April 8

  2012 -- Democratic People's Republic of Korean space officials took the rare step today of allowing foreign journalists to see a rocket, that, despite the objections of the United States and South Korea, is being prepared for launch this week. The DPR regime again insisted it will be used to deploy a peaceful satellite and not a missile. The usually secretive North organized the unprecedented visit to Tongchang-ri space center in an effort to show its Unha-3 rocket is not a disguised ballistic missile, as claimed by the U.S. and its allies. 

2012 -- New rules for foreign pilots and foreign registered aircraft in Europe came into effect today; although some countries have implemented a two-year grace period. The new rules could mean that your FAA, Transport Canada or other pilot certificate or ratings are no longer recognized by the European Aviation Safety Agency. EASA Part FCL homogenizes crew licensing requirements in all EU states and essentially means that those who want to fly in the EU have to prove competence and compliance with EU rules, rather than just use the credentials of their home country. Depending on the kind of flying involved, it can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor to earn those flight privileges, particularly for IFR.
2012 -- DPR of Korea space officials have moved all three stages of a long-range rocket into position for a controversial launch, vowing to push ahead with their plan in defiance of international warnings against violating a ban on missile activity.  Meanwhile to the south,  ROK raises prospect of a DPR nuclear test. South Korea's  Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying North Koreawas "clandestinely preparing a nuclear test" [satellite images] The DPR three years ago pulled out of six-party disarmament talks on its nuclear program, and agreed in February to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches in return for food aid, opening the way to a possible resumption of the negotiations. But that has all since unraveled with the DPR's rocket launch planned for this month, probably between Thursday and the following Monday. DPR says it is merely sending a weather satellite into space, but ROK and the U.S. say it is a ballistic missile test.

2011 -- NASA has awarded the Cessna Aircraft Company with a $1.9 million development contract for its self-healing "magic skin" condom for future aircraft.


2011 --  IAF is likely to court-martial Wing Commander A K Thakur, a transport aircraft pilot who was allegedly caught while demanding a Rs 20,000 bribe from officials of a French aviation company Dassault Aviation for allotting ''a more advantageous position'' for its aircraft in the ''static'' aircraft display section  at the Aero-India show in Bangalore in February.  Could there be more to this?  Dassault Aviation's Rafale fighter is one of the six contenders in the hotly-contested race to bag India's gigantic $10.4-billion project for the acquisition of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for IAF. 

2011 -- Netherlands Defense Ministry is planning to put a lot of military assets, including 17 Cougar helicopters and at least 19 F-16s, up for sale.

2011 -- An elderly Cuban former CIA operative accused of lying during a US immigration hearing was acquitted on all charges, with jurors taking just three hours to reach a verdict after enduring 13 weeks of often-delayed testimony. Luis Posada Carriles, 83, participated in the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion, served as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. army and was a CIA operative until 1976. He then moved to Venezuela and served as head of that country's intelligence service.  Also in 1976, he was arrested for planning the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada was acquitted by a military tribunal, but escaped from prison while still facing a civilian trial. He helped the US funnel support to Nicaraguan Contra rebels in the 1980s, and, in 2000, was arrested in Panama amid a plot to kill Castro during a summit there. He was pardoned by Panama's president in 2004 and turned up in the U.S. the following March. Prosecutors said Posada lied to immigration officials about how he sneaked into the U.S. in 2005 and by denying he masterminded a series of hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist and wounded 12 other people.


2011 -- Cockpit video of a British plane destroying Libyan tanks.  Royal Air Force aircraft hit seven main battle tanks as part of the "UK's continued support for NATO's Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR to safeguard the lives of Libyan civilians and enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973."

2011 -- The French airline Air France, which had to suspend its flights on April 1 because of the unrest in Côte d'Ivoire, has resumed its service to Abidjan.  The U.N. and French Licorne force were presenty in the strategic port of Abidjan after the lifting of E.U. sanctions and resumed commercial flights at the airport in Abidjan, still insecure.


2011 -- One of the ships of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN)  chosen for the delicate operation of retrieval of debris from the Air France plane that crashed at sea off Brazil on June 1, 2009.

2011 --  Disaster-hit Sendai Airport,  was closed after being inundated by the March 11 tsunami, will reopen next week, about a month after the biggest earthquake ever recorded hit Japan.

2011 -- Remains believed to be from American servicemen missing in action after aircraft crashes in the Vietnam War will be returned to the United States, officials said today.  The move follows excavations conducted jointly by investigators from the US Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and their Vietnamese counterparts.  Since the end of US combat involvement in 1973, the remains of 668 Americans listed as missing during the war have been repatriated from Vietnam and identified but 1,303 are still unaccounted for, the U.S. says.  Hanoi says about 300,000 North Vietnamese soldiers are also still listed as missing from the war.

2011 -- RAF Reaper reaches 20,000 hours over Afghanistan.  Reaper was introduced in October 2007, and, with its array of high tech sensors and precision-guided weapons, it can carry out a wide range of missions to support forces in Afghanistan. It can gather pre-raid intelligence on target compounds, assist in countering IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and provide surveillance for routine patrols and supply convoys. Reaper can use its sensors day and night to spy on insurgent activity for hours at a time and at a range where it is undetected from the ground. The images are complemented by radar, mounted in the nose of the aircraft, gathering another dimension of detailed imagery that is analysed by a team of highly trained intelligence specialists in military bases around the world.  If necessary, Reaper can also strike at insurgents with a range of precision-guided weapons.

2010 -- The National Transportation Safety Board today released preliminary aviation accident statistics for 2009 showing an overall decrease in U. S. civil aviation accidents that includes general aviation and on-demand Part 135 operations. In fact, on-demand Part 135 operations had the lowest number of accidents and fatal accidents for that type of air operation in the last 2 decades. In most cases, if an operator provides air transportation of persons or property for compensation or hire, the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) require that a commercial operating certificate be issued. Operators of business aircraft that wish to conduct operations for compensation or hire are generally certificated under Part 135 of the FARs. As a certificate holding entity, the operator must comply with a number of FAA requirements regarding areas such as flight operations, maintenance and training.

2010 -- Kazakhstan's main airline, Air Astana, today suspended all flights to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.  Air Astana's press service told journalists that the decision was made due to the tense situation in Kyrgyzstan, where some 75 people were killed and an estimated 1,000 injured on April 6-7 in violent clashes between antigovernment protesters and Kyrgyz police and security forces.  The company said it plans to resume flights to Kyrgyzstan by April 19.

2010 -- The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said today that flights supporting NATO operations in Afghanistan from an air base in Kyrgyzstan have been temporarily suspended following violent political upheaval in Bishkek.  But a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, says the move has not had any significant impact on operations or logistical support in Afghanistan.  The United States is leasing the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan as a main regional hub for logistical support of NATO operations in Afghanistan.

2010 -- The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is signed in Prague by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama.

2010 -- A U.S.-Russian crew blasted off in a Russian Soyuz space ship for a half-year odyssey aboard the International Space Station.  U.S. astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko lifted off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as planned at 0404 GMT.

1988 -- Pacific Southwest Airlines shut down operations and was integrated to USAir (now US Airways).

1995 -- Small arms fire hit a C-130 Hercules 12 times on takeoff from Sarajevo, Bosnia, on a flight to Italy during Operation Provide Promise.  The aircraft had carried flour to Bosnia.

1971 -- Fritz von Opel died at Switzerland.  Automobile manufacturer and rocketry enthusiast. Grandson of Adam Opel, founder of the Opel car company, educated at the Technical University of Darmstadt. After graduation, he was made director of testing for Opel and also put in charge of publicity. In this connection he was persuaded by Max Valier of the newly-formed Verein für Raumschiffahrt VfR (Spaceflight Society) to fund a series of rocket-propelled motor vehicles and aircraft.  In 1928 he purchased a sailplane named the Ente (duck in German) from Alexander Lippisch¹ and attached rocket motors to it, creating the world's first rocket plane on June 11. The aircraft exploded on its second test flight, before von Opel had a chance to pilot it himself, so he commissioned a new aircraft, also called the RAK.1 from Julius Hatry², and flew it at Frankfurt-am-Main on September 30, 1929. In the meantime, another mishap had claimed the RAK.3, a rocket-powered railway car powered by 30 solid-fuel rockets and which reached a speed of 254 km/h (157 mph). 

After the stock market crash, General Motors, the majority owner of Opel stock, felt there was no future in Opel's rocket vehicles and insisted that the company concentrate on conventional motor vehicle development.

1970 -- The U.S. Air Force launched two Vela nuclear-detection satellites from the Eastern Test Range on a Titan III-C booster.  Designed to monitor world-wide compliance with the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty, ach 700-pound satellite carried optical sensors to detect electromagnetic impulses, or brief radio signals generated by atomic explosions anywhere in the atmosphere. Sensors could also detect atomic weapons tests up to 100-million miles in space and distinguish between weapons tests and exploding stars.  The Vela Nuclear Detection Satellites were launched in pairs into high altitude orbits to detect possible nuclear explosions in space and on earth. The original Vela satellites were so successful, each operating for at least 5 years, that a planned acquisition of a fourth and fifth set of pairs was cancelled. Instead, TRW was awarded a further contract in March 1965 for an Advanced Vela spacecraft series. The Advanced series added atmospheric nuclear detonation detection to its capabilities.

1967 -- The Atlantic Command initiated the joint Clove Hitch III exercise in Puerto Rico for 21,000 Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard personnel. The exercise featured C-141's making their first airdrop of paratroopers.

1967 -- The first two C-141s are delivered to the 63rd Military Airlift Wing at Norton AFB, California, the fifth operational StarLifter wing and the sixth operating location.  City of San Bernardino (66-0177) is flown from Marietta by Maj. Gen. Joseph Cunningham, the 22nd Air Force commander, while Inland Empire (66 0178) is flown to Norton by Brig. Gen. Gilbert Curtis, the 63rd MAW commander.

1960 -- Vintage Ad: United Airlines, 1960s

1959 -- Col. E. H. Taylor set a world record of 700.05 mph in an RF-101C over a 1,000-kilometer closed-circuit course.

1954 -- A de Havilland Comet 1, operating South African Airways Flight 201 from Rome to Cairo and Johannesburg, disintegrates in mid-air over the Mediterranean Sea near Naples following fatigue failure, killing all 14 passengers and seven crew.

1954 -- a Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 36 people on the aircraft and 1 person on the ground.

1950 -- PB4 Y-2 BuNo 59645 from VP-26, Det A, became the first victim of the Cold War when shot down over the Baltic by Soviet fighters. The fate of its ten-man crew was never confirmed, but it is suspected they were imprisoned in Russia . The Privateer took off from the U.S. Air Force Base at Wiesbaden, Germanyat 1031 Saturday, April 8 on a classified mission. At 1330 the aircraft reported it was flying over Bremerhaven, Germany, and at 1440 made its last radio report. At 2330 VP-26 headquarters at Port Lyautey received a dispatch from the commanding officer of the U.S. Naval Base in Bremerhaven Stating PB4Y-2 bureau number 59645 was declared overdue by USAF Flight Service in Frankfurt. According to a later Soviet report, the Navy aircraft was sighted at 1739 over Leyaya, Soviet Latvia, and mistakenly identified as a B-29 bomber. It was then intercepted by Soviet La-11, piloted by Boris Dokin, Anatoliy Gerasimov, Tezyaev, and Sataev and ordered to land, whereupon it reportedly exchanged fire with the Russian fighters and headed out to sea. The Soviets reported that it descended sharply before crashing into the sea 5-10 kilometers off the coast. The credibility of the Soviet report was seriously weakened by the fact that the Privateer’s only armament was a .45 cal. pistol carried by one of the officer crewmen. Wreckage was recovered, but no trace of the ten-man crew was ever found and eventually they were presumed dead.³

1946 -- The Camp Kearny Naval Auxiliary Air Station and the Marine Corps Air Depot were disestablished. The facilities were combined and redesignated May 1 as the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, San Diego, California. 

1944 -- By sending 163 B-26s and 105 P-47s against enemy facilities at Hasselt, Belgium, Ninth Air Force conducted one of the largest tactical raids of WW II.

1944 -- RCAF dive bombers start attacks on French railway yards to damage supply routes prior to D-Day.

1943 -- A P-47 Thunderbolt flew its first combat sortie over Western Europe, taking off from England for a sweep over western Europe. 

1942 -- The Army began the largest airlift in WW II, using aircraft acquired from Pan American Airlines. Two DC-3's airlifted gasoline and lubricating oil over the Himalaya Mountains from Dinjan in eastern India to Yunnan-yi in southern China to begin the "Hump Airlift."  A total of eight airplanes carried enough fuel and oil to refuel and service the B-25 bombers for the later "Doolittle Raid." From December 1942, when the airlift became the Air Transport Command's responsibility, through the close of the operation in November 1945, the airlift delivered nearly 740,000 tons of cargo.

1940 -- A B-18 made the first nonstop flight from Denver, Colorado, to Miami, Florida.

1940 -- The U.S. Navy places a contract with Grumman for two prototypes of the XTBF-1, later named Avenger, a chunky mid-wing monoplane that would become the U.S. Navy's standard carrier torpedo bomber of WW II.

1931 -- Amelia Earhart climbs to a record altitude of 18,415 feet in a Pitcairn autogyro at Willow Grove, near Philadelphia.

1930 -- Orville Wright received first Daniel Guggenheim Medal.

1925 -- Lt. John D. Price, flying a plane of VF-1, made a night landing on the USS Langley, off San Diego, California, U.S.A.  Later Lts. D. L. Conley, A. W. Gorton and R. D. Lyon followed him on board. These were the first night landings on a U.S. carrier.

1925 -- Almost two years after the special aviation uniform had been abolished, new uniforms of forestry green for winter and khaki for summer were authorized for U.S. Naval Aviators, Observers, and other officers on duty involving flying.   Although there were minor modifications to the original design in later years, this uniform, in khaki, was adopted for the entire Navy in 1941.

1922 -- A Russian mechanic named Klibensky arrived in Saudi Arabia from Cairo.  In less than a week he would find himself to constitute the whole Hejaz Air Force when all the other mechanics and pilots quit and left the country.

1919 -- Captain Thomas T. Craven, USN,  was detached from the Bureau of Navigation for duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations where, in the following month, he relieved Captain N. E. Irwin as Director of Naval Aviation.

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¹ Alexander Martin Lippisch was a German pioneer of aerodynamics. He made important contributions to the understanding of flying wings, delta wings and the ground effect. His most famous design is the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor.

² Julius Hatry ( was a German aircraft designer and builder. He is remembered for his contributions to sailplane development in the early twentieth century and for building the world's first purpose-built rocket plane, the Opel RAK.1.

³ The crewmembers were: LTs John H. Fette and Howard W. Skeschaf; LTJG Robert D. Reynolds; ENS Tommy L. Burgess; AD1s Joe H. Danens Jr. and Jack W. Thomas; AT1 Frank L. Beckman; CT3 Edward J. Purcell; AL3 Joseph J. Bourassa; and AT3 Joseph N. Rinnier Jr.