January 18

2012 -- A Lloyd Aviation Bell 206L-4 Long Ranger IV, YV1985, was destroyed when it collided with a mountain during a sightseeing flight near Montaña Auyantepui, Parque Nacional Canaima, in the State of Bolívar, Venezuela.

All five occupants died.

2012 --  Near Leighton Welshpool, Powys, Wales, U.K. a  Piper PA-31-325 Navajo C/R  crashed on high ground .

Both occupants died.

2012 --  A motorized glider crashed at Snowy Tops, Diadem Range, about 17 kilometres northwest of Omarama , New Zealand during a ridge flight. 

The pilot was killed.  

2011 -- Russia will release a full transcript of communications between Russian air traffic controllers and the Polish presidential jet that crashed last year, killing president Lech Kaczynski.

1993 -- F-4G Phantom IIs attacked surface-to-air missile sites in northern Iraq after being fired upon. F-16s also bombed an Iraqi airfield after being shot at by anti-aircraft artillery batteries.

1991 -- Eastern Air Lines Flight 409 arrived in Atlanta from New York at 11:50 pm, and proved to be the last trip for the 62 year old company.

Management for the bankrupt airline had announced earlier in the evening that all other scheduled flights were cancelled.

1991 -- U.S. Air Force aircraft based at Incirlik AB, Turkey, attacked targets in northern Iraq to prevent the reinforcement of enemy forces defending Kuwait.

1991 -- Iraq has attacked two Israeli cities with Scud missiles, prompting fears that Israel may be drawn into the Gulf War.

Israel's largest city, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, its main seaport, were hit in the attacks, which began at 0300 local time (0100 GMT), when most residents were asleep.

1991 -- For the first time in the history of war, the U.S. Army reported, an incoming ballistic missile was shot down before it could hit its target.

At 4:28 a.m., an American Patriot missile was launched from a coalition air base in Saudi Arabia, and, reportedly, intercepted and destroyed a Scud missile that had been fired from Iraq. A year and a half later, the Army conceded that the success of the Patriot missile— at one time credited with intercepting 41 our of 42 Scuds— had been greatly exaggerated. "Like the other Patriot 'hits' that were acknowledged to have missed, this 'historic first' was a bullseye that never happened," the Washington Post reported on September 20, 1992, adding, "According to government and other sources, there was no Scud speeding toward Dhahran on the morning of January 18.

1988 -- Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith's 100th birthday was marked by a flypast of military aircraft over his home.

1988 -- The Minuteman missile program passed a major milestone with the launch of its 100th missile.

1988 -- The Space Shuttle Columbia landed at Edwards AFB, California after what became the last shuttle mission before the Challenger accident.

1981 -- Bell Helicopter delivers its 25,000th production helicopter.

1972 --  Ottawa Ontario, Canada  bans use of aircraft and large ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence seal hunt.

1965 -- U.S. President Johnson announced the Short Range Attack Missile program during his defense message to Congress.

1956 -- The U.S. Air Force issued a requirement for a short-range air-launched decoy missile that would sImulate a B-52 on radar.

It later became the GAM-72A Quail.

1953 -- A U.S. Navy P2V-5 Neptune (BuNo 127744) of VP-22, based at Atsugi Japan, was damaged by Chinese anti-aircraft fire near Swatow People's Republic of China, but was able to ditch in the Formosa Strait.

Eleven of thirteen crewmen were rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard PBM-5 Mariner, under fire from Chinese shore batteries on Nan Ao Tao island. Attempting to takeoff in 8-12 foot swells, the PBM crashed. Ten survivors out of nineteen total (including five from the P2V-5) were rescued by the destroyer USS Halsey Powell (DD 686). During the search effort a PBM-5 Mariner from VP-40 received fire from a small-caliber machine gun and the destroyer USS Gregory (DD 802) received fire from Chinese shore batteries. Dwight C. Angell, Ronald A. Beahm, Paul A. Morley, William F. McClure, Lloyd Smith and Clifford Byars were the P2V-5 crewmen reported lost.

1932 -- Capt. R. C. Moffett flew his Curtiss XP-6D between Wright Field, Ohio and Bolling Field, D.C., averaging 270 mph to complete a record speed flight.

1919 -- Maj. Rudolph W. Schroeder flew his Loening monoplane, powered by a 300-horsepower Hispano engine, to a 19,500-foot record altitude.

1911 -- The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Lt. Eugene B. Ely brought his 50-hp Curtiss pusher biplane in for a safe landing on a 119-ft wooden platform attached the deck of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.

To arrest his plane upon landing, its landing gear was provided with hooks adapted to catch ropes secured by sandbags stretched across the landing platform. Improved versions of this ingenious arrangement were to become standard equipment on aircraft carriers. After spending an hour aboard the ship, he took off and flew back to his hangar near San Francisco. These flights demonstrated the adaptability of aircraft to ship-board operations.

1909 -- The first book to treat the work and accomplishments of the Wright brothers, Les Premiers Hommes-Oiseaux: Wilbur et Orville Wright, is written by François Peyrey (1873-1934) and published in France.

1905 -- The Wright Brothers opened negotiations with the government for procurement of one airplane.

1888 -- English aircraft pioneer Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith is born in Kensington, London, England.

His firm was famous for British WW I military aircraft, including the legendary Sopwith Camel , Sopwith Pup, and Sopwith Snipe.