May 30

2012 -- Governor Cuomo Declares May 'Aviation Appreciation Month.' In New York, the aviation industry accounts for more than $50 billion of economic activity every year and employs more than 394,500 people throughout the state. General aviation generates more than $1 billion in economic impact annually in New York, and supports 8,600 jobs.


2012 -- Pimp your ride. German automotive tuner Brabus has been offering tuned cars for the wealthy and ultra-wealthy since 1977. In addition to cars, the tuner offers a yacht customization service, and it recently turned its attention to the skies, where it will transform private jets to the desired specifications of paying customers. Brabus announced its new Private Aviation branch, which will extend customization services to the world of private jets. The new venture's work will be focused primarily on jet cabins, where it will offer such upgrades as leather upholstery, Alcantara accents and wood trim. The company also mentions that it can customize the exterior of the plane - so that jet with matte black vinyl wrap, exposed carbon fiber accents and neon lights you've been dreaming about can be all yours.



2012 -- Mystery of missing U.S. WW II pilot downed over South Pacific island jungle solved after 31 years.

2011 --  The UAE'sEnglish language newspaper The National reported today that the country is seeking maintenance and spare parts valued at more than $100 million to support the UAE defence force's F16 fleet.  The paper quotes the U.S. Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).as saying UAE is interested in a possible sale of support and maintenance of "classified and unclassified" F-16 fighter jet components as part of a  general maintenance and sustainment deal relating to its existing fleet of fighter jets, which were recently deployed in Libya to enforce a no-fly zone with Nato allies.


The sale was recommended to US Congress after the U.S. agency called the UAE "an important force for peace, political stability, and economic progress in the Middle East" and recognised the Emirates' "legitimate security and defence needs."

2011 -- An Iranian air force attack helicopter crashed south of Isfahan  in central Iran, killing the pilot and co-pilot, the official IRNA news agency reported.  Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeeli, deputy governor general of Isfahan province, quoted by IRNA, said the crash of the helicopter, a Cobra 209 built by American manufacturer Bell, was due to a "technical fault" and an investigation team has been sent to the scene.   Iran, under U.S.  sanctions that deny it access to American spare parts, has suffered several aviation disasters over the past decade Iran says because of its aging fleet and lack of maintenance.

2011 --  Yemeni warplanes carried out airstrikes today on a southern town seized by hundreds of Islamic militants over the weekend.  Saleh's opponents, including some in the military, have accused him of allowing the militant takeover of the small town of Zinjibar to try to bolster his argument that he is a key bulwark against al-Qaida and win back support from countries like the United States.

2010 -- A Paris-to-Mexico flight was re-routed to Montreal in Canada today, and one of its passengers arrested by the Canadian Border Services Agency at the request of U.S. immigration authorities.

The passenger was Abdirahman Ali Gaal, who is on a U.S. no-fly list and is rumored to be a Somali national although this has yet to be confirmed. Gaal is also banned from entering Canada and is to appear before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board on Wednesday to determine whether he will be deported.

A spokesperson for Canada’s Immigration Department said details of Gaal’s arrest would be made public at the hearing.

The other 150 passengers on the diverted flight which departed Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport at 4:31 a.m. Eastern Time were required to disembark and undergo searching. Police also searched the aircraft before it was able to continue its journey to Mexico at about 10pm.

Gaall reportedly has U.S. resident-alien status and is apparently married to an American or Canadian woman. Media reports also suggest that he is connected with the Somali jihadist group al Shabaab. Gaall was reportedly will be deported from Canada to the United States on June 1,

2010 -- An eruption by Ecuador's Tungurahua (Throat of Fire) volcano abated today, leading authorities to start allowing 2,500 evacuees to return home and announce plans to reopen a major airport in the country's largest and most populated city Guayaquil later in the day.

2010 -- The Obama administration is increasing pressure on Pakistan to provide the United States with much broader airline passenger information, a crucial tool that American investigators use to track terrorist travel patterns, but a step that Pakistan has resisted.

2008 -- TACA Airlines Flight 390, an Airbus A320 overruns the runway at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras killing seven.

2003 -- A 910th Airlift Wing C-130 from Youngstown Air Refueling Squadron, Vienna, Ohio, delivered 7.5 tons of humanitarian supplies to Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria.

The C-130 crew, on a temporary duty at Ramstein AB, Germany, delivered the first American relief supplies to the earthquake victims.

2002 -- German rocket pioneer August Friedrich Staats died.  Staats was born in Bremen, where he studied electronic technology and began working in the field. At age 21 he received his first patent, for an electro-acoustical remote control. He ended up in Peenemuende during WW II, developing radio control, guidance, and telemetry systems under Dr. E-A Steinhoff. After the war he decided to remain in Germany, becoming the lead engineer for the United Acetylene Factory in Hannover. As soon as the allies removed the prohibition on German aerospace research, he co-founded Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Raketentechnik DAFRA (German Society for Rocket Technology) on September 21, 1952. It grew to 1,300 members in 14 countries by 1963 and conducted pioneering sounding rocket experiments at Cuxhaven¹. Staats was the Founder and the Chief Editor of the magazine Astronautik and founded and led a series of International Spaceflight Congresses in Salzburg.

1999 -- Bombing of Varvarin.  11 civilians were reported killed and a further 40 injured when NATO bombers mounted a daylight raid on a bridge in Varvarin, south-central Serbia. Yugoslav sources said local people were attending the town's market when the attack happened at 1pm local time. Witnesses said four cars fell into the Velika Morava river. Rescuers who went to aid of the injured were hit in the second attack.  A first-hand account of what happened was published in the Irish Times. One of their reporters visited the village shortly after the bombing. Photos of the target and casualties.

1999 -- Second Bombing of Surdulica.  Nato planes have hit an old people's home at a sanatorium in south-eastern Serbia killing at least 11 people, according to the Yugoslav media. The reports said the attack on Surdulica was the second time that Nato had hit civilian targets in the town.  Officials say the town was hit by four bombs at around midnight, two of which landed on the old people's home. Another building in the grounds of the sanatorium was also destroyed.

1974 -- The U.S. launched the world's first communications broadcast satellite, the Applications Technology Satellite or ATS-6.  From its synchronous orbit, the satellite provided coverage to half of the globe.

1973 -- The U.S. Senate voted to cut off funds for the bombing of Cambodia.²  The move is a serious blow to President Richard Nixon's South-East Asia policy and follows a similar resolution voted in by the House of Representatives on May 10.  The amendment to an appropriations bill was sponsored by Democrat Senator Thomas Eagleton and supported by many liberal Republicans.

1971 -- U.S. Mars space probe Mariner 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Florida. It carried cameras, infrared spectrometer and radiometer, ultraviolet spectrometer, radio occultation and celestial mechanics instruments. On November 13, 1971, it entered orbit as the first artificial satellite of Mars. After waiting for a month-long planet-wide dust storm to clear, it began compiling a global mosaic of high-quality images for 100% of the Martian surface. The photos showed gigantic volcanoes, a grand canyon stretching 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) and relics of ancient riverbeds that were carved in the landscape of this seemingly dry and dusty planet. It also sent the first closeup pictures of the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos.

1959 -- The first experimental hovercraft, the SR.N1 made its first trip at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.  It was designed by Sir Christopher Cockerell and built by Saunders-Roe. The invention was considered initially only for military use, but was released for civilian use in 1959. 

On July 25, 1959, the prototype crossed the English Channel. Cockerell first considered the possibility of travel by hovercraft, a vehicle that can move across land or water on a cushion of air, in the early 1950s. Using a can of cat food inside a coffee tin and reversed air-flow from a vacuum cleaner, he proved his theory on the mud floor of his boatyard. The hovercraft is now used in a variety of roles, from military transportation to ferrying cars and passengers across the Channel.

1958 -- The U.S. Air Force disclosed the development of the GAR-9, the first air-to-air atomic missile.

1949 -- The first use of a Martin-Baker ejection seat in a genuine emergency occurs when pilot J. O. Lancaster ejects himself from the Armstrong Whitworth Flying Wing jet airplane.  he seat worked perfectly well; however, it was fortunate that he was alone in the aircraft as the second crew member was not provided with an ejector seat.

1947 -- First flight Boulton Paul AircraftBalliol a monoplane military advanced trainer aircraft built for the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF)designed to replace the North American Harvard trainer.

1942 -- 30-31: First 1,000-plane raid by RAF Bomber Command on Cologne, Germany.

1942 -- The first Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress was built.



1942 -- The first RAF 1,000-bomber raid. 1,047 aircraft were dispatched to Cologne, attacked the main target dropping 1,455 tons of explosives, two-thirds of which were incendiaries.  The city suffered severe damage and 469 people were killed. About 250 factories and 18,400 houses were destroyed or damaged. Half of the city's power supply was out of action, and some 12,000 fires started, many of which burned for days. Forty one aircraft were lost

1934 -- Aleksey Arkhipovich Leonov, Soviet cosmonaut, the first man to climb out of a spacecraft in space is born.  On March 18, 1965, Voskhod 2 was launched into space carrying Leonov with Pavel Belyayev aboard. On the second orbit Leonov left the spacecraft through the air lock while still tethered to the vessel. He took motion pictures and practiced moving outside of the spacecraft for 10 minutes. Voskhod 2 made 17 orbits at about 110 miles (177 km) above earth. Ten years later, on July 17, 1975, Leonov commanded the Soviet Soyuz craft that linked in orbit with a U.S. Apollo craft.

1929 -- A de Havilland DH-4 with Liberty engines completed cross-country refueling tests during a flight from Dayton to New York to Washington, D.C.

1928 -- Australian aviator Capt. Charles E. Kingsford-Smith and three other crewmen piloted a F.VII/3m monoplane Trimotor, the Southern Cross, on the first flight from the U.S. to Australia.  The 7,400-mile flight ended at Brisbane on June 8 after stops in Honolulu and the Fiji Islands.

1927 -- No.2 Squadron Royal Air Force (Bristol F2Bs) arrives in Shanghai to reinforce Royal Air Force China Command.

1912 -- Pioneer aviator Wilbur Wright dies from typhoid fever, at the early age of 45.  His death marks the end of his extraordinary partnership with his brother Orville, which culminated in 1903 with the first, powered airplane, Flyer, capable of sustained, controlled flight on December 17, 1903. 

Orville made the first flight, airborne for 12 seconds. Wilbur took the second flight, covering 853 feet (260-m) in 59 seconds. By 1905, they had improved the design, built and and made several long flights in Flyer III, which was the first fully practical airplane (1905), able to fly up to 38 minutes and travel 24 miles (39-km). Their Model A was produced in 1908, capable of flight for over two hours of flight. They sold considerable numbers, but European designers became strong competitors.

Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company in 1915.

1908 -- The first European flight of over 15 minutes takes place. Léon Delagrange flies his Voisin-Delagrange in France.

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¹ A new generation of private German rocket enthusiasts flew rockets from Cuxhaven until 1964 (with those of Seliger reaching 120 km altitude). Then a boy was killed in one of the rocket tests. This led once again to the prohibition of further private serious rocket research in Germany - and the end of private rocketry to space.

² The carpet bombing that had started covertly in late 1960s to stop America's enemies from Vietnam using Cambodia as a base outraged much the American public and crippled Cambodia as a nation.

The leader of Cambodia, Prince Sihanouk, allowed North Vietnamese to set up bases in Cambodia. He was in a difficult position, to support the U.S. would mean Vietnamese invasion, yet to support the Vietnamese would lead to U.S. bombing of the HoChiMinh trail. It was a choice between the lesser of two evils. He saw that the U.S. could never defeat North Vietnam and in the long run this relation with North Vietnam would provide security against invasion. Such vacillating weakened his government, leading to a coup orchestrated by his defense minister, Lon Nol in 1970.

In March 1969 under the new American president, Richard Nixon, and National Security Affairs adviser Henry Kissinger, the illegal, isolated and limited attacks across the Cambodian border became sustained, illegal, large-scale B-52 bombings--"carpet bombings."

Kissinger's critics note that many of these actions were taken not only for policy reasons but also for sometimes sleazy political motives. The secret invasion of Cambodia, William Shawcross asserted in his meticulously researched book Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (1979), was, among other things, the vehicle Kissinger used to help him consolidate his power within the bureaucracy.

Over the next 14 months, no less than 3,630 B-52 bombing raids were flown over Cambodia. To escape the onslaught, the Vietnamese Communists moved their bases further inside the country. The B-52s of course followed, with a concomitant increase in civilian casualties with limited results against the North Vietnamese troops.

There were 115,000 sites targeted in 231,00 U.S. bombing sorties flown over Cambodia in 1965-75, dropping 2.75 million tons of munitions.

Prince Sihanouk became head of state for a brief period before he was forced into political exile by Pol Pot.

Nobody could have predicted the extent of U.S. bombing and Khmer Rouge rise to power. However; the Khmer Rouge, supplemented continuing international support from the U.S., China, and Thailand with extensive logging and gem mining from its resource-rich control zones on its western border with Thailand. Chinese vetoes in the U.N. Security Council ensured that the Khmer Rouge, and not the de facto regime in Phnom Penh, held Cambodia's U.N. seat. By consistently supporting Pol Pot and torpedoing regional deals that might have ended the conflict and condemned the Khmer Rouge to isolation and ineffectiveness, the U.S. guaranteed continuing conflict and instability.

The Nixon administration artfully played down the nature and extent of these bombings, going so far as to falsify military records, and was largely successful in keeping it all a secret from the American public, the press and Congress. Not until 1973, in the midst of the Watergate revelations, did a fuller story begin to emerge.

It was frequently argued that the United States had every right to attack Cambodia because of its use as a sanctuary by America's foes in Vietnam.

Under pressure from Congress, the Nixon administration finally ended the bombing in August 1973. More than two million Cambodians had been made homeless.

The Cambodian army gradually lost more territory to the Khmer Rouge who began a reign of terror in 1975.

For the next four years Pol Pot oversaw the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, by execution, forced labor and starvation.

The Vietnamese forced out Pol Pot in 1979 and withdrew from Cambodia 10 years later. In 1993 the monarchy was restored with Sihanouk as king.