March 9

2012 -- The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration FAA plans to identify six test ranges "to integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in to the National Airspace System" and it is seeking pilot input. The FAA says it will also host webinars for further exchange of information between the agency and the public. The sites will be used to help develop certification standards and traffic requirements for unmanned flight operations applicable to both civil and public unmanned systems. Comments will be accepted for the next 60 days. The FAA's request for comments, plus information on where to send them is available, here (PDF).
2012 -- European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. hit out at "inappropriate" attempts by governments to interfere in the company's affairs, saying a German minister's letter complaining about excessive French influence in its commercial aircraft division Airbus was unwarranted for a publicly- traded company.

2012 -- Israeli airstrikes killed two Gaza Strip-based militants today, a targeted assassination that could reignite a new round of violence.  Israeli officials said the two men -- Zuhair Mussah Ahmed Kaisi and Mahmud Ahmed Mahmud Hananni -- were leaders of the Popular Resistance Committee, a militant group that Israel blames for launching an attack in southern Israel last year. Officials claimed the group was planning another attack in coming days.

2012 -- The Aerospace and Defense Industry in the U.S. - A financial and economic impact study,[pdf] March 2012, Deloitte.
"We estimate that the U.S. aerospace and defense industry directly employed 1.05 million workers in 2010. These workers received $84.2 billion in wages and paid $15.4 billion in U.S. Federal individual income taxes, and $1.9 billion in state individual income taxes. Although not directly in the scope of this study, in addition we found that the Federal government employs an estimated 845,198 aerospace and defense skilled workers at armed forces maintenance and repair depots, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), other defense agencies including Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and civilians working at the Department of Defense."

2011 -- U.S. EPA announces settlements with  Six aerospace and defense companies, including Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, and ITT,  at San Fernando Valley Superfund Site // More than $3 million will be directed to investigate, clean up contaminated groundwater


2011 -- The space shuttle Discovery capped a successful construction mission with a smooth landing in Florida on Wednesday, ending a 27-year flying career for NASA's most-traveled spaceship as the agency faces an uncertain future. Discovery commander Steven Lindsey circled his ship through clear, sunny skies over the Kennedy Space Center to burn off speed, then bee-lined toward the marsh-surrounded runway a few miles from where the shuttle blasted off for its final space flight on February 24.


2011 -- Qantas raises fuel surcharge. . . again.  Australia's Qantas Airways said  it would raise the fuel surcharge on international flights for the second time in as many months to offset soaring fuel costs. Qantas, which in early February announced it will raise the surcharge, said this round of increase will not fully recover the fuel price hikes and did not rule out another increase in the charge.


2011 -- EADS returns to profitability


2011 -- No-Fly Zone, no problem. Right, whatever, how to do it without putting a single coalition plane directly over Libyan territory.  A concept to underscore the critical distinction between air control and air denial.  Would it work?


2011 --   Major General Abdul-Rahman al-Zawi, head of Libya's logistics and supply authority, arrived on a private jet in Egyptian capital Cairo today, according to a source at the airport.


2011 -- A plane from Portugal ws Held in isolation for hours after landing at Copenhagen's Kastrup airport   after a passenger revealed  she might be suffering from meningitis,


2011 -- Union workers at Lockheed Martin’s Marietta, Georgia plant ratify a 3-year labor contract, despite calls from union leaders to reject it. The plant manufactures the C-130J transport aircraft and F-22 Raptor fighter.


2011 -- Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost airline,  urged  banning The European Union air traffic controllers from going on strike by declaring them to be providers of an "essential service".


2011 -- Indian aviation regulators have found  two more pilots with forged  passenger plane flying skills, raising questions about safety on the country's booming airlines.


2011 -- The Lone Star Flight Museum’s newest aircraft arrived today.  The museum’s North American P-51 Mustang has undergone restoration work over the last year and has emerged as Galveston Gal, a P-51 flown by Galveston native Capt Ray Lancaster. Museum officials will add the legendary fighter to its warbird flight experience program later this spring.


1998 -- Air Mobility Command performed 104 airlift and 110 air refueling missions for a six-nation tour of Africa through April 9. On March 22, President William J. Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright left Andrews AFB, Mdaryland, on Air Force One for a 12-day journey through sub-Saharan Africa. It was the first time a sitting American president visited Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana, and Senegal.


1994 -- Irish Republican Army terrorists launch 5 mortar bombs onto the runway at Heathrow airport; fail to explode.

1989 -- Eastern Airlines files for bankruptcy.  

1988 -- WW I United States Air Service ace Lt. Frank Kerr Hays died at Carmel by the Sea, California.

1977 -- The 354th Tactical Fighter Wing at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina, received the first A-10 for hands-on-training.


1973 --  Canada starts direct air service with Federal Republic of Germany and People's Republic of China.

1968 -- South African WW I ace Major Christopher Joseph Quintin Flossie Brand died at Rhodesia. Brand attained the rank of Air Vice Marshal in the Royal Air Force. He and Pierre van Ryneveld were knighted for completing the first flight from England to South Africa. Enroute to Cape Town, they crashed their Vickers Vimyalong the Nile, returned to Cairo for another Vimy and crashed again near Bulawayo. They finished the flight in a D.H.9, arriving in Cape Town on March 20, 1920.

1961 -- Sputnik 9 carries dog Chernushka into orbit.

1959 -- The 16 Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Naha AB, Okinawa, became the first squadron in the Pacific Air Forces to convert to Convair's F-102 Delta Dagger. The unit, previously equipped with F-86D Sabres, became operationally ready later in September.


1955 -- Lt. Col. Robert R. Scott, in a F-84F Thunderstreak, set a three hour, 44-minute and 53-second record for the 2,446 mile flight from Los Angeles to New York.


1945 --  U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history.  Only 243 American airmen were lost-considered acceptable losses.

1944 -- Canadian WW I ace Captain Arthur Roy Brown died at Stouffville, Ontario, Canada.  In what would become the most famous aerial combat of the war, on the morning of April 21, 1918 Brown's flight encountered Jasta 11 . In the battle that followed, Brown scored his 10th and final victory of the war. Engaging a red Fokker DR.I he was officially credited with shooting down Manfred von Richthofen. For this action, Brown received a bar to his Distinguished Service Cross. On 1 August 1919, Brown was transferred to the unemployed list and returned to Canada where he worked as an accountant, founded a small airline and became an editor for " Canadian Aviation" magazine. During World War II, Brown entered politics after his application to join the Royal Canadian Air Force was rejected. The year before he died, he ran for Parliament but was defeated.


1942 -- The RAF launched an attack early today against the battleship Tirpitz. The Tirpitz successfully evaded the torpedoes. Only three men were wounded in the attack. Tirpitz's anti-aircraft gunners shot down two of the British aircraft.

1938 -- A new parachute descent record of 35,450ft. is achieved by the French parachutist James Williams when he jumps from the cockpit of an ANF Les Mureaux 113 high-wing monoplane after taking off from the airfield at Chartres. Dropping to a height above the ground of 650 ft. in 2 minutes 50 seconds before opening his parachute, Williams easily achieves a world free-fall record.


1934 -- Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin is born.  On April 12, 1961, at 27-years-old he became the first person to travel into space.


1928 -- The English aviatrix Lady Mary Bailey takes off from Croydon on what becomes the first round-trip flight between London and Cape Town, South Africa flown by a woman. She arrives back in England on May 12.

1919 --  U.S. Navy Lt. Comdr. E. O. McDonnell makes the  first successful flight from a gun turret  on a U.S. navy battleship.

The U.S. Navy encountered these platforms while serving with the British Grand Fleet during WW I and was sufficiently interested to have the Texas (BB-35) equipped with a platform atop both the No. 2 and No. 4 turrets so that the Navy could conduct its own experiments. These experiments were began on March 9, 1919 when Lt. Cmdr. E. O. McDonnell successfully launched a Sopwith Camel from the No. 2 Turret platform of the Texas at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The U.S. Navy improved the survivability of the aircraft when making water landings by adding a horizontal vane, called a hydro-vane, attached to the undercarriage at the same level as the axle and extended forward to below the engine. When the undercarriage struck the water this vane would plane across the surface and bear the weight of the engine thus reducing the chance of the aircraft pitching nose down. In addition the U.S. Navy added 2 inflatable floats to the underside of the lower wing and extending forward about as far as the hydro-vane. These improved the safety of water landings and at the very least kept the aircraft afloat until it could be recovered. Damage to the lower wings and undercarriage were still common and the engine would always have to be completely over hauled (cold saltwater baths for hot engines are never a good mix) after any water landing. Usually these experiments involve the launched aircraft flying to a field and landing on shore. The plane would then be hauled down to the beach and loaded aboard a barge or launch and floated back to the parent ship.

The U.S. Navy used 4 different aircraft aboard ships equipped with fly-off platforms: the Sopwith Camel, the Hanriot HD-2, the Nieuport 28 and the Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter. Three of these aircraft are fighters, which was the original purpose foe adding these aircraft aboard the battleships. The platforms were first mounted the spring and summer of 1919 on all of the U.S. Navy’s 14” gunned battleships. In 1919 this was limited to the six WW I veterans, New York (BB-34), Texas,Nevada (BB-36), Oklahoma (BB-37), Pennsylvania (BB-38) and Arizona (BB-39) plus the 3 newly commissioned battleships New Mexico (BB-40), Mississippi (BB-41) and Idaho (BB-42). The fly-off platforms were mounted on the “super firing turrets”, turrets Nos. 2 and 3 for 4 turreted ships. Because of their 5-turret arrangement, the New York and Texas had the after platform atop the No. 4 turret. Initially a single HD-2 was assigned to each ship (the Sopwith Camel does not seem to have been used beyond testing and training). By 1920 wear and tear on the aircraft and the commissioning of additional battleships required replacement of the HD-2’s. To meet the need the Navy obtained Nieuport 28’s and Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutters from the Army to replace the Hanriot’s. One Nieuport and one Sopwith were to be assigned to each battleship. The commissioning of the Langley (CV-1) in 1922, allowed for the recovery of land based aircraft (such as those used on the fly-off platform) back aboard a ship at sea, which made fly-off platform operation obsolete. However, experiments in 1921 with radio equipped 1-1/2 Strutters showed the advantages of aerial spotting and scouting. All that was need was a means of launching and recovering such an observation airplane from battleships and cruisers.

1918 -- The first American air casualty in WW I is Capt. James E. Miller who loses his life in a French Spad while flying a practice patrol across the German lines.


1915 -- Air Vice Marshal James Edgar Johnnie Johnson is born at Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, England.  Johnson  was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot who, during WW II, claimed 34 victories over enemy aircraft, as well as seven shared victories, three shared probables, ten damaged, three shared damaged and one destroyed on the ground. This score made him the highest scoring Western Allied fighter ace against the German Luftwaffe, thus becoming the British, and Western Allied flying ace, with the greatest number of victories in the European War.
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¹  Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony.

Check it out from your public library. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in history to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. His flight aboard a Russian Vostok rocket lasted only 108 minutes, but at the end of it he had become the most famous man in the world. Back on the ground, his smiling face captured the hearts of millions around the globe. Film stars, politicians and pop stars from Europe to Japan, India to the United States vied with each other to shake his hand.Despite this immense fame, almost nothing is known about Gagarin or the exceptional people behind his dramatic space flight. The book Starman tells  Gagarin's personal odyssey from peasant to international icon, his subsequent decline as his personal life began to disintegrate under the pressures of fame, and his final disillusionment with the Russian state. President Kennedy's quest to put an American on the Moon was a direct reaction to Gagarin's achievement--yet before that successful moonshot occurred, Gagarin himself was dead, aged just thirty-four, killed in the crash of a two-seat jet aircraft while on what was described as a routine training flight. His ashes were placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall.