January 16

2012 -- Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is frequently called “economy-class syndrome” because of the number of people who get it after sitting immobilized in cramped seats on long flights.

An Airlines for America spokeswoman Victoria Day says. There is "no specific link between air travel and DVT. The risk of developing a DVT during air travel is about the same as being seated for the same period of time at a desk, in a movie theater, on a bus or in a car." There is a web-based clearinghouse of information on DVT called ClotCare. The doctor who founded the organization, Henry Bussey, said the site receives more than 500,000 hits a month. Bussey said that the few studies on DVT showed that long-distance flying could be a “substantial risk.” But he also said that those who had a tendency toward clotting were older people with poor circulation, women who were on hormonal medicine and people with a genetic condition that allows clots to form more easily, not necessarily people who frequently travel long distances.


2012 -- As fuel efficiency and aerodynamics help make longer and longer flights possible, expect to see passengers discovering their limits for riding in coach for hours on end.

The latest offerings from Boeing and Airbus all can travel more than 8,000 nautical miles (9,200 statute miles) before stopping for gas. The Airbus A380, for example, has range 1,000 nm longer than traditional 747; the just-introduced Boeing 787 can go 2,000 nm farther before refueling than the plane it is replacing, the 767-300. Singapore Airlines planes that fly 18-hour nonstop routes to the U.S. are fitted only with 100 business-class seats because of customer demand.

2012 -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said Iran will unveil new maritime patrol aircraft soon.

He said the unveiling ceremony may coincide with "ten-day dawn ceremony" -- anniversary of Islamic Revolution Victory on February 1-11.

2012 -- Three people died when a civilian Bell 214ST helicopter contracted to NATO forces crashed in flames in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, Afghanistan  today, the provincial police chief said. 

Taliban insurgents claimed in a statement on their website to have shot the helicopter down.

2012 -- A Turkish jet trainer crashed into the sea. A Pakistani Air Force major was training Turkish Air force lieutenant as part of a military exchange program between Turkey and Pakistan. 

The plane sunk approximately 130 meters below sea level. Both bodies were found several days later.

2011 -- Global Observer unmanned aircraft makes first hydrogen-powered flight.

2011 -- The RAF’s 7th C-17 arrives at Brize Norton.

2011 -- Video: The pilot who stuck to the right schedule

2010 -- FAA lends air traffic aid to Haiti as Air Force opens Port au Prince.

2002 -- British astronomer Robert Hanbury Brown died from cancer at Andover, Hampshire, England.

Early in his career, Brown worked with Robert Watson-Watt on the secret development of radar, then headed a group that developed a shorter-wavelength radar for use in aircraft for uses in aerial combat.

1998 -- After a devastating earthquake hit China's Northern Hebei Province, a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III left Kadena AB, Japan, for Beijing with 40 tons of relief supplies, consisting of blankets, sleeping bags, medical supplies, rations and cold-weather clothing.

1997 -- An Air Force Reserve C-141 aircrew from the 446 Airlift Wing at McChord AFB, Kansas, left Beijing, China with the remains of five Americans, who died on August 13, 1944 in a B-24J Liberator crash after bombing Japanese ships near Taiwan.

1980 -- British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK.

1979 -- Flying to Aswan in Egypt Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi and his wife, Empress Farah, fled the country following months of increasingly violent protests against his regime  led by Iran's main spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, from exile in France.

The couple's three youngest children were flown to the United States yesterday. 

1979 -- WW I Royal Naval Air Service ace Major Christopher Draper died  in Camden, London, U.K. He was 86-years-old.

His penchant for flying under bridges earned him the nickname "the Mad Major." After the war he became a film star through his work both as a stunt pilot and as an actor. During the 1930s he worked for a time as a British secret agent, serving as a double agent to Nazi Germany. He returned to the Navy in WW II. During his flying career he logged over 17,000 flying hours on 73 types of aircraft.

1978 -- NASA named 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who became America's first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who became America's first black astronaut in space.

1975 -- In Operation Streak Eagle, the USAF sets new climb-time records with the McDonnell Douglas F-15A aircraft, operating from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota.

The Streak Eagle reaches a height of 3,000 m (9,843 ft.) in 27.57 sec., 6,000 m (19,685 ft.) in 39.33 sec., 9,000 m (929,528 ft.) in 48.86 sec., 12,000 m (39,370 ft.) in 59.38 sec. and 15,000 m (42,2132 ft.) in 1 min. 17.02 sec.

1974 -- The 48th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron evacuated 93 people from flooded areas near Pinehurst, Idaho through January 19.

1972 -- WW I United States Air Service ace Major Reed McKinley Chambers died in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

After the war, he and Eddie Rickenbacker, founded Florida Airways, which in 1926 received the first private air mail contract awarded by the U.S. Government. After the airline's uninsured aircraft suffered a series of accidents and damage caused by hurricanes, the airline declared bankruptcy in 1927. As a result of this loss, Chambers teamed with David Beebe and the two founded the United States Aircraft Insurance Group, the nation's first aviation insurance company. The security provided by this company ensured the development and testing of such pioneering aircraft as the Douglas DC-3, the Boeing 707, the B-52 jet bomber, and the General Dynamics F-111A. He broke the sound barrier flying second seat in a Convair F-106 Delta Dart in 1968.

1971 -- Pacific Air Forces terminated all fixed-wing herbicide operations in Southeast Asia.

1970 -- USAF Strategic Air Command retired its last B-58 Hustlers as two bombers from the 43 BMW at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, and two from the 305th BMW at Grissom AFB, Indiana, flew to the aircraft storage facility at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona.

1957 -- Five B-52Bs of the Ninety-third Bombardment Wing, commanded by Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr., commander of the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force, begin Operation Power Flite, the first nonstop round-the-world flight by turbojet aircraft.

1942 -- Actress Carole Lombard, famous for her roles in such screwball comedies as My Man Godfrey and To Be or Not to Be, and for her marriage to the actor Clark Gable, is killed when the TWA DC-3 plane she is traveling in crashes en route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She was 33.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane veered off course. Warning beacons that might have helped guide the pilot had been blacked out because of fears about Japanese bombers, and the plane smashed into a cliff near the top of Potosi Mountain. Hysterical with grief and adrift in the empty house he had shared with Lombard, Gable drank heavily and struggled to complete his work on Somewhere I’ll Find You. That August, although exempt from the draft, Gable decided to leave a $30,000 a month job and enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a private and worked his way up through the ranks. After graduating Officers' Candidate School in 1942 he attended aerial gunnery school, then served with the 8th Air Force in England. Though he flew combat bombing missions, his primary job was photographing other airmen in action for a movie to recruit airmen for the war effort. He completed his service as a major.

1942 -- Japanese forces advancing down the Malayan peninsular suffered a tactical defeat when Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and RAAF formations combined to destroy the spearhead of the 5th Division.

The action started January 14-15, when the 2/30 Battalion, AIF, ambushed approximately 1,000 enemy soldiers on the Gemas-Tampin road, at the bridge across the Gemencheh River. With their line of advance blocked, a heavy concentration of Japanese vehicles formed along the road west of the river. Nos 21 and 453 Squadrons, RAAF, attacked this tempting target in the morning with their Buffalo fighters, returning in the afternoon with a formation of Dutch bombers. The RAAF pilots destroyed numerous vehicles and a tank, killing or wounding a large number of enemy troops. These combined attacks were one of the few victories enjoyed by the Allies in a campaign that ended with the loss of Singapore a month later.

1911 -- The first U.S. Army photo reconnaissance flight was flown by Walter Brookins with Lt. George E. M. Kelly as his passenger. They were not successful because the troops hid in small groups in a wooded area.

1881 -- English engineer Sir Arthur Percy Morris Fleming was born.

He was a major figure in developing techniques for manufacturing radar components. His work on demountable, high-power thermionic tubes made it possible to establish radar stations in Great Britain by the time WW II began in 1939.