January 17

2012 -- A Royal Canadian Mounted Police Eurocopter AS350-B3 helicopter (C-FMPG) took off from a staging area with only the pilot onboard. The helicopter was hovering briefly at about 80 feet above ground level when suddenly an abnormal noise and puff of smoke occurred, seemingly from the engine. The helicopter descended, turned about 180°, and crashed on the ground below.

The pilot was attended by medically trained personnel within 30 seconds of the crash, however his injuries were fatal. The aircraft was destroyed. There was no post-crash fire. It had been snowing before the accident.

2012 -- Less Legroom and Recline Arriving with Southwest Airlines' New EVOLVE Interior.

"Dubbed Evolve: The New Southwest Interior, the cabin update utilizes durable and environmentally responsible products to reduce waste and create weight savings onboard the aircraft,. . . ."

2012 -- First flight Cessna Citation Ten Prototype.

The Ten is a mid-size aircraft with updated design and performance, enabling it to get to altitude faster and travel farther than the Citation X (Model 750). First announced at the 2010 NBAA convention, the Citation Ten is designed for greater fuel efficiency and increased comfort for up to nine passengers and two pilots.

Two Rolls-Royce AE 3007C2 engines will take a 36,600 pound (16,601 kilogram) MTOW Citation Ten off the ground in 5,150 feet (1,569 meters) and give the aircraft a maximum cruise speed of 527 knots an hour (977 kilometers) and a certified ceiling of 51,000 feet (15,545 meters). The Ten has a maximum range of 3,242 nautical miles (6,008 kilometers), putting city pairings such as New York-London, Boston-San Francisco, London-Dubai and Miami-Seattle within convenient one-hop flights.

2011 -- Wikileaks: Galileo boss Smutny removed over cable row.

2010 -- 24 years after Pan Am hijack, Neerja Bhanot killer falls to US drone [1986 Pan Am Flight 73 Hijack].

2010 -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrived in Turkey, and after meeting with Turkish Defense Minister Veedi Gonul it was announced that the two countries were moving forward with the procurement of 10 Heron UAV systems.

Signed in 2005, the $183-million contract to buy 10 Heron medium-altitude long-endurance UAVs has met with multiple obstacles since then. After today's meeting it was agreed that four systems will be delivered in March and the remaining six in November.

1993 -- An Iraqi MiG-29 was destroyed in the northern no-fly zone by USAF F-16C 86-0262/SP.

1991 -- Operation Desert Storm began at 12:50 a.m. local time (4:50 pm on January 16 in Washington), as a wave of F-15E fighter bombers took off from bases in Saudi Arabia and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, and began the bombing of Baghdad and other targets in Iraq, as well as in Kuwait. The first wave of the aerial attack was flown by pilots from the air forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

1/17 - 2/28: During Desert Storm the USAF F-16A/C were employed in the air to ground role primarily for battlefield area interdiction, and was used against Iraqi troops, vehicles and forward installations. Five F-16's were lost in combat and two in non combat mishaps.

1991 -- Early in the morning, Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

1970 -- First flight Sukhoi T-6-2IG (prototype of Sukhoi Su-24).

1966 -- A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain's Mediterranean coast, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one in the sea.

It was not the first or last accident involving American nuclear bombs.¹ The bomber attempted to refuel with a tanker. The B-52 collided with the fueling boom of the tanker, ripping the bomber open and igniting the fuel. The KC-135 exploded, killing all four of its crew members, but four members of the seven-man B-52 crew managed to parachute to safety. None of the bombs were armed, but explosive material in two of the bombs that fell to earth exploded upon impact, forming craters and scattering radioactive plutonium over the fields of Palomares. A third bomb landed in a dry riverbed and was recovered relatively intact. The fourth bomb fell into the sea at an unknown location. 33 U.S. Navy vessels were involved in the search for the lost hydrogen bomb. Finally, an eyewitness account by a Spanish fisherman led the investigators to a one-mile area. On March 15, a submarine spotted the bomb, and on April 7 it was recovered. It was damaged but intact.

1961 -- President of the United States (and former General of the Army) Dwight D. Eisenhower in his Farewell Address to the Nation said: "A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."

The actual authors of the term military-industrial complex were Eisenhower's speech-writers Ralph E. Williams and Malcolm Moos.

Shortly after Eisenhower's address, the issue of military-industrial-congressional influence came to the forefront after Kennedy canceled the B-70 bomber on March 28, 1961. After appropriations bills had been passed and signed with B-70 funding that Kennedy would not use, the House Armed Services Committee (with 21 members having B-70 work in their districts) subsequently attempted to "direct" — by law — the Executive Branch to use "the full amount" appropriated for the B-70. However, a March 19, 1962 eleventh hour White House Rose Garden agreement by chairman Carl Vinson retracted the language from the appropriations bill, and the B-70 cancellation remained permanent.

1942 -- Six Brewster Buffaloes from No 453 Squadron, RAAF, were escorting 14 outdated Vickers Vildebeest biplane bombers on a raid against Japanese forces invading Malaya when they found themselves opposed by enemy fighters.

Instead of being mauled by modern A6 ‘Zero’ fighters, as expected, the raiders were intercepted by three brave Japanese pilots flying the Mitsubishi A5M. Although this was the standard Japanese Navy carrier fighter which had entered service only in 1936, it was a type even more obsolescent than the Buffalo. In an action more reminiscent of the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s than the dogfights which marked the Battle of Britain, the RAAF pilots fought off the enemy and probably shot down all three attackers. However, due to the pressing need to defend their vulnerable charges, none of the RAAF pilots could linger long enough to confirm their kills.

1910 -- The Wright Company hires A. Roy Knabeshue to put together an exhibition flying team, the "Wright-Fliers." Knabeshue begins to scour the country for candidates.

1886 -- American pioneer airplane inventor Glenn Luther Martin is born in Macksburg, Iowa,.

Martin bombers and flying boats played important roles in WW II. His first planes were built in collaboration with mechanics from his auto shop, working in a disused church building that Martin rented. In 1909, Martin made his first successful flight; by 1911 he numbered among the most famous of the "pioneer birdmen." He incorporated the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company in 1912 as a manufacturer, and remained for forty years the senior aircraft manufacturer in the U.S. The vast majority of the more than 11,000 planes built by the company before it ceased producing aircraft in 1960, Martin Bombers pioneered the doctrine of airpower in the 1920's and '30's and served in all theaters in WW II.

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¹ U.S. authorities do not announce nuclear weapons accidents, and some American citizens may have unknowingly been exposed to radiation that resulted from aircraft crashes and emergency bomb jettisons. Today, two hydrogen bombs and a uranium core lie in yet undetermined locations in the Wassaw Sound off Georgia, in the Puget Sound off Washington, and in swamplands near Goldsboro, North Carolina.