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

[Angry Turnip]

Well,here it is,it`s the last batch of the year.

31st Dec 1908.....Wilbur Wright at Auvours France,wins the Michelin Cup with the years longest flight of 2hrs,20 mins covering 77 miles.

31st Dec 1940.....The crew of Vickers Wellington IA N2980R from RAF Lossiemouth bail out after engine failure over Great Glen,Scotland,all but one survive.The flight crew manage to ditch in the north                                            basin of Loch Ness and escape.The aircraft is raised in 1985,restored at Weybridge where it was built,and is now on display at Brooklands Museum.One of only two intact Wellingtons.

31st Dec 1944.....The US Navy receive the first batch of new fighter,the Grumman F8F Bearcat.

31st Dec 1958.....The first flight of the C-137 Stratoliner,a military version of the B707,it was supplied in several configurations,such as VIP transport,airborne command post and others.

31st Dec 1967.....NASA begins research into a re-usable space aircraft.

31st Dec 1967.....The RAF`s bomber V-Force begins to be dismantled,with the Polaris missile due to be deployed on RN submarines.Polaris was favoured as the UK`s nuclear deterrent.

31st Dec 1968.....The first flight of the ill-fated Tupolev TU-144 SST.16 were built.

31st Dec 1986.....The first flight of the IAI Lavi - A slightly unfortunate name for an Israeli Multi role fighter.Only 3 prototypes were built and the project was cancelled.

31st Dec 1989.....The first flight of the mighty Sukhoi SU-30 ( NATO name Flanker).

31st Dec 2006.....Caribbean Airlines is founded.

[gadwall58]

Excellent stuff full of very interesting aviation facts.  Thank you for taking the time each day to prepare and share.

[Angry Turnip]

Excellent stuff full of very interesting aviation facts.  Thank you for taking the time each day to prepare and share.

Your very welcome,it does take a bit of time,but I feel it`s worth it.
I have tried to leave out most accidents,as they can be a bit grim.

[smudge]

I've been looking forward to doing this one

32 December 1980: just after midnight the Learavia Learfan prototype N626BL made its 17 minute maiden flight, thereby qualifying for another £50 million of UK government funding for the programme conditional on flying in 1980. 

They nearly missed the chance for continued funding when a fire-bottle discharged as they started-up on the evening of 31 December and it took several hours to reset the aircraft.

Whilst uk.gov was complicit in accepting the faked date, the USPS stamps on the first-flight covers were stamped JAN 1 1981.  Bureaucratic spoilsports!

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[Angry Turnip]

32nd Dec ? Have you been on the extra strong wine gums Mr Smudge? 

[smudge]

If you blend all the wine gums in a food processor you can drink them all at once 

Of course the Learfan oddness didn't stop with its first flight.  Once the scheme had collapsed the factory in Newtownabbey was sold to FG Wilson for just £500,000 into the public coffers; they then flipped it on to SRC Composites for £3 million, creating a bit of a scandal in Parliament.

Allegedly SRC was an Iraqi front company to make missile bodies, that all fell apart quickly and the factory went to Shorts for £1 million.

[gadwall58]

Between that and Delorean!

[jasT1981]

If you blend all the wine gums in a food processor you can drink them all at once 

You do realize I now have to try this?

[Angry Turnip]

Back on topic - Happy New Year to you all 

01 Jan 1910.....Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe and his brother Humphrey founded the A.V.Roe Aircraft company in Manchester.

01 Jan 1914.....The US Weather Bureau begins daily production of a map of the Northern Hemisphere specifically as an aviation aid.

01 Jan 1914.....The Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps is given the task of operating of all British military airships,this continues until 1919.

01 Jan 1916.....The first flight of the LZ60 Zeppelin.

01 Jan 1919.....Civil Aviation resumes in Germany.

01 Jan 1925.....The French airline CIDNA is formed.

01 Jan 1929.....The Polish airline LOT is formed.

01 Jan 1931.....Amy Johnson takes off in her Gypsy Moth  " Jason III " in an attempt to reach Peking.

01 Jan 1934.....Deutsche Luft Hansa changes it`s name to Lufthansa.

01 Jan 1937.....Bleriot Aeronautique becomes part of SNCASO.

01 Jan 1940.....Identification Friend Or Foe ( IFF ) coding is introduced to the UK Air Defense system.It is an aid to ID Bomber,Coastal,and Fighter Command aircraft.

01 Jan 1946.....The first civilian flight from LHR Heathrow takes place.

01 Jan 1946.....BEA ( British European Airways ) is founded.

01 Jan 1959.....The first flight of the I.P.D. BF-1 Beija-Flor 2 seater helicopter designed by Henrich Focke. ( No,I had never heard of it either! )

01 Jan 1970.....SNIAS is founded by merging Nord Aviation,Sud Aviation,and SEREB.The French seem to like long winded aviation company names.

01 Jan 1975.....Michael K. Hynes forms Brantly-Hynes Helicopters Inc,now know as Brantly International.

01 Jan 1978.....The British Aircraft Corporation,Hawker Siddeley,and Scottish Aviation are absorbed into British Aerospace.

01 Jan 1981.....The first flight of the LearAvia Learfan N626BL.as per Smudge`s earlier post,some sneakiness was involved.........https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LearAvia_Lear_Fan

01 Jan 1983.....Eastern Airlines is the first airline to operate the Boeing B757.

01 Jan 2010.....Northwest Airlines is merged into Delta Air Lines.

[smudge]

01 Jan 1934.....Deutsche Luft Hansa changes it`s name to Lufthansa.

After the war there was an East / West German spat over the name.

1. Deutsche Lufthansa GmbH der DDR was formed in the East 1952 but didn't fly until December 1955

2. Deutsche Lufthansa AG was formed in the West in 1954, when a holding company bought the rights to the name, and started flying in April 1955


A ruling at the ICJ in the Hague in 1958 awarded the name to the West German company, after which the Eastern Lufthansa was folded into charter operator Interflug.


Incidentally the word 'Hansa' doesn't mean anything to do with airlines, it's a reference to the Hanseatic League representing union between smaller pre-war airlines.

[Angry Turnip]

Here is today`s batch.......I got my dates mixed up,it was sure to happen at some point.


3rd Jan 1909.....The first airspeed indicator is patented by Alec Ogilvie.

3rd Jan 1916.....A Bristol Scout C marks the first time a wheeled aircraft has taken off from a ship,in this case HMS Vindex.

3rd Jan 1922.....The first flight of the Czech built Aero A.10.

3rd Jan 1925.....The first flight of the Fairey Fox,a British light bomber/fighter.

3rd Jan 1944.....Japan launches the first of it`s Fu-Go balloon bombs,the idea was the balloons would be released in Japan and would get caught up in the jetstream,land in the USA and explode.

3rd Jan 1947.....The RAF Kings Flight was re-established at RAF Benson,using three Vickers VC-1 Vikings and an Avro York named " Endeavour ".

3rd Jan 1950.....A Pan American World Airways Boeing 377 Stratocruiser,makes the first commercial non-stop flight from Tokyo to Honolulu.

3rd Jan 1952.....The first flight of the Bristol Type 173,G-ALBN a prototype twin engine,tandem rotor military helicopter.

3rd Jan 1953.....The first flight of the Cessna 310,a light twin engined monoplane.

3rd Jan 1963.....The first flight of the IIyushin IL-62,a four engined airliner.

3rd Jan 1981.....Pan-Am makes it`s last Boeing B707 flight.

3rd Jan 1999.....Launch of the Mars Polar Lander.

[smudge]

2nd Jan 1944.....Japan launches the first of it`s Fu-Go balloon bombs,the idea was the balloons would be released in Japan and would get caught up in the jetstream,land in the USA and explode.

One of the 10,000+ Fu-Go balloons landed in Oregon and when it detonated killed six civilians who had stumbled arcoss it.  The only casualties of enemy action on the US continental mainland during the war.

Several forest fires in the region were blamed on the balloons.

2nd Jan 1925.....The first flight of the Fairey Fox,a British light bomber/fighter.

12 Sqn still uses the fox's head logo, designed for them by Fairey when the type entered service.

[Angry Turnip]

Ok,these are for 2nd Jan,apologies for the error,it`s like Back To The Future.


2nd Jan 1914.....Gustav Hamel took Miss Trehawke Davis aloft to experience a loop,and thus she became the first woman to do so.

2nd Jan 1918.....The British Government establishes an Air Ministry,Lord Rothermere is Secretary of State for Air,and Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard is Chief of The Air Staff.

2nd Jan 1930.....Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation is founded at Baldwin,Long Island,New York.

2nd Jan 1942.....The US Navy open a blimp base at Lakehurst New Jersey.

2nd Jan 1943.....McDonnell is awarded the contract to build the US Navy`s first jet fighter.

2nd Jan 1953.....The first batch of F-86 Sabres,begin arriving,an order for almost 430 aircraft had been placed and they were known as Sabre F4`s in RAF service.

2nd Jan 1965.....Dennis Healy,the UK`s Secretary for Defense cancels much of the nations fighter and transport programmes in favour of the F-4 Phantom II and C-130 Hercules.

2nd Jan 1967.....The contract for the US SST is awarded to Boeing with it`s Boeing 2707 SST design.The aircraft never flew,and funding was halted in 1971.

2nd Jan 1975.....The death of German Ace Theodore Osterkamp,one of the few men to score aerial victories in WWI (32 kills) and WWII ( 6 kills).

2nd Jan 1989.....The first flight of the Tupolev TU-204 airliner,it is the first Russian fly by wire airliner.

[smudge]

2nd Jan 1914.....Gustav Hamel took Miss Trehawke Davis aloft to experience a loop,and thus she became the first woman to do so.

80hp Blériot monoplane.

"Your googles, dear"


Sadly Miss Davies died of illness in November 1915 aged 35.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Angry Turnip]

Hopefully back on track for today..........


4th Jan 1910.....Albert Santos-Dumont made his last flight in his Demoiselle aircraft which ended when a bracing wire snapped and the wing collapsed,he had only minor injuries.

4th Jan 1931.....Amy Johnson abandons her Gypsy Moth " Jason III " in Poland after it develops an engine problem during her attempt to fly to Peking.

4th Jan 1931.....William G.Swan used a glider also powered with small rockets to fly over Atlantic City,New Jersey.He stayed aloft for around 30mins.

4th Jan 1936.....The first flight of the Vought SB2U Vindicator,a carrier based dive bomber.It also served with the Royal Navy as the Chesapeake.

4th Jan 1940.....The first flight of the Fairey Fulmar,a carrier-born fighter.

4th Jan 1945.....The first flight of the Chase YCG-14,a US assault glider.

4th Jan 1952.....The first flight of the North American XA2J Super Savage.A prototype carrier based attack aircraft,only one was built.

4th Jan 1952.....Pan American World Airways introduce the first all-cargo service across the North Atlantic using the newly arrived Douglas DC-6A.

4th Jan 1956.....Aquila Airways are granted a license to operate a flying boat service between Southampton and Las Palmas,Canary Islands.

4th Jan 1958.....The death of the Avro company Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe is announced.

4th Jan 1967.....The first flight of the Taylor Titch,a small homebuilt aircraft,developed from the Taylor Monoplane.

4th Jan 1996.....The first flight of the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche,an advanced attack helicopter prototype,only 2 were built and the project scrapped Feb 2004.

4th Jan 2001.....The first flight of the HAL Tejas,an Indian Light Multi-role fighter.

[Angry Turnip]

5th Jan 1916.....Joseph E.Carberry set an altitude record of 11690 feet ( 3560m ) in a Curtiss Jenny with Capt.Benjamin D.Foulois as a passenger.

5th Jan 1916.....The first operational flight of the French Neuport 11 fighter,it had first flown in 1915.

5th Jan 1917.....The first flight of the Sage Types 3,a trainer aircraft,in was not a success and only 2 machines were built.

5th Jan 1938.....The first flight of the Miles M.16 Mentor,a training and communications aircraft.

5th Jan 1939.....American aviation pioneer,Amelia Earhart is declared legally dead after her disappearance in 1937.

5th Jan 1941.....Amy Johnson gets lost on an ATA delivery flight ( Airspeed Oxford V3540 ) and ends up bailing out over the Thames Estuary,efforts to save her fail,she drowns and body not recovered.

5th Jan 1949....."Chuck" Yeager in the Bell X-1 carried out the only runway takeoff of the X-1 program,he reached 23,000ft in 90secs.

5th Jan 1952.....Pan Am commences trans Atlantic freight services.

5th Jan 1953.....A British European Airways Vickers Viking G-AJDL crashes on approach to Belfast-Nutts Corner Airport.27 of the 31 on board died.

5th Jan 1959.....The Fairey Rotodyne sets a world speed record for convertiplanes of 190.9 Mph over a 62 mile circuit.

5th Jan 1964.....The first flight of the heavy lift turboprop freighter,the Short Belfast.

5th Jan 1972.....US President Richard Nixon announces funding of $5.5 billion for the Space Shuttle Project.

5th Jan 1981.....The death of Sir James Martin,British engineer,who along with Captain Valentine Baker,founded the Martin-Baker aircraft company,which now is a world leader in ejection seats.

5th Jan 2006.....Independence Air shuts down after declaring bankruptcy.

[Angry Turnip]

In Crossgar,his home town, there is a plaque commemorating Sir James Martin,and his portrait featured on the Northern Bank Inventor series of banknotes,his portrait was on the £100 note until 2013.

[smudge]

5th Jan 1964.....The first flight of the heavy lift turboprop freighter,the Short Belfast.

Blimey, how did I forget that?!



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Angry Turnip]

A little dram of Um Bongo each 

[Angry Turnip]

6th Jan 1918.....The death of German WWI ace Walter von Bulow Bothkamp.He was shot down in a dogfight near Ypres in his Albatros DV.

6th Jan 1933.....The first flight of the Bleriot Spad S.510,it was to be the last French biplane fighter.

6th Jan 1936.....The first flight of the Dewoitine D.153,a prototype French monoplane fighter.Only two were built.

6th Jan 1942.....Pan American Airlines becomes the first airline to offer a scheduled around the world flight.

6th Jan 1944.....The first flight of the McDonnell XP-67 Bat,a twin engine bomber interceptor,only one is built and it is destroyed by an engine fire.

6th Jan 1949.....The first flight of the Nord Noroit,a French recon and air-sea-rescue flying boat.The last of the type was delivered to the French Navy in 1956.

6th Jan 1953.....The German Airline Luft AG is formed.

6th Jan 1968.....NASA`s Surveyor 7 lands on the Moon,it is the last of the series.

6th Jan 1971.....The US Marine Corps take delivery of the first of it`s AV-8A Harrier`s.

6th Jan 1977.....The first flight of the HAL HPT-32 Deepak,an Indian prop trainer.

6th Jan 1982.....The introduction of the Myasishchev VM-T Atlant,it was a heavy lift aircraft based on the M4-Molot bomber.It was modified to carry rocket boosters and the Buran Shuttle.

6th Jan 1984.....Hughes Helicopters merges with McDonnell Douglas Corp.

6th Jan 2009.....Ted,a brand of United Airlines for their economy flights is discontinued.The flights are rebranded under the main United Airlines brand.

[Angry Turnip]

7th Jan 1785.....The English Channel is crossed by air for the first time,Jean Pierre Blanchard and John Jefferies fly their hydrogen balloon from Dover,to a forest near Calais.

7th Jan 1910.....The Frenchman Hubert Latham is the first person to fly at 1000metres.

7th Jan 1911.....The first live freefall bomb is dropped from a Wright Aircraft flown by Philip Parmalee,the bomb is dropped by Lt.Myron S.Crissy.

7th Jan 1920.....The first flight of the Boeing BB-1 Seaplane.

7th Jan 1931.....Guy Menzies flying an Avro Sports Avian ,makes the first flight from Australia to New Zealand,it takes 11hrs,45 mins.

7th Jan 1933.....The death of Bert Hinkler,the first person to fly from England to Australia in 1928,using an Avro Avian.He died in a crash in Italy in the Tuscan Mountains.

7th Jan 1934.....The first flight of the Curtis XF-13C Model 70,a naval fighter prototype,only 3 built.

7th Jan 1935.....The first flight of a Japanese trainer aircraft,the Tachikawa Ki-9.

7th Jan 1935.....The first flight of the Avro 652,a light airliner and it became the basis for the Avro Anson.

7th Jan 1942.....The first flight of the Supermarine Seafire.

7th Jan 1948.....The death of WWII pilot Captain Thomas F.Mantell Jr, he crashed in his P-51 Mustang while in pursuit of a UFO.

7th Jan 1963.....Aeroflot commences a direct service from Moscow to Cuba.

7th Jan 1966.....The SR-71 Blackbird enters service with the USAF.

7th Jan 1984.....The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet enters USMC service.

7th Jan 2004.....Boeing launches the B747-400 Special Freighter program.

[Angry Turnip]

Due to new working hours,these will be posted later than normal.


8th Jan 1927.....Thomas N.Stack and Bernard MTS Leete reach Karachi after departing from the UK in their de Havilland DH.60.

8th Jan 1927.....A de Havilland DH.66 Hercules,a British 7-seat,3 engine airliner completes flight from Croydon to Delhi in 62hrs 27 mins.

8th Jan 1944.....The first flight of the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star.

8th Jan 1947.....The first flight of the Yakovlev Yak-19 prototype jet fighter,only two were built.

8th Jan 1948.....The first flight of the Lavochkin La-15 jet fighter.

8th Jan 1950.....The last flight of the SNCASO SO.8000 Narval,a French Naval prototype fighter,only two built.

8th Jan 1959.....The first flight of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy,a transport/cargo aircraft.It was the last aircraft type built by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft.

8th Jan 1980.....A Mooney 231 completes a non-stop East-West flight of the USA in 8hrs and 4 mins.

8th Jan 1982.....The Airbus A300 FFCC is certified.

8th Jan 1989.....The Kegworth Air Disaster,a British Midland Boeing B737-4YO flight 92 crashes,attempting an emergency landing at East Midlands,47 died with 74 injured out of the 126 on board.

8th Jan 1998.....Boeing changes the name of the MD-95 to Boeing B717-200.

[Angry Turnip]

9th Jan 1793.....The first manned Balloon flight in North America is made by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard,he took off from Philadelphia and landed in Deptford New Jersey.

9th Jan 1941.....The first flight of the Avro Lancaster bomber.

9th Jan 1943.....The first flight of the Lockheed Constellation.

9th Jan 1951.....The first flight of the Tupolev TU-85,a Soviet protoype strategic bomber based on the Tupolev Tu-4 which was an unlicensed copy of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

9th Jan 1955.....The Vickers Valiant,the first of the RAF`s V-Bomber force to become operational entered service with 138Sqn RAF.

9th Jan 1956.....The Luftwaffe is reformed.

9th Jan 1962.....The first flight of the Hawker Siddeley HS121 Trident,narrow body jet airliner.

9th Jan 1963.....The first flight of the Yakovlev Yak-36,Soviet experimental V/STOL combat aircraft.

9th Jan 1990.....The 9th launch of Space Shuttle Colombia STS-32 was one of the shuttles longest missions at nearly 11 days.

9th Jan 1997.....Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson abandon their non-stop flight in Algeria.

[jasT1981]

One that you missed, 9th Jan 1941 - First flight of the Avro Lancaster. 

[Angry Turnip]

One that you missed, 9th Jan 1941 - First flight of the Avro Lancaster. 

Thanks,it was on my list but I forgot to type it in,all fixed now.