Cut and Paste Aviation

January 29

2012-01-29T01:41:00.000-08:00

2011 -- Employee cuts at U.S. Space and Rocket Center have historian concerned about future of 'exceptional' archives.

2011 -- Egypt’s former air force chief and minister for civil aviation, Ahmed Shafiq, has been designated the new prime minister by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and tasked to form the next Cabinet.

Shafiq, who comes from the air force--the most privileged branch of the military from which Mubarak himself also came--is close to Mubarak and worked under his command in the air force. Shafiq also has the benefit of having held a civilian role as minister of civil aviation since 2002, making him more palatable to the public. The announcement comes shortly after Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was appointed vice president, a position that has been vacant for the past 30 years.

2011 -- A British Midland International flight from London to Cairo turned back due to the curfew being brought forward in the Egyptian capital, a spokesman for the airline said.

2011 -- Two F-16 fighters from Andrews Air Force Base under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled today at 1153 EST in response to a commercial airliner that was out of communication near the National Capital Region.

The small commercial jet aircraft regained communication prior to the fighter aircraft intercepting. The fighters returned to base.

2011 -- Bomb scare on Cairo plane false alarm.

2011 -- China has started test flights of private aircraft in its tightly controlled airspace.

A growing number of wealthy Chinese have sought to buy and fly helicopters and executive jets. But only 30 percent of the nation's airspace is open to civil aviation. The state-run news agency Xinhua, however, reported Chinese aviation authorities are allowing helicopters to fly in low-altitude airspace of less than 1,000 meters over the southern island of Hainan. The test flights involving four helicopters are expected to continue over the next two months. As available civilian airspace in China has become more crowded, the central government said late last year it would open more flight paths in an effort to promote its aviation industry and allow the use of private ircraft. Every private flight in the country needs approval, which can take up to a week.

2010 -- First flight Russia's first low-observable aircraft, the T-50, took place in Russia's Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

The serial production of the fifth-generation fighter is expected to be launched in 2015. The PAK FA jet is said to replace MiG-29 and Su-27 in Russia's Air Force. The training of crews for T-50 is to begin in 2013. T-50 is expected to overcome Western analogues in terms of the price-efficiency correlation and raise significant interest on the international market. For the time, it is only the United States that has fifth-generation fighter jets. Unlike the F-22, which the U.S. Congress has ruled cannot be sold to foreign governments, the new Sukhoi design is built with export in mind. India is already a participant in the program with an interest in the two-seat version of the PAK FA.

1991 -- In the Battle of Khafji, Iraqi forces crossed the Kuwait border into Saudi Arabia. Tactical air strikes by coalition air forces, however, routed the invaders in three days.

1979 -- The E-3A Sentry aircraft assumed a continental air defense mission.

1979 -- Canadian WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace Capt. John Elmer Jack Drummon died at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

1973 -- Air Force and commercial aircraft airlifted 21,000 American and allied forces and 7,000 tons of equipment from South Vietnam, through March 29, following the signing of the Vietnam peace pacts.

1971 -- The U.S. Navy's newest carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft, the sophisticated EA-6B Prowler, entered service with VAQ-129 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington.

The Prowler, a derivative of the two-place A-6 Intruder, was lengthened to accommodate a fourplace cockpit and replaced the A-3 Skywarrior. VAH-10, redesignated VAQ-129 in 1970, became the replacement training squadron when it commenced instructing aircrew and ground support replacement personnel for all the Navy's Prowler squadrons.

1962 -- The Air Force launched the 47th and last Titan I from Cape Canaveral on a 5,000-mile flight. Of the 47 shots, there were 34 successful, nine partially successful, and four failures.

1959 -- The first jet passenger service across the United States is begun by American Airlines using Boeing 707 jet airliners.

1959 -- U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Command received the first ski-modified C-130A.

1959 -- London airport was closed with visibility down to 20 yards. Many flights were diverted into Gatwick.

Dense fog - the worst for seven years - brought road, rail and air transport in many parts of England and Wales to a virtual standstill.

1944 -- During the largest U.S. air operation to date, Eighth Air Force dispatched 809 heavy bombers to drop 1,886 tons of bombs on Frankfurt and Ludwigshaven, Germany.

1943 -- Eighth Air Force dispatched 86 bombers to Frankfurt, Germany. One formation bombed Ludwigshaven instead due to a navigational error. Three bombers and 16 fighters were lost.

1943 -- Mrs. Ruth Cheney Streeter, was commissioned a major in the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (USMCWR) and sworn in as the first Director of the Women's Reserve.

The Women Marines followed the lead of the SPARS and asked WAVE officers to volunteer to transfer into the Marine Corps Women's Reserve to act as the nucleus for the last women's reserve branch established during WW II.

Nineteen WAVE officers stepped forward, and Ruth Streeter was appointed the USMCWR's first director. Streeter, from Morristown, New Jersey, was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and married to Thomas W. Streeter, a retired banker who was supporting the war effort by raising money for the American National Red Cross. They had a daughter, who was in school, and three sons, all of whom were in the U.S. military--two ensigns in the navy and one son in the army.

Major Streeter, 47-years-old, had earned both private and commercial pilot's licenses. She had applied for the WASP five times and been turned down on each application. Streeter then applied to the navy and asked to be assigned as a flight instructor. When she was informed that she would be permitted to teach flying only on the ground, she withdrew her application.

When Major Streeter led the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, 40 percent of its members were trained and worked in the field of aviation.

1926 -- Lt. John A. Macready set a U.S. altitude record of 38,704 feet in an XC05A with Liberty 400-horsepower engines at Dayton, Ohio.

1920 -- President Woodrow Wilson appoints Orville Wright to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

1918 -- Oberleutnant Ernst Udet scored his 19th of 62 victories.

1910 -- German-American engineer Karl Ludwig Heimberg is born.

Travelled through Russia during 1936-1937 to a job he had been offered in Japan. Worked in Japan 1937-1941. Returning to Germany 1941on leave he was drafted immediately to work at Peenemüende. Worked on test stands for Wasserfall and A4b. Helped with Backfire. Then joined von Braun team, becoming Director, Test Division, in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A.

1908 -- The Imperial All-Russia Aero Club is founded and raises money through public subscription by imperial decree.

1850 -- Australian aeronautical pioneer Lawrence Hargrave is born.

best known for his invention of the box kite. Hargrave "flew" on November 12, 1894, by attaching himself to a huge four kite construction attached to the ground by piano wire. Due to their abilities to carry heavy payloads, steady flight, and capacity for high altitude flight, these kites have had many industrial and military uses in the past. Box kites were used until the 1930's to carry meteorological equipment for high altitude weather studies and by the Royal Air Force as sea rescue equipment to deliver radio aerials. Hargrave also made important studies of wing surfaces and worked with rotary engines and gliders.

January 28

2012-01-28T05:56:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Hundreds of passengers were grounded in several Spanish airports today after the airline Spanair abruptly ended its activities, canceling all flights.

2012 -- Switzerland and Germany on Saturday paved the way for an agreement on a long-standing dispute over flight noise from Zurich airport.

2012 -- Each day, thousands of passengers are stuck on planes at the airports — Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark Liberty International — sitting in line behind a dozen other planes waiting to take off or circling overhead until they get clearance to land.
And the delays persist, despite changes in procedures and schedules by the airlines, airports and Federal Aviation Administration over the years. (In the latest move, the F.A.A. last fall created new flight paths out of Kennedy to speed up departures.) Even a significant drop in the number of flights since the economy slowed has not helped much. Flight delays last year in New York were as bad as they were five years ago
2011 -- Three private jets have left Cairo International Airport in Egypt, under heavy guard that prevented the passengers from being seen by the public.

The passengers in an escorted convoy of black luxury sedans arrived at terminal 4 at Cairo International Airport where the jets were waiting.

2011 -- The Polish airline LOT has said it has canceled a flight from Warsaw to Cairo because of the curfew introduced in the Egyptian capital.

2002 –- TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727-134 (HC-BLF) crashes into the side of the Cumbal Volcano in Colombia, killing all 94 aboard.

The cause was attributed to the Captain’s decision to continue the approach into Colonel Luis. A Mantilla Airport in poor weather, and poor navigation as well.

1998 -- Andy Nelson and navigator Bertrand Piccard, in the Breitling Orbiter II set the world record for endurance at nine days and 17 hours - or, to be exact, 233 hours, and 55 minutes.

But the journey was stopped when they were not allowed to over-fly China. The preparation took more than four years with a team of 13 people. Bertrand is the grandson of the balloon flight pioneer, Auguste Piccard. With Brian Jones, Bertrand accomplished the first complete non-stop round-the-world flight on 21 Mar 1999 in the Breitling Orbiter 3.

1993 -- Royal Flying Corps Sopwith Dolphin American flying Ace Captain James William Pearson died at Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Before his death, he was believed to be the last surviving Ace of WW I.

1991 -- The explosion of a large stockpile of Iraqi ammunition, set off by a coalition forces air strike, was so massive that it registered on military DSP satellites as having the force of an atomic bomb explosion.

Both the Soviet Union and Israel contacted the United States to verify whether a tactical nuclear weapon had been used in battle.

1991 -- ERIS, the Exoatmospheric Reentry-vehicle Interception System developed by Lockheed Corporation received its first successful test.

An unarmed American Minuteman missile was fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and the ERIS missile was fired from Kwajalein Atoll. The ERIS intercepted the Minuteman at a point over the Pacific Ocean less than eight minutes later. A second successful test took place on March 13, 1992, but the ERIS project, part of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, was cancelled after the end of the Cold War.

1986 -- Astronauts Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Michael Smith, Gregory Jarvis, and Francis Scobee were killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded within seconds after its launch. [Video]

Also killed was Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who was going aboard as a civilian. In the aftermath of the explosion, President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The investigation determined that the explosion was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive explosion. As a result of the explosion, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.

1981 -- Pan Am commences a weekly New York-Beijing service.

1968 -- A recovery team is searching for wreckage from an American Air Force B-52 bomber armed with four hydrogen bombs which crashed into the sea near the Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland.

The American defence department did not release details of the Thule crash for 18 hours.
It feared "serious political difficulties" with Denmark over the crash. The Danish authorities, which control Greenland, were informed in 1965 that the Americans had been storing nuclear weapons at Thule - against their wishes. Although Thule was no longer used as a weapons store, it was still embarrassing for the U.S. to admit planes carrying nuclear weapons were regularly flying in Danish airspace. It took 700 men over nine months to remove all the contaminated material including snow from the crash site. America subsequently ended the airborne alert which kept some B-52 bombers in the air at all times in case of surprise nuclear attack

1973 -- 28--Aircraft from U.S. carriers Enterprise and Ranger flew 81 combat sorties on the first day of the Vietnam cease-fire against lines-ofcommunication targets in Laos.

The corridor for overflights was between Hue and Danang in SVN. These combat support sorties were flown in support of the Laotian government which had requested this assistance and it had no relationship with the cease-fire in Vietnam.

1968 -- Radiation alert following B-52 crash. A recovery team is searching for wreckage from an American Air Force B-52 bomber armed with four hydrogen bombs which crashed into the sea near the Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland.

Investigators are searching the area eight miles west of Thule for radioactive debris. The accident happened a week ago when the plane caught fire and the crew bailed out before the plane crashed through the ice. The American defencs department did not release details of the Thule crash for 18 hours. It feared "serious political difficulties" with Denmark over the crash. The Danish authorities, which control Greenland, were informed in 1965 that the Americans had been storing nuclear weapons at Thule - against their wishes. Although Thule was no longer used as a weapons store, it was still embarrassing for the US to admit planes carrying nuclear weapons were regularly flying in Danish airspace. It took 700 men over nine months to remove all the contaminated material including snow from the crash site.

1967 -- Apollo 204 Review Board established by NASA's Deputy Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., to investigate the Apollo 204 accident that had killed the 204 prime crew January 27. The Board would report to the NASA Administrator.

1964 -- A U.S. Air Force T-39 Sabreliner strays into East Germany and is shot down by Soviet MiG-19s near Erfurt, killing all 3 crewmembers.

The Soviets responded with charges that the flight was a "gross provocation," and the incident was an ugly reminder of the heightened East-West tensions of the Cold War era.

1964 -- The United States and Spain agreed to the construction and operation of a $1.5 million space tracking and data acquisition station about 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of Madrid, Spain.

Linked with the NASA Deep Space Instrumentation Facility, the station included a 26-meter (85-foot)-diameter parabolic antenna and equipment for transmitting, receiving, recording, data handling, and communications with the spacecraft.

1964 -- Maj. Robert A. Rushworth flew the 100th X-15 flight near Edwards AFB, California.

He flew 3,682 mph and 107,000 feet in altitude in this mission.

1963 -- WW I French Air Service Ace Sous Lieutenant René Paul Louis Dousinelle died.

1963 -- Swiss-American chemical engineer and balloonist Jean-Felix Piccard died at age 79.
He conducted stratospheric flights for the purpose of cosmic-ray research. His first balloon ascent was with his twin brother, Auguste Piccard in 1914. On October 1934, With his wife, he made the first successful stratosphere flight through clouds, ascending to a height of 11 miles (18 km). In 1936, Piccard flew the first successful plastic film balloon, which he invented and developed, the precursor of the plastic film balloon for high altitude experiments still used for scientific purposes. In 1937, he made an ascent of 11,000 feet (3,350 m) to test a metal gondola attached to a cluster of 98 balloons. He also developed a frost-resistant window for balloon gondolas and an electronic system for emptying ballast bags.
1962 -- Royal Naval Air Service Major Robert John Orton Compston credited with 25 victories during WWI died.

He was one of only seven airman in this war who won three awards of the Distinguished Service Cross.

1959 -- Third U.S. space balloon test.

Nike-Cajun successfully launched 12-foot-diameter test inflatable sphere to a height of 75 miles over NASA Wallops Island, the sphere inflating satisfactorily.

1948 –- A DC-3 flight chartered by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service crashes into hills west of Coalinga, California, killing 32. The crash became the impetus of the Woody Guthrie song Deportee.

1945 -- Eighth Air Force celebrated its third birthday with a 1,000-plane raid on Germany. By this time, the Eighth had flown more than 250,000 bomber and 210,000 fighter sorties to deliver 518,000 tons of bombs and destroy 13,000 enemy planes.

1938 -- Capt. Robert O. D. Sullivan flew from New York to Marseilles, France, to make his first flight across the Atlantic through January 29. On December 1942, he made his "100th" flight across the Atlantic.

1918 -- Canadian Royal Flying Corps Captain Frank Ormond Mongoose Soden scored his 14th victory.

1918 -- Italian Air Service Tenente Silvio Scaroni scored his 11th victory.

Other Italian Air Service Aces who scored victories this day in 1918 were: Sergente Marziale Cerutti (#4 & #5); Tenente Mario Fucini (#3); and Sergente Antonio Reali (#2 & #3).

1912 -- Lloyd William Standley is born.

He was Chief of Mechanical Design for the Atlas.

1908 -- Lts. Frank P. Lahm, Henry W. Alden, and J. G. Obermeier made a two-hour, 20-minute balloon trip in the Ohio from Canton, Ohio, to Oil City, Pennsylvania, covering about 100 miles.

1905 -- Luther George Simjian is born.

In WW II, his Range Estimation Trainer provided a simulator for pilots to learn to identify aircraft types, their distance and speed. It used synchronized moving mirrors, controlled lighting and a miniature airplane to present various speeds, lighting, and angles.

1884 -- Auguste Piccard is born.

Swiss-born Belgian physicist notable for his exploration of both the upper stratosphere and the depths of the sea in ships of his own design. In 1930 he built a balloon to study cosmic rays. In 1932 he developed a new cabin design for balloons and in the same year ascended by balloon in a pressurised gondola to 16,916 m (55,000 feet). On later flights he reached 72,000 feet. He coined the word bathyscaphe for his navigable deep-diving vessel.

1884 -- Jean-Felix Piccard is born.

Swiss-born American chemical engineer and balloonist who conducted stratospheric flights for the purpose of cosmic-ray research. His first balloon ascent (1913) was with his twin brother, Auguste Piccard. With his wife, on 23 Oct 1934, he made the first successful stratosphere flight through clouds, ascending to a height of 11 miles (18 km). In 1936, Piccard flew the first successful plastic film balloon, which he invented and developed, the precursor of the plastic film balloon for high altitude experiments still used for scientific purposes. In 1937, he made an ascent of 11,000 feet (3,350 m) to test a metal gondola attached to a cluster of 98 balloons. He also developed a frost-resistant window for balloon gondolas and an electronic system for emptying ballast bags.

1871 -- The last balloon to leave Paris during the Persian siege takes off with orders for the French fleet to bring food and supplies to replenish the French capital, an armistice having been signed. The flight of the General Cambronne ends a period of almost exactly 5 months during which the advantages of balloons were put to efficient use.

January 27

2012-01-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

January 26

2012-01-26T05:36:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Air China, the country's national flag carrier, announced today that it has been granted Transit without Visa (TWOV) and China Transit Trial (CTT) status from the Canadian government authorities.

Effective from February 1, 2012, citizens of China and other certain Asian countries who are Air China flight passengers in direct transit through Canada's Vancouver (YVR) on their way to or from the United States will not be required to obtain a Canadian Temporary Residence Permit.

2012 -- Boeing and AirBridgeCargo Airlines, part of Volga-Dnepr Group, celebrated today the delivery of the first of five new Boeing 747-8 Freighters to the airline.

2012 -- An Iranian-U.S. Manufactured fighter F-14 jet crashed near the village of Kereband in the coastal province of Bushehr three minutes after its takeoff at 4:30 a.m. local time today, killing both crew members, the Fars news agency reported.

The first and only country to receive F-14 Tomcat was, The Nirouyeh Havaiyeh Shahanshahiye Iran, or Imperial Iranian Air Force. The initial order signed in January of 1974 covered 30 Tomcats, but in June 50 more were added to the contract. At the same time, the Iranian government-owned Bank-e-Melli loaned Grumman $75 million to partially make up for a U.S. government loan of $200 million to Grumman, that had just been cancelled. This loan saved the F-14 program and enabled Grumman to secure a further loan of $125 million from a consortium of American banks, ensuring at least for the moment that the F-14 program would continue. Thanks to Bank-e-Melli.

The Iranian Tomcats were virtually identical to the U.S. Navy version, with only a few classified avionics items being omitted. The base site for Iranian Tomcat operations was at Isfahan’s (Khatami Air Force Base) and 1 Squadron at Shiraz Tactical Fighter Base. Imperial Iranian Air Force aircrews began to arrive in the U.S. for training in 1974. Toward the end of the 1970s most suppliers were cancelled by the new government, including an order for 400 AIM-54A Phoenix missiles.

Imposition of a strict arms embargo against Iran by the West caused a severe spare parts and maintenance problem, with many pilots and maintenance personnel following the Shah into exile. By 1980 the Iranian Air Force was only a shadow of its former self. This embargo was to have an especially severe long-term effect on the Tomcat fleet, since the embargo prevented the delivery of any spares. In spite of the Western arms embargo, Iran been able to maintain a more-or-less steady supply of spare parts for its fleet of Tomcats, from Iranian aircraft industries based at 1st tactical air base in Tehran. [2006 Video]

2012 -- Takeoff to Bollywood! A Dance Crew surprises passengers after boarding of a Finnair flight to Delhi to celebrate India's Republic Day on January 26th 20.

2012 -- Abu Dhabi-owned carrier Etihad Airways today said it ordered two more Airbus A330-200Fs in a deal worth $ 423 million at list prices.

2010 -- First flight Kawasaki's prototype C-X airlifter from Giful Air Base in Japan, earning the designation XC-2.

The aircraft, powered by a pair of General Electric CF6-80C2 turbofans, was rolled out alongside Kawasaki's XP-1 maritime patrol aircraft in July 2007. The XP-1 first flew in September of that year, but problems with the structural integrity of the XC-2's airframe delayed its flight debut by more than two years.

2009 -- The F-35 program office issued a lightening rebuttal to the charge that the stealth fighter project has incurred a significant cost overrun.

A spokeswoman for the F-35 program said the Aviation Week Ares blog entry ostensibly revealing a new Joint Strike Fighter Nunn-McCurdy breach was "biased" and unfounded. Since the F-35 program’s actual Nunn-McCurdy breach of three years ago, costs have remained "relatively stable," she said. F-35 costs did increase by 38 percent in the 2006 case, but mainly due to external factors, not management, she explained. "About 90 percent of the growth," the program office wrote, "has been due to cost of materials, labor rates, increased amounts of materiel required to begin manufacturing, and reductions in total quantities"

2008 -- German engineer, V-2 test leader Klaus Eduard Scheufelen died.

At end of war headed development of Taifun unguided antiaircraft rocket, characterised as a 'desperation project'.

2007 -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is directing military service leaders to develop "plans to minimize the use" of stop loss for both active and reserve forces by the end of February.

Gates could be reacting to a letter he received last week from four Republican Congressmen, expressing concern that the Administration’s planned 20,000-troop surge would require an expanded stop-loss program. Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.) called the policy a hidden draft.

2006 -- Air Force leaders have instructed public affairs personnel to use the phrase "force shaping," rather than terms such as "downsizing" or "layoffs" when they are discussing the upcoming personnel cuts.

Leaders have deemed as strictly taboo the obvious, logical, and traditional term "reduction in force." Senior leadership wants to emphasize that the service is deliberately moving toward a new and smaller organization, rather than admit the cuts are a money-saving effort.

2006 -- Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has said he would fight a DOD proposal to draw down the Guard’s end strength.

Bredesen is joining a growing list of lawmakers, governors, and Guardsmen that do not believe the Pentagon is taking the right approach to solve its budget dilemma. He also is still fighting to save the Volunteer State’s Air National Guard unit at Nashville, the 118th Airlift Wing, which stands to lose its aircraft under BRAC 2005.

2000 -- Air Combat Command Commander Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart dedicated the first Block D upgraded B-1s at Dyess AFB, Texas.

1995 -- Outbreak of the Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador. Peruvian Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-25, as well as Ecuadorian Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters begin ground attack operations.

1992 -- Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

1991 -- Iraq sends aircraft to Iran for sanctuary (by war's end, 122 had fled).

1976 -- The Concorde supersonic passenger jet airplane (SST) began commercial flights on the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes. Because of its great cost, it was developed as a project between Britain and France, under an international treaty rather than a commercial agreement between companies.

Concorde had a cruise speed of Mach 2.04 and a cruise altitude of 60,000 feet (17,700 metres). It had a delta wing configuration, and was the first civil airliner to be equipped with an analogue fly-by-wire flight control system.

1975 -- Strategic Air Command completed its Force Modernization Program by installing the last flight of Minuteman IIIs in 90th SMW at F. E. Warren AFB, Wyoming. The nine-year program replaced all Minuteman I missiles with either Minuteman IIs or IIIs.

1972 -- There an explosion in the front baggage compartment McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 JAT Flight 367 over Srbská Kamenice in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), and made it break apart.

Fight attendant Vesna Vulović was the only survivor. Vulović fell approximately 10,000 meters (~30,000 feet). She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae (one crushed completely) that left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down and two broken legs. She was in a coma for 27 days. Vulović continued working for JAT at a desk job following a full recovery from her injuries. She regained the use of her legs after surgery and continued to fly sporadically. She claims she has no fear of flying, which she attributes to the loss of memory of the crash, and she even enjoys watching movies with plane crashes. She is considered a national heroine throughout the former Yugoslavia.

1952 -- Birth of astronaut Mario Trooper Runco, Jr.

1951 -- First flight of Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket supersonic research aircraft is made. It is launched from underneath its B-29 mother-ship and exceeds Mach 1 (the speed of sound) in a dive.

The D-558 series of aircraft was developed by Douglas under the direction of Edward H. Heinemann for the U.S. Navy to explore transonic and supersonic flight. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the predecessor to NASA), used this Skyrocket, the second one built, to explore the flight characteristics of swept-wing aircraft. It set several speed and altitude records before the program ended in 1956, i.e., Piloted by A. Scott Crossfield, on November 20, 1953, the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket became the first aircraft to fly faster than Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. Air-launched from a U.S. Navy Boeing P2B-1S (B-29) the swept-wing, rocket-powered D-558-2 reached Mach 2.005 in a shallow dive at 18,898 meters (62,000 feet).

1946 -- Colonel William H. Council, piloting a Lockheed P80 Shooting Star, makes a record breaking flight from Long Beach, California to La Guardia in New York.

It is the fastest crossing of the United States to date - 2,470 miles in 4 hours 13 minutes, and 26 seconds at an average speed of 584mph. Also the longest non-stop flight by a jet aircraft.

1946 -- U.S. Naval Aviation Ordnance Test Station was established at NAAS Chincoteague, Virginia to develop aviation ordnance and guided missiles.

1946 -- The U.S. Army announced creation by Army Air Forces (AAF) of the First Experimental Guided Missiles Group to develop and test rocket missiles at Eglin Field, Florida.

1921 -- U.S Post Office Department operated regular daily airmail routes over a distance of 3,460 miles

1911 -- The first practical seaplane is flown. Built and flown by American Glenn Curtiss,¹ it lands and takes off in the waters off San Diego, California.

The airplane Flying Fish had pontoons in place of wheels. The rear pontoon was 6-ft wide and 5-ft long. The front one was narrower. He had made his first flight on his 30th birthday, May 21, 1908, in White Wing, a design of the Aerial Experiment Association, the group led by Alexander Graham Bell. Curtiss began building his own aircraft. He pioneered the design of the floatplane and the flying boat. Curtiss established an aviation school on North Island in San Diego Bay, Dececember 1910. On February 17, 1911, He demonstrated the first hydroplane flight to a ship, the USS Pennsylvania.

1902 -- The first American to fly a jet airplane Laurence C. Craigie is born in Concord, New Hampshire, U.S.A.

Craigie's career in military aviation began when the Army had a fleet of propeller-driven biplanes and there was no separate Air Force; it ended in the age of supersonic jets.For much of his career, he headed the military's development of new aircraft, and on October 2, 1942, he flew the Bell XP-59, the first American jet, from a dry lake in Southern California. He was the second person to pilot the craft, after a civilian pilot. General Craigie graduated from West Point in 1923 and went directly into the Army Air Corps, serving as a pilot and flight instructor. He joined the Air Corps' Experimental Engineering Section in 1939, and served as chief of the Aircraft Projects Branch from 1941 to 1943. In the last two years of WW II, he led fighter wings in New York City, North Africa and Corsica. After WW II, he directed the Air Force's research and development programs and became one of the service's most visible proponents of greater financing and experimentation. In 1948 he said, "We have a yacht, and like the man who asked J. P. Morgan how much it cost to run a yacht, we cannot keep a yacht if we have to worry about the cost." He was Vice Commander of the Far East Air Forces in the first year of the Korean War, and a member of the Allied negotiating team in peace talks to end that war. In 1951, he became the Air Force deputy chief of staff for development. In 1954, he became commander of the Allied Air Force in Southern Europe, a post he held until retiring the next year for health reasons.

1891 -- Nikolaus August Otto, German engineer who developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, died at Cologne, Germany.

His Otto-cycle engine offered the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source and largely enabled the creation of automobiles, powerboats, motorcycles and even airplanes.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ Instructions issued with the 1911 Glen Curtiss Pusher:

1. The aeronaut should seat himself in the apparatus, and secure himself firmly to the chair by means of the strap provided. On the attendant crying "Contact" the aeronaut should close the switch which supplies electrical current to the motor, thus enabling the attendant to set the same in motion.

2. Opening the control valve of the motor, the aeronaut should at the same time firmly grasp the vertical stick or control pole which is to be found directly before the chair. The power from the motor will cause the device to roll gently forward, and the aeronaut should govern its direction of motion by use of the rudder bars.

3. When the mechanism is facing into the wind, the aeronaut should open the control valve of the motor to its fullest extent, at the same time pulling the control pole gently toward his (the aeronaut's) middle anatomy.

4. When sufficient speed has been attained, the device will leave the ground and assume the position of aeronautical ascent.

5. Should the aeronaut decide to return to terra firma, he should close the control valve of the motor. This will cause the apparatus to assume what is known as the "gliding position,"except in the case of those flying machines which are inherently unstable. These latter will assume the position known as "involuntary spin" and will retum to earth without further action on the part of the aeronaut.

6. On closely approaching the chosen field or terrain, the aeronaut should move the control pole gently toward himself, this causes the mechanism to alight gently, more or less, on terra firma.

January 25

2012-01-25T05:01:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Airbus announced that the wing cracks in its A380s were caused by flaws in production, not fatigue from flying.

The aircraft manufacturer will fix the wings by removing affected wing brackets and replacing them. Short-term repairs will take five days for each plane and require cutting out the affected wing bracket area and putting in a new piece, said Tom Williams, Airbus head of programs. A longer term solution will include new materials and a different way of assembly, he said. The findings suggest all A380s built so far will eventually need inspections and fixes,

2012 -- The Department of Transportation has responded to Spirit Airlines' suggestion that a new disclosure rule is an effort to hide government taxes.

"Nothing in our rule will prohibit a carrier from informing consumers that the fare includes a specified amount of taxes and government fees, as long as the stated fare includes those taxes and fees," a DOT representative said.

2012 -- Apples and Oranges?

Delta Air Lines reported net income of $425 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $19 million in the same quarter last year. The Atlanta-based carrier said revenue rose 8% for the quarter, and fuel prices soared 20% during the quarter as well.

US Airways reported net income of $18 million for the fourth quarter, compared with $28 million in the same quarter last year. The airline said fuel costs rose 38% during the quarter. The carrier reported earnings of $71 million for 2011.

JetBlue Airways reported a $23 million profit for the fourth quarter, almost tripling its profit of $8 million for the same quarter the previous year. The carrier also boosted capacity by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, and traffic jumped by 11% compared with the previous year's fourth quarter.

United Continental Holdings reported a loss of $138 million for the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $325 million in the same quarter the previous year. United and Continental merged in 2010, and the company booked $170 million in costs related to the merger for the fourth quarter.

Alaska Air Group reported a 1.2% dip in profit for the fourth quarter. The parent company of Alaska Airlines reported $64 million in net income, compared with $64.8 million for the year-earlier fourth quarter. However, traffic for the fourth quarter rose 6.1% as capacity increased by 3.9%.

Republic Airways Holdings raised its fourth-quarter load-factor outlook for subsidiary Frontier Airlines. Republic estimates Frontier's load factor will improve by up to 11% in the fourth quarter, compared to the year-earlier fourth quarter.

Boeing posted a 20% increase in fourth-quarter profit to $1.39 billion, compared with the same quarter a year earlier. However, the aircraft manufacturer offered a conservative forecast for 2012.

2012 -- Early in his State Of The Union Address , President Obama renewed his call of last year for investments in clean energy. Unbowed by the troubles with Solyndra, Obama said he would direct the defense department to throw its buying power behind clean energy supplies for the U.S. military.

The U.S. military constitutes a huge market for alternative fuels. The Air Force alone burns 2.4 billion gallons of jet fuel a year. The Department of Defense burns $18 billion worth of oil a year, four fifths of the federal governments’ energy tab. In truth, a shift within the U.S. military to green fuels has been under way for more than a year. The U.S. Navy has been purchasing jet fuel derived from camelina—a derivative of canola—and a diesel like fuel derived from algae for its ships. The U.S. Air Force in 2010 began testing camelina oil in place of petroleum in its fuels as part of a program to derive as much as half of its fuel from alternative sources by 2016.

2012 -- In a night-time helicopter raid on a pirate hideout in Somalia two hostages rescued.

2012 -- Helicopter Rescue for Flood Victims in Malawi.

2012 -- Iran to train Iraqi aircraft pilots.

"Iraqi pilots will be trained in Iran within the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) framework," Deputy Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Mohammad Huda Karam said. "Iran will also provide technical maintenance for Iraqi aircrafts". IRNA reported.

2012 -- Brazil is speeding its research and development programs to perfect a tactical transport aircraft to rival the C-130 Hercules amid predictions the global market needs no less than 700 substitutes.

2012-- The airline Iberia will today cancel 100 flights, on the first of three days of strike, on January 25, 27 and 30, called by the pilots union Sepla, to protest the creation of the low-cost airline, Iberia Express.

2012 -- The South African Air Force said it was simply acting responsibly by standby planes when President Jacob Zuma travels abroad.

According to weekend media reports an SAA Boeing A340-200 shadowed Zuma's Boeing business jet Inkwazi as far as Las Palmas, Canary Islands, on Zuma's outbound leg to New York to attend a UN Security Council meeting.A second aircraft, a chartered Bombardier Global Express, was on standby in New York and followed the presidential jet back to South Africa at the conclusion of Zuma's visit.

2012 -- Budget carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA today said it has ordered 222 new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus in separate deals with a combined worth of $127 billion in list prices.

The total order, which includes 122 Boeing 737 aircraft and 100 Airbus A320 planes for delivery starting in 2016, is the largest ever aircraft purchase in Europe, Norwegian Air Shuttle said.

2012 -- A Pakistan Air Force aircraft crashed during a training mission, the pilots bailed out safely, an Air Force Spokesman said.

2012 -- Pakistani senators have called for shooting down American spy aircraft when they enter the country’s airspace and fire missiles into tribal regions.

2011 -- Our Gorgon Stare ‘All-Seeing Eye’ sees just fine, U.S. Air Force Insists.

2011 -- Boeing and its Boeing Defence U.K. subsidiary today announced that the Boeing U.K. Rotorcraft Support team has begun flight testing the first Chinook Mk4 helicopter for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The first flight took place on December 9 in Hampshire, England.

2011 -- A much-touted new camera system for U.S. unmanned aircraft that is supposed to bolster surveillance efforts in Afghanistan has proved ineffective in tests, a U.S. Air Force report concluded.

2011 -- President Dmitry Medvedev today lashed out at "anarchic" security lapses that allowed a suicide bomber to slaughter 35 at Russia's main airport as investigators probed a link to the restive Caucasus.

Unofficial sources indicated the bomber was a woman dispatched by militants from the overwhelmingly Muslim North Caucasus to wreak havoc. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, warned the culprits faced inevitable retribution. The attack Monday afternoon at Moscow's Domodedovo airport -- which left body fragments strewn over the arrivals hall -- again dented confidence in Russian security as it gears up to host the Winter Olympics and World Cup.

2011 -- Airbus announced that British tour operator Thomas Cook Group has placed a firm order for twelve medium-haul A321s, a contract of $ 1.2 billion at list prices.

2011 -- Air France staff appear to neglect safety in favour of commercial concerns and some pilots "systematically" ignore safety directives, experts wrote in an internal report seen by AFP today.

2010 -- The U.S. will provide 12 RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aircraft to Pakistan to aid the country's fight against the Taliban and other insurgents.

The U.S. also will provide training and other support to assist Pakistan in operating the new intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tool.

2008 -- Illinois’s Democrat governor has asked Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne not to move the current Air National Guard F-16 unit based in the state’s capital, or if it does leave as USAF’s current plans dictate, to base cargo aircraft there.

The Springfield Journal-Register reports that Gov. Rod Blagojevich urged Wynne in a January 22 missive to keep the F-16s of the 183rd Fighter Wing at the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport. The governor pushed a legal challenge to the relocation of the unit’s 15 F-16s under BRAC 2005, even as he and other state elected officials pursued alternative missions. The airplanes are scheduled to leave this year, possibly as soon as April, according to the newspaper. But in his letter, Blagojevich calls on the Air Force to reconsider, noting that it has already changed its mind about moving cargo aircraft from a unit in Nashville, Tennessee. If the F-16s are relocated, then Blagojevich suggests replacing them with C-27 Joint Cargo Aircraft, the newspaper said. The Lincoln airport was not on the list of potential bases for the C-27 in the future weapons roadmap that USAF issued on January 16.

1995 -- Russia's early-warning defense radar detects an unexpected missile launch near Norway, and Russian military command estimates the missile to be only minutes from impact on Moscow.

Moments later, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, his defense minister, and his chief of staff were informed of the missile launch. The nuclear command systems switched to combat mode, and the nuclear suitcases carried by Yeltsin and his top commander were activated for the first time in the history of the Soviet-made weapons system. Five minutes after the launch detection, Russian command determined that the missile's impact point would be outside Russia's borders. Three more minutes passed, and Yeltsin was informed that the launching was likely not part of a surprise nuclear strike by Western nuclear submarines. The missile, launched from Spitzbergen, Norway, was actually carrying instruments for scientific measurements. Nine days before, Norway had notified 35 countries, including Russia, of the exact details of the planned launch. The Russian Defense Ministry had neglected to inform the on-duty personnel at the early-warning center of the imminent launch. The event raised serious concerns about the quality of the former Soviet Union's nuclear systems.

1991 -- Bahrain F-16's flew their first Desert Storm mission.

1991 -- Five Iraqi Scuds hit Israel, killing one, wounding 40.

1991 -- Coalition destroys three Iraqi bombers on ground. Major attacks on Iraqi hardened aircraft shelters begin.

USAF, using new I-2000 bomb, has spectacular success.

1990 - A Titan II booster launched Clementine I, a space probe to the moon.

This mission was the first American lunar effort since Apollo 17 in 1972..

1983 -- First flight Swedish-U.S. Saab-Fairchild 340 transport, the first aircraft built by collaboration.

1975 -- First flight Birdman TL-1, lightest piloted powered aircraft.

1967 -- Australian WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace Captain Eric John Stephens died at Lae, Papua New Guinea.

1965 -- United States Air Service WW I Ace Captain Sumner Sewall died at Bath, Maine, U.S.A.

1959 -- American Airlines opened the jet age in the United States with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.

1956 -- German WW I Ace Leutnant Otto Könnecke died at Bad Aibling, Germany.

1921 -- Committee on Law of Aviation of the American Bar Association files an initial report on the necessity of aerial legislation.

1912 -- Lt. Henry H. Arnold flew a Wright plane to an altitude record of 4,764 feet in a 59-minute flight over the Army Aviation School at Augusta, Georgia.

1907 -- Norair Martirosovich Sisakyan is born in Ashtarak District of the Armenian Republic.

He was early space medicine specialist at the Second Division of Biological Sciences under the Academy of Sciences.

January 24

2012-01-24T01:12:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Spirit Airlines is asking customers to protest Department of Transportation rules that require disclosure of taxes and fees by joining its campaign for low fares at www.KeepMyFaresLow.org. The carrier sent out e-mails to customers and posted a banner on its website about the new rules, which took effect today.

2012 -- Lock up your satellites and batten down your power-lines because a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), the strongest Solar Radiation Storm since May, 2005 reached magnetosphere arly today , prompting airlines to reroute flights and skywatchers to seek out spectacular light displays.

According to NASA, the CME moved at almost 1,400 miles per second (2,253 km/s). The burst of solar wind has the potential to cause isolated reboots of computers on board satellites, damage power lines, and disrupt radio transmissions. It can also expose those in space or at high altitudes--in an airplane, for example--to intense radiation. The reason those flights over the North Pole were being rerouted, and no launches into space are expected for the duration of the event for this reason.

2012 -- Engineers inspecting Airbus A380 aircraft for cracks on a part inside the wings have found similar flaws on at least one aircraft, industry sources said.

European safety authorities ordered urgent inspections on just under a third of the superjumbo fleet last week after two types of cracks were discovered on a bracket inside the wings of the world's largest jetliner. Cracks have been found inside the 9,100 sq ft wing of at least one of the superjumbos examined under last week's directive, industry sources said. They also said cracks on another part of the wing were discovered two years ago. The problem was documented at the time but attention has not focused on that incident until now.

2012 -- Airbus insisted today that the cracks found on the wings during this inspection was a different issue from the latest flaws and had been resolved.

European safety inspectors reacted to the earlier problem by ordering checks in October 2010, a month before an engine blowout severely damaged a Qantas A380 and triggered global headlines. It was during $130m repair-- lasting more than a year--to that airliner in Singapore that the latest type of crack was discovered. This in turn has led to the discovery of another and potentially more significant type on the same part.

2012 -- Stunt pilot hopes to build a vertical-winged airplane.

2011 -- Gorgon Stare is "Not Operationally Effective" and "Not Operationally Suitable."

2011 -- Former Northrop Grumman engineer Noshir S. Gowadia, 66, of Maui, Hawaii, was sentenced late today to 32 years in prison for communicating classified national defense information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), illegally exporting military technical data, assisting China in developing a low-signature cruise missile exhaust system and providing classified information on the B-2 Spirit bomber, as well as money laundering, filing false tax returns and other offenses.

2011 -- Balkan military officials say technology for new plane may have come from U.S. Nighthawk shot down over Serbia in 1999.

2011 -- A suicide bomber set off an explosion that ripped through Domodedovo airport, Moscow’s busiest airport today. The attack killed at least 31 people and wounded nearly 170, Russian officials said.

The explosion was definitely a terrorist act committed by a suicide bomber, investigators at the airport say. They believe a man wearing an explosive device was in the crowd of people meeting arriving passengers. There are reports that the bomb was packed with shrapnel. There are reports that the investigators are trying to determine the role of the airport’s security service in connection with the incident. According to the Investigative Committee, airport documentation regulating safety is being seized by law enforcement officials. The brazen suicide attack appeared to mark the escalation of Chechen rebels’ efforts to strike at civilian targets in the capital. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised address that it was an act of terrorism. The body parts of the alleged suicide bomber have been found at the scene according to Interfax news agency. A source from the blast investigation team told Itar-Tass that the parts may indeed belong to a terrorist, but added that it is too early to say for sure that the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber. “Before a professional examination is taken, one must be very careful with such terms as ‘suicide bomber,’” the source said. According to him, the perpetrators could have used someone who did not know he was going to blow up, or he could have just been carrying an explosive device with him.

Russian suicide bombing video.

2011 -- Cathay Pacific flight attendants have called off a labor slowdown planned for the busy Lunar New Year holiday next week, but warned they might take action if a new pay deal is not reached.

2011 -- Air France-KLM SA released the findings of an independent review broadly critical of some of the airline's past safety practices and internal safeguards.

The project was initiated by Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta in late 2009, six months after the crash of an Air France Airbus A330, which killed all 228 people aboard en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The cause remains unknown—with search teams continuing to look for Flight 447's data recorders—but the crash immediately focused attention on Air France's safety record and pilot training.

2011 -- UFO video for the month.

1986 -- U.K. Trade and Industry Secretary Leon Brittan became the second cabinet minister to resign over the Westland affair.

Two weeks ago, Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine walked out of his cabinet post claiming his views on the future of the helicopter company were being ignored.

1986 -- The Voyager II space probe made closest approach to Uranus. The spacecraft came within 81,500-km (50,600 miles) of Uranus's cloudtops.

The probe radioed thousands of images and great amounts of other scientific data on the planet, its moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and the magnetic environment surrounding Uranus. Its images of the five largest moons around Uranus revealed complex surfaces indicative of varying geologic pasts. The cameras also detected 10 previously unseen moons. It also studied the fine detail of the ring system and newly discovered two more rings. Launched on August 20, 1977, Voyager II earlier visited Jupiter and Saturn. After Uranus, it travelled on to Neptune and eventually interstellar space.

1985 -- The Discovery flew the 15th Space Shuttle mission with Col. Loren J. Shriver leading the four-man crew on the first dedicated DOD mission to "probably" deliver an intelligence satellite through January 27.

1979 -- U.S. Vice President Walter P. Mondale presented Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Fix with the Harmon International Aviation Trophy.

Colonel Fix received the award for his role as Commanding Officer of USMC Helicopter Squadron HMH-463 during the evacuations of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975. The citation praised Colonel Fix for carrying out his missions "without casualties among the aircrews of 16 rotary wing aircraft in HMH-463, although the operations took place under combat conditions involving anti-aircraft fire, machine gun and small arms fire, and in part at night with few navigational aids." Colonel Fix was the first U.S. Marine Corps pilot to receive the Harmon Trophy. At the time of the award, he was Project Manager for the H-1/H-3 Helicopters Project Office at the Naval Air Systems Command.

1978 -- U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Command deployed eight F-15 Eagles from Langley AFB, Virginia to Osan AB, South Korea.

This was the first operational training deployment of the F-15s to the western Pacific.

1978 -- Nuclear-powered USSR satellite Cosmos 954 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrates over the Northwest Territories, scattering radiation; Canadian Armed Forces launches large operation to recover debris.

The clean-up operation was a coordinated event between the United States and Canada. Dubbed "Operation Morning Light", the clean-up effort continued into October 1978 and resulted, according to the Atomic Energy Control Board (now the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission), in the estimated recovery of about 0.1 percent of COSMOS 954's power source.

1975 -- First flight Aerospatiale SA 365 Dauphin F-WVKE.

1973 -- The Spirit of '76, the VC-137 in which Lyndon B. Johnson became President in 1963, flew his body from Texas to Washington, D.C. in a final tribute.

1966 -- 117 people have been killed after an Air India Boeing 707 crashed near the summit of Mont Blanc in the Alps.

The plane was on a regular Bombay to New York flight when the accident happened at around 0800 local time. All 106 passengers and 11 crew were killed on the aircraft as it prepared to land at Geneva airport in Switzerland. One of the victims included chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha, who was on his way to Vienna. The remaining passengers were Indian nationals, 46 of whom were sailors.

1963 -- A B-52C on a training mission out of Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, lost its vertical stabilizer due to buffeting during low-level flight, and crashed on the west side of Elephant Mountain near Greenville, Maine. Of the nine crewmen aboard, two survived the crash.

1961 -- Bulgarian cosmonaut Krasimir Mihailov Stoyanov is born in Varna, Bulgaria.

1961 -- A B-52 bomber suffered structural failure and disintegrated in mid-air 12 miles north of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, releasing two hydrogen bombs.

Five crewmen parachuted to safety, while three others died when the aircraft exploded in mid-air. The bombs jettisoned as the plane descended, one parachuting to earth intact, the other plunging deep into waterlogged farmland. To this day, parts of the nuclear bomb remain embedded deep in the muck. The area is off-limits, and is tested regularly for radiation releases.

1952 -- American astronaut William Francis Bill Readdy is born in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

1950 -- First flight North American YF-93.

1945 -- The first successful launch of German A-4b intermediate range boost-glide missile.

Winged boost-glide version of the V-2 missile. The A4b designation was used to disguise work on the prohibited A9 program. Two prototypes were flown; a manned version was planned. The A4b had an empty mass 1350 kg greater than the basic V-2, with wings of 52 degree sweep. Another variation was conceived and under construction at the end of the war - a boosted version. This would use a ring of 10 solid propellant rockets to achieve Mach 6 cruise at 20,000 m altitude, extending the range by a further 400 km.

1944 -- Twelfth Air Force provided air cover for Allied units landing on Anzio beach in Italy. U.S. control of the air played a major role in defending the beachhead.

1932 -- French pilots Paul Codos and Henri Robida land in Paris after flying in a Breguet 27 reconnaissance aircraft from Hanoi in French Indochina in a record time of 3 days, 4 hours, and 17 minutes.

1925 -- A motion picture of a solar eclipse was taken by the U.S. Navy from the dirigible Los Angeles.

The craft was at an elevation of about 4,500-ft and positioned about 19 miles east of Montauk Point, Long Island, New York. This give a view of a total eclipse of the sun that lasted just over 2 minutes. Four astronomical cameras and a spectrograph were used as well as two moving picture cameras. This was the first time in the U.S. that a dirigible had been used as a platform for observation of a total eclipse of the sun. The first U.S. attempt to photograph one from an aircraft September 23, 1923 was unsuccesful due to cloudy conditions, but on April 28, 1930, a flight over California sponsored by the U.S. Naval Observatory recorded a total solar eclipse.

1914 -- German expert in guided missiles during WW II Gerhard Bernhard Heller is born.

1913 -- The withdrawal of the Ottoman fleet within the Dardanelles was confirmed by 1st Lieutenant Michael Moutoussis and Ensign Aristeidis Moraitinis flying their Maurice Farman hydroplane over the Nagara naval base, where they spotted the enemy fleet.

During their sortie, they accurately drew a diagram of the positions of the Ottoman fleet, against which they dropped four bombs. Moutoussis and Moraitinis travelled over 180km and took 2 hours 20 minutes to complete their mission. This operation is regarded as the first naval-air operation in military history and was widely commented upon in both the Greek and international press.

1907 -- Petr Vasilyevich Dementiev is born. Minister of Aviation Industry 1953-1977.

1902 -- Oskar Morgenstern is born.

German-American economist and mathematician who popularized "game theory" which mathematically analyzes behaviour of man or animals in terms of strategies to maximize gains and minimize losses. He coauthored Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944), with John von Neumann, which extended Neumann's 1928 theory of games of strategy to competitive business situations. They suggested that often in a business situation ("game'), the outcome depends on several parties ("players"), each estimating what all of the others will do before determining their own strategy. Morgenstern was a professor at Vienna University, Austria, from 1931 until the Nazi occupation in 1938), when he fled to America and joined the faculty at Princeton University. Founded Mathematica, which provided economic analyses to government, notoriously the study that found the shuttle cheaper than expendable LVs. His later publications included works on economic prediction and aspects of U.S. defence.

1900 -- German engineer Arthur P. Urbanski is born. After WW II, a member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter.

1888 -- German aircraft engineer Ernst Heinrich Heinkel is born.

He was chief designer of the Albatros Aircraft Company in Berlin before WW I. He founded the Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke at Warnemünde in 1922, making at first seaplanes, and later bombers and fighters which achieved fame in WW II. He built the first jet plane, the HE-178, and the first rocket powered aircraft, the HE-176. After Adolf Hitler came to power, Heinkel's designs formed a vital part of the Luffwaffe's growing strength. In 1942 the government took control of his factories.

January 23

2012-01-23T01:38:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Sen. Paul on TSA detention: 'Have the terrorists won?'

Sen. Rand Paul detained for refusing TSA patdown. Sen. Rand’s story is that he was detained by the TSA in a small cubicle. The TSA’s story is that Sen. Rand was held until escorted from ‘sterile’ side of security by law enforcement. The TSA’s policy on pat downs to resolve alarms is well known, and everyone should know by now that all persons who refuse a pat down will be escorted from the security area by law enforcement. Sen. Rand sits on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee; he certainly should know. Sen. Paul, the terrorists have won when a U.S. Senator wastes time arguing with TSA at the gate, producing sound bites for the 6 O'Clock News, instead of taking care of business by changing the way TSA does business.

2012 -- After Iran threat to close the strategic shipping route, U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln goes through Strait of Hormuz without incident.

2012 -- Members of the Czech Republic government, including Prime Minister Petr Nečas and Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra, have met in Prague with an Iraqi delegation including Iraq’s acting minister of defense Saadoun al-Dulaimi.

Today they discussed the possible purchase of Czech-made L-159 fighter jets to Iraq, but said no final deal had been reached yet. Negotiations are to continue. The Iraqi minister confirmed his country’s continuing interest, while Mr Vondra said he was “optimistic”. Mr al-Dulaimi also confirmed that Iraq was not only interested in older existing planes from Aero Vodochody, but also in commissioning new aircraft. Iraq is reportedly seeking to acquire around 20 jets for its military.

2012 -- The defense group BAE Systems said that it would enter into discussion with the Sultanate of Oman to complete of an order of Eurofighter combat aircraft for the Royal Air Force of Oman (al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Sultanat Oman).

Oman remains a very strategic country, controlling the Strait of Hormuz’s western bank, and providing an overwatch position for both the entrance to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean near Africa.

2012 -- Boeing delivered Saudi Arabian Airlines' first two 777-300ERs (extended range).

2011 —- Another front-line Eastern Bloc fighter, a 1989 MiG-29, flew for the first time in the United States at Snohomish County Airport in Everett, Washington.

It’s the second privately held MiG-29 flying in the U.S., closely following Don Kirlin’s aircraft that flew last month in Quincy, Illinois.

2012 -- Research into goshawk flight could inform the design of next generation agile UAVs.

2011 -- A coalition airstrike in the Pol-e Alam district of Afghanistan’s Logar province killed a Taliban logistics leader, military officials reported.

Abdul Bari facilitated weapons and vehicles on behalf of Taliban leaders and was directly associated with leaders of the attack network in and around the Afghan capital of Kabul, officials said. He also he collected information regarding coalition forces’ movements to be used in attack coordination, officials added.

2011 -- Today, Abu Dhabi Airports Company said that the number of passengers using the airport of the capital increased 12.2 percent last year to nearly 11 million.

2011 -- U.S. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) carried out three strikes in the restive North Waziristan tribal region of northwest Pakistan today, killing 11 suspected militants even as tribesmen joined a protest in the area against the attacks.

More than 10,000 held an anti-U.S. protest in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar calling for an immediate stop to American UAV attacks in tribal areas, police said.

2010 -- Among the tasks accomplished by U.S. airmen in support of the Haiti relief mission since it began on January 13 are five airdrops of supplies directly to the rescue and recovery forces on the ground there.

The most recent airdrop missions occurred today with two C-130 transports flying in tandem and also one C-17. The airdrops are a means of relieving the burden on the Port au Prince airport, which has been the principal access route in Haiti since the devastating Earthquake on January 12.

The U.S. has 15,000 troops and 24 ships involved in Haitian relief. The airport is handling about 200 flights per day. Defense Secretary Robert Gate's spokesman, Geoff Morrell says that how many forces, doing what kind of things and for how long and at what expense are being discussed at the Pentagon. Morell explains, "It is a very expensive operation¹...probably hundreds of millions of dollars...."

2008 -- The U.K. Royal Air Force activated its first unmanned aerial vehicle unit, No. 39 Squadron, at Creech AFB, Nevada. Air Marshal Iain McNicholl, RAF’s deputy commander in chief of operations, presided over the ceremony.

RAF personnel have been at Creech since 2004 as part of the Joint Predator Task Force. From there, they have taken part, alongside their U.S. Air Force counterparts, in operating MQ-1 Predator and, more recently, MQ-9 Reaper UAVs. No. 39 Squadron, which also includes British Army and Navy personnel, will operate the RAF’s MQ-9 Reapers and remain involved with Predator operations. The RAF currently has three MQ-9s in its inventory, one of which is already flying in Afghanistan in support of ISAF. The remaining two will deploy there in 2008, according to the RAF. The UK is interested in acquiring 10 more Reapers; the Pentagon announced the potential foreign military sale on January 3.

2007 -- Today marked the 6,000th day for U-2 high flying recon airplane and its pilots and maintainers, dedicated to missions in Southwest Asia.

A few days after the start of Operation Desert Shield in August 1990, the Dragon Lady fleet flew 260 sorties during Operation Desert Storm and was responsible for approximately 50 percent of all imagery intelligence. The U-2s remain in Southwest Asia today, providing high-altitude reconnaissance.

2002 -- A 305th AMW KC-10 from McGuire AFB, New Jersey., arrived at Dulles IAP, D.C., with John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old American accused of joining Al Qaeda and fighting in Afghanistan against U.S. forces.

On January 24 in Alexandria, Virginia, he was charged with conspiracy to kill Americans.

1964 -- The U.S. Air Force launched a Titan II ICBM from an underground silo at Vandenberg AFB, California, in a 5,000-mile flight down the Pacific Missile Range.

1961 -- Royal Naval Air Service WW I ace Colonel Redford Henry Red Mulock died at Winnepeg, Ontario, Canada.

Mulock was t he highest ranking Canadian airman of the war, he became the first Canadian ace of the war as well as the first RNAS pilot to claim 5 victories. After the war, Mulock served with the Royal Canadian Air Force, rising to the rank of Air Commodore by 1935. He then left the military and joined Canadian Airways.

1961 -- Final test flight of USAF Atlas D traveled 5,000 miles to target down Atlantic Missile Range, representing 35 successes, 8 partials, and 6 failures in 49 test launchings for the D model.

1957 -- First flight Nord 1500-02 Griffon II.

1946 -- German WW I ace (33 victories) Leutnant Heinrich Bongartz died at Rheinberg , Germany.

1939 -- Luke Field was made a sub-post of Hickam Field, Hawaii.

1924 -- British mathematician Sir Michael James Lighthill was born.

Lighthill contributed to supersonic aerofoil theory and, aeroacoustics which became relevant in the design of the Concorde supersonic jet, and reduction of jet engine noise. He is credited with founding the subject of aeroacoustics, a subject vital to the reduction of noise in jet engines. Lighthill's eighth power law which states that the acoustic power radiated by a jet is proportional to the eighth power of the jet speed. His work in nonlinear acoutics found application in the lithotripsy machine used to break up kidney stones, the study of flood waves in rivers and road traffic flow. Lighthill also introduced the field of mathematical biofluiddynamics. Lighthill followed Paul Dirac as Lucasian professor of Mathematics (1969) and was succeeded by Stephen Hawking (1989)

1918 -- The Allied Expeditionary Force made the first American military balloon ascension. It took place at Cuperly, Marne, France.

1917 -- Lt. Hans Imelmann was the first German ace to be shot down in 1917.

In an encounter with a B.E.2c Imelmann's Albatros went down in flames after an accurate burst of machine gun fire struck his fuel tank.

1909 -- First flight of the French Blériot XI, one of the most successful monoplanes designed and built before WW I.

The Blériot XI monoplane was the culmination of hard work by Louis Blériot and Raymond Saulnier. Blériot personally flew this airplane on July 25, 1909, crossing the English Channel in just 36 minutes. The military implications of his flight were immediately apparent: England was no longer an island. At the moment of his landing, Blériot became the most celebrated man in Europe, and a flood of orders came in for copies of his delicate-lookingBlériot XI with its distinctive, uncovered rear fuselage. For the French, there was considerable satisfaction in the creation of a monoplane that seemed clearly superior to the Wright biplanes.
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¹ The firsrt 20 million packaged meals cost $100 million, according to military officials.

January 22

2012-01-22T01:21:00.000-08:00

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.

January 21

2012-01-21T01:17:00.000-08:00

2012 -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced todaythat the United States remains committed to the further development of the troubled Marine Corps’ short-takeoff and vertical landing variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta visited a flight testing center along the shores of Chesapeake Bay gave a lift to the beleaguered F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, announcing that he was removing the Marine Corps version of the costly warplane from the probation announced by former secretary Gates.

Shortly after Mr. Panetta’s announcement, Gen. James F. Amos, the Marine Corps commandant, released a statement praising the decision. “I welcome the secretary of defense’s announcement removing the F-35B Lightning II from ‘probation’ and granting it full status commensurate with the other two variants of the Joint Strike Fighter,” General Amos said. “I continue to be encouraged by the strong and steady progress that the F-35B team has made over the past year.”

2011 -- Winslow T. Wheeler, Director, Straus Military Reform Project, Center for Defense Information, F-35 testimony to Canada's House of Commons.

2011 -- TAP Portugal and LAM (Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique) have formalised a Memorandum of Understanding stating that as from June 2011 they will combine all direct flights operated by both airlines from Portugal to Mozambique and South Africa.

2011 -- Lynn Tilton has been named America's Aviation Entrepreneur of the Year," one of the flight industry's most prestigious honors, at the Eighth Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards ceremony.

She's known for rescuing companies on the brink of bankruptcy. Her $8 billion private equity firm owns all or part of 74 companies, including MD Helicopters in Mesa, Arizona.

2011 -- Poland is offering payments up to 250,000 zlotys (64,500 euros, $86,500U.S.) to relatives of the victims of the Smolensk air disaster which killed president Lech Kaczynski, and for a separate 2008 crash.

2011 -- The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has fined SkyWest Airlines US$220,000 for alleged cargo violations.

The FAA claims SkyWest failed to document heavy cargo and luggage on five flights between 21 April and 25 May 2010, resulting in incorrect weight and balance data on the aircraft. The Utah-based airline has 30 days to respond.

2011 -- Raytheon Company signed a contract worth $475 million with The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the combat-proven Paveway family of precision-guided munitions.

Raytheon's Paveway is a kit that transforms "dumb" bombs into precision-guided munitions.

2011 -- Lufthansa Airlines and Singapore Airlines (SIA)will raise fuel surcharges because of the persistent rising cost of jet fuel.

Qantas may raise prices and fuel surcharges if global competitors did the same thing.

2011 -- Two pilots were killed when their T-37C jets collided and crashed düring flight training in South Korea today.

The Cessna planes came down in fields in Uljin county on the east coast and no other casualties were reported. T-37 production ended in 1975. The South Korean Air Force originally acquired 25 T-37Cs, starting in 1973, and later bought 30 from Brazil.

2011 -- The Dassault Aviation will implement a general salary increase of 1.5% for non-executives and 3.5% for executives in 2011.

2011 -- A hot-air balloon takes a dip in Melbourne's Port Philip Bay after being blown off course when trying to land on a beach.

2011 -- Brazi's Navy brings flood relief.

2011 -- The snow that blanketed parts of southern and eastern China has severely disrupted transport by air as millions of Chinese had already made their way to their home province to celebrate the New Year.

2011 -- CAE today announced it has been awarded a series of military contracts for the defence forces of more than 12 countries valued at more than C$140 million.

Among the contracts are: the design and manufacture of a C-130J weapon systems trainer and other training devices for Lockheed Martin; a contract from Boeing Training Systems and Services to build two M-346 full-mission simulators; an agreement with IGTEC to design and manufacture a C-130H full-mission simulator; a contract from Airbus Military to develop A400M maintenance trainers; a contract from Boeing to provide CAE's magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) system for the Indian Navy's P-8I Poseidon aircraft; and a contract from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence to continue providing training support services for Royal Navy helicopter training systems.

2010 -- 21-23: The first-ever Bahrain International Airshow took place in Manama on the island-nation.

2008 -- Airbus has won orders worth more than USD$6 billion at list prices from Brazilian airline Tam which include a firm contract for 22 A350 XWBs.

The agreement raised to 314 the total number of orders for the wide-body long-range A350 XWB, worth around USD$200 million each at list prices.

2007 -- Brazilian lead aviation accident investigator Renato Sayao for the first time acknowledged air traffic controllers share some of the blame for the September 29 midair that killed 154 people when a Legacy business jet collided with a Gol Airlines 737 over the Amazon jungle.

But the Legacy pilots -- Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino of New York, both of whom survived the collision along with their five passengers – might not be off the hook entirely. According to The Associated Press, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said both the pilots and controllers were likely at fault. The prosecutor's office cannot press charges against the Brazilian controllers since they are military personnel; instead it can only submit findings to military justice officials, who would then pursue any further action.

1991 -- In the first successful combat search and rescue mission of Desert Storm and since Vietnam, one of two F-14 crew members was recovered 50 miles north of Mudaysis airfield.

Capt. Paul T. Johnson in his A-10 Thunderbolt II found a downed Navy fighter pilot, who had ejected in Iraq territory. Captain Johnson destroyed a threatening Iraqi truck, which allowed an Air Force MH-53J Pave Low helicopter to rescue the pilot. For his efforts, Captain Johnson received the Air Force Cross.

2007 -- Brazilian lead aviation accident investigator Renato Sayao for the first time acknowledged air traffic controllers share some of the blame for the September 29 midair that killed 154 people when a Legacy business jet collided with a Gol Airlines 737 over the Amazon jungle.

But the Legacy pilots -- Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino of New York, both of whom survived the collision along with their five passengers – might not be off the hook entirely. According to The Associated Press, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said both the pilots and controllers were likely at fault. The prosecutor's office cannot press charges against the Brazilian controllers since they are military personnel; instead it can only submit findings to military justice officials, who would then pursue any further action.

2008 -- Airbus has won orders worth more than USD$6 billion at list prices from Brazilian airline Tam which include a firm contract for 22 A350 XWBs. The agreement raised to 314 the total number of orders for the wide-body long-range A350 XWB, worth around USD$200 million each at list prices

1993 -- Shortly after his inauguration, President Clinton said the United States would continue the Bush policy on Iraq, and U.S. aircraft fired at targets in Iraq after pilots sensed Iraqi radar or anti-aircraft fire directed at them.

1991 -- U.S. Air Force Capt. Paul T. Johnson in his A-10 Thunderbolt II found a downed Navy fighter pilot, who had ejected in Iraq territory.

Captain Johnson destroyed a threatening Iraqi truck, which allowed an Air Force MH-53J Pave Low helicopter to rescue the pilot. For his efforts, Captain Johnson received the Air Force Cross.

1991 -- Scud missiles fired from Iraq at Al Jubail, Dhahran, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1988 -- WW I United States Air Service Ace Robert Miles Todd died at La Jolla, California.

1987 -- The First B-1B, named the Wings of Freedom, arrived at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, U.S.A..

1985 -- Major Ralph B. Filburn launched the first anti-satellite missile to a point-in-space from an F-15.

1984 -- The anti-satellite missile completed its first free flight test from an F-15 Eagle carrier.

1981 -- The 52 American hostages held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran for more than 14 month stepped from the plane onto the tarmac at Wiesbaden airport looking tired but elated after their 4,000-mile (6,437km) flight from Iran.

The former diplomats and embassy staff arrived in West Germany on their way home to the United States.
1980 -- French Air Service WW I ace André Dubonnet died.

1976 -- First passenger services by a supersonic airliner are begun, as British Airways and Air France Concorde supersonic transports take off simultaneously for Bahrain and Rio de Janeiro.

British Airways and Air France Concorde supersonic transports with commercial passengers simultaneously took flight - from London's Heathrow Airport to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and from Orly Airport outside Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Senegal in West Africa. At their cruising speeds, the Concordes flew at 1,350 mph, well over the speed of sound, cutting air travel time by more than half.The Concorde was not a great commercial success, however, and people complained bitterly about the noise pollution caused by its sonic booms and loud engines. Most airlines declined to purchase the aircraft, and just 16 Concordes were built for British Airways and Air France. Service was eventually limited between London and New York and Paris and New York, and luxury travelers appreciated the less than four-hour journey across the Atlantic.

1975 -- WW I United States Air Service Ace Howard Burdick died at Los Angeles, California.

1972 -- A Lineas Aéreas La Urraca Vickers 837 Viscount crashed during a rainstorm shortly after leaving Bogotá for San Andres, Columbia. There were 20 Fatalities.

1972 -- A SATENA Douglas DC-3 operated on a flight from Medellin to Buenaventura, Columbia crashed, and all 39 aboard died.

1972 -- A Türk Hava Yollari - THY McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 diverted to Adana, Turkey after pressurization problems. The aircraft hit the ground downwind on the 2nd approach and caught fire.

One crew member died in this accident.

1972 -- First flight S-3A Viking, the U.S. Navy's newest ASW aircraft, from Lockheed's Palmdale, California facility.

The S-3A Viking met the Navy's requirements for a 400 knot plus aircraft and a 2,000 mile range subhunter to replace the aging S-2 Tracker. The S-3A, while about the same size as the S-2, had twice the speed and range of the Tracker. It had been equipped with the latest sensor and weapon systems and could cover nearly three times the area of the S-2 Tracker.

1971 -- A Fuerza Aérea del Peru - FAP Curtiss C-46 crashed in the Cuti Padre mountain range, near Palca, Peru, which is part of the central Andes.

The airplane carried 35 members of a civil guard anti-guerrilla force. None survived the crash.

1971 -- L'Armée de L'Air Nord 262A-34 crashed in a blizzard in mountainous terrain. The airplane flew into the side of Suc de Pradou, a 1,342 m high mountain and came to rest 200 m below the summit.

There were nineteen fatalities, thirteen of France's top nuclear weapons experts were killed.
The crew had been cleared by Marseilles ACC at FL 80 to the Montelimar (MTL) VOR and FL50 afterwards. FL80 was the minimum safe altitude level between CMF (Clermont Ferrand) and MTL. Controllers at the time considered it possible that the pilot might have retained the FL50 as the final clearance and had disregarded the initial FL80 instruction.

1971 -- Rockwell 1121 Jet Commander N400CP operated by Cousin Properties with 5 occupants went missing and is presumed to have crashed in Lake Champlain, New York.

1970 -- The first wide body jet was put into service as the Pan American Airways Boeing 747 flew its first flight between from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and Heathrow Airport in London, England.

The first scheduled flight came back to the gate after an engine overheated during taxiing; more than five hours later a back-up plane finally left New York for London.

1969 -- Canadian WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace Arthur Eyguem De Montaigne Jacko Jarvis died.

1968 -- A B-52 crashed 7 miles south of Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, scattering the radioactive fragments of three hydrogen bombs over the terrain and dropping one bomb into the sea after a fire broke out in the navigator’s compartment.

Contaminated ice and airplane debris were sent back to the U.S., with the bomb fragments going back to the manufacturer in Amarillo, Texas. The incident outraged the people of Denmark (which owned Greenland at the time, and which prohibits nuclear weapons over its territory) and led to massive anti-U.S. demonstrations. One of the warheads was reportedly recovered by Navy Seals and Seabees in 1979, but an August 2000 report suggests that in fact it may still be lying at the bottom of Baffin Bay.

1965 -- German WW I Ace Ludwig Lutz Beckmann died.

1965 -- Austro-Hungarian Empire WW I Ace Friedrich Hefty died at Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.

1961 -- A B-52 bomber carrying one or more nuclear weapons disintegrated in midair following an engine fire and explosion approximately 10 miles north of Monticello, Utah, killing all five crewmembers.

Four nuclear bombs were destroyed in a fire after the B-52 bomber carrying them crashed approximately seven miles southwest of the runway at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland. The B-52, from Plattsburgh Air Force Base in New York, crashed after a fire broke out in the navigator's compartment. The pilot was en route to Thule AFB to attempt an emergency landing. Upon impact with the ground, the plane burst into flames, igniting the high explosive outer coverings of at least one of the bombs. The explosive then detonated, scattering plutonium and other radioactive materials over an area about 300 yards on either side of the plane's path, much of it in "cigarette box-sized" pieces.

1958 -- The U.S. Air Force received its first five Cessna T-37 trainers.

The Air Force first used Cessna T-37s in student pilot training with Class 59-D at Bainbridge AB, Georgia.

1957 -- The U.S. Air Force received its first five Cessna T-37 trainers.

1953 -- Air Force F-86 Sabre jets downed seven MiGs and damaged three others in a trio of engagements. While aircraft from three carriers continued assaults against communist supply buildups near Hungnam and Wonsan.

1952 -- First flight Saab 210.

The Saab 210, nicknamed the Lill Draken, was a scale test bed used in the development of the supersonic J35 Draken. The Saab 210 was primarily used to test and develop the highly swept wing design and better understand the flight characteristics of such a design.

1951 -- The United States Air Force F-84 Thunderjet makes its first kill, when F-84 pilot Lieutenant Colonel William E. Bertram shoots down a MiG-15 during the Korean War.

1950 --- Astronaut Joseph Richard Joe Tanner is born in in Danville, Illinois, U.S.A.

1943 -- A Nazi daylight air raid kills 34 in a London school.

1943 -- The Casablanca Directive is issued to the U.S. and British strategic bombing forces in Europe by the Combined Chiefs of Staff. It sets out priorities for the continuing Allied attacks. Most of the reasoning is in line with the precision bombing ideas of the U.S. leadership.

As yet the U.S. air forces have too few resources to carry out the full scheme and RAF Bomber Command will continue its area of bombing policy, in line with the views of its Commander in Chief Sir Arthur Harris.

1940 -- The first American test of the practicability of moving a complete troop unit by air. A battalion of Sixty-fifth Coast Artillery was transported 500 miles by 38 bombers of the Seventh Bombardment Group, Hamiliton Field, California.

1930 -- Russian cosmonaut Valentin Ignatyevich Filatyev is born.

1929 -- Astronaut Robert Ward Philips is born in Peoria, Illinois, U.S.A.
1928 -- Russian cosmonaut (1928-1998) Valentin Gavriyilovich Yershov is born.
Trained for the Soviet Lunar Landing Program.

Dismissed from cosmonaut training by TsPK Director Beregovoi when Yershov refused to become a member of the Communist Party.

1921 -- The first triple-triplane aircraft, and the first passenger-carrying aircraft designed to carry more than 100 people that actually got off the ground, is launched at Lake Maggiore, Italy.

The flight attempt ends in failure when the 55,000 lb. flying boat nosedives into the lake.

January 20

2012-01-20T06:56:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

January 19

2012-01-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

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.

January 18

2012-01-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

2011 -- Russia will release a full transcript of communications between Russian air traffic controllers and the Polish presidential jet that crashed last year, killing president Lech Kaczynski.

1993 -- F-4G Phantom IIs attacked surface-to-air missile sites in northern Iraq after being fired upon. F-16s also bombed an Iraqi airfield after being shot at by anti-aircraft artillery batteries.

1991 -- Eastern Air Lines Flight 409 arrived in Atlanta from New York at 11:50 pm, and proved to be the last trip for the 62 year old company.

Management for the bankrupt airline had announced earlier in the evening that all other scheduled flights were cancelled.

1991 -- U.S. Air Force aircraft based at Incirlik AB, Turkey, attacked targets in northern Iraq to prevent the reinforcement of enemy forces defending Kuwait.

1991 -- Iraq has attacked two Israeli cities with Scud missiles, prompting fears that Israel may be drawn into the Gulf War.

Israel's largest city, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, its main seaport, were hit in the attacks, which began at 0300 local time (0100 GMT), when most residents were asleep.

1991 -- For the first time in the history of war, the U.S. Army reported, an incoming ballistic missile was shot down before it could hit its target.

At 4:28 a.m., an American Patriot missile was launched from a coalition air base in Saudi Arabia, and, reportedly, intercepted and destroyed a Scud missile that had been fired from Iraq. A year and a half later, the Army conceded that the success of the Patriot missile— at one time credited with intercepting 41 our of 42 Scuds— had been greatly exaggerated. "Like the other Patriot 'hits' that were acknowledged to have missed, this 'historic first' was a bullseye that never happened," the Washington Post reported on September 20, 1992, adding, "According to government and other sources, there was no Scud speeding toward Dhahran on the morning of January 18.

1988 -- Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith's 100th birthday was marked by a flypast of military aircraft over his home.

1988 -- The Minuteman missile program passed a major milestone with the launch of its 100th missile.

1988 -- The Space Shuttle Columbia landed at Edwards AFB, California after what became the last shuttle mission before the Challenger accident.

1981 -- Bell Helicopter delivers its 25,000th production helicopter.

1972 -- Ottawa Ontario, Canada bans use of aircraft and large ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence seal hunt.

1965 -- U.S. President Johnson announced the Short Range Attack Missile program during his defense message to Congress.

1956 -- The U.S. Air Force issued a requirement for a short-range air-launched decoy missile that would sImulate a B-52 on radar.

It later became the GAM-72A Quail.

1953 -- A U.S. Navy P2V-5 Neptune (BuNo 127744) of VP-22, based at Atsugi Japan, was damaged by Chinese anti-aircraft fire near Swatow People's Republic of China, but was able to ditch in the Formosa Strait.

Eleven of thirteen crewmen were rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard PBM-5 Mariner, under fire from Chinese shore batteries on Nan Ao Tao island. Attempting to takeoff in 8-12 foot swells, the PBM crashed. Ten survivors out of nineteen total (including five from the P2V-5) were rescued by the destroyer USS Halsey Powell (DD 686). During the search effort a PBM-5 Mariner from VP-40 received fire from a small-caliber machine gun and the destroyer USS Gregory (DD 802) received fire from Chinese shore batteries. Dwight C. Angell, Ronald A. Beahm, Paul A. Morley, William F. McClure, Lloyd Smith and Clifford Byars were the P2V-5 crewmen reported lost.

1932 -- Capt. R. C. Moffett flew his Curtiss XP-6D between Wright Field, Ohio and Bolling Field, D.C., averaging 270 mph to complete a record speed flight.

1919 -- Maj. Rudolph W. Schroeder flew his Loening monoplane, powered by a 300-horsepower Hispano engine, to a 19,500-foot record altitude.

1911 -- The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Lt. Eugene B. Ely brought his 50-hp Curtiss pusher biplane in for a safe landing on a 119-ft wooden platform attached the deck of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.

To arrest his plane upon landing, its landing gear was provided with hooks adapted to catch ropes secured by sandbags stretched across the landing platform. Improved versions of this ingenious arrangement were to become standard equipment on aircraft carriers. After spending an hour aboard the ship, he took off and flew back to his hangar near San Francisco. These flights demonstrated the adaptability of aircraft to ship-board operations.

1909 -- The first book to treat the work and accomplishments of the Wright brothers, Les Premiers Hommes-Oiseaux: Wilbur et Orville Wright, is written by François Peyrey (1873-1934) and published in France.

1905 -- The Wright Brothers opened negotiations with the government for procurement of one airplane.

1888 -- English aircraft pioneer Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith is born in Kensington, London, England.

His firm was famous for British WW I military aircraft, including the legendary Sopwith Camel , Sopwith Pup, and Sopwith Snipe.

January 17

2012-01-17T05:27:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Less Legroom and Recline Arriving with Southwest Airlines' New EVOLVE Interior.

"Dubbed Evolve: The New Southwest Interior, the cabin update utilizes durable and environmentally responsible products to reduce waste and create weight savings onboard the aircraft,. . . ."

2012 -- First flight Cessna Citation Ten Prototype.

The Ten is a mid-size aircraft with updated design and performance, enabling it to get to altitude faster and travel farther than the Citation X (Model 750). First announced at the 2010 NBAA convention, the Citation Ten is designed for greater fuel efficiency and increased comfort for up to nine passengers and two pilots.

Two Rolls-Royce AE 3007C2 engines will take a 36,600 pound (16,601 kilogram) MTOW Citation Ten off the ground in 5,150 feet (1,569 meters) and give the aircraft a maximum cruise speed of 527 knots an hour (977 kilometers) and a certified ceiling of 51,000 feet (15,545 meters). The Ten has a maximum range of 3,242 nautical miles (6,008 kilometers), putting city pairings such as New York-London, Boston-San Francisco, London-Dubai and Miami-Seattle within convenient one-hop flights.

2011 -- Wikileaks: Galileo boss Smutny removed over cable row.

2010 -- 24 years after Pan Am hijack, Neerja Bhanot killer falls to US drone [1986 Pan Am Flight 73 Hijack].

2010 -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrived in Turkey, and after meeting with Turkish Defense Minister Veedi Gonul it was announced that the two countries were moving forward with the procurement of 10 Heron UAV systems.

Signed in 2005, the $183-million contract to buy 10 Heron medium-altitude long-endurance UAVs has met with multiple obstacles since then. After today's meeting it was agreed that four systems will be delivered in March and the remaining six in November.

1993 -- An Iraqi MiG-29 was destroyed in the northern no-fly zone by USAF F-16C 86-0262/SP.

1991 -- Operation Desert Storm began at 12:50 a.m. local time (4:50 pm on January 16 in Washington), as a wave of F-15E fighter bombers took off from bases in Saudi Arabia and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, and began the bombing of Baghdad and other targets in Iraq, as well as in Kuwait. The first wave of the aerial attack was flown by pilots from the air forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

1/17 - 2/28: During Desert Storm the USAF F-16A/C were employed in the air to ground role primarily for battlefield area interdiction, and was used against Iraqi troops, vehicles and forward installations. Five F-16's were lost in combat and two in non combat mishaps.

1991 -- Early in the morning, Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

1970 -- First flight Sukhoi T-6-2IG (prototype of Sukhoi Su-24).

1966 -- A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain's Mediterranean coast, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one in the sea.

It was not the first or last accident involving American nuclear bombs.¹ The bomber attempted to refuel with a tanker. The B-52 collided with the fueling boom of the tanker, ripping the bomber open and igniting the fuel. The KC-135 exploded, killing all four of its crew members, but four members of the seven-man B-52 crew managed to parachute to safety. None of the bombs were armed, but explosive material in two of the bombs that fell to earth exploded upon impact, forming craters and scattering radioactive plutonium over the fields of Palomares. A third bomb landed in a dry riverbed and was recovered relatively intact. The fourth bomb fell into the sea at an unknown location. 33 U.S. Navy vessels were involved in the search for the lost hydrogen bomb. Finally, an eyewitness account by a Spanish fisherman led the investigators to a one-mile area. On March 15, a submarine spotted the bomb, and on April 7 it was recovered. It was damaged but intact.

1961 -- President of the United States (and former General of the Army) Dwight D. Eisenhower in his Farewell Address to the Nation said: "A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."

The actual authors of the term military-industrial complex were Eisenhower's speech-writers Ralph E. Williams and Malcolm Moos.

Shortly after Eisenhower's address, the issue of military-industrial-congressional influence came to the forefront after Kennedy canceled the B-70 bomber on March 28, 1961. After appropriations bills had been passed and signed with B-70 funding that Kennedy would not use, the House Armed Services Committee (with 21 members having B-70 work in their districts) subsequently attempted to "direct" — by law — the Executive Branch to use "the full amount" appropriated for the B-70. However, a March 19, 1962 eleventh hour White House Rose Garden agreement by chairman Carl Vinson retracted the language from the appropriations bill, and the B-70 cancellation remained permanent.

1942 -- Six Brewster Buffaloes from No 453 Squadron, RAAF, were escorting 14 outdated Vickers Vildebeest biplane bombers on a raid against Japanese forces invading Malaya when they found themselves opposed by enemy fighters.

Instead of being mauled by modern A6 ‘Zero’ fighters, as expected, the raiders were intercepted by three brave Japanese pilots flying the Mitsubishi A5M. Although this was the standard Japanese Navy carrier fighter which had entered service only in 1936, it was a type even more obsolescent than the Buffalo. In an action more reminiscent of the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s than the dogfights which marked the Battle of Britain, the RAAF pilots fought off the enemy and probably shot down all three attackers. However, due to the pressing need to defend their vulnerable charges, none of the RAAF pilots could linger long enough to confirm their kills.

1910 -- The Wright Company hires A. Roy Knabeshue to put together an exhibition flying team, the "Wright-Fliers." Knabeshue begins to scour the country for candidates.

1886 -- American pioneer airplane inventor Glenn Luther Martin is born in Macksburg, Iowa,.

Martin bombers and flying boats played important roles in WW II. His first planes were built in collaboration with mechanics from his auto shop, working in a disused church building that Martin rented. In 1909, Martin made his first successful flight; by 1911 he numbered among the most famous of the "pioneer birdmen." He incorporated the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company in 1912 as a manufacturer, and remained for forty years the senior aircraft manufacturer in the U.S. The vast majority of the more than 11,000 planes built by the company before it ceased producing aircraft in 1960, Martin Bombers pioneered the doctrine of airpower in the 1920's and '30's and served in all theaters in WW II.

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¹ U.S. authorities do not announce nuclear weapons accidents, and some American citizens may have unknowingly been exposed to radiation that resulted from aircraft crashes and emergency bomb jettisons. Today, two hydrogen bombs and a uranium core lie in yet undetermined locations in the Wassaw Sound off Georgia, in the Puget Sound off Washington, and in swamplands near Goldsboro, North Carolina.

January 16

2012-01-16T01:37:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is frequently called “economy-class syndrome” because of the number of people who get it after sitting immobilized in cramped seats on long flights.

An Airlines for America spokeswoman Victoria Day says. There is "no specific link between air travel and DVT. The risk of developing a DVT during air travel is about the same as being seated for the same period of time at a desk, in a movie theater, on a bus or in a car." There is a web-based clearinghouse of information on DVT called ClotCare. The doctor who founded the organization, Henry Bussey, said the site receives more than 500,000 hits a month. Bussey said that the few studies on DVT showed that long-distance flying could be a “substantial risk.” But he also said that those who had a tendency toward clotting were older people with poor circulation, women who were on hormonal medicine and people with a genetic condition that allows clots to form more easily, not necessarily people who frequently travel long distances.

2012 -- As fuel efficiency and aerodynamics help make longer and longer flights possible, expect to see passengers discovering their limits for riding in coach for hours on end.

The latest offerings from Boeing and Airbus all can travel more than 8,000 nautical miles (9,200 statute miles) before stopping for gas. The Airbus A380, for example, has range 1,000 nm longer than traditional 747; the just-introduced Boeing 787 can go 2,000 nm farther before refueling than the plane it is replacing, the 767-300. Singapore Airlines planes that fly 18-hour nonstop routes to the U.S. are fitted only with 100 business-class seats because of customer demand.

2012 -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said Iran will unveil new maritime patrol aircraft soon.

He said the unveiling ceremony may coincide with "ten-day dawn ceremony" -- anniversary of Islamic Revolution Victory on February 1-11.

2012 -- Three people died when a civilian helicopter contracted to NATO forces crashed in flames in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, Afghanistan today, the provincial police chief said.

2011 -- Global Observer unmanned aircraft makes first hydrogen-powered flight.

2011 -- The RAF’s 7th C-17 arrives at Brize Norton.

2011 -- Video: The pilot who stuck to the right schedule

2010 -- FAA lends air traffic aid to Haiti as Air Force opens Port au Prince.

2002 -- British astronomer Robert Hanbury Brown died from cancer at Andover, Hampshire, England.

Early in his career, Brown worked with Robert Watson-Watt on the secret development of radar, then headed a group that developed a shorter-wavelength radar for use in aircraft for uses in aerial combat.

1998 -- After a devastating earthquake hit China's Northern Hebei Province, a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III left Kadena AB, Japan, for Beijing with 40 tons of relief supplies, consisting of blankets, sleeping bags, medical supplies, rations and cold-weather clothing.

1997 -- An Air Force Reserve C-141 aircrew from the 446 Airlift Wing at McChord AFB, Kansas, left Beijing, China with the remains of five Americans, who died on August 13, 1944 in a B-24J Liberator crash after bombing Japanese ships near Taiwan.

1980 -- British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK.

1979 -- Flying to Aswan in Egypt Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi and his wife, Empress Farah, fled the country following months of increasingly violent protests against his regime led by Iran's main spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, from exile in France.

The couple's three youngest children were flown to the United States yesterday.

1979 -- WW I Royal Naval Air Service ace Major Christopher Draper died in Camden, London, U.K. He was 86-years-old.

His penchant for flying under bridges earned him the nickname "the Mad Major." After the war he became a film star through his work both as a stunt pilot and as an actor. During the 1930s he worked for a time as a British secret agent, serving as a double agent to Nazi Germany. He returned to the Navy in WW II. During his flying career he logged over 17,000 flying hours on 73 types of aircraft.

1978 -- NASA named 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who became America's first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who became America's first black astronaut in space.

1975 -- In Operation Streak Eagle, the USAF sets new climb-time records with the McDonnell Douglas F-15A aircraft, operating from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota.

The Streak Eagle reaches a height of 3,000 m (9,843 ft.) in 27.57 sec., 6,000 m (19,685 ft.) in 39.33 sec., 9,000 m (929,528 ft.) in 48.86 sec., 12,000 m (39,370 ft.) in 59.38 sec. and 15,000 m (42,2132 ft.) in 1 min. 17.02 sec.

1974 -- The 48th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron evacuated 93 people from flooded areas near Pinehurst, Idaho through January 19.

1972 -- WW I United States Air Service ace Major Reed McKinley Chambers died in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

After the war, he and Eddie Rickenbacker, founded Florida Airways, which in 1926 received the first private air mail contract awarded by the U.S. Government. After the airline's uninsured aircraft suffered a series of accidents and damage caused by hurricanes, the airline declared bankruptcy in 1927. As a result of this loss, Chambers teamed with David Beebe and the two founded the United States Aircraft Insurance Group, the nation's first aviation insurance company. The security provided by this company ensured the development and testing of such pioneering aircraft as the Douglas DC-3, the Boeing 707, the B-52 jet bomber, and the General Dynamics F-111A. He broke the sound barrier flying second seat in a Convair F-106 Delta Dart in 1968.

1971 -- Pacific Air Forces terminated all fixed-wing herbicide operations in Southeast Asia.

1970 -- USAF Strategic Air Command retired its last B-58 Hustlers as two bombers from the 43 BMW at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, and two from the 305th BMW at Grissom AFB, Indiana, flew to the aircraft storage facility at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona.

1957 -- Five B-52Bs of the Ninety-third Bombardment Wing, commanded by Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr., commander of the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force, begin Operation Power Flite, the first nonstop round-the-world flight by turbojet aircraft.

1942 -- Actress Carole Lombard, famous for her roles in such screwball comedies as My Man Godfrey and To Be or Not to Be, and for her marriage to the actor Clark Gable, is killed when the TWA DC-3 plane she is traveling in crashes en route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She was 33.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane veered off course. Warning beacons that might have helped guide the pilot had been blacked out because of fears about Japanese bombers, and the plane smashed into a cliff near the top of Potosi Mountain. Hysterical with grief and adrift in the empty house he had shared with Lombard, Gable drank heavily and struggled to complete his work on Somewhere I’ll Find You. That August, although exempt from the draft, Gable decided to leave a $30,000 a month job and enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a private and worked his way up through the ranks. After graduating Officers' Candidate School in 1942 he attended aerial gunnery school, then served with the 8th Air Force in England. Though he flew combat bombing missions, his primary job was photographing other airmen in action for a movie to recruit airmen for the war effort. He completed his service as a major.

1942 -- Japanese forces advancing down the Malayan peninsular suffered a tactical defeat when Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and RAAF formations combined to destroy the spearhead of the 5th Division.

The action started January 14-15, when the 2/30 Battalion, AIF, ambushed approximately 1,000 enemy soldiers on the Gemas-Tampin road, at the bridge across the Gemencheh River. With their line of advance blocked, a heavy concentration of Japanese vehicles formed along the road west of the river. Nos 21 and 453 Squadrons, RAAF, attacked this tempting target in the morning with their Buffalo fighters, returning in the afternoon with a formation of Dutch bombers. The RAAF pilots destroyed numerous vehicles and a tank, killing or wounding a large number of enemy troops. These combined attacks were one of the few victories enjoyed by the Allies in a campaign that ended with the loss of Singapore a month later.

1911 -- The first U.S. Army photo reconnaissance flight was flown by Walter Brookins with Lt. George E. M. Kelly as his passenger. They were not successful because the troops hid in small groups in a wooded area.

1881 -- English engineer Sir Arthur Percy Morris Fleming was born.

He was a major figure in developing techniques for manufacturing radar components. His work on demountable, high-power thermionic tubes made it possible to establish radar stations in Great Britain by the time WW II began in 1939.

January 15

2012-01-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Intercepted militant radio communications indicate the leader of the Pakistani Taliban may have been killed in a recent U.S. drone strike.

The claim that the Pakistani Taliban chief was killed came from officials who said they intercepted a number of Taliban radio conversations. In about a half a dozen intercepts, the militants discussed whether their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed on Jan. 12 in the North Waziristan tribal area. Some militants confirmed Mehsud was dead, and one criticized others for talking about the issue over the radio.

2012 -- A Russian space probe on a mission to a moon of Mars has come down in flames, showering fragments into the south Pacific west of Chile's coast, officials said.

The Zenit-2SB rocket with the Phobos-Ground probe was launched pad from the Cosmodrome Baikonur, Kazakhstan. on November 9, 2011. Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth's orbit, landed in water today 1,250 kilometers (775 miles) west of Wellington Island in Chile's south, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces said in a statement carried by the country's news agencies.

2011 -- Iran has barred four domestic airlines from operating old Soviet-produced Tupolev airplanes after a string of accidents involving the aircraft, the Mehr news agency reported.

Reza Nakhjavani, head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, said in a letter to these airlines, which still operate Tupolev TU154 jets, to stop flying them as of February 20. The ban applies to 17 TU154 planes, which are in service with Iran Air Tour, Kish Air, Taban and Caspian airlines.

2010 -- U.S. Air Force provides Global Hawk imagery in Haiti.

2010 -- U.S. Air Force reopens Haitian airport.

A major obstacle to delivering aid to Haiti began to be cleared, as the U.S. Air Force brought order to the chaotic Port-au-Prince airport. Earlier, authorities had been forced to turn away aid flights when the large influx of aircraft overwhelmed the facility's small tarmac. But by daybreak, a 115-person Air Force team, which flew in five C-17 cargo planes of communications and air-traffic management equipment overnight, had undone most of the logjam. A steady stream of flights arrived and departed without difficulty even during the pre-dawn hours, the first time the airport was able to accept nighttime flights since the quake.

2009 -- Chesley Burnett Sully Sullenberger successfully landed a passenger jet in the Hudson River.

US Airways flight 1549 had taken off from New York's LaGuardia Airport, en route to Charlotte, when it ran into a flock of Canada geese near the George Washington Bridge. Both engines of the Airbus A320 were disabled, and the left engine caught fire. Sullenberger warned the passengers to brace for impact, and then made a water landing near the U.S.S. Intrepidmuseum adjacent midtown Manhattan. All 155 passengers and crew survived; Sullenberger was the last to exit, which he did after checking the cabin and retrieving the log book.

1992 - -- USAF loses a Lockheed U-2 in the Sea of Japan. USAF Pilot Capt. Marty McGregor was killed.

1991 -- The first hot-air balloon to cross the Pacific Ocean takes off from Japan and eventually lands in Canada.

Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson become the first to traverse the Pacific by hot air balloon, reaching speeds in the jet stream of up to 245 mph, in their Otsuka Flyer, which travels 6,700 miles in 46 hours. They fly from Japan to Arctic Canada and break the world distance record.

1977 -- Linjeflyg Flight 618, a Vickers 838 Viscount (registered SE-FOZ) crashes on approach to Stockholm-Bromma Airport.

Linjeflyg Flight 618 was a scheduled Linjeflyg passenger flight, operated by Skyline Sweden, that crashed into a residential area on 15 January 1977, killing all 22 people on board. The plane had left Malmö earlier that morning. The airplane, a Vickers 838 Viscount, was at an altitude of 1,150 feet and was descending to land at the Stockholm-Bromma Airport (BMA/ESSB), serving Stockholm. Suddenly, the aircraft experienced a loss of pitch control. The aircraft went into a steep dive and crashed into the residential area of Kälvesta, five km short of the runway. The aircraft impacted a car park, and no one on the ground was killed. All 19 passengers and 3 crew members on board the airplane were killed. One of them was the well-known table tennis player Hans Alsér. A full investigation into the cause of the accident was conducted by the Government of Sweden. The investigation came to the following conclusions: The aircraft had been cruising for a long period with the number two and number three engines at a low power setting. This meant that the anti-icing systems run from the engines were not at a temperature sufficient for them to operate correctly. The plane entered a steep dive from an altitude of 1,150ft due to ice that had developed on the horizontal stabilizer, killing all 22 aboard.

1973 -- The last mission of a B-52 in the Vietnam War. President Nixon has ordered a halt to American bombing in North Vietnam following peace talks in Paris.

1970 -- American manufacturer of small aircraft, William T. Piper, best known for the Piper Cub [Video] died, bringing to an end a career that added immeasurably to the role of the private airplane in the great transportation revolution.

He earned the sobriquet "the Henry Ford of Aviation" for his efforts to popularize air travel. In WW II, Piper delivered more than 5,600 Piper Cubs, long popular as a training plane, to the U.S. government for use as special personnel planes, for photoreconnaissance, and as artillery spotters. Because of their low landing speed, 20 mph (32 kph) and high maneuverability, the Pipers wer often able to eluded enemy fighters. In addition to the Piper Cub, the company manufactured light to medium-sized aircraft for use as business planes.

1969 -- The first docking of two manned spacecraft took place between the Soviet Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. The spacecraft formed what was termed "the world's first space station" with a crew of four aboard.

They remained docked for four and a half hours - three orbits of the Earth. During that time, two cosmonauts 'space walked' from Soyuz 4 to Soyuz 5, becoming the first spacefarers to return to Earth in a different spacecraft from the one in which they went into space.

1950 -- General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold dies of a heart ailment in Sonoma, California.

Arnold was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and later General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938-1941), Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces during WW II, the only Air Force general to hold five-star rank, and the only person to hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services.

Instructed in flying by the Wright Brothers, Arnold was one of the first military pilots worldwide, and the second rated pilot in the history of the United States Air Force. He overcame a fear of flying that resulted from his experiences with early flight, oversaw the expansion of the Air Service during WW I.

Arnold was a powerful advocate for creation of an independent Air Force and played a key role in the political struggles over it with the hierarchies of the United States Army and United States Navy. He rose to command the Army Air Forces immediately prior to U.S. entry into WW II and directed its expansion into the largest and most powerful Air Force in the world. He was especially interested in the development of sophisticated aerospace technology to give the United States an edge in the achievement of air superiority and fostered the development of such innovations as jet aircraft, rocketry, rocket-assisted take-off, and supersonic flight.

1948 -- Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, approved the development of satellite components and satellites.

As Air Force Chief of Staff he was a senior official in the DOD during the formative period of rocketry development and the work on intercontinental ballistic missiles.

1941 -- Jean-Jacques Barre report, a comprehensive report on the military potential of rocketry.

French rocket pioneer Barre sketeched out ballistic missiles with 1000 km range, powered by liquid oxygen/gasoline engines. Armor-piercing rockets could reach 2000 m/s and defeat any tank armor. Anti-aircraft rockets would intercept aircraft in half the time. Rocket-boosted bombs would destroy enemey emplacements. Air-augmented rockets could reach even higher range and efficiencies.

1936 -- Missing U.S. aviators located by RAAF in Antarctica.

When radio contact was lost with the Northrop Gamma monoplane taking U.S. explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and his pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon on a successful attempt to fly across the Antarctic continent in November 1935, a relief expedition was organised in Melbourne using the Royal Research Society’s vessel Discovery II. Two RAAF floatplanes, a D.H.60X Gipsy Moth and a Westland Wapiti, were put on board the ship, along with seven personnel. Once the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea was reached, Flight Lieutenant Eric Douglas and Flying Officer Alister Murdoch took off in the Moth at 9 pm and overflew the Little America base, 10 kilometres inland from the ice barrier. On sighting a man in the snow, the RAAF flyers dropped a bag by parachute containing food and messages to the ‘missing’ men. After ground contact was made, Ellsworth accompanied Discovery II on the voyage back to Melbourne, Australia.

1936 -- The U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office published a Naval Air Pilot for the Pacific Islands in January 1936 as a confidential document.

It had detailed maps and photographs of all the airfields and seaplane anchorages in Hawaii. The most important anchorages were listed as Pearl Harbor, Kaneohe, Hilo, Kahului, Lahaina, Nawiliwili, Ahukini and Port Allen. The most important landing fields were listed as Luke Field, Wheeler Field, John Rodgers Airport, Hilo, Maalaea, Hana, Lanai City, Molokai (Homestead), Port Allen and Wailua, Kauai.

1935 -- Maj James Doolittle establishes a record for a transport flight across the United States, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey in 11 hours and 59 minutes.

1927 -- In what would later become United Airlines , Boeing Air Transport is established, carrying airmail between San Francisco and Chicago.

1918 -- Royal Flying Corps ace Capt. Matthew Brown Bunty Frew scores his 18th, 19th, and 20th victories.

1918 -- Welsh Royal Flying Corps ace Capt. Peter Carpenter scored his 7th victory.

He finished the war having flown 190 combat patrols and 9 bombing raids. He led 139 patrols and flew a total of 422 hours, and 30 minutes, with 24 victories. In 1920 he was started his own company, the Loyal Shipping Co., but lost this business in the Great Crash of 1929. Later, he was the London General Manager with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, of New York and its subsequent British incorporation. During WW II Carpenter served with the 13th Company, 20th Battery, Middlesex Home Guard. He died at his home in 1971. He was 79.

1915 -- Lt. Byron Q. Jones set a new one-man duration record of 8 hours, and 53 minutes in a Martin T tractor biplane at San Diego, California.

1914 -- The first regularly scheduled passenger airline in the United States begins service. The Benoist Company, flying its Benoist flying boat, runs a line between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.

1914 -- The first U.S. Army aviation safety regulation was issued requiring pilots to wear helmets and leather coats for overland flights, and unsinkable coats for over water flights.

January 14

2012-01-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Several batches of illegal bushmeat mainly from Africa and entered into five airports in the United States were carrying potentially dangerous pathogens for humans, according to research published in the journal PloS One, an interactive open-access journal for the communication of all peer-reviewed scientific and medical research.
2011 -- Liu Huaqing, the father of the modern Chinese navy, has died at age 95.

For much of the 1980s, as commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, General Liu spearheaded ambitious efforts to transform the Chinese Navy from a coastal defense force into what is known as a blue-water navy, capable of operating far from the home country.

2011 -- A fragile thaw in Polish-Russian relations.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski pledged to continue dialogue after Moscow blamed Polish officials for the death of the nation's previous president. The draft report was criticized by the Poles.

2011 -- Judge tells Ryanair that forcing passengers to print boarding passes is illegal.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary, the king of low-cost travel, may be regretting a recent decision to move some of his operations from France to Spain: a Spanish court has ruled he has no right to force customers to print their own boarding passes. A judge in Barcelona said that, under international air travel conventions, Ryanair can neither demand passengers turn up at the airport with their boarding pass, nor charge them €40 (£34) if they do not.

2011 -- Thomas Cook, one of Europe's biggest tour operators, announced it was pulling out more than 4,000 tourists from Tunisia as the political unrest in the north African country worsened.

Around 2,000 German holidaymakers were being repatriated, while a further 1,800 from Britain and Ireland were being flown home and 540 were returning to Belgium. Other tour firms said they were not evacuating customers but were giving them the option of coming home early if they wanted.

2011 -- Alitalia has suspended "for security reasons" all flights in and out of Tunisia until January 17 inclusive.

2010 -- An Su-27SM performing advanced aerobatic maneuvers at Dzengi AB in the Far Eastern Command crashed with a senior pilot on board.

2005 -- The Huygens space probe landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. It had been released from the Cassini spacecraft when its orbit around Saturn converged with the path of Titan on December 24, 2004.

In the first three photographs received from Huygens on the surface of Titan, scientists saw what resembled drainage channels, a shoreline, flooded regions surrounded by elevated terrain and a plain covered with large boulders, possibly of ice. The probe was named after Christiaan Huygens, the Dutch astronomer who first viewed Titan on March 25, 1655, the first of Saturn's moon to be discovered.

1994 -- U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin Accords, which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles toward each country's targets, and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.

1969 -- Canadian WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace Capt. William Roy Sambo Irwin died at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

1969 -- A MK-32 Zuni rocket explodes on the flight deck of USS Enterprise killing 27, wounding 314, and touching off a large fire that destroyed 15 aircraft.

In the wake of the accident, Enterprise was required to put into Pearl Harbor for repairs.

1968 -- U.S. joint-service Operation Niagara was launched to support the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh.

Intelligence sources revealed that the North Vietnamese Army was beginning to build up its forces in the area surrounding Khe Sanh. Operation Niagara was a joint U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps air campaign launched in support of the marines manning the base at Khe Sanh. Using sensors installed along the nearby DMZ and reconnaissance flights to pinpoint targets, 24,000 tactical fighter-bomber sorties and 2,700 B-52 strategic bomber sorties were flown between the start of the operation and March 31, 1968, when it was terminated. This was one of the most concentrated applications of aerial firepower in the history of warfare and it played a major role in the successful defense of Khe Sanh when it came under attack on January 21 and was subsequently besieged for 66 days until finally broken on April 7.

1966 -- Soviet designer of guided missiles, rockets, and spacecraft Sergey Pavlovich Korolev died at age 59 during what was expected to be routine colon surgery in Moscow.

Korolev's surgery was done personally by Petrovskiy, the Minister of Health. Korolev was told the surgery would take only a few minutes, but after five hours on the operating table, his body could no longer endure the insult, and he passed away.

A victim of Joseph Stalin's 1938 Great Purge, he was imprisoned for almost six years, including some months in a Kolyma gulag. Following his release, he became a rocket designer and a key figure in the development of the Soviet ICBM program. He was then appointed to lead the Soviet space program, made Member of Soviet Academy of Sciences, overseeing the early successes of the Sputnik and Vostok projects. By the time he died unexpectedly in 1966, his plans to compete with the United States to be the first nation to land a man on the Moon had begun to be implemented. Before his death he was often referred to only as "Chief Designer", because his name and his pivotal role in the Soviet space program had been held to be a state secret by the Politburo. Only many years later was his role in the Soviet space program publicly acknowledged.

1965 -- United States Air Service W I Ace Lt. John Sidney Owens died at Coral Gables, Florida, U.S.A.

1961 -- Maj. William R. Payne flew a B-58 Hustler from Carswell AFB, Texas, in a flight that broke three records.

Major Payne later won the Thompson Trophy, an annual award for supremacy in closed circuit flying.

1958 -- Qantas becomes the first foreign airline permitted to fly across the United States.

1957 -- The United States proposed before the United Nations Assembly that study be initiated toward international agreements assuring the use of outer space for peaceful purposes only..

1956 -- American engineer astronaut William David Thompson is born.

1955 -- American engineer astronaut Jeffrey Eliot Detroye is born.

1943 -- Franklin Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to travel on official business by airplane.

Crossing the Atlantic by air, Roosevelt flew in a Boeing 314 Flying Boat. Nicknamed the Dixie Clipper, the 314 was a commercial, rather than a military, seaplane, and it was fitted out comfortably with beds and a lounge area. He needed to get to the Casablanca Conference in Morocco to discuss strategy with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Casablanca in North Africa. With German U-boats taking a heavy toll on American marine traffic in the Atlantic, Roosevelt's advisers reluctantly agreed to send him via airplane on this 17,000-mile round trip.

They departed from Florida, and the secret and circuitous journey began on January 11, with the plane stopping several times over four days to refuel and for its passengers to rest. They flew from Trinidad to Brazil, then across the Atlantic to Gambia, and then on to Morocco. Roosevelt, 60 years old and somewhat frail, suffered some from the high altitude, and had to be given oxygen, but he was in good spirits. He celebrated his 61st birthday on the return journey, enjoying a birthday luncheon over Haiti.

They reached Casablanca on January 14. After a successful meeting with Churchill, as well as some sightseeing and visits to the troops, Roosevelt retraced the route back to the United States, celebrating his 61st birthday somewhere over Haiti.

1943 -- American biochemist and astronaut Shannon Lucid is born.

In 1976, when NASA announced that it would begin accepting women into the space program, Lucid immediately applied. Her first shuttle flight was in 1985 on the Discovery, followed by the Atlantis in 1989 and 1991. In 1993, she became the first woman to travel into space on four separate occasions on the, setting a record for the most total flight time accumulated by a female astronaut on the shuttle. She stayed aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1996 for a record-breaking 188 days.

1943 -- Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker promoted a daylight-bombing offensive for U.S. Forces.

The British considered daylight bombing too risky, and wanted the Americans to join them in night raids that would target wider areas, but Eaker persuaded a skeptical Winston Churchill that the American and British approaches complemented each other in a one-page memo that concluded, "If the RAF continues night bombing and we bomb by day, we shall bomb them round the clock and the devil shall get no rest." He personally participated in the first US B-17 Flying Fortress bomber strike against German occupation forces in France, bombing Rouen on August 17, 1942.

1940 -- Russian engineer cosmonaut Valeri Grigoryevich Makrushin is born.

1935 -- United Air Lines decides to equip its fleet with a de-icing system for airplane wings, following successful tests on a Boeing 247

1911 -- Sixth annual banquet of the National Geographic Society in Washington honors U.S. Army and the invention of the airplane by the Wright brothers.

Wilbur makes brief address. Distinguished guests include Henry Gannett, president of the society; Gen. John M. Wilson, former Chief of Engineers, toast master; President William Howard Taft, several ambassadors, and numerous high–ranking Army officers.

1911 -- Wright Company and Burgess Company & Curtiss sign contract licensing latter to construct airplanes incorporating Wright patents.

This was the first licensed aircraft manufacturer in the United States

1911 -- Lev Mikhailovich Gaidukov is born.

Soviet Lieutenant General, headed group that acquired German rocket technology and engineers, 1945-1946. In 1949 made Chief of State Commissions for rocket testing; in 1960 named head of the Second Directorate of the RVSN.

1909 -- Wilbur Wright, his brother Orville and sister Katharine, having just arrived from America, move to Pau in the south of France after completing flying demonstrations at Camp d'Auvers.

The city of Pau had gone to a lot of trouble and expense to lure the Wrights¹, offering them a mile-square mile flying field at Pont-Long, a few miles from town. The hangar that would accommodate the Flyer had a workshop for repairs, and doors large enough for the airplane to be trundled in and out of the hangar with both tail frame and front rudder attached. As had been his custom at Le Mans, Wilbur slept at the field. A French chef had been selected by the mayor to provide Wilbur's meals, and a special telephone line was installed, connecting the field with Pau, where Orville and Katharine were staying at the luxurious Hotel Gassion, free of charge.

Wilbur was in Pau to train three French pilots. The three students were Paul Tissandier, Captain Paul Lucas-Girardville, and Count Charles de Lambert. They learned to operate the horizontal front rudder--the elevator--first, then the warping and rudder control stick between the seats. Wilbur rode beside each student, his hands on his knees, ready to take over in case of trouble. There was none. The three pupils completed their training March 19, dismaying the anti-Wright clique in France that maintained the operation of the Flyer was too complex.

1907 -- Vasili Mikhailovich Ryabikov is born.

In 1946 he was sent to tour Soviet rocket research centers in Germany. Chaired Military-Industrial Commission 1955-1957and Sputnik State Commission.

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¹ The city of Pau profited hugely from the presence of the Wrights. Kings and politicians, generals and lords; they all came to Pau to see the remarkable "Vilbare." And they delighted in being photographed either in the airplane or tugging on the rope that hauled the hefty collection of weights up the starting derrick. King Alfonso of Spain wanted to take a flight with Wilbur. His queen persuaded him to remain on the ground. The fashionable visitors to Paul found the three Wrights fascinating, and none more so than the enigmatic Wilbur. Most reporters descried his features as "hawk-like," an appropriate description for the world's premier aviator.

January 13

2012-01-13T04:45:00.000-08:00

2012 -- A French court on Friday fined low-cost airline EasyJet 70,000 euros ($90,000) for refusing to allow three wheelchair-bound passengers to board its planes, citing security reasons.

2012 -- For serving coffee to a passenger allegedly poisoned in 2006 on a flight Bordeaux-Paris Air France was sentenced today to pay almost 150,000 euros in damages to the victim and health insurance.
2011 --The State Labour Court of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany adjudicated on a case involving the dress and grooming habits of airport security staff who had complained that their employer's dress rules were too restrictive.

The plaintiff's hopes sagged after the court ruled that "being told to wear a bra and to keep fingernails to shorter than half-a-centimetre does not impinge on personal rights" and "is not a disproportionate impairment of personal rights." The ruling will apply to all workplaces in the most populous state in Germany. But while the court also upheld the company's right to demand that men with beards keep them well trimmed, it ruled that it cannot ban specific shades of hair color or nail polish – or wigs.

2011 -- Russia will start selling multimillion-dollar tourist tickets to the International Space Station again in 2013 after a four-year hiatus, the U.S.-based firm that organizes the paid trips said today.

Virginia-based Space Adventures will offer three 10-day trips per year to the orbital station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft under a deal with the Russian space agency Roskosmos and Soyuz manufacturer Energia, company spokesman Sergey Kostenko told Reuters.

Russia has again found room for paying private customers aboard the cramped three-seat Soyuz due to plans to increase annual production of the single-use craft--carried into orbit by Russian rockets--from four to five in 2013.

2011 -- In his third visit to Japan as Secretary of Defense – and his fourth trip to Asia in the past eight months Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, striking a conciliatory tone on an issue that has divided Japan and the United States, said that the Obama administration would follow Tokyo’s lead in working to relocate an American air base on Okinawa.

2011 -- Worried about North Korean belligerence and an increasingly aggressive China, Japan's military wants to cooperate in unprecedented ways with the United States and is even considering putting its military in the line of fire in areas outside Japan.

2011 -- South Korea and Japan have held their first talks on creating unprecedented agreements to share military intelligence and equipment.

Japan's 35-year annexation of Korea included the familiar imperialist atrocities, but perhaps none worse than the "comfort women" forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military. Actual numbers vary, depending on where you're from (Korea says 200,000+; Japan says 20,000), but there's no disputing that the majority of comfort women were Korean. The debate continues today, with a recent uproar over Japanese historical textbooks denying the existence of comfort women. More recently, former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi created a stir with his annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors soldiers'and convicted war criminals'who died fighting for Imperial Japan. These public visits angered Japan's neighbors, adding to widespread anti-Japan sentiment. Imagine the Chancellor of Germany paying homage to old Nazi leaders and you might get a sense of the outrage in East Asia.

South Korea currently occupies Dokdo, a group of islets between Korea and Japan that Japan claims is part of its territory. The two countries have long bickered over the area, with tensions rising in recent years. Despite lingering animosity among Koreans about Japanese colonial rule and an unresolved territorial dispute over tiny islands in valuable fishing grounds, the two countries have forged a trading partnership and renewed cultural ties. But the defense relationship is a new thing. Not everyone is comfortable with it; many Chinese feel China needs to guard against Japan, South Korea and the United States becoming an Asian version of NATO.

2011 -- The Australian airline Qantas will pay 26.5 million U.S. dollars (19.87 million) to end a class action filed in the U.S. for price fixing in its freight division.

2011 -- China prepares for record Lunar New Year travel rush in coming weeks.

Lunar New Year's day falls on February 3 this year. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are going to storm the bus and railway stations and airports for the Lunar New Year, the authorities expecting a record number of trips for this edition, official media reported.

2011 -- Russian view of J-20 Stealth Fighter.

2011 -- The French airline Aigle Azur, due to launch direct flights from Paris to Baghdad this month, was forced to postpone the project, probably until summer, because of the resurgence of insecurity in Iraq.

Aigle Azur, owned by the Franco-Algerian Idjerouidene family, had planned to offer two flights a week to Baghdad from Charles de Gaulle, Europe's second busiest air hub after London's Heathrow.

For years, many of the regional and western carriers shied away from Iraq due to safety concerns. Regional airlines such as the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, Bahrain's Gulf Air, the Beirut-based MEA airline and Turkish Airlines fly to the Iraqi capital. But there are no direct passenger flights between Baghdad and western Europe. The Stockholm-based Nordic Airways launched commercial flights to Baghdad from Copenhagen, Denmark in January 2009 but its operating licence was revoked later that month. The German carrier, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, was slated to begin regular flights between Munich and Baghdad on Sept 30 but cancelled them due to a lack of customer interest.

2010 -- Airmen providing relief after Haiti quake.

2007 -- Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV`s documentary channel had one of its producers arrested at Cairo International Airport as she tried leaving the country with footage showing the use of torture in Egyptian detention centers.

Howayda Taha, the al-Jazeera producer, found herself charged with "harming the state`s national interest" -- meaning al-Jazeera was planning to air the torture footage. The al-Jazeera journalist was accused of fabricating images in a way that is detrimental to the country`s reputation; she was prohibited from leaving the country and had nearly 50 tapes confiscated.

1994 -- The final F-15 Eagle of the 32nd Fighter Group departs Soesterberg AB, ending 40 years of U.S. Air Force operations in the Netherlands.

1993 -- U.S. Air Force Major Susan Helms, a member of the space shuttle Endeavor crew, becomes the first U.S. military woman in space.

1993 -- American, British and French fighter jets carried out a series of bombing raids over southern Iraq.

U.S. President George Bush ordered air strikes on 32 missile sites and air defense command centers in Iraq after Iraqi troops crossed the border with Kuwait. The strikes also targeted Iraq surface-to-air-missile sites south of the 32nd parallel. The Iraqis repeatedly breached the "no-fly zone" set up after the Gulf War--which began almost two years ago--and made a number of military raids over the border into Kuwait. The Gulf War Allies targeted missile sites and aircraft command and control bases. The air raids took place early in the evening, (1700 GMT) led by American stealth fighter bombers, based in Saudi Arabia. Planes were also deployed from a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf, and British Tornado bombers and French Mirage jets joined the attack.

1991 -- The first Boeing 727-100 to come off the production line in 1964 joins the aircraft on display in the Museum of Flight in Seattle after 25 years service with United Air Lines.

1982 -- Flight 90 an Air Florida Boeing 727 plunges into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing 78 people. The crash, caused by bad weather, took place only two miles from the White House.

YouTube videos for Flight 90:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ww2rCbX94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASBb-oMT5EU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz34reivAqc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oycu1pXxfaU

1978 -- NASA selected its first U.S. women astronauts: Rhea Seddon, Kathryn Sullivan, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride, Anna Fisher, and Shannon Lucid.

"NASA might have initially been reluctant to hire female astronauts, the agency was actually more welcoming than most to women, providing them professional job opportunities difficult to come by elsewhere in the 1960s.¹ NASA administrator James Webb in 1966 issued an order calling for equal opportunities regardless of sex, going above and beyond the federal mandates of that era. Yet the agency and those pioneering women astronauts still faced many challenges, from individual mindsets slow to adapt to the changing roles of women to little details NASA hadn’t anticipated when incorporating women into the astronaut corps, like an astronaut exercise room that had only a single locker room."

1977 -- NAS Jacksonville announced the two AV-8A Harrier aircraft had made a bow on approach and landing aboard Franklin D. Roosevelt.

This may have been the first time in Naval aviation history that a fixed-wing aircraft made a bow on, downwind landing aboard a carrier at sea. This landing, with jets facing aft, demonstrated that V/STOL aircraft could be landed aboard a carrier without many of the conditions necessary for fixed-wing, non-V/STOL aircraft.

1975 -- The U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. John L. McLucas, selects the General Dynamics YF-16 prototype as the U.S. Air Force's air combat fighter, a low-cost, lightweight, highly maneuverable fighter aircraft.

1965 -- The U.S. Air Force's XC-142A Verticle/Short Takeoff and Landing transport aircraft made a perfect first transition flight, taking off like a helicopter, adjusting its wings for conventional flight, and making a vertical landing.

1964 -- A B-52D carrying two nuclear bombs suffered a structural failure in flight that caused the tail section to shear off. Four crewmen ejected successfully before the aircraft crashed near Cumberland, Maryland. Two crewmen subsequently perished on the ground because of hypothermia, while another, who was unable to eject, died in the aircraft; both weapons were recovered. This was one of several incidents caused by failure of the vertical stabilizer.

1951 -- Far East Air Forces flew the first effective Tarzon mission against a bridge at Kanggye, Korea. The six-ton radio-guided bomb destroyed 58 feet of the enemy-held structure.

Considered a combination of the American Razon and the British Tallboy bomb, the Tarzon tipped the scales at staggering 12,000 lbs., and was credited with a circular error of probability of about 280 feet. It was also known as the MX-764 and later VB-13 (for vertical bomb), and had been developed by Bell aircraft. The Tarzon had a size problem. It was so big that half of it stuck out from the bomb-bay causing handling problems due to excessive drag. B-29s dropped 30 Tarzons in Korea, but only 6 bridges were severed.

1950 -- First flight Mikoyan-Gurevich I-330, prototype of the MiG-17.

1942 -- First flight Sikorsky XR-4 helicopter.

1942 -- Heinkel test pilot Helmut Schenk becomes the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat after the control surfaces of the first prototype He 280 V1 ice up and become inoperable.

The fighter, being used in tests of the Argus As 014 impulse jets for Fieseler Fi 103 missile development, had its regular HeS 8A turbojets removed, and was towed aloft from Rechlin, Germany by a pair of Bf 110C tugs in a heavy snow-shower. At 7,875 feet, Schenk found he had no control, jettisoned his towline, and ejected.

1940 -- First flight Yakovlev Ya-26, prototype of the Yakovlev Yak-1.

1936 -- A Douglas/Northrop Gamma owned by Jackie Cochran, and leased to Howard Hughes, set a new transcontinental nonstop record flying at an average speed of 259 mph.

1923 -- John W. Paup is born.

North American engineer who managed their winning Apollo proposal and was the company's Apollo program manager 1961-1964. Replaced under NASA pressure, he died in 1968 before his spacecraft made it to the moon.

1920 -- From The New York Times:

As a method of sending a missile to the higher, and even highest, part of the earth's atmospheric envelope, Professor Goddard's multiple-charge rocket is a practicable, and therefore promising device. Such a rocket, too, might carry self-recording instruments, to be released at the limit of its flight, and conceivable parachutes would bring them safely to the ground. It is not obvious, however, that the instruments would return to the point of departure; indeed, it is obvious that they would not, for parachutes drift exactly as balloons do. And the rocket, or what was left of it after the last explosion, would have to be aimed with amazing skill, and in dead calm, to fall on the spot where it started.

But that is a slight inconvenience, at least from the scientific standpoint, though it might be serious enough from that of the always innocent bystander a few hundred or thousand yards away from the firing line. It is when one considers the multiple-charge rocket as a traveler to the moon that one begins to doubt and looks again, to see if the dispatch announcing the professor's purposes and hopes says that he is working under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. It does say so, and therefore the impulse to do more than doubt the practicability of such a device for such a purpose must be well, controlled. Still, to be filled with uneasy wonder and express it will be safe enough, for after the rocket quits our air and and really starts on its longer journey, its flight would be neither accelerated nor maintained by the explosion of the charges it then might have left. To claim that it would be is to deny a fundamental law of dynamics, and only Dr. Einstein and his chosen dozen, so few and fit, are licensed to do that.

That Professor Goddard, with his "chair" in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react--to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.

But there are such things as intentional mistakes or oversights, and, as it happens, Jules Verne, who also knew a thing or two in assorted sciences--and had, besides, a surprising amount of prophetic power--deliberately seems to make the same mistake that Professor Goddard seems to make. For the Frenchman, having got his travelers to or toward the moon into the desperate fix riding a tiny satellite of the satellite, saved them from circling it forever by means of an explosion, rocket fashion, where an explosion would not have had in the slightest degree the effect of releasing them from their dreadful slavery. That was one of Verne's few scientific slips, or else it was a deliberate step aside from scientific accuracy, pardonable enough of him in a romancer, but its like is not so easily explained when made by a savant who isn't writing a novel of adventure.

All the same, if Professor Goddard's rocket attains a sufficient speed before it passes out of our atmosphere--which is a thinkable possibility--and if its aiming takes into account all of the many deflective forces that will affect its flight, it may reach the moon. That the rocket could carry enough explosive to make on impact a flash large and bright enough to be seen from earth by the biggest of our telescope--that will be believed when it is done.

1918 -- WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace Major James Thomas Byford McCudden socred his 39th, 40th, and 41st victories.

1918 -- Walter Jacobi is born.

German engineer in WW II, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter.

1918 -- Canadian WW I Royal Flying Corps Ace Capt. John Victor Jack Sorsoleil flying the S.E.5a. scored his 1st of 14 victories.

1908 -- The first European to fly one kilometer in a circle is Henri Farman in his Voisin-Farman airplane.

Farmn was the man of the moment. In 1 minute and 28 seconds, he had completed Europe's--and the world's--first official, witnessed, one-kilometer circuit. Two years before, the Wrights had flown 39 times that distance near Dayton. But few in Europe knew or cared. Farman’s flight wins him the Grand Prix d’Aviation Deutsche-Archdeacon race in France. The Times of London reported, "Today has been an epoch-making event, that of the victory before official witnesses of human intelligence in its efforts to solve the problem which brought Icarus to grief, which tormented the brain of Leonardo da Vici. Nothing of this kind has ever been accomplished before." Still lacking the roll control of the Wright aircraft, Farman had flown the course in a wide, nearly flat turn, literally skidding his way to victory.

1906 -- The first air exhibition of the Aero Club of America² opens for eight days in the Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory in New York City.

The Wrights are asked to send the motor that powered their 1903 flying machine but can only salvage the crankshaft and flywheel.
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¹ "When I got my PhD, it was a time when there were just no jobs for PhDs. Period. PhDs were getting the lowest paid technician jobs, if they were lucky, in any kind of science." Shannon Lucid

² E. Lillian Todd, a stenographer, exhibited an aircraft she had designed herself. Without an engine, the craft was actually a glider. In theory, the pilot would run down an incline. The rushing air would cause two fans to catch the air, begin to revolve, and would then start two propellers. The plane would then become airborne. Once flying, the incoming air would continue to revolve the propellers, keeping the craft in the air.

Miss Todd had no training in the use of tools or mechanics, but nevertheless built the craft by herself. Her designs eventually garnered attention from Andrew Carnegie and Harry Guggenheim. Among some of her ideas was planes with folding wings, and collapsible planes for easier storage and transportation.

Miss Todd founded the Junior Aero Club, and taught dozens of youngsters to build flyable model airplanes.

January 12

2012-01-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

2012 -- Jordan's Captain Bassmah Bani Ahmad, the Arab world's first female aerobatic pilot, former instructor with Ayla aviation academy and chief pilot at the Royal Aero Sports Club married His Royal Highness Prince Hamzah Al Hussain.

Princess Bassmah is an active member of the Arab chapter of the Ninety Nines and promoted the case for women pilots during the Dubai Airshow in November where she was part of the Ayla team.
2012 - The U.S. Marine Corps will deploy AAI RQ-7 Shadows to Afghanistan armed with classified new gravity bombs in a demonstration that could pave the way for a dramatic expansion in the numbers of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) with weapons.

If the demonstration is successful, thousands of RQ-7s could join the hundreds of Northrop Grumman RQ-5 Hunters and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1B Predators, MQ-1C Gray Eagles and MQ-9A Reapers already cleared to carry weapons in combat.

2012 -- Marine Corps Sgt. Christopher Lemke’s diligence as a helicopter mechanic paid off recently when he discovered a potentially deadly flaw in a UH-1Y Huey aircraft.

2011 -- News Release [pdf]: A federal court granted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s motion to conclude one of EPIC’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits.

The decision stems from a 2009 lawsuit brought by EPIC, a leading privacy organization to obtain information about the controversial airport body scanners. EPIC was seeking more than 2,000 images generated by airport body scanners held by the TSA.

1999 -- The last three of ten C-27 Spartans flew from the 301st Airlift Squadron at Howard AFB, Panama, to Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., for retirement.

1997 -- A non-stop, round-the-world balloon flight by Bertrand Piccard and Vim (Wim) Verstraeten ends in failure when a fuel leak forces the balloonists to ditch in the Mediterranean shortly after take-off.

1990 -- Military Air Command announced that it would allow female aircrew members to participate in C-130 and C-141 airdrop missions.

1986 -- The shuttle Columbia 7 blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz and U.S. Rep. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. It was the 24th space shuttle mission.

1977 - Air Canada suspends regular flights to Moscow, Prague, and Brussels, cuts domestic schedule; to offset 1976 operating losses.

1977 -- Federal Court of Canada upholds restriction on use of French in Canadian airspace.

1975 -- British Airways begins Europe's first no-booking shuttle service, between London and Glasgow.

1973 -- VF-161, flying off USS Midway, shot down a NVN MiG-17.

This would be the last MiG kill of the Vietnam conflict.

1971 -- The Air Force contracted the Boeing Company to produce the short range attack missile for the FB-111, B-52 and proposed B-1.

1970 -- A Pan Am Boeing 747, on a proving flight from New York, is the first wide-bodied airliner to make a landing at Heathrow Airport in London.

1968 -- Captain Theodore H. Moore and Flight Mechanic Glenn R. Woods, on an Air America mission delivering artillery ammunition, a formation of North Vietnamese Air Force AN-2 Colt biplanes attacked a secret radar station; Site 85.¹

The two Russian built biplanes dropped mortars, fired rockets and strafed the radar station with machine gun fire. Moore radioed a warning to the agents on the ground; however the attack killed several Hmong guerrillas defending the base. Moores helicopter, a civilian version of the UH-1 Huey was unarmed except for a contraband AK-47. Woods fired from the door of the Huey. One of the planes crashed immediately, while the second plane, also hit, flew on for several miles before crashing into a ridge. The shooting down of fixed wing aircraft from a helicopter was a singular aerial victory in the entire history of the Vietnam war.

1965 -- U.S. scientists conducted what they called a "controlled excursion."

A rocket took off from Jackass Flats at the Nevada Test Site and burned off part of its radioactive core in a spectacle that scientists said "resembled a Roman candle." Prevailing winds pushed the resulting cloud of radioactive debris Southwest from the test site, over Death Valley, and then onward over "the Los Angeles area," according to the documents. Aircraft stopped tracking the cloud when it drifted over the Pacific Ocean.

1962 -- The United States Air Force launches Operation Ranch Hand, a "modern technological area-denial technique" designed to expose the roads and trails used by the Viet Cong.

Flying C-123 Providers, U.S. personnel dumped an estimated 19 million gallons of defoliating herbicides over 10-20 percent of Vietnam and parts of Laos between 1962-1971. Agent Orange--named for the color of its metal containers--was the most frequently used defoliating herbicide. The operation succeeded inn killing vegetation, but not in stopping the Viet Cong. The use of these agents was controversial, both during and after the war, because of the questions about long-term ecological impacts and the effect on humans who either handled or were sprayed by the chemicals.

1961 -- Maj. Henry J. Deutschendorf Jr., flew a B-58 Hustler from Carswell AFB, Texas, to six international speed and payload records in a single flight.

1953 -- A U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress on a leaflet-dropping mission over Manchuria was shot down by 12 enemy fighters.

The plane was assigned to the 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing and carried a crew of 14. After the attack, B-29 aircraft commander, John K. Arnold, ordered the crew to bail out. Unfortunately, three men died during the attack, but the other 11 parachuted to the ground, were captured and taken to China for interrogation and imprisonment. These men were not released until 1956.

1945 -- Warplanes from the U.S. Navy’s carrier Task Force 38 under the command of Vice Adm. John Sidney McCain Sr. (father of Adm. John S. McCain Jr. and grandfather of Sen. John S. McCain III), attack enemy convoys and bases along the coast of Japanese-held French Indochina (Vietnam) in the Battle of the South China Sea.

Codenamed Operation Gratitude, the attacks are wildly successful. Despite rough seas and high winds from a dangerously close typhoon, Japanese bases at Saigon, Cape Saint Jacques (Vung Tau), Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nhon, and Tourane Bay (Da Nang) are hit hard, resulting in the destruction of docks, barracks, weapons depots, hangars, and scores of Japanese seaplanes and other aircraft, as well as the sinking of more than 40 enemy ships.

1929 -- First U.S. air mail stamped envelopes are available for sale.

1907 -- Soviet designer of guided missiles, rockets, and spacecraft Sergey Pavlovich Korolev is born.

1866 -- The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain is founded in London (later to become the Royal Aeronautical Society) and is still in existence today.

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¹ During the Vietnam War the Americans operated a secret radar station; Site 85, situated 15 miles from the North Vietnamese border atop one of the highest mountains in Laos. Crucially it gave American bombers the ability to attack in all weather, a critical capability during the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign.

Two months after Air America Bell 205 vs Attacking North Vietnamese Air Force An-2 Colts, Site 85 was destroyed by North Vietnamese Commandos, 12 U.S. Air Force personnel were killed, the largest single loss of USAF personnel during the war.