On this day.............

[smudge]

Aiming this at Rutan, not AT who keeps digging up the good stuff:

17th Dec 2003.....Burt Rutan`s " SpaceShip One " becomes the first privately designed and manufactured manned aircraft to exceed the speed of sound.

... in level flight.   Douglas had actually dived a DC-8 beyond Mach 1 in 1961 and then delivered it to Canadian Pacific as CF-CPG.

Cessna also took a prototype Citation X through the barrier during testing, they were "only" required to go to 0.99 per the FAA but thought they'd push the nose a bit steeper.  Edit: Mach 1.18 apparently.


Now if Rutan had claimed to have the first private flight "beyond transonic" I wouldn't have been able to engage the pedantry machine!

[Angry Turnip]

18th Dec 1912.....French Aviator,Roland Garros becomes the first pilot to bridge two continents in a single flight,when he flies his Bleriot monoplane from North Africa to Europe ( 177 miles ).
                           He must have been pretty good at tennis as well 

18th Dec 1940.....The first flight of the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver.

18th Dec 1941.....Lt "Buzz" Wagner became the first American Ace of WWII.

18th Dec 1969.....SR-71 (953) is lost in a pitch up accident-the crew of Pilot Joe Rodgers and RSO Garry Heidlebaugh survived.

18th Dec 1970.....Airbus Industrie is established to develop the Airbus A300,it comrised of Aerospatiale,Deutsche Airbus,Fokker,and Hawker Siddeley.

18th Dec 1992.....The first flight of the McDonnell Douglas MD-90.

[Angry Turnip]

Apologies for the delay........windows updates,don`t you just love them?   

 
19th Dec 1908.....The worlds first aerodrome,Port-Aviation opens near Paris.

19th Dec 1928.....Harold Pitcairn flies his first autogyro.He later bought the rights to build Cievra Autogyro`s in the USA ( 1929 ).

19th Dec 1945.....The first flight of the Grumman AF Guardian ASW Aircraft.

19th Dec 1968.....Boeing receives it`s first order from the Israeli airline EL AL for a long range version of the B747,production of which had stated a month earlier.

19th Dec 1972.....The final Apollo mission,Apollo 17 returns to Earth.

19th Dec 1978.....The first solar powered aircraft " Solar One " makes a successful test flight.

19th Dec 1978.....The Fairey Gannet is retired from service.

19th Dec 1978.....The first flight of the Beriev A-50,based on the IL-76.

19th Dec 1980.....New York Airlines begin commercial operations.
 
19th Dec 1990.....Northwest Airlines buys a 25% share in Hawaiian Airlines.

19th Dec 2005.....Chalk Ocean Airways flight 101 looses a wing and crashes in the sea near Miami Florida killing 20 people.The crash marked the end for Chalk Ocean Airways that had been                                                               operating since 1917.The aircraft involved was a Grumman Mallard.

[Angry Turnip]

20th Dec 1916.....The US Army Balloon School is established in Fort Omaha,Nebraska.

20th Dec 1924.....The first RCAF Wings Parade took place at Camp Borden,Ontario.Six pilots were issued with their wings.

20th Dec 1928.....Charles Wilkins and Carl Eielson make the first flight over Antarctica,they use a Lockheed Vega for the 10 hour flight.

20th Dec 1934.....USCG Lieutenant Richard L Burke sets a new world seaplane record in a Grumman JF Duck.The speed is recorded as 191.848 Mph.

20th Dec 1943.....The Heinkel He 177 V102 makes it`s first flight.It is the first prototype of the Heinkel He177B heavy bomber.

20th Dec 1954.....The first flight of the Convair YF-102A Delta Dagger at Edwards Air Force Base.

20th Dec 1957.....The first flight of the Boeing B707 airliner.

20th Dec 1983.....Ozark Airlines flight 650,a DC-9-31 Reg N994Z crashes at Sioux Falls Regional Airport on landing after strikimg a snow plough on the runway.The plough driver was the only fatality.

20th Dec 1989.....The US invasion of Panama,Operation Just Cause,marks the combat debut of the F-117 A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

20th Dec 1989.....An SR-71 Blackbird makes a final pass down the Burbank runway to honour all those who worked on designing and producing this iconic aircraft.
                           Kelly Johnson,although long since retired and gravely ill,attended the flypast.

20th Dec 2004.....A F-22 Raptor crashes on take off from Nellis Air Force Base Nevada,prompting the USAF to ground all of the F-22 fleet.The aircraft crashed on the runway,pilot ejected safely.

20th Dec 2012.....A Red Wings Tupolev TU-204-100B suffers brake failure on landing at Novosibirsk and over runs the runway by 350 metres.

[Angry Turnip]

21st Dec 1914.....The UK is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time,two bombs are dropped near the Admiralty Pier,Kent from an Etrich Taube.   

21st Dec 1914.....A RNAS Maurice Farman Biplane flown by Wing Commander Charles R.Samson carries out history`s first night bombing raid,attacking Ostend Belgium.

21st Dec 1936.....The first flight of the Junkers JU-88 V1 Prototype D-AQEN.

21st Dec 1945.....Ethiopian Airways is founded.

21st Dec 1955.....Condor Fludienst is founded.

21st Dec 1963.....The first flight of the Hawker Siddeley Andover.

21st Dec 1964.....The first flight of the General Dynamics F-111 takes place,it is the first major combat aircraft with variable geometry wings.

21st Dec 1965.....New York Airways commences helicopter flights from the top of the Pan-Am building to JFK Airport.

21st Dec 1966.....The first flight of the Martin X-23 PRIME

21st Dec 1966.....The longest flight of the A-12 was flown by Bill Park,the 6hr flight covered 10,198 miles.

21st Dec 1968.....Apollo 8 the first manned mission to the moon is launched from Kennedy Space Centre,Florida

21st Dec 1970.....The first flight of the Grumman YF-14A.

21st Dec 1979.....The first flight of the NASA NASA AD-1 Oblique Concept Wing Demonstator at Edwards Air Force Base.

21st Dec 1982.....The last RAF V-bomber Squadron 44Sqn is disbanded at RAF Waddington.

21st Dec 1988.....The first flight of the Antonov AN-225 Mriya.

21st Dec 1988.....Pan-Am flight 103 explodes mid-flight over Lockerbie,Scotland in a terrorist attack.All 259 on board and 11 on the ground are killed.

21st Dec 1990.....Lockheed engineer Kelly Johnson dies at the age of 80.

21st Dec 1993.....The first flight of the Cessna Citation X.

21st Dec 2007.....The first flight of the OMA SUD Skycar...........https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMA_SUD_Skycar

21st Dec 2009.....Spanish Airline,Air Comet ceases operations.

[gadwall58]

I remember sitting watching the television on Christmas Eve 1968 as the first pictures of the moon from Apollo 8 were sent back.  Although terrible grainy pictures they were brilliant and fascinating.

[Angry Turnip]

Quite a few first flights of type for today.

22nd Dec 1910.....British Aviation pioneer Cecil Grace vanishes over the English Channel on a flight from Calais to Dover.

22nd Dec 1930.....The first flight of the Tupolev TB-3 heavy bomber.

22nd Dec 1936.....The first flight of the North American XB-21,medium bomber.

22nd Dec 1938.....The first flight of the de.Havilland DH.95 Flamingo,airliner/military transport.

22nd Dec 1939.....The first flight of the Petlyakov VI-100,high altitude fighter.

22nd Dec 1941.....The first flight of the Fairy Firefly and the Consolidated TBY Sea Wolf.

22nd Dec 1944.....The Curtiss XP-60 is retired.

22nd Dec 1945.....The first flight of the Beechcraft Bonanza.

22nd Dec 1949.....The first flight of the North American F-86D Sabre.

22nd Dec 1961.....US Army helicopters engage in their first combat operation in Vietnam.

22nd Dec 1964.....The first flight of the D-21 Drone and the SR-71 Blackbird.

22nd Dec 1966.....The first flight of the Northrop HL-10.

22nd Dec 1966.....The Dassault Breguet Mirage F-1E Makes it`s first flight.

22nd Dec 1976.....The first flight of the Ilyushin IL-86.

22nd Dec 1977.....The first flight of the Antonov AN-72.

22nd Dec 1979.....The first flight of the SOCATA TB.30 Epsilon.

22nd Dec 1998.....The first flight of the Beechcraft Premier I.

22nd Dec 1999.....Korean Air Cargo flight 8509,a Boeing B747-2B5F HL7451 crashes shortly after takeoff from London Stansted.Crew ignored warning alarms,all four crew died in the crash.

[smudge]

22nd Dec 1945.....The first flight of the Beechcraft Bonanza.

22nd Dec 1998.....The first flight of the Beechcraft Premier I.

And one of those two types is still in production today...

[Merlin]

22nd Dec 1999.....Korean Air Cargo flight 8509,a Boeing B747-2B5F HL7451 crashes shortly after takeoff from London Heathrow.Crew ignored warning alarms,all four crew died in the crash.

Minor correction; flight departed London Stansted rather than London Heatherow 

[Angry Turnip]

22nd Dec 1999.....Korean Air Cargo flight 8509,a Boeing B747-2B5F HL7451 crashes shortly after takeoff from London Heathrow.Crew ignored warning alarms,all four crew died in the crash.

Minor correction; flight departed London Stansted rather than London Heatherow 

Ah,my book was wrong,error has been corrected.

[Angry Turnip]

Again quite a few first flight of types for this day.


23rd Dec 1910.....Lt Theodore Ellyson of the US Navy is assigned to flight training with the Curtiss Aircraft company,making him the first naval aviator.

23rd Dec 1938.....The first flight of the Blackburn Roc,a carrier based turret armed fighter.

23rd Dec 1939.....Dutch/US pioneer in aviation dies in New York aged 49.

23rd Dec 1941.....The first flight of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain.

23rd Dec 1953.....The first flight of the Lockheed XFV,Tailsitter Experimental VTOL Fighter.

23rd Dec 1966.....The first flight of the Dassault Mirage F.1,fighter and attack aircraft.

23rd Dec 1972.....Andrei Tuplolev dies aged 86.

23rd Dec 1973.....The first flight of the Aero Boero 260AG,an Argentine agricultural aircraft.

23rd Dec 1974.....The first flight of the Rockwell B-1 Lancer strategic bomber takes place at Edwards Air Force Base.

23rd Dec 1982.....The first flight of the Short 330 Sherpa Freighter G-BKMW ........https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_330

23rd Dec 1990.....The first flight of the Boeing VC-25 (29000).

23rd Dec 2002.....An MQ-1 Predator UAV is shot down by an Iraqi Mig-25,the first time an aircraft and a unmanned drone had engaged in combat.

[Angry Turnip]

24th Dec 1908.....The first aeronautical exhibition opens in Paris at the Grand Palais.

24th Dec 1916.....The Sopwith Pup entered service with No54Sqn RFC.

24th Dec 1937.....The first flight of the Macchi C.200,fighter bomber.

24th Dec 1952.....The first flight of the Handley Page Victor,the third and last of the V-Bombers.

24th Dec 1955.....NORAD tracks Santa for the first time.A Sears store in Colorado published a number for children to phone Santa,but a typo gave the number for Director at Continental Air Defense Command.
                           Once the mistake was noticed,the director told his team to give Santa`s position to who ever had called in. 

24th Dec 1962.....The first flight of the Aerospatiale N262,turbo prop airliner.

24th Dec 1963.....New York International Airport is re-dedicated John F.Kennedy International Airport.

24th Dec 1968.....Apollo 8 orbits the moon with Frank Borman,James Lovell,and William Anders on board.

24th Dec 1973.....The first flight of the Kamov KA-27,helicopter.

24th Dec 1994.....Air France flt 8969 an Airbus A300 F-GBEC is hijacked at Algiers,it is allowed to fly to Marseille,where it is stormed by French commandos.

24th Dec 1999.....Air India flt 814,an Airbus A300 VT-EDW is hijacked enroute to Delhi from Nepal.After landing in several countries,it ends up in Kandahar Afghanistan were demands are made to                                                      release three militants from Indian Prison.The Indian negotiators agree and the hostages are released.
                            One of the militants was Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh,was later said to be involved in the planning of the Sept 11th attacks.

24th Dec 2017.....The worlds largest amphibious aircraft,the Chinese AG600 Kunlong makes it`s first flight. More here........http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-42471045

[smudge]

24th Dec 1955.....NORAD tracks Santa for the first time.A Sears store in Colorado published a number for children to phone Santa,but a typo gave the number for the Director at Continental Air Defense Command.Once the mistake was noticed,the director told his team to give Santa`s position to who ever had called in. 

They were trying to spell ME2RRYX on the dialler pad ( where the 2 was required by the Colorado Springs prefix 632 )

Advertised 632 6681
Should have been 632 7799

Quite a mistake!

632 6681 is now a private number in Colorado Springs, I wonder if he still receives calls.

[jasT1981]

23rd Dec 1974.....The first flight of the Rockwell B-1 Lancer strategic bomber takes place at Edwards Air Force Base.

I didn't realize the B1 was that old. I always thought it was a 90s build.

[gadwall58]

If I remember correctly the Jimmy Carter government shelved it in the late 1970's and Regan brought it back in the 1980's.

[Angry Turnip]

If I remember correctly the Jimmy Carter government shelved it in the late 1970's and Regan brought it back in the 1980's.

That`s correct,the B-1 programme was cancelled in 1977,but re-instated in 1981,and entered service in 1986.

[jasT1981]

Ahhh thanks guys. Didn't know that.

[smudge]

Much of the USA's current strategic capability dates to that 1981 plan; B-1B, Trident II, ALCM-B, TLAM.  Which was an inversion from the Carter Administration's emphasis on MX ( Peacekeeper ) ICBM. 

In fact they are all still in service except Peacekeeper!  There's bound to be a pithy joke in that irony.

[Angry Turnip]

Despite the holidays,still a few things of note......

25th Dec 1934.....French Pilot Raymond Delmotte sets a new world speed record for land planes ( as opposed to sea planes ),of 314.33 flying a Caudron C.460.

25th Dec 1958.....The first flight of the Sukhoi SU-11,interceptor aircraft.

25th Dec 1966.....The United States conducts a 48 hr stand down of air operations over Vietnam for the Christmas holidays.

25th Dec 1968.....Apollo 8 performs the first TEI (Trans Earth Injection) manoeuvre,sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from lunar orbit.

25th Dec 1979.....Antonov AN-12`s and Antonov AN-22`s airlift the first Soviet troops into Afghanistan,with 5000 arriving in the first 24hrs.

25th Dec 1997.....The first flight of the Gulfstream G200 biz-jet.

[Angry Turnip]

26th Dec 1939.....The first RAAF squadrons to join with the British Forces in WWII arrive.

26th Dec 1956.....The first flight of the Convair F-106 Delta Dart,all weather interceptor aircraft.

26th Dec 1967.....The Soviet Union commissions it`s first helicopter carrier,Moskva.

26th Dec 1975.....The first flight of the Tupolev TU-144 SST.

26th Dec 1980.....Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin IL-86 into service on it`s Moscow - Tashkent route.

26th Dec 1982.....The first flight on the Antonov AN-124.It was to fly on 24th Dec,but poor weather delayed the flight.

26th Dec 1989.....The first flight of the Hongdu N-5,agricultural aircraft.

[Angry Turnip]

27th Dec 1773.....George Cayley is born in Scarborough,Yorkshire.He was a pioneer of early aviation,and regarded by many as the father of manned flight.

27th Dec 1919.....The first flight of the Boeing Model 6,a flying boat biplane.

27th Dec 1922.....Japan commissions it`s first aircraft carrier,the Hosho.

27th Dec 1942.....The first flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-67,a medium bomber.

27th Dec 1942.....The first flight of the Kawanishi N1K1-J,a fighter aircraft.

27th Dec 1951.....The first flight of the North American FJ-2/FJ-3 Fury.

27th Dec 1952.....All Nippon Airways is founded.

27th Dec 1968.....Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean,ending man`s first mission to the moon.

[Angry Turnip]

28th Dec 1910.....French aviator Alexandre Laffont and his Spanish passenger Mario Pola are killed as they attempted to fly to Belgium with two passengers,their Antoinette collapsed in mid-air.

28th Dec 1926.....Imperial Airways begins England to India mail and passenger service.

28th Dec 1929.....The first flight of the Mitsubishi B2M,torpedo bomber.

28th Dec 1938.....The first flight of the Blackburn B.26 Botha.

28th Dec 1945.....The first flight of the Edo XOSE-1,a prototype single seat floatplane.

28th Dec 1951.....The Grumman F9F Cougar entered service with the US Navy.

28th Dec 1975.....The Soviet Union commissions the heavy aircraft carrying Cruiser " Kiev " It is the first Soviet or Russian ship capable of operating fixed wing aircraft.

28th Dec 1985.....The first flight of the Fokker 50.

28th Dec 1988.....The analysis of the Pan Am Boeing B747 that crashed over Lockerbie,revels a bomb in the luggage hold had been the cause of the disaster.

28th Dec 1988.....The first flight of the Let 610,airliner.

28th Dec 2001.....USA3000 airlines begin operations.

28th Dec 2014.....AirTrans flight number 1,was the carriers last flight.AirTrans had been purchased and absorbed into Southwest Airlines.Most of their defunct aircraft went to Arizona for storage.

[smudge]

28th Dec 1975.....The Soviet Union commissions the heavy aircraft carrying Cruiser " Kiev " It is the first Soviet or Russian ship capable of operating fixed wing aircraft.

Here's a thing I only learned recently; after WW2 the Soviets refloated and refitted the scuttled German carrier Graf Zeppelin!  They commissioned it as PB-101 and played around with it until sinking it in 1947 with 24 bombs and two torpedoes.  Apparently the data collected went both into the files for designing carriers as well as those on how to sink them.

The hulk was rediscovered in 2006.

http://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/graf-zeppelin-diving-at-the-unique-ww2-german-aircraft-carrier-photos-and-videos/

[Angry Turnip]

29th Dec 1921.....Edward Stinson and Llyod Bertaud set a world flight endurance record of 26hours,18mins,and 35 seconds in a BMW powered Junkers-Larson at Roosevelt Field.

29th Dec 1927.....Georg Wulf,the co-founder of Focke-Wulf is killed in the crash of a Focke-Wulf fw 19.

29th Dec 1931.....The first flight of the Grumman FF.

29th Dec 1936.....Compania Aeronautica Uruguaya is founded using two Junkers JU52 floatplanes betweem Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

29th Dec 1938.....A German Arado Ar79 trainer/tourer,sets an international record for an aircraft of it`s class flying 3917 miles (Benghazi,Llibya to Gaya,India)  at an average speed of 99mph.

29th Dec 1939.....The first flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

29th Dec 1948.....The first flight of the Supermarine Swift.

29th Dec 1949.....The Lockheed F-94 Starfire enters USAF service.

29th Dec 1978.....The first solar powered aircraft Solar One is flown for the first time by Freddie To (that`s his name).

29th Dec 1986.....The first flight of Scaled Composites ATTT.

29th Dec 2004.....A US Special Forces MC-130H Hercules is written off landing at Q West airfield near Mosul,the pilot was unaware a large pit had been dug in the runway.

29th Dec 2012.....A red wings airlines flight using a Tupolev TU-204 over runs the runway at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow,it crosses a highway,before breaking into three pieces.

[Angry Turnip]

30th Dec 1922.....A Deutsche Luft-Reederei Dornier Komet becomes the first German aircraft to overfly Britain since the end of WW1.

30th Dec 1934.....The first flight of the Martin M-130 flying boat.Only three were built.

30th Dec 1947.....The first flight of the second Mig-type S fighter which would become the Mig-15.It is powered by an imported Rolls Royce Nene 2 Jet engine.

30th Dec 1960.....The McDonnell Douglas Phantom II is introduced after making it`s first flight in May 1958.When production ended in 1981,5195 aircraft had been built,some still in service.

30th Dec 1970.....The Grumman F-14 Tomcat prototype crashes on it`s 2nd test flight due to hydraulic failure,the crew ejected............https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfM5FxnWPm4

30th Dec 1978.....The first flight of the Vulcanair Canguro.Only a small number were built.

30th Dec 1982.....A Hal Ajeet trainer based on the Folland Gnat,explodes in mid-air over Dharmarpuri Province India,killing the test pilot.