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.
2009 - President Obama acknowledged today that he sent a secret letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that discussed America's missile defense shield, but denied reports that it suggested a "quid pro quo" that would scrap the plan in exchange for Russian help in blocking Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Lockheed said the breach does not involve the new presidential helicopters it is building. The data leaked was not classified and involved the VH-60 helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, a unit of United Technologies Corp., which is conducting its own investigation.
The VH-60 is used to carry White House staff and guests, not the president. A larger Sikorsky helicopter, the V-3, is the model used for the president.
The man has not yet been charged with any crime, but he could face local, state and federal charges. It is unclear what prompted the man to jump. He was referred to a local hospital for a psychological evaluation.
2009 - Japan is ready to shoot down any North Korean rocket headed toward its territory.
"If there's a possibility that an object could lose control and drop on Japan, the object becomes our target, including a satellite," said Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada. The defence ministry has installed U.S.-developed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air interceptors in Tokyo and other parts of Japan. As well as equipping two warships with Standard Missile 3 interceptors, in December it successfully shot down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean as part of a joint exercise with the United States.
North Korea has said it is ready to launch what it calls an experimental communications satellite. The United States and its Asian allies see such a launch as a pretext to test the Taepodong-2 missile, which could theoretically reach Alaska.
2008 - Virgin Atlantic Airways will start using General Motors Corp zero- emission fuel cell cars as limousines for VIP passengers in the United States, the latest move by Virgin founder Richard Branson to present his airline as the greenest in the market.
2008 - The union representing workers at EADS Toulouse factories claims the EADS/Northrop-Grumman victory in the U.S. Air Force tanker deal will cost French jobs because of the consortium’s commitment to build an assembly plant for the tankers in Mobile, Alabama.
In 2006, EADS agreed to build a plant in China to win contracts there and the CFDT union claims that’s chipping away at the French workforce. British unions are hailing the contract saying it will secure thousands of jobs in plants that build major structures like wings. And, Mobile thinks the deal is finer than frog's hair.
2008 - Donald S. Lopez, 84, author, aviator, and deputy director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C., died of a heart attack.
Lopez joined the Smithsonian in 1972 as part of the team that planned the NASM, which opened in July 1976. "The nation has lost a true hero and the Smithsonian has lost a great leader," Smithsonian Institution acting secretary Cristián Samper said in a news release on Wednesday. "Don Lopez was an American Ace fighter pilot, author, educator, and museum professional beloved by all who came in contact with him." Lopez flew 101 missions in China, piloting Curtiss P-40s and North American P-51 Mustangs for the U.S. Air Force, and later flew North American F-86s in Korea. Among many other awards and honors, Lopez was heralded as one of the "living legends" at the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends at Rickenbacker Field in Columbus, Ohio, last year.
Or perhaps the landing shouldn't have been attempted.
2008 - The Transportation Security Administration says Sen. Chuck Schumer is wrong about claims that thousands of foreign nationals are getting flight training without the required documentation and background checks.
"Each and every foreign national that applies for flight training at any FAA-certified school anywhere in the world is checked by TSA prior to beginning that training," TSA spokesman Jon Allen told The Associated Press. Schumer told reporters that there are 8,000 foreign nationals illegally taking flying lessons in the U.S. That’s the same number used in an ABC News investigation that reached the same conclusion as Schumer but in a less colorful manner. Schumer didn’t say where he got his information from but he left no doubt as to how he felt about it. "This is 9/11, or at least the failure that led up to 9/11, all over again," said Schumer, a New York Democrat. The ABC report quoted leaked TSA memos and a retired FAA inspector as claiming that foreigners were getting lessons and pilot certificates without being vetted by the TSA.
Flown by Boeing Chief F-15 Test Pilot Joe Felock and Chief Weapons Systems Officer Rick Junkin, the F-15K completed an aggressive speed run easily surpassing Mach 2, accomplished both engine shut-downs and restarts, and breezed through instrument and avionics checks of primary backup systems.
The Republic of Korea (ROKAF) selected the F-15K Strike Eagle for its Next Generation Fighter Program in 2002. Under a $3.6 billion contract, Boeing will deliver 40 aircraft to the ROKAF beginning 2005 and ending in August 2008.
2005 - The first solo non-stop and fastest flight around the world without refueling ended as Steve Fossett landed at the Salina Municipal Airport, Kansas.
He left there 67 hours earlier on February 28, 2005, in the GlobalFlyer, a single-engine, single-use experimental jet plane. The first non-stop two-person flight around the world, was made in 1986 by Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan in nine days, covering 26,366 miles without refueling. The GlobalFlyer, purpose-built of light composites, carried fuel comprising 86 percent of its weight at take-off in 13 tanks in its long wings and boom tanks. The chief designer, Jon Karkow, had spent five years planning the project, sponsored by Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways.
2003 - Jerry Gentry, early experimental research test pilot, died this date.
Gentry was the "Chuck Yeager" of the 1960s. He flew the first-run fighters and the lifting bodies for NASA such as the M-2, HL-10 and X-24.
2001 - A U.S. National Guard C-23 Sherpa plane carrying members of an engineering crew crashed in Georgia and 21 people were killed.
1999 - Turkey called U.S. raids on Iraq that cut off oil flow to Turkey unacceptable.
The U.S. planes were based in Turkey.
1991 - William Penney (Baron Penney of East Hendred), the only Briton to be part of the ten man Target Committee that drew up the list of targets for the atomic bombing of Japan, died this date.
British nuclear physicist who led Britain's development of the atomic bomb. Penney was to Britain as Oppenheimer was to the U.S. He was a prominent part of the British Mission at Los Alamos during WW II, where his principal assignment was studying the damage effects from the blast wave of the atomic bomb, but he became involved in implosion studies as well. Penney's combination of expertise, analytical skill, effective communication, and the ability to translate them into practical application soon made him one of the five members of the Los Alamos "brain trust" that made key decisions.
1991 - U.S. Navy CH-46 helicopters with loudspeakers rounded up surrendering Iraqi troops on Faylaka Island.
The prisoners of war were ferried by helicopter to USS Ogden (LPD 5) for further transport to The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's prisoner of war facilities.
1989 - Machinists struck Eastern Airlines. Pilots and flight attendants honored the picket lines.
1986 - Tactical Air Command's first OT-37Tweet replaced the Cessna O-2 aircraft at Shaw AFB, South Carolina.
1982 - The first six A-10 Thunderbolts arrived at Suwon AB, South Korea to bolster Pacific Air Forces in the country.
The U.S. Air Force built more than 50 facilities, totaling 700,000 square feet, at Suwon AB to support the A-10 beddown¹ project.
1981 - Capt. Carmen Ann Lucci was killed in an aircraft crash near Edwards Air Force Base, California.
She was the first female flight-test engineer to lose her life either as a student or a graduate of any of the four formal test-pilot schools -- U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, British Empire Test Pilot School and the French Test Pilot School.
1974 - A Turkish Airlines DC-10-10 crashed into a forest at a high rate of speed at Ermenonville, France.
A defective latching mechanism on the cargo door caused it to fail in flight resulting in decompression and loss of all hydraulic control. All 346 people aboard were killed in the accident. This is the second time a cargo bay door has been lost from aircraft of this type. Nearly two years earlier, on June 6, 1972, an American Airlines DC-10 was flying over Canada, when its rear-hatch door blew off and tore a hole in the fuselage. The plane’s cabin lost pressure and the cabin floor collapsed, and some key cables were severed. Still, the pilot was able to get the jet under control and managed to safely land the plane in Detroit. Later, it was determined that the latching mechanism on the door was designed poorly, leading to the catastrophe.
Modifications to the mechanism were recommended, but no systematic recall system was undertaken to implement the modifications. In fact, new DC-10s came off the assembly line with the old latching mechanism. One of these planes was sold to Turkish Airlines, which put the plane into service immediately.
On March 3, 1974, British European Airways was unable to make its scheduled flights due to a strike by its workers. When Turkish Airlines Flight 981 arrived in Paris from Istanbul, many passengers scheduled to fly on British European Airways transferred to 981 for its final leg to London.
The station mechanic was supposed to do a visual inspection of the rear hatch door. However, the station mechanic was on vacation on this day and the flight engineer apparently forgot to assume this duty.
When the plane took off with the faulty hatch door improperly locked, the flight was doomed. At 12:30 p.m., as the plane reached an altitude of 11,000 feet just after takeoff, the rear hatch door blew off over Coulommiers, France. As with the previous flight over Canada, a rapid decompression followed. The last two rows of seats on the DC-10 were sucked right out of a hole in the fuselage. The six passengers in those seats were killed immediately when they fell into a turnip field in St. Pathus.
The other 340 people on board had to endure a minute and a half in the air. The pilots were unable to control the plane because all the critical hydraulic cables had been severed. The plane slammed into the ground at 500 miles per hour, killing everyone on board. The impact was so severe that only 40 bodies were found intact.
McDonnell Douglas, the plane’s manufacturer, sought to blame a baggage handler for failing to properly secure the hatch. This prompted the baggage handlers’ union to boycott all DC-10s until a company emissary finally apologized. Following this disaster, all DC-10s were recalled to modify the rear-hatch latching mechanism.
1971 - Pacific Air Forces tactical aircraft and forces participated in a JCS-directed, joint Republic of Korea-U.S. exercise called Exercise Freedom Vault through March 7 at Osan AB, South Korea.
Events included an airborne assault by 683 U.S. paratroopers from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who flew to Korea aboard 12 C-141s and were dropped on Osan AB. A South Korean battalion also parachuted from nine C-46s.
1969 - The Apollo 9 mission was the first manned flight of all Apollo lunar hardware in Earth orbit and first manned flight of the lunar module.
Lunar module pilot Russel L. Schweickart performed a 37 minute EVA. Human reactions to space and weightlessness were tested in 152 orbits over 10 days.
1967 - First flight of the regional Be-30 passenger airplane with the Ash-21 piston engine.
1965 - More than 30 U.S. Air Force jets strike targets along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
Since such raids had become common knowledge and were being reported in the American media, the U.S. State Department felt compelled to announce that these controversial missions were authorized by the powers granted to President Johnson in the August 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
The Johnson administration came under increasing criticism at home and abroad because of the bombing raids. Congressional opponents of the Johnson administration thought the president was escalating the war without authorization.
Overseas, there was also an immediate response. Not surprisingly, the communists roundly criticized Johnson's actions. In Havana, Premier Fidel Castro condemned the United States and promised that Cuba would aid North Vietnam. On March 4, about 2,000 students attacked the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. There was also a reaction in non-communist capitals. Prime Minister Lester Pearson of Canada expressed concern about the risk of escalation, but said that Canada understood the U.S. position.
This aircraft once held 16 aviation world records and four specifically female world records. Some still stand unbeaten.
A MiG-25PD recorded the only Iraqi air-to-air kill of the Gulf War. It dropped an F-18C on the first night of the war--then went on to fire another missile at an A-6 and buzz an A-7, all while avoiding escorting F-14s and F-15s.
1962 - Liu Chengsi, a PLANAF pilot of the 8th squardron of the 3rd wing of the 16th regiment flew a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 from Luqiao air base in Zhejiang directly to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.
Liu was rewarded 1,000 taels (approximately 50 kg) of gold, and the position of deputy director of a Republic of China Air Force radio station. He was honorably discharged with a rank of colonel.
1962 - The F4H-1 continued its assault on time-to-climb records at NAS Brunswick, Maine, U.S.A., as Lieutenant Commander Del W. Nordberg piloted the Phantom II to an altitude of 15,000 meters in 114.54 seconds.
1960 - The longest nonstop flight ever made by a Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft is completed when a Vickers Valiant B.Mk.1 (serial no.XD858) piloted by Sqdn. Ldr. J. H. Garstin flies around the British Isles for a total distance of 8,500 miles aided by two inflight refuelings.
1959 - Pioneer 4, the first US probe to enter solar orbit, was launched.
A joint project of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the direction of NASA, was launched by a Juno II rocket from the Atlantic Missile Range. Intended to impact on the lunar surface, Pioneer IV achieved earth-moon trajectory, passing within 60,200 km of the moon before going into permanent orbit around the sun.
Despite public denials that the U.S. was racing the Soviet Union, the Americans were trying to beat them with an unmanned probe to the Moon. The first attempt to reach a lunar orbit, in August 1958, proved an embarassment when the Air Forces Thor-Able rocket failed to even leave the pad. That autumn saw three further attempts to reach the Moon. Although they also failed, Pioneer 1 set a new record, traveling more than 70,000 miles into space, and Pioneer 3 reached almost as far and identified a second belt of radiation.
1952 - Far East Air Forces initiated a round-the-clock interdiction effort against North Korean railroad lines in Operation Saturate. Fighter-bombers attacked during the day and B-26 bombers at night.
The attacks were carried out with intensity through May, and continued periodically thereafter. The B-26s increased vulnerability to communist ground fire provoked a reassessment of the night interdiction campaign in the spring of 1952.
1951 - A new shipment of tarzon bombs arrived in the Far East, allowing Far East Air Forces to resume raids, suspended since January 17, with the large guided weapons.
1950 - Australian Quantas inaugurates a passenger service from Sydney to Tokyo.
1949 - James Vincent Forrestal, the first United States Secretary of Defense, resigned.
He was a supporter of naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers. In 1954, the Navy's first supercarrier was named the USS Forrestal in his honor.
1949 - Dr. Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar, PhD., American Mission Specialist Astronaut, born in Sunnyside, Washington.
1945 - First flight of an aircraft with a power compressor power plant, the I-250 (MiG-13).
1945 - German WW I ace (27 victories) Karl Thom died at Pillau, Ostpreussen (East Prussia), Germany.
1945 - Several V-2's launched after 56 Allied B-25 bombers mount an attack on V-2 headquarters units.
Due to a navigation error, many Dutch civilians were killed instead. After the attacks the Germans fired several rockets to show the Allies that the bombers missed their target. Probably not the smartest thing to do.
1944 - First flight of Yak-9B, "B" stood for "Bombardirovschik / Fighter-Bomber."
The Yak-9 was conceived as a natural progression from the late model Yak-7 fighters, with initial production in the fall of 1942 incorporating a number of changes, while remaining largely similar to its predecessor. As with other Yak fighters however, changes continued from that point. While early Yak-9 production featured the same wing as the Yak-7B, increased shipments of aviation-grade steel from the United States meant that the Yakovlev OKB could consider the use of more metal in the construction of their fighters, and Yak engineers accordingly designed an all-metal wing for the aircraft. The metal wing had a slightly shorter span than that of the Yak-7B, and allowed accommodation of additional fuel tanks, increasing total fuel capacity to 477 liters, giving the aircraft a good range of 950 kilometers. Other incremental changes included a larger vertical tail surface and a retractable tailwheel with twin doors. The 8 millimeter armour plate behind the seat was replaced by a 75 millimeter flat glass shield to provide better visibility. The changes resulted in an aircraft substantially lighter than the Yak-7. The new Yak-9 variant reached full production in late 1942 and early 1943. Early production Yak-9s had reduced armament, one 20 millimeter ShVAK cannon and a single 12,7 millimeter Berezin machine gun. Combat pilots complained bitterly about the skimpy armament.
1936 - Aviation industrial complex No. 150 (now the Samara AOOT Aviaagregat) construction begins in city of Stupino.
1931 - Wernher von Braun, at the end of his school semester, from 3 to 23 March, his nineteenth birthday, spent three weeks in basic glider training at Wolf Hirth's sailplane school in Grunau, in the Risengebirge mountains of Silesia.
He participated in th bungee-assisted takeoffs of other students, working in the snow, and then tried his own short hops, leadidng to the A and B test and flights of over two minutes.
1919 - First internation airmail flight from Seattle, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is made by airplane builder William E. Boeing and Eddie Hubbard of Hubbard Air Service.
1915 - The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (later the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or NACA) was established by a rider to the Naval Appropriations Act, "..to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight, with a view of their practical solution." The sum of $5,000 a year was appropriated for 5 years. The total appropriation for naval aeronautics was $1 million.
This was a forerunner of federal governmental support for scientific research.
1913 - The prototype Avro 500 is flown at Brooklands and subsequently enters service with Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Navy units.
1911 - With Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois navigating a course and civilian pilot Phillip O. Parmalee at the controls, the Wright Type B on loan from Robert F. Collier sets an official U.S. cross-country record from Laredo to Eagle Pass, Texas.
They flew the 106 miles in 2 hours and 10 minutes, trying to prove to ground forces the usefulness of the airplane. The two men dropped messages and received radiotelegraphic messages in return.
1911 - The first aviation appropriation is authorized for the Army.
Congress passed the first direct appropriation for U.S. military aviation, devoting “not more than $125,000 . . . for the purchase, maintenance, operation and repair of aeroplanes and other aerial machines” for fiscal year 1912.
German expert in guided missile guidance, telemetry, and control during WW II. Educated at the University of Dresden in engineering physics, obtaining his doctorate in 1934. He worked for Siemens from 1935- October 1937, then was hired by von Braun to work with the rocket team at Kummersdorf as chief of measuring devices. From 1939 he became involved in development of the A3 and then A5 subscale versions of the V-2. He was technical liaison with Regener in development of a scientific package for sounding rocket missions by the V-2. In 1943 he joined Dornberger's staff and was involved with the Wasserfall surface-to-air missile. As of January 1947, hired by the Americans under Project Paperclip and working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Worked his entire life with the rocket team, at Fort Bliss, White Stands, and then at Huntsville. ......................................................................................................................................... ¹ Definition: (DOD) The provision of expedient facilities for troop support to provide a platform for the projection of force. These facilities may include modular or kit-type facility substitutes.
2
comments:
jimmy
said...
Like most of Branson's stuff the latest is more talk than walk. So much bragging for 3 cars. Yes, that's it, 3 cars. Virgin Airlines will put three of GM's Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel cell cars into Virgin's limousine fleet in Los Angeles this month, ferrying its first class passengers to and from the airport. Three more are set to be introduced in New York later this year. I'm sure that GM gave Sir Richard a good deal, because they are testing 100 of them this year and hope to get some in the showrooms by 2012. Six cars for four years. Wow, aren't you so impressed.
2009 - Israeli warplanes bombed smuggling tunnels near the southern Gaza town of Rafah linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt, wounding four people, following rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory, "in response to barrages of rockets fired over the past week".
Employees at data monitoring firm Tiversa discovered last week that potentially sensitive information about the helicopter had been viewed by a "malicious" source in Iran. Tiversa notified a defense contractor based in suburban Maryland late last year of an "open window" in the contractor's network that was leaking information about the helicopter.
Flown by Boeing Chief F-15 Test Pilot Joe Felock and Chief Weapons Systems Officer Rick Junkin, the F-15K completed an aggressive speed run easily surpassing Mach 2, accomplished both engine shut-downs and restarts, and breezed through instrument and avionics checks of primary backup systems.
He left there 67 hours earlier on February 28, 2005, in the GlobalFlyer, a single-engine, single-use experimental jet plane. The first non-stop two-person flight around the world, was made in 1986 by Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan in nine days, covering 26,366 miles without refueling. The GlobalFlyer, purpose-built of light composites, carried fuel comprising 86 percent of its weight at take-off in 13 tanks in its long wings and boom tanks. The chief designer, Jon Karkow, had spent five years planning the project, sponsored by Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways.
1936 - Aviation industrial complex No. 150 (now the Samara AOOT Aviaagregat) construction begins in city of Stupino.
2 comments:
Like most of Branson's stuff the latest is more talk than walk. So much bragging for 3 cars. Yes, that's it, 3 cars. Virgin Airlines will put three of GM's Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel cell cars into Virgin's limousine fleet in Los Angeles this month, ferrying its first class passengers to and from the airport. Three more are set to be introduced in New York later this year. I'm sure that GM gave Sir Richard a good deal, because they are testing 100 of them this year and hope to get some in the showrooms by 2012. Six cars for four years. Wow, aren't you so impressed.
Wonder why it took so long for man to learn how to fly. Fossil Of 10 Million-Year-Old Bird Found In Peru
http://planetark.org/wen/51877
Post a Comment