Today in Aviation History

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

November 23

1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 123.

1989 – An Airbus A310-300 opens Air France's new direct Lyon/New York service.

1985 – Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the hijacked jetliner, but 60 people die in the raid.

1962 – United Airlines Flight 297 crashes killing all 17 on-board.

1961 – Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 322, a de Havilland DH-106 Comet registered LV-AHR, crashed shortly after takeoff in Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing all 52 on-board. The crash was attributed to the pilots not following proper procedures and checklists.

1956 – Avro C-102 Jetliner made its last flight before being scrapped.

1947 – The Convair XC-99 (serial no. 43-52436) made its first flight, it was piloted by Russell R. Rogers.

1942 – Dubbed "Flying Flapjack," the most radical conventionally-engined aircraft ever built makes its 1st flight when Chance Vought test pilot, Boone T. Guyton, takes the V-173 into the air.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

I found this on the V-173 the Flying Flapjack.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfpTDOAfj7Y

 

[vikingBerserker]

Sweet!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

November 24

2001 – Crossair Flight 3597, an Avro RJ100 registered HB-IXM, crashes on approach to Zurich, Switzerland, killing 24 of the 33 people on-board. The pilot had intentionally descended below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) without required visual contact. They crashed into a wooded area 2.5 miles short of the runway.

1992 – In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.

1971 – On the night before Thanksgiving in 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper (later know as DB Cooper) boarded a flight from Portland, Ore. to Seattle and passed a note to the flight attendant that he had a bomb. His demands for $200,000 cash and two sets of parachutes were granted when the plane landed in Seattle. The Cooper case has baffled government and private investigators for decades, with countless leads turning into dead ends. As late as March 2008, the F.B.I. thought it might have had a breakthrough when children unearthed a parachute within the bounds of Cooper's probable jump site near the town of Amboy, Washington. Experts later determined that it did not belong to the hijacker. Despite the case's enduring lack of evidence, a few significant clues have arisen. In late 1978 a placard containing instructions on how to lower the aft stairs of a 727, later confirmed to be from the rear stairway of the plane from which Cooper jumped, was found just a few flying minutes north of Cooper's projected drop zone. In February 1980 on the banks of the Columbia River, eight-year-old Brian Ingram found $5,880 in decaying $20 bills, which proved to be part of the original ransom.

1969 – The second manned mission to the Moon comes to a close as Apollo 12 splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean.

1966 – TABSO Flight 101, an Ilyushin IL-18B registered LZ-BEN, crashed near Bratisllava, Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 on-board. They crashed into elevated terrain at full takeoff thrust just after departure in total darkness. The crash blamed on little more than lack of pilot awareness in regards to the area surrounding the airport.

1959 – Canadair CL-44D Yukon entered RCAF service.

1955 – The prototype Fokker F.27 Friendship medium-range twin-turboprop transport flew for the first time.

1940 – First BCATP graduates from No. 1 Air Navigation School at Trenton, arrived at Liverpool, England.

1939 – British Overseas Airways Corporation was formedby the merger of Imperial Airways and the original British Airways.

1924 – a KLM Fokker F.VII makes the first flight from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies, taking 127 hours 16 minutes.

 

[vikingBerserker]

DB Cooper has always interested me.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

I think he's out there decaying with with the rest of the money.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

DB Cooper has always interested me.

I agree, I wonder if the case will ever be solved.

November 25

1961 – USS Enterprise, the US Navy's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, is commissioned.

1961 – The first crash of the CF-104 during the test flight from Canadair. The pilot ejected safely.

1956 – Eight Boeing B-52s complete a record nonstop flight of 17,000 miles over the North Pole.

1956 – U.S. Air Force Sergeant Richard Patton makes the 1st successful parachute jump in Antarctica. He jumps from 1,500 feet as a test to determine the cause of parachute malfunction in sub-zero weather conditions.

1940 – First flight of the DeHavilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder.

1930 – Canadian Airways Ltd. acquired companies controlled by the Aviation Corporation of Canada and Western Canada Airways.

 

[vikingBerserker]

1956 – U.S. Air Force Sergeant Richard Patton makes the 1st successful parachute jump in Antarctica. He jumps from 1,500 feet as a test to determine the cause of parachute malfunction in sub-zero weather conditions.

Man, he must have ticked somebody off to "volunteer" for that job. Here take this and jump, we want to find out why it won't work -

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

That's kinda what I was thinking.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

November 26

2003 – Concorde makes its last ever flight over Bristol, England.

1987 – a DC-9 of Continental Airlines crashes in Denver, Colorado on take-off during a snowstorm. 26 die and 56 are injured.

1970 – The beginning of Exercise "Acid Test III" where all Canadian military aircraft were tested for their ability to operate in temperatures as low as -60 degrees.

1968 – United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.

1964 – Belgian paratroops are dropped into Congo by the US Air Force.

1955 – Royal Canadian Navy took on its only jet fighter strength, 39 McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee aircraft.

1943 – Edward O'Hare, American ace pilot, dies (b. 1914). O'Hare became the U.S. Navy's first flying ace and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II. O'Hare International Airport was named after him on September 19, 1949.

1939 – British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) is established through the amalgamation of Imperial Airways and British Airways.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

November 27

1975 – The announcement that Canada to was purchase 18 P-3s as long range patrol aircraft was to be known as CP-140 Auroras in the Canadian Forces.

1952 – James D. Wetherbee, American astronaut, was born. Wetherbee is a veteran of six space shuttle missions, and is the only American to have commanded five missions.

1941 – No. 417 (Fighter) Squadron was formed in England.

1939 – Longest ambulance flight in Canadian history was carried out by a Junkers W-34 of Canadian Airways, piloted by WE Catton from Winnipeg Manitoba, to Repulse Bay, NWT and return.

1929 – Richard Byrd and crew make the first flight over the South Pole in a Ford Trimotor.

1923 – The Douglas Co. is awarded a $192,684 contract by the War Department to build four DWC aircraft and spares.

1912 – The aeronautical division of the US Army Signal Corps receives the 1st "flying boat", a Curtiss Model F, capable of takeoff from water.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

November 28

1987 – South African Airways flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.

1983 – Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on its sixth mission and the ninth shuttle mission overall, STS-9.

1979 – An Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.

1967 – First flight of the Douglas DC-9-40.

1964 – NASA launches the first Mars fly-by spacecraft, Mariner 4.

1956 – Ryan X-13 Vertijet makes its first transition from vertical to horizontal flight

1945 – Pan American World Airways orders 20 Boeing Stratocruisers (Model 377), a commercial version of the C-97 military transport.

1942 – Roll out of the first B-24 Liberator made in Ford's Willow Run plant.

1942 – Australian pilot F/Sgt Ron Middleton earns a posthumous VC for valour in bringing his crew and crippled bomber home after a raid on Turin, Italy.

1938 – A Lufthansa Fw 200 takes off on the airline's first flight to Japan, flying from Berlin to Tokyo via Basra, Karachi, and Hanoi. The 14,228 km (8,841 mile) flight breaks the distance record and takes 46 hours 18 minutes.

1934 – The RCAF aquired ten more Atlases to increase strength – the were the first new aircraft acquired since 1931!

1929 – American Commander Richard Byrd and crew make the 1st flight over the South Pole, in a Ford 4-AT Trimotor monoplane, November 28-29.

1912 – The Italian Air Battalion is made a fully operational command, the Flotta Aerea d'Italia.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

November 29

1997 – The US Airways Arena in Washington DC, aka the Capital Center, shuts down.

1995 – The first McDonnell Douglas AV-8B remanufactured to a Harrier II Plus configuration makes its first flight.

1995 – The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18E/F Super Hornet makes its first flight.

1987 – A Korean Air Boeing 707 explodes over the Thai-Burmese border, killing 155.

1974 - First flight of the Boeing Vertol YUH-61.

1963 – Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831: A Douglas DC-8 carrying 118, crashes after taking-off from Dorval Airport near Montreal.

1953 – American Airlines inaugurates the first regular commercial service between New York and Los Angeles. The plane for the job: The Douglas DC-7.

1951 – The first Boeing B-52 bomber is secretly rolled out in darkness at the Seattle plant.

1949 – The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, a heavy strategic cargo transport, makes its first flight.

1945 – A U.S. Army Sikorsky R-5 helicopter off the coast of Long Island, New York, makes the 1st air-sea rescue.

1943 – The Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Hornet is commissioned. Today she is a floating museum docked in San Francisco Bay at the former NAS Alameda.

1940 - First flight of the Junkers Ju 288.

1939 – After being attacked by Spitfires of Nos. 602 and 603 Sqns over Lothian in Scotland, an He 111 bomber became the first German aircraft to be shot down over the UK.

1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.

 

[Park]

11-29-2011 - American Airlines files chapter 11

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yeah I guess I should have put that one in.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

November 30

2007 – Atlasjet Flight 4203, an MD-83 registered TC-AKM, crashed shortly after departure out of Ataturk International Airport in Instanbul, Turkey, killing all 57 on-board. With good weather and no known technical issues, it was determined that the crash was caused due to the pilot experiencing spatial disorientation.

2004 – Lion Air Flight 538 crash lands in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, killing 26.

2000 – Marc Garneau made his third and final space flight aboard Endeavour on STS-97.

1999 – British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merged to form BAE Systems, Europe's largest defense contractor and the fourth largest aerospace firm in the world.

1962 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 512, a Douglas DC-7B registered N815D, crashed at Idlewild Airport (now JFK Airport) during a go-around, killing 25 of the 51 people on-board.

1942 - First flight of the XP-51B Mustang with a Packard Merlin Engine.

1917 - First flight of the Vickers Vimy.

1913 – The first air-to-air combat, pilots from rival Mexican factions exchanged revolver shots in the air over Naco, Mexico. The combat ended with no hits registered.

1908 – La Compagnie Generale de Navigation Aérienne, the French Wright company, is organized.

1907 – Glenn Curtiss founds the Curtiss Aeroplane Company. It is the 1st US airplane manufacturing company.

1905 – The Aero Club of America is established in New York City.

1905 – The experimental Zeppelin LZ2 airship was damaged on its first attempt to launch at Lake Constance, Germany.

1784 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard makes the 1st scientific observations from above the earth in a hydrogen balloon over London.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Been so damn busy this weekend, did not get a chance to update this. So here goes...

December 1

2001 – Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA's purchase by American Airlines.

1981 - A Yugoslavian Inex Adria Aviopromet DC-9 crashes in Corsica killing all 180 people on board. ATC thought the aircraft was over water, when it reality it was over mountains, and its wing clipped a summit as it descended, causing an uncontrolled dive to the ground.

1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

1974 - TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport killing all 92 people on board.

1969 – The first legislation to limit aircraft noise levels at airports is introduced in U.S. Federal Air Regulation, Part 36.

1945 – Avro Canada Ltd was formed and took over the facilities of Victory Aircraft Ltd at Malton, Ontario. They began with about 400 key personnel who had been kept on from the wartime production programme.

1944 – No. 2 Air Command, established at Winnipeg, took over duties of Nos. 2 and 4 Training Commands disbanded on 30 November.

1941 – The Civil Air Patrol is created by Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, with the signing of Administrative Order 9.

1938 – Non-Permanent Active Air Force was renamed the Auxiliary Active Air Force.

1934 – The first airway traffic control center is opened in Newark, N.J., operated by staff of Eastern Air Lines, United Air Lines, American Airlines and TWA.

1933 – Indian National Airways commences the first daily service in India, between Calcutta and Dacca.

1925 – The Boeing Airplane Co. delivers the first of 10 FB-1s to the Navy. This one-seat land biplane is the Navy version of the Army PW-9 fighter. The last will be delivered Dec. 22.

1783 – Jacques Charles and his assistant Nicolas-Louis Robert make the first flight in a hydrogen-filled balloon (La Charlière). They travel from Paris to Nesles-la-Vallée, a distance of 43 km (27 mi). On his second flight the same day, Charles reached an altitude of circa 3,000 m over Nesles-la-Vallée.

December 2

1993 – Space Shuttle Enterprise launches at mission STS-61, intended to repair the Hubble Telescope, which had a problem with its optical system.

1986 – Pacific Western Airlines merged with Canadian Pacific Airlines to form Canadian Airlines.

1986 – A Concorde airliner carrying 94 passengers returns to Charles de Gaulle airport after an 18-day round-the-world journey; total flying time amounted to 31 hours 51 minutes.

1980 – The first Chinook HC1 helicopters for the RAF were officially handed over in a ceremony at RAF Odiham.

1976 – The Boeing 747 SCA, an ex-American Airlines airliner which has been adapted to carry the US reusable space shuttle, makes its flight.

1968 – Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55, a Fairchild F-27B registered N4905, crashed into Pedro Bay, Alaska due to structural failure after extreme turbulence, killing all 39 on-board. The fatigue was exacerbated by cracks on the aircraft from poor maintenance.

1965 – The USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered warship to see combat, laying the smackdown on Viet Cong near Bien Hoa.

1945 - First flight of the Bristol 170 Freighter G-AGPV.

1943 – First Canadian-built Mosquito aircraft saw action over Berlin with RAF 139 Squadron.

1943 - Grumman XF7F-1, prototype of the F7F Tigercat.

1939 – New York's La Guardia Airport opened for service!

1937 – The Boeing XB-15 is delivered to the Army. It will set several records, including a climb to 8,200 feet with a 31,205-pound load. In 1939 it will carry relief supplies to victims of an earthquake in Chile.

1937 - Brewster XF2A-1 (company designation B-139), prototype of the Brewster F2A Buffalo

December 3

2005 – XCOR Aerospace makes the first ever manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.

2004 – The 500th 777 is rolled out. The 777 will reach 500 airplanes delivered faster than any other twin-aisle airplane in history.

1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.

1990 – Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 (a DC-9 registered N3313L) collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 (a 727-200 registered N287US) on a runway in Detroit, killing 8 people about Flight 1482. The DC-9 made two wrong turns, putting them on a runway that the 727 was using to depart. The DC-9 was destroyed completely by fire, and the 727 was able to stop safely and only experienced wingtip damage.

1973 – Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter. these photos would later be rejected on Airliners.net for "baddistance".

1971 – The Canadian Forces began accepting deliveries of Bell "Kiowa" helicopters. These were sent to replace several older fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

1970 – 37 Squadron Special Flight 602; in Yukon 106922,; flew families and members of the Quebec FLQ Organization to Cuba. Their exile to Cuba was a trade off for the release of kidnapped James Cross and exemption from prosecution for the murder of Pierre Laporte.

1958 – An aircraft exchange, which will function like the stock markets and commodity exchanges, opens in New York.

1945 – A de Havilland Sea Vampire fighter becomes the first purely jet-powered airplane to operate from an aircraft carrier, when Lieutenant-Commander E. M. "Winkle" Brown lands his aircraft on the HMS Ocean in England.

December 4

1991 – Pan Am World Airways went out of business after 64 years of service. The sudden shutdown of this aviation pioneer stranded many passengers and left about 9,000 employees out of work.

1984 – Kuwait Airways Flight 221, flying from Kuwait City to Karachi, Pakistan, is hijacked by four Lebanese men and diverted to Tehran. Four hostages are killed and dumped on the tarmac, and the remaining passengers, especially Americans, are tortured every 5 minutes. Iranians eventually raid the aircraft and rescue all, but the hijackers were later released.

1983 – In response to the attack on US bases in Beirut, US Navy A-6 Intruders attack targets in Libya.

1977 – Malaysian Airlines Flight 653, a Boeing 737-2HC registered 9M-MBD, crashes at Tanjung Kupang Johor in Malaysia, killing all 100 on-board. The aircraft had been hijacked and the cause of the crash itself is still unknown. The aircraft went down in a swamp, nearly straight-down, and there was not one recognizable body found.

1974 – Martinair Flight 138, a DC-8-55 registered PH-MBH, flying from Indonesia to Sri Lanka, crashes while on approach to Colombo-Bandaranaike Airport. The aircraft hit Anjimalai Mountain after descending below the minimum safe altitude, killing all 191 on-board.

1965 – The 1965 Carmel mid-air collision occurred when Eastern Air Lines Flight 853 (N6218C), a Lockheed Super Constellation en route from Boston Logan International Airport to Newark International Airport, collided in mid-air with Trans World Airlines Flight 42 (N748TW), a Boeing 707-131B en route from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport, over Carmel, New York, USA. TWA Flight 42 made an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, while Eastern Air Lines Flight 853 was forced to make a crash landing on Hunt Mountain near Danbury, Connecticut. Three passengers died, plus the Constellation's pilot, Captain Charles J. White, who had returned to the aircraft's cabin to help the last passenger.

1965 – Gemini 7 launched.

1961 – The National Air and Space Museum receives the Douglas C-54 transport "Sacred Cow" used by US Presidents Roosevelt and Truman.

1958 – The last Avro CF-100 was rolled from the production line at Malton, Ontario.

1955 – Glenn L. Martin, founder of the Glenn L. Martin Company, dies at the age of 69

1945 – Roberta Bondar, Canadian astronaut, was born. Roberta Lynn Bondar, PhD, DSc, MD, is Canada's first woman astronaut and the world's first neurologist in space.

1944 - First flight of the Bristol Brigand.

1930 – Canadian Cub I was first flown for 90 minutes, at St Hubert Airport, by E.J. Cooper.

1912 – Pappy Boyington, American pilot, is born (d. 1988). Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, USMC, was an American fighter ace. He commanded the famous U.S. Marine Corps squadron, VMF-214 ("The Black Sheep Squadron") during World War II. Boyington became a prisoner of war later in the war. He was awarded the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor.

1908 – The Englishman J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon (later Lord Tara of Brabazon) makes a flight of 1,350 ft. in a Voisin biplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux in France. He becomes one of the guiding lights of early British aviation and is issued the first British pilot's license, then called an aviator's certificate.

1894 – German meteorologist Arthur Berson climbs up with a balloon to 9,155 m

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

I can remember a lot of the things listed from about the mid 70s on.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

December 5

1945 – Flight 19 was the designation of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945 during a United States Navy-authorized overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a PBM Mariner flying boat assumed to have exploded in mid-air while searching for the flight. Navy investigators could not determine the cause for the loss of Flight 19 but said the aircraft may have become disoriented and ditched in rough seas after running out of fuel.

1945 – First flight of the Douglas C-74 Globemaster I.

1942 – Canadian Vickers prototype of the Consolidated Canso was test flown at St Hubert Quebec, by ECW Dobbin and crew.

1941 - First flight of the Kawanishi E15K Shiun ("Violet Cloud"), Allied reporting name "Norm".

1931 – Following the Thompson Trophy race, the Gee Bee Z was re-engined with a larger, 750-horsepower (560 kW) Wasp Senior radial, in preparation for an attempt at establishing another world speed record at Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Michigan. Unofficially clocked at 314 miles per hour (505 km/h) in early trials, the record attempt on December 5, 1931, would end in tragedy, the aircraft suffering a wing failure and rolled into the ground, killing Bayles.

1924 – Boeing delivers the first of 41 NB-1s to the Navy.

1921 – Western Australia Airways opens the first scheduled regular airline service in the country.

1909 – George Taylor makes the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider of his own design. He eventually makes a total of 29 flights at Narrabeen Beach in New South Wales.

 

[Readie]

1945 – Flight 19 was the designation of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945 during a United States Navy-authorized overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a PBM Mariner flying boat assumed to have exploded in mid-air while searching for the flight. Navy investigators could not determine the cause for the loss of Flight 19 but said the aircraft may have become disoriented and ditched in rough seas after running out of fuel.

Was that incident one of the so called Bermuda triangle episodes?
Disappeared without trace.
John