heath arrived by ship. He had taken 27 day: Lady Heath's flight in the opposite direction took four months.

1925 - V.B. Inshakov and Tauson make flight in R-1 aircraft with the first series built M-5 motor from the Ikar factory, Moscow to Khar'kov, Gomel', Moscow.

1923 - The Bureau of Navigation informed the Commandant at Pensacola that two year's service in an operating unit subsequent to graduation from flight training was no longer a requirement for designation as a Naval Aviator.

1921 - The U.S. Army Air Service establishes the first in an expending series of airways – routes safely surveyed by the army civilian and commercial users linking towns and cities by air – by leasing land between Washington and Dayton, Ohio to facilitate a stopover.

1918 - Canadian WW I fighter ace and Victoria Cross recipient William George Barker scored his 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th victories.

Barker spent eight months in the trenches before he received a commission in the Royal Flying Corps in April 1916. After starting out as a mechanic, he qualified as an observer in August 1916 and shot down his first enemy aircraft from the rear seat of a B.E.2d.

Posted to England in November 1916, he soloed after 55 minutes of dual instruction and received a pilot's certificate in January 1917. A month later, he was back in France flying an R.E.8 until wounded by anti-aircraft fire on August 7, 1917. When he recovered, he served as a flight instructor before returning to combat duty in France.

In November 1917, his squadron was reassigned to Italy where Barker's Sopwith Camel became the single most successful fighter aircraft of the war. Logging more than 379 hours of flight time, Barker shot down 46 enemy aircraft before Camel #B6313 was retired from service and dismantled on October 2, 1918. That month, he assumed command of the air combat school at Hounslow.

Deciding he needed to brush up on air combat techniques for his new assignment, Barker joined 201 Squadron for ten days in France. During that time, he saw no action and was about to return to England when he decided to make one more excursion over the front. On October 27, 1918, alone and flying a Sopwith Snipe, he encountered sixty Fokker D.VIIs flying in stepped formation. In an epic battle with Jagdgeschwader 3, Barker shot down four enemy aircraft despite appalling wounds to both legs and his elbow. Fainting from pain and loss of blood, he managed to crash land his Snipe within the safety of the British lines. For his actions that day, Barker received the Victoria Cross (VC).

1918 - Canadian ace Lt. Harold Byrn Steve Hudson scored his 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th victories.

He flew the Sopwith Camel with 28 Squadron and shared in several victories over kite balloons with his flight commander, William Barker. He ended the war with 13 victories.

1918 German ace (16 victories) Leutnant Hans Weiss scored his 6th victory.

1918 - Unconfirmed claim for Lt. David Endicott Putnam.

A descendant of American Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam, David Endicott Putnam attended Harvard (class of 1920) before joining the French Foreign Legion on 31 May 1917. Later that year he transferred to the French air service, receiving training at Avord. Assigned to Escadrille Spa94 on 12 December 1917, he was reassigned to Spa156 on Feburary 7, 1918. With this escadrille he scored 4 victories and was transferred to Spa38 on June 1, 1918 where he scored 2 more victories. Honorably discharged from the French army in June 1918, Putnam joined the United States Air Service as a 1st Lieutenant and briefly assumed command of the 134th Aero Squadron before joining the 139th Aero Squadron as a flight commander. With the 139th, Putnam scored his last 3 victories before he was killed in action. Putnam's SPAD XIII was shot down by German ace Georg von Hantelmann. At the time of his death, Putnam was the American Ace of Aces. Thought to have shot down more than 30 enemy aircraft during the war, many of his victories were deep within German territory and never confirmed. Putnam was recommended for the Medal of Honor and posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

1915 - Adolf Karl Thiel is born in Germany.

German expert in guided missiles during WW II. After the war a member of the German Rocket Team in the United States.

1915 - One of the biggest air raids of WW I occurs on this day in 1915, when 34 planes from the British Naval Wing attack the German-occupied coastal towns of Blankenberghe, Ostend and Zeebrugge in Belgium.

The attacks, led by British Wing Commander C.R. Samson, targeted the railway stations in Ostend and Blankenberghe as well as railway lines across the coast that were being used by the occupying military forces from Germany. The town of Zeebrugge, which was being used by the Germans as a base of operations for submarine warfare and from which they planned a blockade of the Belgian coast, was also a major target of the attack.

The unprecedented raid was extraordinarily successful, causing massive damage to the occupying military force. Despite coming under heavy ground fire from German anti-aircraft guns, not a single Allied plane was shot down and no Allied lives were lost.

1914 - Igor Sikorsky’s giant four-engined biplane, the Il'ya Muromets flies in Russia.

It is an improved version of last year’s Bolshoi Baltiskii. The Il'ya Muromets sets 16 world records for altitude and flight duration in two flights with 7 and 15 passengers, respectively.

1895 - Polar airman Vasilij Sergheevic Molokov is born.

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