January 19

2012 -- Europe's Dassault-led Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator will make its first flight around mid-year, having been officially unveiled for partner nations France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland [

2012 -- USAF Launches WGS-4.

The fourth Wideband Global Satcom military communications spacecraft is safely in its geostationary transfer orbit following a 7:38 p.m. EST launch from Space Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida.
2012 -- Several hundred employees of Iberia demonstrated Thursday against a project of the Spanish airline to create a new low-cost subsidiary.

2012 -- Southwest Airlines says its 2011 fuel costs rose by 34%, yet the carrier managed to squeak above Wall Street estimates. 

Southwest recorded net income of $66 million, which equated to 9 cents a share -- and that's a full penny better than analysts forecast. "We accomplished everything we set out to do in 2011, with soaring fuel costs the only disappointment," said Southwest CEO Gary Kelly.

2012 -- Glider pilot killed near Omarama.

It was the first major accident for this gliding season in New Zealand. Omarama is world-renowned as a premier gliding area. Omarama is staging the national club championships and Omarama Cup this week, but the dead pilot, a man who was the sole occupant of the glider, was not competing in the events,

2011 -- U.S. launched NanoSail-D.

It is designed to demonstrate deployment of a compact solar sail boom system that could lead to further development of this alternative solar sail propulsion technology and FASTSAT’s ability to eject a nanosatellite from a microsatellite -- while avoiding re-contact with the FASTSAT satellite bus. NanoSail-D was designed and built by engineers in Huntsville and managed at the Marshall Center with technical and hardware support from NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. This experiment is a combined effort between the Space and Missile Defense Command, Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, both located in Huntsville, Ala. and NASA.

2010 -- According to China’s latest national defense whitepaper, released by the Information Office of China’s State Council, the People’s Liberation Army’s Air Force will “accelerate its transition from territorial air defense to both offensive and defensive operations” as one means to “meet the requirements of informationized warfare.”

It also plans to “increase its capabilities for carrying out reconnaissance and early warning, air strikes, air and missile defense, and strategic projection.” All designed “to build itself into a modernized strategic air force.” In an earlier section, the 2008 defense whitepaper states, “China pursues a national defense policy which is purely defensive in nature.” It plans to lay a “solid foundation by 2010” for making “informationization as the goal of modernization” and plans to “basically accomplish mechanization and make major progress in informationization by 2020.” Additionally, the whitepaper states that Beijing plans to develop new types of fighters and air and anti-missile defense weapons for its Air Force to “satisfy the strategic requirements of conducting both offensive and defensive operations.

2010 -- The U.S. military has begun airdropping food and water supplies into earthquake-hit Haiti.

Some 14,000 ready-to-eat meals and 15,000 litres of water were dropped north-east of the capital, Port-au-Prince, the U.S. said.

2010 -- Attempting to persuade authorities in Turkey to buy Boeing commercial planes for Turkish Airlines--which is part owned by the government--the State Department fielded requests from Turkey to help it build its own space program, including perhaps putting a Turkish astronaut on a NASA flight. Authorities in Turkey also asked for help from the Federal Aviation Administration, to improve flight safety there.

1997 -- A 349th Air Mobility Wing C-141 aircrew from Travis AFB, California, airlifted 40,000 pounds of winter clothing to Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, where the cargo was trucked to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation at Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

1995 -- The 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota AB, Japan, started humanitarian C-130 airlift flights to help victims of a Jan. 17 earthquake in south-western Japan.

1993 -- Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq, and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern Iraqi no-fly zones.

U.S. forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights.

1993 -- U.S. President Bush said in a status report that on December 27, 1992, U.S. aircraft shot down an Iraqi aircraft in the prohibited zone; on January 13 aircraft from the United States and coalition partners had attacked missile bases in southern Iraq; and further military actions had occured on January 17 and 18.

Administration officials said the United States was deploying a battalion task force to Kuwait to underline the continuing US commitment to Kuwaiti independence.

1989 -- Canadian Airlines International acquires Wardair, Canada's third largest carrier, for $250 million.

1985 -- Two C-5 Galaxies and one C-141 from the 75th and 312th MAS moved 186 tons of relief supplies, including 2,400 tents, tarpaulins, plastic sheeting, and water trailers to Viti Levu Island to help over 3,000 homeless victims through January 21.

1978 -- C-130 Hercules (A97-168) from No 37 Squadron, in the absence of any fighters to scramble, was asked to follow mystery aircraft spotted on radar entering the Northern Territory to the west of Darwin.

The C-130 caught up with what turned out to be a twin-engine Piper Aero Commander 680E. The pilot of the light aircraft made a crashlanding in a muddy paddock 14 kilometres north-west of Katherine, then set the aircraft on fire in an attempt to conceal that on board were 270 000 Thai buddha sticks (high-grade cannabis) worth nearly $4 million. After hiding out in the bush for 40 hours, the pilot––later identified as drug runner, Donald Tait––was discovered by police and arrested. Tait was subsequently jailed for seven years.

1976 -- The 180th Tactical Fighter Group became the first Air National Guard unit to participate in a Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB, Nevada.

1972 -- Lieutenants Randall Cunningham and William Driscoll in an F-4 of VF-96 off the USS Constellation shot down a MiG-21, the first enemy aircraft downed since March 28, 1970, when Lieutenants Jerome Beaulier and Steven Barkley in an F-4 of VF-142 off Constellation downed a MiG-21.

Today's action occurred during a protective reaction strike in response to earlier AAA and SAM firings from the area which had menaced an RA-5C reconnaissance plane and its escorts. This accounted for the Navy's 33rd MiG shot down in the Vietnam war since the first on June 17, 1965, downed by Commanders Louis Page and John Smith in an F-4 of VF-21 off Midway.

1968 -- Maj. William J. Knight received his senior pilot astronaut wings and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his 50-mile high flight in the X-15.

1968 -- Italian pioneer in aeronautics and space science Gaetano Arturo Crocco died.

He designed revolutionary airships and patented an early cyclic pitch design for helicopter rotors (1906). While the design of helicopters was in its infancy, Crocco recognized that a way to change the pitch cyclically on the blades was needed if a helicopter was to work properly in forward flight. He designed a number of airships in the early part of the 20th century and switched to designing rocket engines in the 1920s. Crocco founded the Italian Rocket Society (1951) and made many contributions to the theory of spaceflight. He calculated that a spacecraft could travel from Earth to Mars, perform a reconnaissance Mars flyby (without orbit), and return to Earth in a total time of about one year.

1955 -- A U.S. Army L-20 Beaver was shot down by North Korean fire over the Korean demilitarized zone and the crew of two were killed.

1955 -- A Republic of China Air Force F-84G Thunderjet (315) was shot down by People's Republic of China ground fire and the pilot was killed.

1950 -- First flight Avro Canada CF-100 RCAF 18101

1942 -- Beaufighters were rushed from the Middle East after India was largely stripped of fighter protection to cover the first Arakan offensive in Burma during December 1942, Japanese bombers subjected Calcutta to night raids which caused major panic in the population.

Flying Officer Charles Crombie, an Australian serving in No 176 Squadron, RAF, intercepted four bombers on his own. Hit early by fire in his starboard engine, Crombie pressed his attack and downed one of the enemy machines. With flames streaming from his Beaufighter, he ordered his navigator to bale out, then proceeded to shoot down a second bomber and seriously damage a third. While attacking the remaining Japanese, his petrol tank exploded, forcing him to bale out with his clothes on fire. He was rescued from the sea about 30 kilometres from Calcutta. His exploit earned him the Distinguished Service Order.

1937 -- Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in seven hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds.

1915 -- Britain suffers its first casualties from an air attack when two German zeppelins drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn on the eastern coast of England.

Germany employed three zeppelins, the L.3, the L.4, and the L.6, in a two-day bombing mission against Britain. The L.6 turned back after encountering mechanical problems, but the other two zeppelins succeeded in dropping their bombs on English coastal towns.

1910 -- Louis Paulhan and Lt. Paul W. Beck dropped three two-pound sandbags to hit a ground target.

This made Lt. Beck the first U.S. Army officer to complete a simulated bomb drop experiment.

1784 -- The largest hot-air balloon ever made, called Le Flesselle by the Montgolfier brothers, makes an ascent at Lyons, France.

The balloon's capacity is 700,000 cubic feet and it goes up to 3,000 feet.