May 31

2011 -- The Lockheed Martin F-35 has emerged for the first time as a candidate to replace a fleet of 556 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as a carrier-based air dominance fighter for the US Navy after 2025.  The official disclosure by the Department of Defense in a  report today to Congress has put Boeing on the defensive as it continues to offer the F/A-18E/F as an alternative to the F-35 in international fighter competitions.


2011 --  Air New Zealand (ANZ)  listened to passenger complaints about lack of legroom and  decided to remove an entire row from the Spaceseat cabin starting in late August.  Spaceseats can only be found on ANZ’s small fleet of B777-300ERs which, at present, operate the carrier’s flagship services NZ1 and NZ2.  Removing a single row will cost ANZ over 10 per cent of premium economy capacity. So will the carrier have to raise fares to compensate for the revenue shortfall?

2011 -- Australian airline Qantas was forced to ground a Boeing 767 after flight attendants found five rats in the cabin just minutes before passengers were due to board a Sydney to Brisbane flight this afternoon.  The baby rodents were discovered in the emergency medical equipment storage area during a routine safety check and the plane was immediately grounded. Passengers were transferred to another aircraft.

2011 -- Rescue workers recovered 75 bodies over the past week from the wreckage of an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic two years ago, French police said today. A total of 127 bodies have now been recovered -- 50 in the days immediately after the crash, two more when the black box flight recorders were found at the start of the month, and the rest between May 23 and May 30. The Airbus A330 crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009, with the death of all 228 people on board.  It was only last month that investigators found the main wreckage in deep waters midway between Brazil and west Africa. 

2011 -- NATO aircraft bombed targets near the Libyan capital Tripoli overnight, just hours after South African President Jacob Zuma met with embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in his military camp. Zuma’s attempt at mediation was followed by a visit by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to United Arab Emirates next week for a meeting on Libya's conflict. The State Department said Tuesday that Clinton will attend a June 9 meeting of the Libyan Contact Group.

2011 -- Aer Lingus passengers are facing the possibility of widespread flight cancellations this summer as a result of a vote by pilots for industrial action.

2010 -- Russia today, handed over to Poland copies of cockpit conversation recorders and other materials related to the investigation into the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski.  The April 10 crash killed Kaczynski, his wife and 94 others outside the western Russian city of Smolensk as their plane attempted to land in heavy fog. A preliminary report drew no conclusions about what caused the crash.

2010 -- Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report: Strategies for Maintaining the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ Inventories of Fighter Aircraft, (pdf)  "The United States Navy and Marine Corps operate a fleet of tactical fighter aircraft that provide air-to-air and air-to-ground combat capabilities. Although current procurement plans call for the purchase of about 700 new fighter aircraft over the next 15 years, the Department of the Navy is projecting that purchases planned for the next 5 to 10 years will be unable to keep pace with the retirement of today’s F/A-18A-D Hornets as they reach the limit of their service life. This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report—prepared as directed by the House Armed Services Committee’s Report on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (H. Rept. 111-166)— compares several alternatives for maintaining the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ fighter inventory levels. The alternatives include different combinations of extending the service life of Hornets and purchasing new aircraft in addition to those already planned."

2010 -- Ten people received cuts and other minor injuries from tree branches and debris scattered by a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey, which landed into a crowd of around 150 people during a Memorial Day event at Staten Island’s Clove Lakes Park, New York.



2010 -- Lufthansa wants a one-year delay to the inclusion of airlines in Europe's emission trading scheme due to the flight disruption from a volcanic ash cloud in April. The ETS plans to use 2010 as the base year for determining how many free emissions certificates, or licenses to pollute the air, each airline will receive. Meanwhile, Lufthansa is expanding its services to South America. With the introduction of the 2010/2011 winter timetable on October 31, the airline will resume flights (cancelled in 2002) to the Colombian capital Bogotá. Once this service is resumed, Lufthansa will offer its customers a total of 60 flights per week to four destinations in South America.

2010 -- NATO aircraft conducted several airstrikes on Taliban locations in Bargi Matal, a remote district in Nuristan, a in Bargi Matal, a remote district in eastern Afghanistan this morning.

2003 --  Last Air France Concorde departs 31L .

1999 - Bombing of Novi Pazar.  At least 10 people were killed and 20 injured in a Nato missile attack on an apartment building in Novi Pazar, southwest Serbia.

1996 -- The U.S. Air Force awarded C-17 multi-year contracts to McDonnell Douglas and Pratt and Whitney for 80 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and engines over seven years.  The contracts, valued at $16.2 billion, were the longest and the largest multi-year contracts ever entered into by the government to date. That acquisition gave the Air Force 120 C-17s and enabled the retirement of C-141s from the U.S. Air Force inventory.

1995 -- First flight of the Schweizer RU-38A Twin Condor long-range surveillance aircraft takes place in Elmira, New York.

1994 -- The United States announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.

1991 -- Complying with the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the U.S. Air Force inactivated the 501st Tactical Missile Wing at Royal Air Force Greenham Common, United Kingdom.  The wing was the first ground launched cruise missile to activate in Europe, the first to become operational and the last to inactivate.

1978 -- Sixty-one C-141 and 11 C-5 missions moved a Pan-African peacekeeping force to Zaire during Operation Zaire II and took the French and Belgian forces, with 1,619 tons of cargo and 1,225 passengers back to Europe lasting through June 16.

1973 -- Indian Airlines Boeing 737-200 VT-EAM crashed and caught fire after hitting power lines during a landing attempt. The landing was made despite visibility below minimal. Crew error.

1967 -- A KC–135 Stratotanker from the 902nd Air Refueling Squadron carried out a spectacular series of emergency refuelings that saved six fuel-starved Navy aircraft.

As reported in Air Force magazine: "A crew consisting of aircraft commander Maj. John H. Casteel, copilot Capt. Richard L. Trail, navigator Capt. Dean L. Hoar, and boom operator MSgt. Nathan C. Campbell was assigned a refueling track over the Gulf of Tonkin. Soon after they had established their track, Major Casteel's crew was alerted to refuel a pair of Air Force F-104 fighters on a support mission north of the DMZ. While refueling the F-104s, Casteel was informed that two Navy KA-3 tankers, desperately short of fuel, were on the way to his tanker. Both KA-3s had fuel they could transfer but could not use themselves. After receiving a partial load, the F-104s stayed with Casteel's KC-135 to defend it against possible MiG attacks while it refueled the Navy aircraft.

The first Navy tanker took on a minimum of fuel then broke off to allow the second KA-3 to hook up. At this point, two Navy F-8s were vectored to the KC-135 for emergency refueling. One F-8 was so low on fuel that the pilot could not wait for the second KA-3 to complete refueling. The Navy pilot hooked up to the KA-3 that still was taking on fuel from the KC-135. That is believed to have been the first trilevel refueling ever. While the dual transfer was in progress, the first KA-3 passed fuel to the second F-8, and then returned to the KC-135 to complete its own refueling. This joint-service operation was still in progress when two Navy F-4s with bingo fuel were vectored to the KC-135 for emergency service. While waiting for the F-4s to appear, Casteel's crew gave the two Air Force F-104s another shot of fuel, then transferred enough to the Navy F-4s to get them to their carrier. After this series of 10 refuelings, the KC-135 did not have enough fuel to return to its base in Thailand. It headed for an alternate in South Vietnam while refueling the two F-104s a third time to provide enough fuel to get them to their base."

Casteel's crew all received Distinguished Flying Crosses for the action, and they were subsequently awarded the Mackay Trophy.

1965 -- U.S. planes bomb an ammunition depot at Hoi Jan, west of Hanoi, and try again to drop the Than Hoa highway bridge.  These raids were part of Operation Rolling Thunder, which had begun in March 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson had ordered the sustained bombing of North Vietnam to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities as targets. In the spring of 1967, it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area.

1962 -- U.S. Rep. Edgar Hiestand asked citizens of the 21st Congressional District of California — "Do you consider scientific information resulting from a U.S. moon flight worth its $40 billion cost?''  Results of the poll were: 44% replied "no"; 35% replied "yes"; and 21% replied "undecided."

1956 -- The 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Turner AFB, Georgia, received the first RB-57, a D-model reconnaissance version of the British-designed B-57 Canberra light bomber.

1951 -- Far East Air Forces (FEAF) launched an attempt, called Operation Strangle, to paralyze enemy transportation between the 39th parallel and the front lines in Korea.  By late July, FEAF knew the interdiction of North Korean supply and communication lines, while substantial, had failed to isolate North Korean forces. In late December, however, General Weyland announced that the Strangle operations had shattered the North Korean rail transportation net. The bombing effort destroyed or damaged 40,000 trucks and prevented a Red Chinese buildup for future offensive operations.

1945 -- The last of 18,188 B-24 Liberators was delivered to the USAAF.  This bomber was produced in larger numbers than any other U.S. aircraft and employed on more fronts than any other Allied or enemy bomber in WW II. Consolidated was originally asked to produce the B-17 under license, but submitted its own design for a more capable bomber. The placement of the B-24's fuel tanks throughout the upper fuselage and its lightweight construction optimized assembly line production and increased range and payload, but made the aircraft more difficult to fly and more vulnerable to battle damage.

1944 -- First launching of the experimental VB-7 vertical bomb, incorporating television.

1941 -- U.S. Army Maj. Gen. George H. Brett appointed Chief of Air Corps.

1937 -- Vladislav Ivanovich Gulyayev is born.  

1935 -- Flight of Goddard A series rocket reaches 7,500 feet.  Rocket had new lift indicator; length 15 ft 1 1/2 in.; weight 84 lb; altitude 7500 ft; excellent stabilisation; landed 5500 ft from ower, digging hole 10 in. deep; loud whistle on descent. 

1935 -- A major earthquake in India destroys the Royal Air Force base at Quetta and the nearby settlement of the same name.  All of the station's buildings, apart from the hangers collapse, killing 55 Royal Air Force personnel and dependants and 66 local employees. Of the two squadrons based at Quetta, only three of No.31 Squadron's aircraft remain serviceable and all of No.5 Squadron's aircraft are damaged. Over 30,000 of the 65,000 population of Quetta lose their lives.

1935 -- Hawaii's newest airfield, now known as Hickam AFB, was officially dedicated and named in honor of Lt Col Horace Meek Hickam, a distinguished aviation pioneer who was killed in an aircraft accident on November 5, 1934 at Fort Crockett in Galveston, Texas.

1934 -- Orvil A. Anderson issued FAI-ACA B-License #1080.  Anderson played a role in some key events in airpower history. Entering the Air Service during WW I, Anderson gained fame as one of the top balloonists in the country. In the fall of 1922 in airship TC-13 he made the first transcontinental flight of the U.S.A. of an airship as commander in both directions. He achieved an altitude record for balloons in 1935 that lasted for 22 years and which won him both the Harmon and Mackay trophies.

1931 -- A pilotless airplane was successfully flown by radio control from another plane at Houston, Texas. 

1928 -- May 31-June 9: First trans-Pacific flight, from Oakland, California to Brisbane, Australia, , 7,389 miles (11,890km), in 83 hours, and 38 minutes by Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm.  Included in the crew of the Southern Cross were James Warner (Radioman) and Harry Lyons (Navigator). On the way, it becomes the first airplane to land in Fiji.

1916 -- British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) seaplanes are used to observe the German High Seas Fleet at the Battle of Jutland.

1915 -- The German Zeppelin LZ–38 dropped bombs on London for the first time.  A house at 16 Alkham Roadin Stoke Newington was hit. 7 members of the public were killed and a further 35 injured. 150 small bombs set approximately 41 fires.  Other bombing raids on London and Paris followed. The airships approached their targets silently at night at altitudes above the ceilings of British and French fighters. But higher-flying aircraft were built and armed with incendiary ammunition that set the hydrogen-filled zeppelins afire. Several zeppelins were also lost because of bad weather, and 17 were shot down because they could not climb as fast as the fighters. The crews also suffered from cold and oxygen deprivation when they maintained flight above 10,000 feet.

1912 -- German-born American astronomer Martin Schwarzchild is born in Potsdam, Germany.  In 1957 he  introduced the use of high-altitude hot-air balloons to carry scientific instruments and photographic equipment into the stratosphere for solar research.

1912 -- Russian scientist Georgi Ivanovich Petrov is born.

1862 -- Information obtained from Thadeus S. C. Lowe's balloon observation saves Union forces from defeat at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia during the U. S. Civil War.  Union General George McClellan is warned by Lowe of Confederate General Albert Johnston's approaching troops.

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A Vanishing American Remembrance?
By Ed Hooper

Ed Hooper is an author and military affairs reporter from Knoxville, Tenn. He is a writer for the History News Service. Attribution to the History News Service and the author is required for reprinting and redistribution of this article.

The city of Yonkers, NY, has canceled its Memorial Day parade this year. What's the news in this? It's the cause cited by city officials—not lack of funds, of parade participants or of budget, but simply that no one is showing up to see the parade any more, a story that's repeating itself in cities across the nation.

Strained budgets have been the most cited reason for past cancellations of Memorial Day events. But the truth is that the observance is fading as an American holiday, a sad fact when you remember the history of its placement on the U.S. calendar.

It got there in 1868, when Major General John A. Logan issued his General Order 11, establishing May 30 as Decoration Day at national cemeteries to honor soldiers who died while serving. Gen. Logan's order spoke only to honoring Union soldiers' sacrifices. Former Confederate states originally refused to acknowledge Decoration Day, and families of Confederate soldiers buried in Arlington National Cemetery were not even permitted to visit the gravesites of their relatives after the Civil War.

President McKinley's order thirty years later to exhume and re-inter scattered Confederate remains in the Washington, D.C. area in a special section of Arlington—and President Taft's later authorization of a Confederate Memorial to be placed there—finally ended this division. The reconciliation brought about by these two presidents nationally transformed May 30 into an American holiday honoring all who have ever died in service to the United States.

What's unique about Decoration Day is that the order issued by Gen. Logan applied only to national cemeteries. It had no official force of law elsewhere, but American citizens marked the day without congressional or government decree for decades. In the wake of World War I, a University of Georgia professor, Moina Michael, created the idea of wearing red poppies on Memorial Day and selling silk ones to raise money to assist disabled veterans. Her efforts made red poppies a national symbol of remembrance for those who died in the line of duty, earning her a place on a 1948 U.S. postage stamp.

It wasn't until 1968 that Congress made Decoration Day an official U.S. holiday called Memorial Day and then moved its observance to the last Monday in the month to create a three-day holiday weekend. When the new federal calendar went into effect in 1971, the holiday fell into decline. Its meaning in the American conversation soon became lost. The Memorial Day weekend was touted by the media as the unofficial start of summer, a time to hold sporting events or for retailers to host special sales.

The move toppled the national holiday from its pedestal. Memorial Day commemorates the men and women killed on the battlefield or in service to this nation's existence. It was meant to be one of the most revered dates on the American patriotic calendar—a day when the U.S. flag is flown at half staff in the morning and then raised at noon.

Since the 1970s, there have been several grassroots movements among veterans' organizations to restore the holiday to its original May 30 designation. In 1999, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D—Hawaii) introduced such a bill. That bill was followed by a similar bill introduced in the House two months later by Rep. Jim Gibbons (R—Nevada). Both bills were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Government Reform and haven't been seen since. Senator Inouye, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, reintroduced the bill in 2007, only to see it once again vanish in committee.

This holiday's stature did regain ground after the 2001 terrorist attacks on American soil. In 2004, after more than sixty years of neglect, a National Memorial Day Parade was organized in Washington, D.C. to coincide with the dedication of the World War II Memorial. The American Veterans Center and Music Celebrations International have since organized it into an annual event. Still, most who died on the battlefield are buried elsewhere.

The small ceremonies and parades in the hometowns of those servicemen and women are just as important. Their sacrifice is more than a maudlin patriotic story. Our obligation is to remember them on a proper holiday with the reverence they deserve.

This piece was distributed for non-exclusive use by the History News Service, an informal syndicate of professional historians who seek to improve the public's understanding of current events by setting these events in their historical contexts. The article may be republished as long as both the author and the History News Service are clearly credited.