April Aviation bits.

[Angry Turnip]

20th April 1914.....British pilot Howard Pixton wins the Schneider Trophy in a Sopwith Schneider,his average speed over the course was 86.78mph.

20th April 1918.....Capt Manfred von Richthofen shoots down his 79th and 80th victim of WW1.

20th April 1938.....Air Commodore Arthur Harris visits the US,to purchase aircraft to expand the RAF.The North American Harvard and Lockheed Hudson are selected.

20th April 1938.....The first flight of the Japanese built Tachikawa KI-36,a two seat low wing monoplane that was mainly used as a light fighter/bomber and trainer.

20th April 1959.....Aeroflot puts the Illushin Il-18 into commercial service-it is Aerflot`s first turboprop aircraft.

20th April 1964.....The first flight of the Lockheed L-100 Hercules,it is the civilian version of the venerable military C-130 Hercules.

20th April 1978.....Korean Airlines Flt 902 (A Boeing B707) is fired on by Soviet SU-15`s and forced to land on a frozen lake,after it had strayed wildly into Soviet airspace over the Arctic Circle.                                                         Two passengers are killed when an air to air missle hit the aircraft,and caused a decompression.
 

[Angry Turnip]

21st April 1914.....Cameraman BC.Hucks takes the first news movie shot from the air,filming the Royal Yacht with King George aboard crossing the English Channel to Calais.

21st April 1918.....Capt Manfred von Richthofen is shot down and killed.The legendary "Red Baron" kill is credited to Cpt Roy Brown,but recent investigations show he was shot from the ground by Australian                                        troops.

21st April 1928.....US pilot Carl Elison and explorer Hubert Wilkins arrive in Spitzbergen,Norway in a Lockheed Vega,after making the first air crossing of the Arctic circle.

21st April 1933.....The first flight of the USS Macon (ZRS-5) rigid airship operated by the US Navy.In Feb 1935 it was damaged in a storm and sank off Monterey Bay.

21st April 1956.....The first flight of the Douglas F5D Skylancer,a fighter developed from the F4D Skyray.Four were built,two were operated by NASA,one of which was flown by Neil Armstrong for the                                                    X-20 Dyna-soar programme.

21st April 1964.....The first flight of the Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB 320 Hansa Jet,a twin engine,ten seater,business jet.Forty Seven aircraft were built.

21st April 1972.....Apollo 16 lands on the Moon,it laned in the lunar highlands,the idea being to retrive older lunar samples.Crew is Young,Duke,and Mattingly.

21st April 1975.....The first flight of the Dominion Skytrader,a STOL Utility aircraft.Only one was built as it failed to find a market.Seemed to resemble an BN Islander.

21st April 1990.....Aeritalia (Italian aerospace company) becomes one of the Airbus Consortium.

21st April 2002.....The first flight of the Russian 3 seater Irkut A-002 Autogyro.To date only five have been built.

21st April 2011.....The Sukhoi Superjet 100 enters service with Armenia`s flag carrier,Armavia.The SSJ100 is a twin engine fly-by wire regional jet.To date 156 have been completed.

[Angry Turnip]

22nd April 1912.....Dennis Corbett Wilson makes the first aeroplane crossing from Britain to Ireland.He used a Bleriot XI,he was killed in action in France 10th May 1915.

22nd April 1939.....The first flight of the Lockheed Vega Starliner.It had a unusual powerplant,two engines side by side which could be used together,or separately to drive the single prop.

22nd April 1939.....The first flight of the Italian prototype fighter,the Aeronautica Umbra Trojani AUT.18.The sole example built was given the serial MM363.

22nd April 1958.....The first flight of the Vertol V-107 prototype tandem rotor helicopter.It was further developed by Boeing Vertol into the CH-46 Seaknight,and the CH-47 Chinook.

22nd April 1965.....The first flight of the weird looking agricultural aircraft,the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk.It was designed and built in Australia,and 118 were completed.

22nd April 1971.....Another first flight,the Argentine built Aero Boero AB-210,it was a civil utility aircraft with a fuel injected engine.It failed to go into production.

22nd April 1971.....The British and French governments give the go-ahead to build four more Concordes,bringing the total to 10 at that time.

22nd April 1985.....Pan-Am sells it`s Pacific division to Untied Airlines,the deal includes all B747SP`s,half of it`s Tri-stars and one DC-10.

[Angry Turnip]

23rd April 1918......Lt.Paul Baer downs his fifth enemy aircraft,becoming the first ace of the American Expeditionary Force.He is killed in an aircraft crash in Shanghai in 1930

23rd April 1939......The age at which a pilot license can be obtained,is raised from 16 to 18 in the USA.

23rd April 1945......USAAF Boeing B-17G 43-38856 crashed into North Barrule on the IOM killing 31 on board.It was on a ferry flight to Nutts Corner carrying personnel on leave.

23rd April 1956......The first flight of the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster,a large turboprop cargo aircraft.It was operated by the USAF and NASA,with 50 examples built.

23rd April 1965......The Lockheed C-141 Starlifter (63-8088),a military strategic airlifter enters USAF service with 44 Air Transport Squadron,1501 ATW at Travis AFB.

23rd April 1988......The US bans smoking on all flights of a duration of less than two hours.In fact 80% of domestic flights keep their no smoking signs for the duration.

23rd April 1994......Airbus delivers the first of 25 Airbus A300-600F dedicated freighters to Fed-Ex.

23rd April 1996......The first flight of the Extra EA-400,a six seat single engined monoplane.Expensive to build,to buy and operate,only 27 were completed.

23rd April 2005......The first flight of the VLJ class businees jet,the Cessna Citation Mustang.Production ended in 2017 with 470 completed.It is powered by 2 × P+W Canada PW615F turbofans.

[Angry Turnip]

24th April 1909.....Wilbur Wright makes a number of flights at Centocelle,Rome.During one a Universal News cameraman goes with him and takes the first movie film from an aircraft in flight.

24th April 1911.....Lt`s M.Longmure and C.R Samson become the first Royal Navy officers to qualify as pilots,after only two months training.

24th April 1924.....In an attempt to fly around the world,French Captain Georges Pelletier d’Oisy and Adjutant Lucien Besin depart Paris in a Breguet 19.A2.They get as far as Shanghai before giving up.

24th April 1933.....The first flight of the Grumman JF Duck,a single-engine amphibious biplane built for the US Navy.48 examples were built including 8 for Argentina.

24th April 1942.....The first flight of the Miles M.25 Martinet,it was the first aircraft specifically designed to tow targets.Over 1700 were built,all at Woodley in Berkshire.

24th April 1944.....As part of the USAAF build up of the 20th Airforce,Boeing B-29 Superfortresse`s start to arrive in China,to begin a bombing offensive against Japan.

24th April 1946.....The first flight of the Yakovlev Yak-15,a Soviet turbojet fighter,using a reverse-engineered German Junkers Jumo 004 engine.It was based on the piston engine Yak-3.

24th April 1946.....The first flight of the Mig-9,another turbojet using German reverse-engineering,this time the BMW 003.Flameouts were common when firing the guns at altitude.

24th April 1957.....Columbia Helicopters in Oregon is founded.The largest heavylift helicopter company in the world.They operate Boeing Vertol 107-II and Boeing 234 Chinook tandem rotor helicopters.

24th April 1967.....Cosmonaut Col.Vladimir Komarov suffers history’s first in-flight spaceflight fatality,as the parachutes on the Soyuz 1 spacecraft fail during its return to earth.

24th April 1990.....Launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-31-This mission deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

24th April 2001.....The longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft,and the first pilotless aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean,UAV RQ-4 Global Hawk makes a non-stop flight from California to Australia.

[Angry Turnip]

25th April 1922.....The first flight of the Stout ST,a twin-engine torpedo bomber built for the US Navy.Its primary feature was its corrugated metal construction, a new technique for the time.

25th April 1939.....The first flight of the French Arsenal VG-33,a light fighter aircraft under development at the start of World War II,but it never took part in combat.

25th April 1955.....The first flight of the FFA P-16,a Swiss prototype ground attack jet fighter.The project was cancelled in favour of the British Hawker Hunter,with only 5 machines built.

25th April 1968.....Apollo 6's SIV-B staqe re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and the Apollo 6 command module is recovered.Apollo 6 was an unmanned test of the Saturn V launch vehicle.

25th April 1986.....The first flight of the US built,Air Tractor AT-501.It`s an agricultural aircraft,monoplane taildragger with a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-45R turboprop of 1100 HP.

25th April 1996.....The first flight of the Yakovlev Yak-130,a two seat advanced trainer.It has also been marketed as a potential light attack aircraft.In 1993 Yakovlev  entered an agreement with the Italian company Aermacchi,to work together on the aircraft,but in 2000,differences in priorities between the two firms,meant they developed the aircraft seperately.The Italian version is called the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master.

[smudge]

25th April 1955.....The first flight of the FFA P-16,a Swiss prototype ground attack jet fighter.The project was cancelled in favour of the British Hawker Hunter,with only 5 machines built.

The P-16 had a Lear-Siegler flight-control system and Bill Lear Jr did some test-flying in it after two Swiss test-pilots had crashed their aircraft ( I think he might have been trying to prove a point! ). 

He seems to have liked it since the wing planform was used as the basis of the Learjet, which was designed by the redundant FFA team to his requirements.

[Angry Turnip]

26th April 1915.....2nd Lt William Rhodes-Moorhouse is the first airman to receive the Victoria Cross (posthumous).He is badly wounded and his aircraft shot up after a bombing raid.He gets his aircraft back to base,making his report before seeking any medical help.He died of his injuries the next day.

26th April 1924.....Imperial Airways makes its first scheduled flight, from Croydon Aerodrome to Paris, using a de Havilland DH.34.

26th April 1937..... Luftwaffe bombers of Legion Condor attack Guernica,killing over 1000 civilians in a raid lasting over three hours.

26th April 1942.....The first flight of the North American XB-28 Dragon,a prototype high altitude medium bomber.It proved to be an excellent desgin but it didn`t go into production.

26th April 1943.....The British deploy "Ground Grocer", the first device capable of jamming the airborne Lichtenstein radar employed by German night fighters.

26th April 1962.....The first flight of the Lockheed A-12,a high speed,high altitude reconnaissance aircraft built for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

26th April 1963.....The first flight of the FMA IA 50 Guaraní II,an Argentine twin turboprop utility aircraft.

26th April 1972.....The Lockheed L-1011 Tristar enters service with Eastern Airlines.It was a medium to long range widebody jet aairliner.Production ended in 1984 with 250 aircraft.

26th April 1987.....The first full-scale prototype of Saab’s hi-tech JAS 39 Gripen is unveiled in Sweden.It is a light single engine multi-role fly-by-wire fighter.

26th April 1995.....A Mikoyan MiG-29 sets a new FAI class C-1 h world altitude record of 90,092 ft.Over 1600 of these popular aircraft have been built and are in service worldwide.

26th April 2002.....The first flight of the Extra EA-500,a development of the EA-400 6 seat utility aircraft,but with a turboprop engine,instead of the EA-400`s piston powerplant.

[Angry Turnip]

Due to illness,no bits of info for April 27th today,I will do a double episode for 27th/28th April tomorrow.

[Angry Turnip]

27th April 1929....SQNL .A.G.Jones-Williams and Fl Lt N. H. Jenkins complete the first nonstop flight from England to India; they fly the 4,130 miles in 50 hours, 37 min in a Fairey LongRange Monoplane.

27th April 1932....Imperial Airways commences a regular passenger service to Cape Town.The journey took around 10 tens to complete.

27th April 1941....HMS Argus flies off 23 RAF Hawker Hurricanes to the besieged island of Malta,which had endured attacks by the Italian Air Force and the Luftwaffe.

27th April 1945....The first flight of the Swiss Pilatus PC-2 military trainer.It saw service with the Swiss AirForce from 1946 to 1981.It was powered by an Argus 465HP Air cooled engine.

27th April 1952....The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-16 "Badger",A Soviet built twin jet engine strategic bomber.Over 1500 were built,some Chinese built Xian H-6`s are still in service.

27th April 1991....The first flight of the Eurocopter Tiger,a twin engine attack helicopter.The Tiger has the distinction of being the first all-composite helicopter developed in Europe.

27th April 2002....Final successful telemetry is received from the Pioneer 10 space probe, floating nearly 7.5 billion miles from earth,it was launched in 1972.

27th April 2005....F-WWOW the first registered Airbus A380 makes it`s first flight.It is equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.

Airbus A380 F-WWOW by Paul McAllister / AT Images, on Flickr

27th April 2008....Eos Airlines ceases operations.Eos was an American all business class airline that operated from JFK to London Stansted using Boeing B757-200 aircraft.

27th April 2011....The first flight of the Boeing Phantom Ray,the autonomous UCAV is a flying wing,around the size of a conventional jet fighter.

27th April 2013....The Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes its first passenger-carrying flight since the worldwide grounding of Dreamliners in January 2013.

[Angry Turnip]

28th April 1927.....The first airmail service north of the Arctic Circle begins between Fairbanks and Wiseman, Alaska.

28th April 1948.....The first non-stop Paris/New York flight is made by an Air France sleeper Constellation; the journey from Orly airport, near Paris, takes 16 hours, 1 min.

28th April 1967.....After sounding each other out for a few years,Douglas Aircraft Company and McDonnell Aircraft Corporation are officially merged to form McDonnell Douglas.

28th April 1979.....Air Berlin USA commenced revenue services on 28 April 1979 with a flight from Berlin-Tegel to Palma de Mallorca.Their first aircraft were two ex-TWA Boeing B707`s.

28th April 1991.....Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-39 at 11:33:14 UTC. Mission highlights: First unclassified DoD mission; military science experiments.

[Angry Turnip]

29th April 1918.....Top-scoring American ace of World War I-Eddie Rickenbacker,flying a Nieuport 28 fighter scores his first victory,downing a German Pfalz D.III. fighter.

29th April 1930.....The first flight of the Soviet fighter,the Polikarpov I-5 was a single-seat biplane.It was powered by a 480HP Shvetsov M-22 9-cylinder, single-row radial engine.

29th April 1954.....Convair becomes a division of General Dynamics.In 1994,General Dynamics Corporation split then sold the original Convair Division,along with other General Dynamics aerospace units.

29th April 1959.....The first flight of the Dornier Do28 A/B Variant.it is a STOL Utility aircraft with two 180 hp (130 kW) Lycoming O-360-A1A engines and fixed pitch two-blade propellers.

29th April 1961.....The first flight of the Potez 840,was a 1960s French four-engined 18-passenger executive monoplane,the last aircraft to use the Potez name.

29th April 1961.....The supercarrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) is commissioned.It`s the second naval ship named after Kitty Hawk,North Carolina,site of the Wright brothers' first powered airplane flight.

29th April 1964.....(BOAC) introduces the VC10 jet airliner into regular passenger service, on its route to Lagos, Nigeria.

29th April 1966.....The first flight of the Neiva N621 Universal,a Brazilian piston engined basic trainer and ground attack aircraft manufactured by Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva.

29th April 1968.....United Air Lines becomes the first carrier to put the Boeing 737-200, a larger capacity version of the standard 737, into service.

29th April 1971.....First flight of the Piper-PA-Enforcer,the ultimate development of the P-51 Mustang,it was a turboprop-powered light close air support aircraft.

29th April 1981.....The first flight of the Myasishchev VM-T Atlant,it was modified to carry rocket boosters and the Soviet space shuttles of the Buran program.It is also known as the 3M-T.

29th April 1985.....Launch: Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51-B at 16:38:00 UTC.Spacelab mission.The shuttle landed successfully on May 6, 1985, after a week-long mission.

29th April 1988.....The first flight of the Boeing B747-400,the 747-400 features numerous technological and structural changes,the most obvious are 6-foot winglets and wing tip extensions.

29th April 1991.....The first flight of the Cessna Citation 525 business jet.Variants are marketed under the CJ, CJ1, CJ1+, M2, CJ2, CJ2+, CJ3, CJ3+, CJ4 and CJ4+ names.

29th April 2013.....Virgin Galactic's commercial spacecraft SpaceShipTwo makes its first powered flight.It is released by it`s jet-powered mothership,White Knight Two over the Mojave Desert.

[Angry Turnip]

30th April 1917.....The Pacific Aero Products Company changes its name to Boeing Airplane Company, with William E. Boeing as its president.

30th April 1919.....The first flight of the Avro Baby,a British single-seat light sporting biplane,it was designed by Roy Chadwick.Bert Hinkler used G-EACQ for several long distance flights.

30th April 1932.....An international code of air traffic communication is formally established.The new code is based on a series of three-letter code starting with the letter “Q”.

30th April 1933.....Midland and Scottish Air Ferries Ltd begin the first internal air service in Scotland, Renfrew – Campbeltown.

30th April 1950.....The first flight of the Sud-Est Grognard,an odd looking French single-seat, low-level ground-attack aircraft,powered by a Rolls Royce Nene 101 Turbojet.

30th April 1958.....The first flight of the Blackburn Buccaneer,a British carrier-borne attack aircraft,when the RN retired them in 1978,the RAF took on 60 of the aircraft.

30th April 1969.....The first female airline pilot in western Europe, Turi Widerose of Norway,makes her first scheduled flight as a first officer for Scandinavian Airlines

30th April 1982.....The United Kingdom declares an air blockade of the Falkland Islands,which were captured by Argentine troops.

30th April 1985.....The first flight of the British Aerospace Harrier II,derived from the AV-8B Harrier II.Initial deliveries of the Harrier II were designated in service as Harrier GR5.