Jan Aviation bits

[Angry Turnip]

Following on from yesterday,we have some more info bits.......

27th Jan 1894.....Captain BFS Baden Powell,makes a kite ascent in Pirbright Army Camp,England,in what was regarded as the first man carrying flight outside of China.

27th Jan 1927.....The first flight of the American twin engine biplane torpedo bomber,the Douglas T2D.

27th Jan 1929.....The first flight of the British biplane fighter,the Saunders A-10.Just a single example was built.

27th Jan 1939.....The first flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning,an American twin engine fighter with a distinctive twin boom design.

27th Jan 1955.....Ariana Afghan Airlines is founded using a trio of DC-3`s.

27th Jan 1959.....The first flight of the American airliner the Convair 880,it entered service with Delta Air Lines May 1960.

27th Jan 1963.....The first flight of the IAI Westwind business jet.I always wondered about the very low ground clearance of this aircraft.

27th Jan 1967.....A fire on the Apollo 1 launchpad kills the three astronauts on board. Virgil I Gus Grissom,Ed White and Roger B.Chafee.

27th Jan 1969.....The DC-9-20 enters service with SAS.

27th Jan 1982.....Cessna delivers it`s 1000th Business Jet.

27th Jan 1989.....Death of Thomas Sopwith,British aviation pioneer-he passes away at the age of 101.

27th Jan 2002.....The Boeing B737 becomes the first jet airliner to amass more than 100 Million flying hours.

27th Jan 2012.....Spanish airline Spanair ceases operations,it was founded in 1986.

[smudge]

27th Jan 1963.....The first flight of the IAI Westwind business jet.I always wondered about the very low ground clearance of this aircraft.

From Aviation Week in March 1963, when it was still the Aero Jet Commander:

Mid-wing design was chosen because it affords a minimum of centre-of-gravity travel and eliminated the necessity of extensive fillets to provide aerodynamic fairing.

It still needed the sharply upswept tail section of the prop Commanders and 20 years later the IAI Astra / G100 still had that feature despite changing to a low-mounted wing.

[Angry Turnip]

Ready for some more aviation potted history?

28th Jan 1917.....The first flight of the Junkers J.I,was a German sesquiplane of WW I,it was used in the observation role.It is noteworthy as being the first all metal aircraft to enter mass production.

28th Jan 1917.....Major Frank W.Goodden,the Royal Aircraft Factory test pilot is killed in the second prototype SE5.The wings was found to have failed due to downward torsion.

28th Jan 1919.....American fighter pilot Francis Gabreski is born.(d 2002) He was the top US fighter ace in Europe WWII,and a jet fighter ace in Korea-he wass one of only 7 US pilots to become aces  in two wars.

28th Jan 1935.....The first flight of the rather lovely French airliner the Potez 62,twin engined monoplane airliner.

28th Jan 1935.....The Grumman F2F enters military service with the US Navy.

28th Jan 1942.....The USAAF activates the Eighth Air Force to serve in the UK as a strategic air force in Europe.

28th Jan 1946.....The Short Shetland 1 DX166 burns out at it`s moorings due to a fire in the galley,before flight testing can be completed.

28th Jan 1977.....Birth of an inquisitive boy,NATO codename SMUDGE,often seen at EGAD Airfield. 

28th Jan 1981.....Pan Am begins a weekly New York to Beijing service.

28th Jan 1986.....The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 secs after launch at 48,000ft.The crew of 7 are killed. "O " ring failure on the solid booster joints due to the extreme cold are blamed.

28th Jan 1993.....The death of the last US WWI aces James William Pearson.

28th Jan 1998.....Andy Nelson and Bertrand Piccard,lift off in the Breitling Orbiter II on an attempt at an around the world balloon flight. Make it so!

[gadwall58]

A very happy birthday Smudge.

[Angry Turnip]

And now for something completely different  ..........Ok,more aviation fun facts.


29th Jan 1908.....The Imperial all-Russia Aero Club is founded,it raises funds through public subscription by Imperial decree.

29th Jan 1916.....The 2nd and last Zeppelin bombing raid on Paris,54 are injured.

29th Jan 1920.....Orville Wright is appointed to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA ) by President Woodrow Wilson.

29th Jan 1924.....Raoul Pateras Pescara flies an experimental helicopter in Paris for over 10mins.

29th Jan 1932.....The first flight of the Bristol Type 120,an evolution of the 118 with a more powerful engine.

29th Jan 1932.....The first flight of the de Havilland DH.83 Fox Moth.

29th Jan 1940.....The first flight of the Soviet twin engine bomber,the Bolkovitinov S.

29th Jan 1941.....The first flight of another Soviet twin engined bomber, the Tupolev TU-2.

29th Jan 1945.....Germany scuttles it`s incomplete aircraft carrier Seydiltz,to prevent it falling into the hands of the Soviets.

29th Jan 1959.....The first jet passenger flights across the USA is started by American Airlines,using Boeing B707`s.

29th Jan 1971.....The Grumman EA-6 Prowler enters service.

29th Jan 2005.....Commercial flights between mainland China and Taiwan resume after stopping in 1949.

29th Jan 2010.....The first flight of the Russian twin engine stealth fighter prototype,the Sukhoi SU-57 PAK FA.

29th Jan 2016.....First flight of the new generation of Boeing B737,the Boeing B737-MAX.

[Angry Turnip]

30th Jan 1915.....The first flight of the German heavy bomber,the Gotha G.1

30th Jan 1930.....The first flight of the Soviet light bomber/recon aircraft,the Tupolev ANT-10.Only a single example was built.

30th Jan 1930.....The first flight of the US built Monoplane fighter,the Boeing XP-15.

30th Jan 1931.....The first flight of the Soviet built Tupolev ANT-8,an experimental flying boat.

30th Jan 1933.....The first flight of the US built Curtiss T-32 Condor II,a biplane transport.

30th Jan 1942.....Canadian Pacific Airlines is formed.

30th Jan 1942.....The H2S ground scanning radar system is used operationally for the first time by the RAF.The Germans manage to capture an H2S almost intact,on it`s second outing.

30th Jan 1948.....US Aviation pioneer Orville Wright dies at the age of 76.

30th Jan 1958.....German aircraft designer Ernst Heinkel dies.

30th Jan 1981.....British Airways aircraft makes a record 96 automatic landings in one day at LHR.

30th Jan 1983.....Sun Country Airlines begins operations.

30th Jan 1988.....Boeing`s Long range B747 SP Friendship One,sets around the world record of 36hrs 54mins,15 secs.

30th Jan 1998.....British Airways launch`s the low airfare airline GO.

[Angry Turnip]

Last Batch for this month.........


31st Jan 1923.....At Cuatro Vientos airfield in Spain,the Cierva C.4 Autogyro makes it`s first flight.

31st Jan 1928.....The first official US complaint about aircraft noise was made by The Cackle Corner Poultry Farm in Garretsville Ohio,claiming aircraft noise was having a negative effect on egg yields.

31st Jan 1951.....Capt Charles Blair flies a P-51 Mustang in a jetstream test,non-stop from New York to London in 7 hrs,48 mins to cover the 3,478 mile route.

31st Jan 1958.....The first flight of the US built jet trainer the North American T-2 Buckeye.

31st Jan 1970.....The USAF retires the Convair B-58 Hustler Supersonic Strategic Bomber.

31st Jan 1970.....Mikhail Mil,the Soviet helicopter designer dies at the age of 61.

31st Jan 1977.....The first flight of the US Built Bizjet the Cessna Citation II.

31st Jan 1986.....Boeing buys de Havilland Canada.It was sold to Bombardier in 1992.

31st Jan 1992.....TWA files for bankruptcy.

31st Jan 2005.....Air Exel (part of the KLM Group) ceases operations.

31st Jan 2010.....Northwest Airlines merged with Delta Airlines.