May Aviation Bites

[smudge]

23rd May 1938...First flight of the Fiat CR.42,Italian single-seat sesquiplane WWII fighter.It served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica both before and during WWII

Some of them fought in the Battle of Britain!  Sent as part of the Italian Air Corps with medium-bombers.  They didn't score any kills but later in the war one bagged a P-38 over Italy to achieve the last biplane victory

[Angry Turnip]

24th May 1910....Prince Charles of Romania becomes the first royal aeroplane passenger,in a Farman piloted by M. Osmontat at Bucharest.

24th May 1910....First and only flight of the Blackburn First Monoplane,it lasted for around one minute,and ended in a crash in which the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

24th May 1918....Order No. 385 of the Bolshevik People’s Commissariat on Military and Naval Affairs,creates the Workers and Peasants Red Air Fleet,the predecessor of the Soviet Air Forces.

24th May 1919....Avro Civil Aviation Service begins the first domestic airline service in Britain,offering daily flights between Manchester,Southport and Blackpool.The service lasts 4 months.

24th May 1920....First flight of the Boeing Model 8,was an American biplane aircraft designed by Boeing specifically for their test pilot,Herb Munter.It was destroyed in a hanger fire in 1923.

24th May 1930....Amy Johnson lands her de Havilland Moth 'Jason' G-AAAH in Darwin,Northern Territory,becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.

24th May 1936....First flight of The Fieseler Storch Fi 156,a German WWII liaison aircraft.It remains famous to this day for its excellent STOL performance.2,900 were built.

24th May 1939....The English Imperial Airways Short Seaplane Cabot is successfully refueled in mid-air by a Handley Page bomber modified to carry aviation fuel.

24th May 1939....First flight of the Caproni-Reggiane Re.2000 Falco I,an Italian WWII interceptor/fighter,it was ordered by several nations,including the Hungarian, Swedish,and Italian governments.

24th May 1941....Nine Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious,score a torpedo hit on the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic.

24th May 1956....First flight of the Piper PA-24 Comanche,an American four-seat or six-seat low-wing all-metal light aircraft.4,857 were built between 1957 and 1972.

24th May 1963....CIA pilot Ken Collins is forced to eject from Lockheed A-12,60-6926,S of Wendover,Utah.The cover story refers to it as a Republic F-105 Thunderchief.

24th May 1967....First flight of the Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy,a US cargo aircraft used for aerial transport of outsized cargo components.It was developed from the Boeing 377.

24th May 1969....First flight of the SIAI-Marchetti SM.1019,an Italian STOL liaison monoplane built by SIAI-Marchetti for the Italian Army,based on the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog.

24th May 1976....Two Concorde supersonic airliners – one in British Airways colors,the other in those of Air France – Land at Washington’s Dulles International Airport.

24th May 1982....RN Sea Harriers of No. 800 Squadron,attack 4 Argentinian Dassault Mirage 5 fighter-bombers off the Falkland Islands,and use AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles to shoot down three of them.

24th May 1982....The last service by a British Airways Boeing 707,is a flight from Cairo to London.

24th May 1988....British Airways takes over British Caledonian.BA made a take-it-or-leave-it deal worth more than SAS's offer.After the merger landing slots/routes at Gatwick were given to other operators.

24th May 2011....NATO stages the largest air attacks against Tripoli,with more than 20 airstrikes hitting Tripoli near Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound.

[Angry Turnip]

25th May 1889....Igor Sikorsky,Russian/American aviation engineer who developed the first successful helicopter,was born.

25th May 1909....French Paul Tissandier,sets a world Flight Airspeed Record for an aeroplane in a Wright biplane,achieving 34mph.

25th May 1912....First plane of the Royal Norwegian Navy to arrive in Norway is the HNoMS Start,an Etrich Taube,a multi role single engine monoplane.It was powered by an 86hp Mercedes engine.

25th May 1917....A mass air-raid by 21 Gotha G.V bombers attacks Folkestone in Kent.It is the first of 22 German heavier-than-air raids on England during World War I.

25th May 1927....Lieutenant James Doolittle was the first person to do an outside loop,in a Curtiss fighter at Wright Field in Ohio.

25th May 1928....First flight of the Sikorsky S-38,a twin-engined eight-seat sesquiplane amphibious aircraft.They were used by civil and military operators including Howard Hughes.

25th May 1937....First flight of the Gasuden Koken,a Japanese long-range research aircraft.It was used to break the world record for longest flight,setting a closed circuit record of 7,240 miles in March 1938.

25th May 1940....HMS Illustrious (R87) enters service with the Royal Navy as the world's first fully armored aircraft carrier.

25th May 1951....The English Electric Canberra B2,first-generation jet-powered light bomber enters service with RAF 101 SQN.900 were built in the UK,403 in USA,49 in Australia.

25th May 1953....First flight of the North American F-100 Super Sabre,a supersonic jet fighter.They served with the USAF from 1954 to 1971 and with the (ANG) until 1979.2,294 were built.

25th May 1960....A Vickers Valiant of No.214 Sqn RAF,captained by Squadron Leader J. H. Garstin,takes off for the first non-stop flight between the UK and Singapore.

25th May 1964....First flight of the Ryan XV-5 Vertifan,a jet-powered V/STOL experimental aircraft.It had an unusual intake position above the two-seat side-by-side seating cockpit,and a T-tail.

25th May 1968....First flight of the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler,a twin-engine,mid-wing electronic warfare aircraft.it was developed from the Grumman A-6 Intruder.

25th May 1969....Apollo 10-Stafford and Cernan tested the Lunar Module,separating it from the Command and Service Module and descended to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface.

25th May 1973....Launch of Skylab 2, first manned mission to Skylab,the first U. S. orbital space station.

25th May 1976....First Flight of the Boeing E-3 Sentry, a U. S. military (AWACS) aircraft based on the Boeing 707 that provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications.

25th May 2003....Boeing 727 tail number N844AA mysteriously disappears in Angola,along with pilot Ben Charles Padilla.

25th May 2011....First flight of the e-Genius,a  German manned electric airplane,a two seat high wing configuration aircraft completely manufactured of fibre composites and equipped with retractable gear.

[Angry Turnip]

26th May 1904....The Wright brothers make their first successful flight in the Wright Flyer II.It is the first of 100 flights they will make in the Flyer II during 1904.

26th May 1909....The Zeppelin LZ-5 sets an endurance record by completing a 600-mile nonstop trip in 38 hours.It is destroyed on the ground in a storm 10th March 1910.

26th May 1910....Frederick Handley Page sets out to teach himself to fly by building his own aircraft.He makes several hops in his 'Bluebird' monoplane at Barking but crashes while attempting to turn.

26th May 1919....The three-wing,six-engine Tarrant Tabor bomber,attempts first flight at RAE Farnborough.It noses over on lift-off,crushing the fuselage and it crashes killing the crew.

26th May 1920....French aviator Alfred Fronval sets an aerobatic record by completeing 962 loops in 3 h 52 min.You have got ask why?

26th May 1924....First flight of the Tupolev ANT-2,an all metal 2 seat cantilever high-wing monoplane with a triangular cross-section.It was powered by a Bristol Lucifer engine of 100hp.

26th May 1932....First flight of the Farman F.220,a high-winged,four engined monoplane bomber.Engines were 4 × Gnome-Rhône 14N-11 radial engines,of 950 hp each.

26th May 1941....First flight of the Kayaba Ka-1,the Kayaba Ka-1 and Ka-2 were Japanese autogyros,seeing service during World War II for artillery spotting.

26th May 1941....First flight of the Northrop XP-61 Black Widow prototype.The first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter,and the first aircraft designed to use radar.

26th May 1958....The second prototype Short SC.1 made the first tethered vertical flight.It was attached to a specially-devised gantry,which allowed only a limited amount of freedom.

26th May 1965....Sir Geoffery de Havilland dies aged 82.

26th May 1969....Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.

26th May 1970....The prototype Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner reaches a speed of 1,335mph, becoming the first commercial transport in the world to exceed Mach 2.

26th May 1977....First flight of the NDN Firecracker,a UK single piston-engined trainer designed to replicate the handling of a jet trainer.Nigel Desmond Norman,of Britten-Norman was behind the venture.

26th May 1983....A Learjet 55 sets a world speed record in its class of 448 mph over the 5,655 mile route between Los Angeles and Le Bourget.

26th May 1989....Eurofly is founded,a privately owned airline based in Milan,Italy controlled by Meridiana,it was Italy’s leading carrier in leisure flights market.They merged with Meridiana in 2010.

26th May 2010....The Boeing X-51A Waverider makes a successful first flight,reaching nearly Mach 5.It is the first time an aircraft flies powered by a practical thermally balanced hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine.

[Angry Turnip]

27th May 1912.....The French Navy’s Foudre,the world’s first seaplane carrier embarks her first floatplane,a Canard Voisin.It was first commissioned in 1896 as a torpedo boat tender.

27th May 1924.....Adrienne Bolland wins the women’s record for looping from Laura Bromwell,performing the feat 212 times in 1 h,1 min in her Caudron 127 in Paris.Bunch of loopers! :-).

27th May 1931.....The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Laboratory at Langley Field,Virginia,begins operation of a full-scale wind tunnel.

27th May 1933.....First flight of the de Havilland Leopard Moth,a three-seat high-wing cabin monoplane.A total of 133 aircraft were built,production ended in 1936.

27th May 1936.....First flight of the Fairey Seafox,a reconnaissance floatplane for the Fleet Air Arm.Of the 66 built,two were finished as landplanes.It`s engine was a Napier Rapier VI piston of 395hp

27th May 1941.....The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by British naval and air forces.Swordfish torpedo bombers from HMS Ark Royal,had badly damaged Bismark`s rudder.

27th May 1954.....The Canadian Government awarded Canadair a contract to produce 13 maritime patrol/ASW aircraft based on the Bristol Britannia.It was designated Canadair CL-28 ARGUS.

27th May 1955.....First flight of the Sud Aviation Caravelle,a French short/medium-range jet airliner.The Caravelle became one of the most successful European first-generation jetliners.

27th May 1958.....The Republic F-105 Thunderchief enters USAF service.A Mach 2 capable fighter bomber,the F-105 was commonly known as the "Thud" by its crews.

27th May 1958.....First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II,a multi-role combat aircraft originally develoed for the USN.It served with many counties armed forces,with a small number still active.

27th May 1961.....The first crossing of the English Channel by a VTOL aircraft is made by the Short SC.1,is flown by A. Roberts from England to Paris for the Paris Air Show.

27th May 1999.....First flight of the Bombardier CRJ-900,a Canadian regional airliner.In 2007,Bombardier launched the CRJ900 NextGen to replace the initial version.

27th May 1999.....Launch:Space Shuttle Discovery STS-96 at 06:49 EDT.A logistics and resupply mission for the International Space Station,carrying the Spacehab Double Module (DM) 13th Spacehab overall.

27th May 2011.....NATO aircraft conduct 151 sorties over Libya,striking a command and control facility in Tripoli,ammunition storage facilities near Sirte,Mizda,and Hun.

[Angry Turnip]

28th May 1914....Glenn Curtiss successfully flies the refurbished Langley Aerodrome,an experimental powered aircraft,for a distance of approximately 150 ft. at Keuka Lake,New York.

28th May 1916....First Flight of the Sopwith Triplane flown by Harry Hawker,a single seat fighter,it was the first military triplane to see operational service.Only 147 were built.

28th May 1920....The first Lewis & Vought VE-7 is delivered to the USN.It was designed as a two-seat trainer,but the USN used it as it`s first fighter aircraft.

28th May 1931....A Bellanca CH-300 with a Packard DR-980 diesel engine flew for 84 h: 32 m without landing for fuel setting a record,which was not broken until 55 years later by the Rutan Voyager.

28th May 1947....BSAA trials non-stop flights operating a converted Avro Lancaster,from London to Bermuda using aerial refueling over the Azores.

28th May 1947....First flight of the Sukhoi Su-11 (1947),an early Soviet jet with Lyulka TR-1 turbojets.Testing revealed that it lacked stability at speed,and project was cancelled.

28th May 1948....The Royal Netherlands Navy commissions its first fleet aircraft carrier,HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81),which formerly had served in the Royal Navy as HMS Venerable.

28th May 1969....First flight of the Saunders ST-27,a regional airliner developed from the de Havilland Heron.It featured two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprops and a stretched fuselage.

28th May 1971....First flight of the French Dassault Mercure,a twin-engined narrow-body jet airliner.The Mercure had very little success on the market,only 12 were built for Air Inter.

28th May 1987....Mathias Rust flew illegally into Soviet airspace in a Cessna 172 and landed in Moscow's Red Square.He was officially pardoned by Andrei Gromyko,and released after 14 months in prison.

28th May 1989....First flight of the AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo,an indigenous Taiwanese multirole fighter.It resembles aspects of the F-16 and F-20 Tigersahrk,both of which the US had refused to sell them.

[Angry Turnip]

29th May 1908....First passenger flight in Europe as Henri Farman takes up Ernest Archdeacon for a brief flight at Issy-les-Moulineaux,France.

29th May 1923....The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded,by Reuben H. Fleet in Buffalo,New York.Among their best known aircraft were the PBY Catalina,the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.

29th May 1935....First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109,often called the Me 109,which is incorrect,it became the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force.The Bf 109 is the most produced fighter aircraft in                                  history,with a total of 33,984 airframes produced from 1936 up to April 1945.

29th May 1940....First flight of the Vought F4U Corsair,a US fighter that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War.Demand was so high they were also produced by Goodyear and Brewster.

29th May 1941....The USAAC forms Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom under the lend-lease Act.

29th May 1944....Aircraft carrier USS Block Island is torpedoed and sunk near the Azores,by three torpedoes from U-549.It was the only US Navy carrier lost in the Atlantic.

29th May 1947....A captured, modified V-2 rocket,launched from White Sands Proving Grounds,New Mexico,fails to reach its maximum altitude,and comes down ~three minutes later,impacting in Tepeyac                                      cemetery.

29th May 1951....Cpt C. Blair makes the first solo flight over the North Pole,in a P-51 Mustang "Excalibur III". He married actress Maureen O`Hara in 1968,and died in 1978 piloting a Grumman Goose.

29th May 1952....Aerial refueling is used on a combat mission for the first time,with twelve F-84 Thunderjets of the 159th Fighter Bomber Squadron being refueled by a KB-29 Superfortress.

29th May 1953....The first of two 40 passenger de Havilland Comets arrived in Ottawa for the RCAF.

29th May 1980....Canadian Armed Forces accepted the first CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft at CFB Greenwood,NS.It was to replace the CP-107 Argus and to further support Canada's NATO obligations.

29th May 1981....The Bell X-14B,NASA N704NA,originally USAF 56-0422,an experimental VTOL aircraft is damaged beyond repair in a landing accident.

29th May 2002....First flight of the Aceair AERIKS 200,a Swiss sports plane.It has a highly streamlined,bullet-shaped fuselage,with a T-tail and large ventral fin,pusher propeller,and canard.Ceased trading 2004.

29th May 2003....First flight of the Van's Aircraft RV-10,a four-seat,single-engine,homebuilt airplane sold in kitform.Richard VanGrunsven,designed the RV-10 to satisfy a demand for a four-seat version of the RV                            series.

29th May 2004....First flight of the NAL Saras (Sanskrit: "Crane"),a Indian multi-purpose civilian aircraft.It is a twin turboprop with a pusher configuration.

[smudge]

29th May 1923....The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded,by Reuben H. Fleet in Buffalo,New York.

And they were 'poached' by San Diego in the 1930s, to some ill-feeling amongst the New York institutions that had funded them.  But the Californians offered tempting terms...

Later in the war they stumbled and in an emergency arrangement were bought by Vultee to create Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft - Convair, see

Later merged into General Dynamics and then Lockheed-Martin.

The San Diego factory closed in the 90s but the Fort Worth factory now builds F-35s.

[Angry Turnip]

Indeedly doodley,but that does nay fit into one line :-)

[Angry Turnip]

30th May 1908....The first European flight of over 15 minutes takes place when Leon Delagrange flies his Voisin-Delagrange in France.

30th May 1912....Aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever at the age of 45.

30th May 1924....First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk MF.8,a military training seaplane built in Norway.

30th May 1942....Royal Air Force Bomber Command carries out Operation Millenium,its first thousand-bomber raid,in which 1,047 British bombers attack Cologne.Forty-one bombers are lost.

30th May 1944....First flight of the Pilatus SB-2 Pelican a civil utility aircraft.Powerplant was 1 × P+W R-985 Wasp Junior TB 9-cyl air-cooled radial piston engine of 440 hp

30th May 1947....First flight of the Boulton Paul Balliol,a military advanced trainer to replace the North American Harvard trainer.It used the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.

30th May 1948....First flight of the Martin P5M Marlin,a twin-piston-engined flying boat.They served with the US.Navy,US Coast Guard and French Navy.Most had retired by 1967 with 285 built.

30th May 1949....Test pilot Jo Lancaster becomes first British pilot to save his life with an ejection seat when he bails out of experimental twin-jet flying wing Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52, TS363.

30th May 1958....The Douglas DC-8 airliner makes it`s first flight.It is a four-engine long-range narrow-body jet which remained in production until 1972 with 556 built.

30th May 1971....The NASA space probe Mariner 9 blasts off from Cape Kennedy,on a journey to Mars.It`s mission was to map over 70% of the Martian surface from the lowest altitude 930miles.

30th May 1972....First flight of the Northrop YA-9,a prototype attack aircraft developed for the USAF A-X program.It lost to the Fairchild Republic YA-10 that entered production as the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

30th May 1974....The Airbus A300 wide-body twin-engine jet airliner entered service with Air France.Five airframes became Airbus Beluga`s or A300-600ST if you prefer.

30th May 1979....First flight of the Cessna Citation III bizjet.It was the first of the Model 650 series of Citation jets,which are mid-sized high-performance bizjets.

30th May 1982....The Royal Australian Navy decommissions its last aircraft carrier,HMAS Melbourne (R21).It was involved in two major collisions,and other incidents gave it a reputation for being jinxed.

30th May 2003....Air France made its final commercial Concorde landing in the United States in New York City from Paris.Air France's final Concorde flight took place on 27 June 2003 when F-BVFC retired to Toulouse.

30th May 2008....All business class airline Silverjet ceases trading.Silverjet's fleet consisted of three Boeing 767-200(ER) aircraft,they operated Luton to Newark,and Luton to Dubai.

[Angry Turnip]

31st May 1911....Andre Beaumont beats Roland Garros in the Paris to Rome air race,completing the 910 mile course in 28 hours,5 min.

31st May 1916....A Short Type 184,the only RN aerial recon flight of the Battle of Jutland,sighting three cruisers and ten destroyers of the German Fleet before a broken fuel pipe forces it to end the mission.

31st May 1919....First wedding held in an aircraft.Marjorie Dumont and Lt.R.W.Meade were married by an Army chaplain in a converted Handley Page bomber 2000 ft above Houston Texas.

31st May 1919....US Navy aviators flew a Curtiss NC-4 from New York State to Lisbon,Portugal,over the course of 19 days.It was the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

31st May 1928....Capt.Charles Kingsford-Smith and crew in a Fokker F-VIIB/3 m Southern Cross,set out to fly across the Pacific Ocean.They start from Oakland Field,California.

31st May 1935....First flight of the Fairchild Model 45,a luxary five-seat cabin monoplane.It was powered by a 225 hp (168 kW) Jacobs L-4 radial engine.17 aircraft were built.

31st May 1941....The short Anglo-Iraq War ends with the collapse of Iraqi resistance.It was a British military campaign against the rebel government during the Second World War.

31st May 1946....London Airport is officially opened,it originated in 1929 as a small airfield,Great West Aerodrome,and became Heathrow Airport in 1966.Sir Frederick Gibberd,designed the original terminals.

31st May 1967....First operational mission of an A-12 (937).Pilot Mele Vojvodich flew at 80,000ft Mach 3.1.The target was North Vietnam SAM sites,and marked the start of Operation Black Shield.

31st May 1978....First flight of the 2nd prototype RFB Fantrainer,a two seat trainer using a mid mounted ducted fan propulsion system.50 were built,later developed by Rockwell as the Ranger2000.

31st May 1991....First flight of the Pilatus PC-12,a single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft.The main market has been corporate transport and regional operators.

31st May 1995....The first flight of the Schweizer RU-38 Twin Condor long-range surveillance aircraft.It is a two or three-seat,fixed gear,low wing,twin boom covert recon aircraft.

31st May 2002....First flight of the Toyota TAA-1,a prototype general aviation aircraft substantially built and test flown by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites under contract with Toyota.

31st May 2008....Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-124 Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 1J: JEM - Japanese module Kibo & JEM RMS.

31st May 2008....Champion Air ceased operations.It operated general charter services to sports teams,vacation wholesalers and government agencies.It had a fleet of 16 Boeing B727-200`s.

[pavot]

31st May 1919....US Navy aviators flew a Curtiss NC-4 from New York State to Lisbon,Portugal,over the course of 19 days.It was the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Four of the type set out but only two made it to the Azores, one taxying like a boat, and only one could go on to Lisbon.  That one was restored for the 50th anniversary at which one of the crew was present!  It's now in the naval museum in Pensacola.