January 27

2012 -- Aviation Partners estimate its blended winglets have saved commercial and business aircraft around 3 billion gallons of jet fuel.


By adding effective wingspan, the winglets reduce by around 6 to 7 per cent the drag caused by wingtip vortices and result in increased fuel efficiency and boost range. The company's winglets are now flying on more than 5,000 individual airplanes comprising more than 20 airplane types, mostly business jets but also commercial Boeing aircraft. 



2012 -- A Chinese maritime surveillance aircraft based in Shanghai will expand its coverage this year to include areas of the East China Sea disputed with Japan¹, according to recent reports by local media. 

The reports quote officials of the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration as saying the range of the twin-engine Harbin Y-12 now includes what China claims as its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.  That would encompass the disputed territory centered on the Senkaku Islands, as well as areas between the two countries where China has been drilling for natural gas, angering Japan.

2012 -- The European Commission is looking into a transatlantic joint venture between Air France-KLM, Alitalia and Delta – all members of the SkyTeam airline alliance, one of the three global airline alliances. 

The Commission announced that it wanted to ensure that this alliance "does not harm passengers on EU-US routes" by opening formal investigation proceedings on the grounds of a suspected cartel or abuse of dominant position. The three members of the SkyTeam alliance established a joint venture and, since 2009, signed cooperation agreements on passenger and merchandise air transport on routes between Europe and North America. The opening of an investigation to cartels and abuses of dominant position for Air France-KLM, Alitalia and Delta is "logical," said the Franco-Dutch, the European Commission The Commission also investigated the transatlantic joint ventures of the two other airline alliances: Oneworld – the joint venture between British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia; and Star – Lufthansa, Continental, United and Air Canada.

2011 -- U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the end of the existing color-coded national threat advisory system. This system will be completely phased out over the next 90 days and be replaced with the “National Terrorism Alert System” (NTAS).

2011 -- Several airlines canceled flights to Indonesia's top tourist destination island of Bali on Thursday because of volcano ash, an Indonesian government spokesman said.

Mount Bromo, on eastern Java island and one of dozens of active volcanoes in the archipelago, started erupting in November. Ash from Mount Merapi, also on Java, disrupted flights in November.

2011 –- A coalition airstrike targeting a Taliban leader killed two suspected insurgents in Afghanistan’s Zabul province’s Tarnek wa Jaldak district today, military officials reported.

2011 -- URS Corporation announced that it has been awarded a task order from the U.S. Air Force to provide engineering, program management, planning, analysis and logistics support for the B-2 Bomber program.

The task order, which has a one year base term and four one-year option periods, has a maximum value of $63 million to URS if all option periods are exercised. The task order was awarded under the General Service Administration (GSA) Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services’ Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract.

2011 -- A group of U.S. senators today asked the Pentagon to investigate the blunder made by two representatives of the Air Force who had addressed the technical data of the Tanker contract offer from Boeing to EADS, and conversely.

2002 -- Boeing's 737, the world's most widely used twin jet, becomes the first jetliner in history to amass more than 100 million flying hours. The 737 was launched onto the market in 1965.

2001 -- Ten people associated with the Oklahoma State University basketball team were killed when their twin-engine King Air 200 plane took off, banked hard right, and crashed in snowy weather near Byers, Colorado.

Two basketball players, Daniel Lawson and Nate Fleming, and six staffers and broadcasters were among those killed.

1997 -- Royal Flying Corps WW I ace Captain Cecil Arthur Lewis died at Westminster, London, U.K.   He was the last surviving WW I ace. 

Lewis's war experiences were merely the prelude to a widely varied career, during which he operated as a commercial aviator (immediately following the war, with Vickers), flying instructor (in Peking), as a playwright, Hollywood writer, co-founder of the BBC (an experience he likened to "riding a tiger of a big adventure"), translator, broadcaster, sheep farmer (in South Africa), civil servant (for the U.N.) and journalist. 

1992 -- Canadian WW I ace Royal Naval Air Service Captain Harold Edgar Mott died at Brantford, Ontario, Canada.

1991 -- Gen. Schwarzkopf announces coalition has attained air supremacy.

1989 -- English aircraft pioneer Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith died at Hampshire. He was 101-years-old.

Sopwith became interested in flying after seeing John Moisant flying the first cross-Channel passenger flight. His first flight was with Gustave Blondeau in a Farman at Brooklands. He soon taught himself to fly on a British Avis monoplane and took to the air on his own for the first time on October 22, 1910. Unfortunately he crashed after travelling about 300 yards (275 m). He soon improved and on 22 November was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviation Certificate No. 31.

On December 18, 1910, Sopwith won a £4,000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British built aeroplane. He flew 169 miles (272 km) in 3 hours, and 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands. In June 1912 Sopwith with Fred Sigrist and others set up The Sopwith Aviation Company. The company produced more than 18,000 British WW I aircraft for the allied forces, including 5,747 of the famous Sopwith Camel single-seat fighter. Sopwith was awarded the CBE in 1918. Bankrupted after the war by the punitive anti-profiteering taxes, he re-entered the business a few years later with a new firm named after his chief engineer and test pilot, Harry Hawker. Sopwith was chairman of the new firm, Hawker Aircraft. After the nationalization of what was by then Hawker Siddeley, he continued to work as a consultant as late as 1980.He became a Knight Bachelor in 1953.

1972 -- Civil aviation in Canada is halted by a strike by air traffic controllers.

1971 -- A P-3C Orion at the U.S. Naval Air Test Center with Commander D.H. Lilienthal as Plane Commander established a world speed record for its class of 501.44 mph over the 15 to 25 km course.

1967 -- Numerous problems with the Apollo Block I spacecraft resulted in a flight delay to February 1967. The crew of Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee, was killed in a fire while testing their capsule on the pad, still weeks away from launch. The designation AS-204 was used by NASA for the flight at the time; the designation Apollo 1 was applied retroactively at the request of Grissom's widow.

Edward H. White II was the first U.S. astronaut to walk in space. With James A. McDivitt he manned the four-day orbital flight of Gemini 4, launched on June 3, 1965. During the third orbit White emerged from the spacecraft, floated in space for about 20 minutes, and became the first person to propel himself in space with a maneuvering unit.

1967 -- Representatives of 62 nations signed the space law treaty, Treaty on Principles Covering the Activities of the States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, at separate ceremonies in Washington, London, and Moscow.

The treaty, which limited military activities in space, had been agreed upon by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. December 8, 1966, and unanimously approved by the United Nations General Assembly December 19. It was to become effective when ratified by the U.S., U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, and two other countries.

1957 -- The last operational P-51 fighter is retired to the Air Force museum.

1954 -- A U.S. Air Force RB-45 Tornado flying over the Yellow Sea with an escort of F-86 Sabres was attacked by eight MiG-15s.

One MiG was shot down by USAF pilot Bertram Beecroft. About the same time, a second group of F-86s was fired on by two MiG-15s, but the F-86s evaded the MiG-15s.

1952 -- Former secretary of war Robert Patterson as well 29 others were killed when an airliner hit apartments at Elizabeth, New Jersey. Seven people died on the ground.

1945 -- First meeting of Arbeitstab Dornberger in Berlin.

The group's first priority was to evalute the prospects for rapid development of an effective surface-to-air missile to combat the incessant Allied bombing raids. It had to be beam-riding instead of optically guided, in order to be effective at night and in bad weather. The group found there was no single 'wonder weapon' that would end the war in a few months.

1943 -- American B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of the U.S. Eighth Air Force strike German U-boat facilities at Wilhelmshaven.

The bombing raid by “the Mighty Eighth” is the first U.S. Army Air Forces mission over Germany.

1942 -- 27-30: 48 Hawker Hurricane Mk11A fighters are flown off HMS Indomitable by pilots of Nos. 242, 258 and 605 Squadrons to reinforce the defences of Singapore.

1941 -- In the first combined operation between Malta's reconnaissance and strike aircraft, the German vessel Ingo (3,950 tons) is sunk by the Fairey Swordfish of No.830 and No.806 Squadrons Fleet Air Arm.

1940 -- American scientist, author, and former NASA astronaut Brian Todd O Leary is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

He was a member of the sixth group of astronauts selected by NASA in August 1967. The members of this group of eleven were known as the scientist-astronauts, intended to train for the Apollo Applications Program - a follow-on to the Apollo Program. 

1939 -- First flight XP-38.

Designed by Lockheed in 1937, the P-38 was the company's attempt to meet the requirements of the U.S. Army Air Corps' Circular Proposal X-608 which called for a high-altitude interceptor capable of 360 mph and reaching 20,000 ft. within six minutes. Competing against designers from Bell and Curtiss, Hall Hibbard and Kelly Johnson at Lockheed produced a radical design that was unlike any previous fighter. Believing that two engines were necessary to meet the USAAC's requirements, they created an aircraft that placed the engines and turbo-superchargers in twin tail booms.

1920 -- Lieutenant Junior Grade Hiroyoshi Nishizawa is born in Nagano Prefecture,  Empire of Japan.   Nishizawa claimed 87 aerial victories at the time of his death in 1944.  

1912 -- Clarence H. MacKay established the MacKay Trophy.

1902 -- In an article rejected by Popular Science News, Robert H. Goddard proposes staged nested cannons to achieve high velocities.

1894 -- Captain B. F. S. Baden-Powel (the brother of the first Chief Boy Scout) makes a kite ascent from Pirbright Army Camp, England in what appears to be the first use of man-carrying kites outside China.

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¹  Under the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea, countries are entitled to claim 200 nautical miles from their shores as their EEZs. The zones claimed by China and Japan overlap.