January 20

2012 --  The U.S.  launched a Delta 4 rocket carrying  WGS F4 satellite. 


After nearly five years of construction and testing,  the Wideband Global SATCOM 4 spacecraft, built by The Boeing Company under a $464 million contract signed in 2006, is headed for service over the Middle East to route essential communications to U.S. military forces and improve data links to unmanned aerial drones.

The Air Force says it plans to put this WGS 4 spacecraft's coverage footprint over the Middle East and Southeast Asia for use by U.S. Central Command and U.S. Pacific Command. Once slid into its orbital home high above the Indian Ocean, the satellite will join the expanding fleet of Wideband Global SATCOM communications satellites that form the Pentagon's worldwidecommunications backbone across all branches of the military. The craft's communications package provides shaped, steerable spotbeams of bandwidth wherever requested across its field-of-view for Ka- and X-band frequencies, plus the onboard capability to switch signals from one band to the other.
2012 -- Airlines operating Airbus’s A380 superjumbo must ground 20 planes or almost one-third of the world fleet within the next six weeks to check for wing cracks. The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a directive today requiring inspections after the issue was discovered. 

The A380 double-decker aircraft is the biggest commercial jet in operation, and Airbus has required years to smooth out production glitches and move the program toward profitability. The airliner is used by carriers including Emirates, Air France (AF) KLM Group, Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA) and Singapore Airlines (SIA), and has been a hit with travelers for its added space and perks that include private suites and showers for premium passengers.
2012 -- A compromise has been reached by U.S. Senate and House lawmakers on labor issues that removed a major roadblock for long-term funding for the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The compromise would strengthen the rules that airline and railroad workers must follow to hold union elections, and drops labor requirements that may have made it harder for workers to join a union. House Republicans, in a move objected to by Senate Democrats, included a provision in an FAA bill last year that overturned a 2010 National Mediation Board decision that made it easier for employees to vote to join a union. The compromise drops that measure from the bill. In exchange, Democrats agreed to require the mediation board, which regulates labor issues for rail and airline workers, to hold public hearings before adopting new rules.  Congress has passed 22 short-term extensions allowing the FAA to operate since the last long-term legislation expired September 30, 2007. The current funding extension expires January 31. The agency has been funded by short-term extensions for more than four years, which has stalled a plan to improve the nation's air traffic control system.

2012 -- AMR, the parent of American Airlines, has filed at least a dozen motions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeking court approval to hire consultants at fees that cumulatively exceed $20 million, court documents say.

Today, American's Transport Workers Union and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants filed objections to AMR's proposed compensation arrangements with four of its consultants.   The four consultants AMR proposes to retain are Bain & Co. Inc., a bankruptcy restructuring labor consultant; Rothschild Inc., a financial and restructuring adviser; SkyWorks Capital LLC, an aircraft market consultant, and Perella Weinberg Partners LP, a labor restructuring adviser.

2012 -- AMR Eagle, which filed for bankruptcy along with parent AMR and other AMR subsidiaries on November 29, wants to hire Bain to "assist in labor-cost assessment and negotiation," at a cost of $525,000 a month.

Transport Workers Union filed its objections today to the hiring of Bain, calling the proposed fees unreasonable and based on extracting concessions out of American Eagle employees. 

2012 -- Spanish airline Iberia reached a deal with ground staff to avert their threat of a strike, alongside one by pilots, protesting the launching of a low-cost carrier. 

2012 -- EADS’ defense and security subsidiary, Cassidian, and German company Rheinmetall have agreed to pool their unmanned aerial systems (UAS) activities in a joint venture. 

This cooperation would include activities in tactical, Medium-Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAS and cargo loading systems.

2011 -- Launch of USA 224, a secret satellite serving the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

2011 -- Commonwealth of Independent States (former USSR) (CIS) launched the Electro-L satellite.

This is Russia's second high-altitude weather observatory, coming after a troubled mission launched in 1994 that never achieved all of its goals The next-generation Electro-L program faced years of delays because of interruptions in funding. The Electro-L spacecraft will function for up to 10 years, collecting weather imagery several times per hour with visible and infrared cameras. The satellite's position in geosynchronous orbit will yield views the entire Earth disk, allowing its weather sensors to observe storm systems across a wide swath of Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Electro-L 1 will be parked at 76 degrees east longitude, appearing fixed over a point in the Indian Ocean. The satellite will also study space weather phenomena and provide communications for search-and-rescue services. It carries nearly 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of scientific and communications equipment. The Electro-L project joins an international network of geosynchronous weather satellites, which includes missions led by the United States, Europe, Japan, China and India. Electro-L 1 is also named GOMS No. 2, short for Geostationary Operational Meteorological Satellite.

2011 -- Italy signed an agreement with Egypt Air to carry out maintenance work for its Alitalia aircraft.

2011 -- A de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 plane, serial FAE449, was damaged beyond repair in an accident at El Capricho area, Ecuador.

The airplane was serving isolated communities of the Amazon, as part of a special economic air program of the ECORAE - Instituto para el Ecodesarrollo Regional Amazónico.

2011 --Survivors and relatives of victims of the crash of Mont Saint-Odile make their annual pilgrimage to the scene.

The crash of Mont Sainte-Odile took place January 20, 1992, killing 87 passengers and crew of an Airbus A320 of the French airline Air Inter at a place called The Bloss, the town of Barr , near Mont Sainte-Odile in Alsace. Only nine people survived. On May 2, 2006, fourteen years after the facts, the trial of the accident lay before the correctional court of Colmar. Six people were appearing for "involuntary homicide and injuries". On November 7, 2006, the court acquitted an accused, they have "committed no criminal offense" is to say they have not committed serious misconduct within the meaning of the law Fauchon. However, liability for Airbus civil fault in design of the cockpit of the A320 and Air France in its capacity as carrier has been recognized,.

2011 -- Romania wishes to finalize negotiations this year on U.S. plans to deploy elements of a new missile defense shield on its soil, President Traian Basescu said today.

2010 -- The touchy subject of how airlines should or should not treat obese passengers came up again today when Air France issued a new policy to refund heavier passengers the cost of a second seat, but instead found itself having to clarify the move.

2012 -- WheelTug tests on Boeing 737-800. Prague Airport 2010.

Gibraltar-based WheelTug has been working even longer on developing a system that enables aircraft to be electrically driven from the terminal gate to the take-off runway, and upon landing from runway exit to the gate. The patented electric drive system uses high-performance electric motors, installed in the nose landing gear wheels of a an aircraft, to provide full mobility while on the ground without the use of the aircraft’s engines or tugs.  The system is being developed initially for the Boeing 737NG, with systems for other models of commercial and military aircraft to follow. WheelTug claim annual savings of more than $500,000 per aircraft can be achieved, plus substantial reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.  Last November, the company signed a Letter of Intent with EL AL Israel Airlines under which the carrier will obtain a substantial part of the initial production of WheelTug’s drive system for its own aircraft, subject to financial and operational feasibility checks and regulatory approvals.

2008 -- Timeless Voices -- Julius Fisher.

 Julius Fisher was a B-25 pilot with the 501st Bomb Squadron, 345th Bomb Group "Air Apaches" during World War II. He flew low-level anti-shipping and tactical strike missions against Japanese military targets in the South Pacific during the war.

1992 -- A USAF 60th Military Airlift Wing C-5 airlifted 56 tons of supplies through January 25, from Japan to Mongolia, which suffered from shortages of health care resources.

1971 -- First flight Grumman E-2C Hawkeye.

1971 -- McDonell Douglas RF-4E Phantom II entered service with Luftwaffe

1960 -- A USAF Strategic Air Command crew launched its first Titan I (a J-model) from Vandenberg AFB, California.

1959 -- First flight Vickers Vanguard G-AOYW, a British short/medium-range turboprop airliner.

1938 -- The Air Ministry announces that the Royal Air Force Display at Hendon will be discontinued, giving the reason that the airfield is too small for modern aircraft.

1932 -- Imperial Airways' Handley Page H.P.42 Helena¹leaves Croydon, England, for Paris on the first leg of the company's new mail service to Cape Town.

1930 -- American Astronaut Edwin Eugene Buzz Aldrin, Jr. was born  in Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.A.


Aldrin was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963, , Aldrin was the first with a doctorate and became known as "Dr. Rendezvous.” The docking and rendezvous techniques he devised for spacecraft in Earth and lunar orbit became critical to the success of the Gemini and Apollo programs, and are still used today. He also pioneered underwater training techniques, as a substitute for zero gravity flights, to simulate spacewalking..  On November 11, 1966, he and command pilot James Lovell were launched into space in the Gemini 12 spacecraft on a 4-day flight, which brought the Gemini program to a successful close. Aldrin established a new record for extravehicular activity (EVA), spending 5-1/2 hours outside the spacecraft.  He served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 11, July 16-24, 1969, the first manned lunar landing mission. Aldrin followed Neil Armstrong onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, completing a 2-hour and 15 minute lunar EVA.  Aldrin logged 289 hours, and 53 minutes in space, of which, 7 hours, and 52 minutes were spent in EVA.

1913 -- Attempting to establish a new women's altitude record, Bernetta Miller is covered with oil and temporarily blinded when her oil flow indicator smashes. She makes a safe emergency landing in New York.

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¹ Eight aircraft were built, four of each type; all were named, with names beginning with the letter "H". G-AAXF was named after Helena, also known as Helen of Troy. It first flew on December 30, 1931.