January 22

2012 -- A suspected U.S. drone has fired missiles at a house and a vehicle in northwestern Pakistan, the country’s officials said.

Today’s attack in Degan village in the North Waziristan tribal area killed four alleged militants, AP reports. Intelligence officials claim those killed were foreigners. Recent reports show the CIA-run drone program is continuing despite the current tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

2012 -- The South Sudanese authorities have released the pilots of an Antonov An-32 jetliner from custody, the Russian presidential envoy for Africa, Mikhail Margelov, said. 

Vladimir Popkov, a Russian crewmember, has also been freed, Margelov told Interfax. The pilots will remain in South Sudan and continue working for the same airline, the envoy noted. The plane, owned by Sudanese company Park Air, was detained in South Sudan by security services on December 28, 2011. The crew included citizens of Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Sudan. No official reasons for the detention were given, even after the release of crewmembers.

2012 -- A year after a suicide bomber blew up Himself at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, killing 37 people, Russia said it had completed a probe of the other four suspects Who would be charged shortly. 

2012 -- A Dutch mechanical engineer is working on realizing the dream of human-powered flight, with some help from modern technology. 

Jarnos Smeets is the driving force between the Human Birdwings Project, which uses a rather ingenious combination of gadgets including an HTC Wildfire S and a Wii remote. He conducted his first (successful ?) test flight this week, even though he didn't get too far off the ground, or for very long.

2012 -- A radar installation in the Cauca province of Columbia was attacked by FARC rebels. The attack caused the delay of several flights into and out of Columbia, as well as some in Panama and Ecuador. 

The civil aviation authority said that this attack shows just how dangerous the FARC can be, as well as their propensity to attack the economic infrastructure in Columbia. The attack was carried out with gas cylinders and homemade missiles. One police officer was killed as he guarded the installation during the attack. The radar facility provides coverage of about 186 miles and is used not only forcivil aviation, but it is also vital in the fight against drug trafficking.

2011 -- HTV-2 (KOUNOTORI 2) is a robotic spaceship sent to the International Space Station with scientific gear, spare parts and provisions for the lab's six-person crew.

The HTV features 57 solar panels arranged on the exterior of the ship for power production. The forward end of the craft is called the pressurized logistics carrier and the mid-section contains unpressurized cargo. The back end of the HTV is the service module housing avionics and propulsion systems.

2011 -- A plane belonging to the entourage of the ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia was stuck at the airport in Geneva, while Switzerland has decided to freeze the assets of the former Head of State and his entourage.

1997 -- An improved F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter touched down at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, as Lockheed Martin delivered the first "RNIP-Plus" aircraft to the 49th Fighter Wing.

The F-117s new Ring Laser Gyro/Global Positioning System Navigation Improvement Program reduced navigational drift during flight. Plans called for the entire F-117 fleet to be modified by October 1999.

1997 -- American Lottie Williams was reportedly the first human to be struck by a remnant of a space vehicle after re-entering the earth's atmosphere.

At 3 a.m., while walking in a park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she saw a light pass over her head. "It looked like a meteor," she said. Minutes later, she was hit on the shoulder by a six-inch piece of blackened metallic material. The debris that struck Ms. Williams has not been examined to confirm its origin, but a used Delta II rocket, launched nine months earlier, had crashed into the Earth's atmosphere half an hour earlier. NASA scientists believe that Williams was hit by a part of it, making her the only person in the world known to have been hit by man-made space debris.

1992 -- Canada's first woman astronaut Dr. Roberta Bondar born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, blasts into Space from the Kennedy Space Center on an eight-day flight aboard the shuttle Discovery STS-42 with six other astronauts.

1992 -- After 8 years of ownership of the former Crown corporation, Boeing sells 51% of financially-troubled de Havilland Aircraft to Montreal-based Bombardier, with Ontario acquiring the remaining shares. 

1991 -- Iraq Al Hussein Scud missiles launched against Dhahran and Riyadh in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1973 -- An Aeroflot / North Kavkaz Antonov 24B crashed near Petukhovo, Russia. 

"About 15 minutes before the planned landing at Perm at an altitude of 5400 meters, the aircraft suddenly banked heavily to the right and then to the left. The An-24 spiralled down reaching a speed of almost 1000 km/h. At an altitude of 2700 m the aircraft gained some lift again and went into an upward looping. On top of it the airframe broke apart due to the high g loads. Afterwards, it fell down with a horizonal speed of 20 to 30 km/h and a vertical speed of 250 to 270 km/h. Of the 44 people aboard, about four people survived the crash as the fuselage fell on a thick layer of snow. Because of the bitter cold (- 41° C) the survivors died before rescue parties arrived. The official investigation could not establish the cause of the crash. However, clues indicating the explosion of a missile were found, e.g. dots of green paint which was not from the aircraft. So it is assumed the An-24 may have been shot down by a stray surface-to-air missile."

1973 -- A plane returning Muslim pilgrims from Mecca crashes in Kano, Nigeria, killing 176 people. It was the deadliest air disaster of its time.

The Royal Jordanian Boeing 707-300 was chartered by Nigeria Airways to take Muslims in Nigeria on a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. There were 198 passengers and 11 crew members on board as the plane approached Kano's airport on the edge of the Sahara. As the 707's American pilot, John Waterman, brought the plane in to Kano, there was a sudden sandstorm. The blinding conditions forced Waterman to abandon the landing and try again. On the second attempt, the landing gear collapsed as the plane hit the runway and the 707 burst into flames. It was never determined exactly what caused the landing gear to fail.

1971 -- The U.S. Navy's most advanced antisubmarine warfare aircraft, the land-based P-3C Orion, established a world record in the heavyweight turboprop class for long distance flight.

The production model aircraft, piloted by Commander Donald H. Lilienthal with a crew of eight, set the record with a flight of 6,857 statute miles over the official great circle route from NAS Atsugi, Japan to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The flight, which topped the Soviet Union's IL-18 turboprop record of 4,761 miles set in 1967, lasted 15 hours, and 21 minutes. In order to avoid Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the Lilienthal flight actually covered 7,010 miles.

1970 -- Heathrow welcomes first 'jumbo jet.'

The newly-constructed Boeing 747, Pan Am Flight Two, touched down at Heathrow  seven hours late due to technical problems.  The jumbo had brought 324 passengers across the Atlantic from New York to London.

1963 -- French engineer astronaut Jean-Marc Michel Daniel Gasparini is born in Marseille, France.

1959 -- U.S. Air Force Capt. William B. White flew a Republic F-105 Thunderchief from Eielson AFB, Alaska to Eglin AFB, Florida in five hours, and 27 minutes on a nonstop flight between points in the U.S.

1959 -- USAF concluded that less than 1 percent of UFO's are unknown objects.

1957 -- WW I German ace Georg Weiner died at  Gottingen, Germany.

During WW II, Weiner served in the Luftwaffe and attained the rank of Major General. 

1955 -- American astronomer mission specialist astronaut Dr. Thomas David Tom Jones, Ph.D., is born in Baltimore, Maryland. 

1953 -- First flight test of a complete airplane model designed by "area rule" concepts propelled to supersonic speeds by rocket boosters, at Langley Wallops Island, Virginia.

1953 -- Strategic Air Command tested the combat capabilities of its first B-47 unit, the 306 BMW at MacDill AFB, Florida, in Exercise Ski Try through February 20.

The exercise led to a 90-day rotational mission in England later in the year.

1955 - The existence of an ICBM program announced by U.S. Department of Defense.

The United States had multiple rocket programs divided among the different branches of the American armed services, which meant that each force developed its own ICBM program. The Air Force initiated ICBM research in 1945 with the MX-774. However, its funding was cancelled and only three partially successful launches were conducted in 1947. In 1951, the Air Force began a new ICBM program called MX-1593, and by 1955 this program was receiving top-priority funding. The MX-1593 program evolved to become the Atlas-A, with its maiden launch occurring on June 11, 1957, becoming the first successful American ICBM. Its upgraded version, the Atlas-D rocket, would later serve as an operational nuclear ICBM and be used as the orbital launch vehicle for Project Mercury and the remote-controlled Agena Target Vehicle used in Project Gemini.[

1952 -- The de Havilland Comet 1 became the first turbojet-powered civil airliner to be awarded a certificate of airworthiness.

1949 -- Canadian Royal Flying Corps ace Captain Frederick Robert Gordon McCall died at Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

After scoring 37 victories, he became ill and returned to Canada. Post-war he performed stunts at air shows and pioneered the air trails along the mountainous regions between Golden, British Columbia, Banff, Alberta and Fernie, British Columbia. As managing director of Great Western Airways in 1929, McCall made headlines when he ignored bad weather and flew round trip to the Skiff oil fields with Dr. J. S. Wray of Lethbridge in a Stinson-Detroiter to treat and recover two workers who had been injured in an explosion. During World War II McCall served as a squadron leader at a number of flying stations across Canada. He retained an active interest in flying throughout his life and was one of the founders of the civilian flying club system in Canada as well as the originator and first president of the Calgary Flying club. 

1935 -- U.S. Federal Aviation Commission, appointed by the President as provided in the Air Mail Act of June 12, 1934¹, submitted its report and set forth broad policy on all phases of aviation and the relation of Government thereto.

It recommended strengthening of commercial and civil aviation, expansion of airport facilities, and establishment of more realistic procurement practices from industry. It recommended continued study of air organization toward more effective utilization and closer interagency relationships, to include expansion of experimental and development work and its close coordination with the NACA.

1932 -- The Cycle-Glider.

1931 -- The U.S. Navy ordered its first rotary-wing aircraft, the XOP-1, from Pitcairn Aircraft.

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¹  The “Black-McKellar Act” provided for the commercial contracting of air mail routes throughout the U.S.  Also created the Federal Aviation Committee to set broad policy on all phases of aviation and the relation of the government to it.