June Aviation Bites

[Angry Turnip]

Due to a tech problem with my PC this evening,a bit late with the listing for today.

A new month and thunderstorms to go with it.

[Angry Turnip]

1st June 1919....A permanent flight of war surplus Curtiss JN-4` Jenny`s is stationed in San Diego,to serve as a forest fire patrol.

1st June 1925....A car dealer covers himself in stamps worth $718,in a bid to be sent airmail from San Francisco to New York;the U. S. Post Office refuses to accept him.Only in America!

1st June 1939....First flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger,the legendary fighter designed by Kurt Tank.It was popular with it`s pilots,it was small and very agile making it a difficult target.

1st June 1940....U. S. Army Air Corps announces plans for the construction of the world’s most powerful wind tunnel at Wright Field,Dayton Ohio.

1st June 1944....First flight of the Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning,a long-range fighter developed from the P-38 Lightning.It was plagued by problems with its engines that led to the project's cancellation.

1st June 1948....First flight of the Cessna 170 GA aircraft.Early 170s were four-seat versions of the popular 140,with a more powerful 145 hp Continental C145-2 and larger fuel tanks.

1st June 1948....British European Airways commences the first helicopter air mail service in the United Kingdom,They operated mail services in East Anglia.

1st June 1949....A survey conducted by a firm of New York aviation consultants,shows that for the first time in history,air travel volume is greater than first class rail travel in the USA.

1st June 1950....British European Airways commences the first regular passenger service to be flown by helicopter,between Liverpool and Cardiff.

1st June 1960....Trans-Canada Air Lines begins transatlantic services,flying between Montreal and London using Lockheed Super Constellation`s,and later DC-8`s.

1st June 1964....The Kenyan Air force is established,they operated British aircraft intially,such as de Havilland Canada Chipmunk`s,Hawker Hunter`s,BAC Strikemaster`s.

1st June 1981....First flight of the Short 360,a transport that seats up to 39 passengers,a larger version of the Short 330,it is also affectionately known in aviation circles as "The Shed".

1st June 1983....Singapore Airlines announces it has bought six Boeing 747s and four Boeing 757s,making it the first Asian airline to buy the 757.

1st June 1992....The United States Air Force‘s Strategic Air Command, ( SAC ) is disestablished in a major reorganization of the USAF organizational structure.

1st June 2011....The Boeing B747-8 Intercontinental or 747-8I,enters service with Lufthansa.It becomes the type's largest operator.The General Electric GEnx is the only engine available for the type.

[Angry Turnip]

2nd June 1910....Charles Rolls makes the first return flight over the English Channel.12 July 1910,aged 32,he was killed in a crash near Bournemouth when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off.

2nd June 1917....Captain William Avery Bishop,60 SQN,flying a Nieuport 17 made a single-handed attack on a German aerodrome and shot down three enemy aircraft.He was awarded the Victoria Cross for this                               action.

2nd June 1923....First flight of the Boeing Model 15,a single-seat open-cockpit biplane fighter.They were operated by the USAAC,US Navy,and US Marine Corps.158 were constructed.

2nd June 1936....First flight of the LACAB GR.8 Doryphore,a prototype Belgian multi-role combat aircraft.It was already obsolete when completed and only one was built.

2nd June 1948....The giant Convair B-36 Peacemaker entered service with the USAF 7th Bombardment Wing.The first 21 were interim airframes,intended for crew training and later conversion.

2nd June 1957....Capt.Joseph W.Kittinger Jr.In his plastic balloon Manhig 1,stays in the air for six hours,36 mins and reaches an altitude of 96,000 feet,a new balloon altitude record.

2nd June 1958....First flight of the Vought XF8U-3 Crusader III,a successor to the successful Vought F-8 Crusader and a competitor to the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.
                          5 test aircraft were built.

2nd June 1965....First flight of the Aerotec A-122 Uirapuru,a Brazilian military trainer.Powerplant was 1 × Lycoming O-320-B2B 4-cylinder horizontally opposed air cooled, 160 hp engine.

2nd June 1972....The first flight of the Aérospatiale SA 360 Dauphin,a single-engine French utility helicopter.Aérospatiale had also developed a twin-engine derivative, the Dauphin 2,the name was later dropped.

2nd June 1986....The greatest distance achieved by a hang-glider is made by American Randy Haney who flies an unpowered hang-glider 199.75 miles from his takeoff point. Taxi !

2nd June 1998....Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-91 at 18:06:24 EDT. Mission highlights: Last Shuttle-Mir docking.

2nd June 1995....A USAF F-16 C was shot down by a Bosnian Serb SAM while on a NATO air patrol in over Bosnia.Pilot,Capt.Scott F.O’Grady was rescued six days later.The movie Behind Enemy Lines is loosely                                  based on the incident.

[Angry Turnip]

3rd June 1923...First flight of the Vickers Venture,a British army cooperation biplane.Six were built for the RAF,but they were found unsuitable and were used for experimental work.

3rd June 1932...First flight of the RWD 6,a Polish sports plane.A two-seater sports/touring strutted high-wing monoplane,of a mixed construction,with a 160HP radial engine.

3rd June 1936...The British Air Ministry awarded a contract to Hawker for 600 Hurricane Mk. 1 fighters,the first of a new breed of high-speed,eight-gun interceptors for the RAF.

3rd June 1949...First flight of the Lockheed XF-90,a long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort.The XF-90 never entered production,the design was considered inadequate.

3rd June 1959...A RAF de Havilland DH-106 Comet 2R XK663,is destroyed in a hangar fire at RAF Watton. No fatalities.

3rd June 1965...Gemini 4 launched 2nd US 2-man flight Astronauts McDivitt & White aboard.Astronaut Edward White became the first American to “walk” in space,during the flight

3rd June 1973...The first production Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner broke-up during a demonstration flight at the Paris Air Show,killing 14.

3rd June 1975...First flight of the Mitsubishi F-1,Japan's first domestically developed supersonic military jet.All had been retired by March 2006 and were replaced by the F-2 based on the F-16.

3rd June 1982...A RAF Avro Vulcan B.2 XM597 on Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War is forced to divert to Brazil after breaking a refuelling-probe.The crew were released 10thJune.

[Angry Turnip]

4th June 1915....First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.1,a two-seat biplane floatplane,based on Maurice Farman's MF.7 design.The 5 aircraft were based at Karljohansvern in Horten.

4th June 1925....First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.9,a fighter seaplane built in Norway.Only 10 were built performance was impressive,but it had a tendency to spin.

4th June 1927....The first non-stop flight from New York to Eisleben,Germany is made by Americans Clarence Chamberlain and Charles Levine in a Bellanca monoplane.It takes 42hrs 31 mins.

4th June 1930....Lt Apollo Soucek sets a new seaplane altitude record of 43,166 ft in a Wright XF3 W|.He served in both world wars and Korea,He was posthumously promoted to vice admiral in 1955.

4th June 1932....A Curtiss F9 C Sparrowhawk parasite fighter hooks onto the US Navy dirigible USS Akron (ZRS-4) To achieve launching and recovery from the airship in flight,a 'skyhook' system was developed.

4th June 1942....Battle of Midway is fought,the turning point in the Pacific War.Japan loses four carriers,Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū,and Hiryū.America loses USS Yorktown.Charlton Heston is so cheesey in the movie.

4th June 1948....Philippine Airlines begins the first transpacific sleeper service,using Douglas DC-6 airliners between San Francisco,and Manila in the Philippine Islands.

4th June 1959....Max Conrad flies a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to New York,setting a new lightplane distance record of 7,683 miles.He set other aviation records,some still unbeaten.

4th June 1969....A 22-year-old man sneaks into wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana,and survives 9-hr flight to Spain despite thin oxygen levels at 29,000 ft.

4th June 1974....Construction of OV-101,the first Space Shuttle, begins.It later will be named Enterprise.It was built without engines and without the heat protection system.

4th June 1980....First flight of the Mitsubishi F-15J/DJ Eagle is a twin-engine,all-weather air superiority fighter.Produced under license by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

4th June 1986....In Operation Poomalai,five Indian Air Force Antonov An-32`s airdrop supplies by parachute into the city of Jaffna,Sri Lanka,to aid Tamil Tiger rebels who have been besieged.

4th June 1996....First successful launch of the Ariane 5,a European heavy-lift launch vehicle that is part of the Ariane rocket family,an expendable launch system.

 

[Angry Turnip]

5th June 1909....First flight of the Roe I Triplane,an early aircraft designed and built by A.V. Roe,which was the first all-British aircraft to fly.It had a 9hp engine.

5th June 1909....John Berry and Paul McCullough win the U.S.’s first National Balloon Race,covering 377.9 miles from Indianapolis to Fort Payne,Alabama,taking 25hrs 30 mins.

5th June 1909....Hubert Latham makes he first monoplane flight of over one hour,flying an Antoinette IV for one hour,seven minutes,37 seconds.It had an Antoinette 8V 50hp engine.

5th June 1918.... Douglas Campbell,the first US pilot to become an ace while flying for an US unit in WWI,scores his sixth and final victory.Wounded during the flight,he sees no further combat.

5/6thJune 1944...."D-Day" WWII – The Allied invasion of France is spearheaded by paratrooper drops and assault glider landings.

5th June 1944....B-29 Superfortress flies its first combat mission;98 B-29s take off from bases in India and attack railroad shops in Bangkok,Thailand.Five are lost,none to enemy action.

5th June 1945....A typhoon strikes U.S. Navy Task Force 38 southeast of Okinawa.Several carriers are damaged and the task force loses 76 aircraft.

5th June 1951....The USAF,US Navy,and Marine Corps begin Operation Strangle,a day/night air interdiction campaign against enemy roads,bridges,and tunnels across the width of the Korean Peninsula.

5th June 1963....President JF Kennedy announces that his administration would seek funds for the sponsored development of a supersonic transport aircraft (SST).

5th June 1967....June 5-10 – The Six Day War is fought between Israel and her Arab neighbours.In a pre-emptive strike,the Israeli Air Force destroys half of the Egyptian Air Force on the first night.

5th June 1967....Boeing delivers its 1,000th jet airliner,a Boeing 707-120B for American Airlines.

5th June 1969....The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner becomes the first aircraft of its class to fly through the sound barrier,when it exceeds Mach 1 at an altitude of 36,000 ft.

5th June 1989....The massive Antonov An-225 Mriya flies in to Paris-Le Bourget for the 1989 Paris Air Show,carrying the Soviet Shuttle Buran on its back.The takeoff weight of 1,234,600 lb,was the greatest                                      weight ever lifted into the air.

5th June 1991....Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia STS-40 at 9:24:51 am EDT.Mission highlights:Spacelab mission,the fifth Spacelab mission and the first dedicated solely to biology.

5th June 2002....Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-111 at 21:22:49 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS supply,crew rotation,Mobile Base System.

5th June 2011.... NATO airstrikes level the offices of Libya's state television service, Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation, and the Libyan government military intelligence offices in Tripoli.

5th June 2012....The first Solar Impulse aircraft,completes its first intercontinental flight,arriving at Rabat,Morocco,after a 19-hour flight across the Strait of Gibraltar from Madrid.

[Angry Turnip]

6th June 1903....Ferdinand Ferber makes the first full trial of his glider No.6.Sadly it fails to take off in Nice,France.He continued to develop his designs,with and without power.

6th June 1910....Robert Martinet wins the first cross-country air race,between Angers and Saumur,France.he flies a Farman aircraft and takes around 30mins.

6th June 1917....First flight of the Sopwith Cuckoo,a biplane torpedo bomber used by the RNAS.It was the first landplane specifically designed for carrier operations.

6th June 1932....First flight of the  Armstrong Whitworth AW.15 Atalanta,a four-engine airliner.It was a high-wing monoplane with four 340 hp Armstrong Siddeley Serval III ten-cylinder radial engines.

6th June 1942....Carrier aircraft from Enterprise and Hornet sink the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma,bringing the Battle of Midway to an end.It is the last combat flight of the TBD Devastator.

6th June 1944....A huge airborne armada,nine planes wide and 200 miles long,carries American and British troops across the British Channel for the D-Day invasion of Europe.

6th June 1944....Thirty-seven RCAF bomber,fighter and coastal squadrons took part in operations for the invasion of Normandy.The Allied invasion of France is spearheaded by paratrooper drops and assault                                    glider landings.

6th June 1944....Alaska Airlines commenced operations.They purchased the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar,its first multi-engine aircraft.Later types were Douglas DC-3s, Douglas DC-4s and Curtiss-Wright                                         C-46 Commandos.

6th June 1964....Silver City Airways,a British independent airline,announces that it has airlifted its one millionth car between England and continental Europe.

6th June 1966....Gemini 9 landed in the Pacific after 45 orbits of Earth during the 72 h 20 min flight.The crew was Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan.

6th June 1971....Launch of Soyuz 11,was the only manned mission to board the world's first space station,Salyut 1.The crew capsule depressurized during preparations for re-entry,killing the three crew.

6th June 1982....Westland Gazelle AH1 XX377 is shot down by friendly fire from HMS Cardiff during the Falklands War.

6th June 2004....Alaska Airlines starts service between Denver and Anchorage and discontinues service between San Jose and Tucson.

[Angry Turnip]

7th June 1920....The U. S. Army orders 20 GAX,triplanes from Boeing as the Model 10,an order later reduced to 10 before the first was delivered in May 1921.They were heavily armoured for ground attack.

7th June 1927....First flight of the Supermarine S.5 Racer,a single-engined,single-seat racing seaplane.It was designed specifically for the Schneider Trophy competition.

7th June 1938....First flight of the Douglas DC-4E,an experimental airliner,it was superseded by an entirely new design,the Douglas DC-4/C-54, which proved very successful.

7th June 1946....First flight of the Short Sturgeon,a torpeado/ reconnaissance bomber and target tug.The basic Sturgeon design was reworked as a prototype anti-submarine aircraft.

7th June 1947....first flight of the Fouga CM.10,a high-wing cantilever monoplane,with fixed tricycle undercarriage.Flight trials with the glider prototypes had mixed results.

7th June 1966....Robert and Joan Wallick complete a new record,flying eastward round the world.It took them 5 days,6 hours,16 minutes and 40 secs in a Beech Baron C-55 called Philippine Baron.

7th June 1973....Bahamasair commences operations.At first flights were operated with Fairchild Hiller FH-227 and de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops and a single DC-3 prop aircraft.

7th June 1983....Launch of the Soviet Venera 16,the unmanned orbiter was to map the surface of Venus using high resolution imaging systems.It reached Venus' orbit on October 11,1983.

7th June 1995....The Boeing B777-200 enters commercial service with United Airlines.The 777 has received more orders than any other wide-body airliner; with 1547 completed April 2018.

[Angry Turnip]

8th June 1905....Gabriel Voisin succeeds in lifting off from the river Seine in his box-kite glider when towed by a motorboat,he stayed aloft for approx 2000ft in distance.

8th June 1920....Lieutenant John Wilson makes a world record parachute jump from 19,861 feet in San Antonio,Texas.

8th June 1921....A McCook built Airco DH.9A is modified with an enclosed,pressurised cockpit.Known as a USD-9A,test pilot Lt.Harold R.Harris made the world's first high-altitude flight in one.

8th June 1946....Allied Victory in World War II flypast is held in London including 300 British aircraft,that stretches for 60 miles,led by a Hawker Hurricane that had fought in the Battle of Britain.

8th June 1948....Air India commences a regular Bombay-London service by L-049 Lockheed Constellation`s.

8th June 1951....Eight USAF Republic F-84E Thunderjets of the 560th Fighter-Day Squadron crash,escorting B-36 Peacemaker bombers.Cause due to internal engine icing,but sabotage was first suspected.

8th June 1959....First flight of the North American X-15,a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft.This flight was unpowered,dropped from a B-52,the pilot of the X-15 was  Scott Crossfield.

8th June 1963....The National Museum of Naval Aviation opens at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola,Florida.

8th June 1966....Second North American B-70A-2-NA Valkyrie prototype crashes after a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter collided with it midair on a General Electric photoshoot.

8th June 1988....Nippon Airways announces that painting eyeballs on Jets cut bird collisions by 20%. You can decide on that one yourselves!

8th June 1989....A Soviet Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 suffers a bird strike during a display at the Paris Air Show.Pilot Anatoli Kvochur saves himself by ejecting at only 400 feet.

8th June 2007....Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-117 at 23:38:04 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 13A: S3/S4 Truss,Solar Arrays,crew rotation.

[smudge]

Turnip is being a un navet en colère for a while and has asked me to stand-in. 

It'll be a bit ad hoc so please chip in with additions!

10 June...

1948... Official release of the news that Major Chuck Yeager had broken the sound barrier in the X-1, which had actually occurred on 14 October 1947.  Oh the days before Twitter!

1948... Air India's first revenue flight landed at London Airport ( now Heathrow ) after a two day stopping-journey from Mumbai by Constellation VT-CQS.
https://parsikhabar.net/india/the-story-of-air-indias-very-first-international-flight/12718/

1984... A US Army self-homing Kinetic Kill Vehicle ( KKV ) intercepted a Minuteman RV at an altitude of 160km and closing speed of 6km/s, the first success for President Reagan's SDI program ( though the Army project predated the formation of the SDI office )
http://www.astronautix.com/h/hoe.html

1987... Maiden flight of the Boeing-Vertol Model 360 technology demonstrator helicopter.  Tandem rotors, composite construction, retractable gear and a pair of T55 engines crammed into a small airframe gave 200kts!  Wasn't intended for production.

1990... Captain Tim Lancaster nearly exited BAC 111 G-BJRT by an unorthodox route when one of the windscreens blew-out at 17,300ft. Thankfully one of the flight attendants, Mr Nigel Ogden, reacted quickly and grabbed Mr Lancaster by the waist and managed to hold him, half out of the aircraft, until assistance arrived.

The root cause was the use of incorrectly-sized bolts used to fit the windscreen after maintenance.
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19900610-1
https://gizmodo.com/5789432/how-a-captain-got-sucked-out-a-blown-up-cockpit-window-and-survived

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11 June

1928... Frederich Stamer performed the first flight of a reaction-engine-powered aircraft, at the Wasserkuppe peak in Germany.  His canard-configuration glider was designed by Alexander Lippisch and financed by Fritz von Opel and used two 20kg-thrust black-powder rocket motors fired sequentially for take-off.  Unfortunately on the second launch they tried to fire them simultaneously and one of the rockets caught fire, so the idea was abandoned ( for a while ).  It later came back as RATO / JATO...

1955... First flight of Boeing RB-52B-10-BO serial 52-008 at Seattle.  Served with SAC until 1959 and then transferred to NASA and converted to an NB-52B.  Known as 'Balls-8', for 45 years it was used for just about every mission that required dropping something; just think of all those iconic photos of the X-15 for example.  It was retired on 17 December 2004 and returned to the USAF!  Now stands as a gate-guardian at Edwards AFB.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/B-52_balls_8_missions.jpg

1959... Maiden flight of the Saunders-Roe SR.N1 hovercraft at RNAS Lee-on-Solent.  It was the first practical hovercraft and became the first of the type to cross the English Channel.
https://www.bartiesworld.co.uk/hovercraft/srn1.htm

2008... Maiden flight of the F-35B STOVL prototype, BF-1, at Fort Worth.  It was flown by BAE pilot Graham Tomlinson.  BF of course stands for 'Boring Fighter'...

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12 June

1909... Louis Blériot took two passengers up in his model XII, the first time three people had flown in an aeroplane.  Take-off weight was 565kg and the poor little machine only managed to convey them 300 metres, even on a second attempt.

1979... The 30kg Gossamer Albatross became the first human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel, powered by long-distance cyclist Bryan Allen pedalling at 75 rpm.  The team's slogan had been "If the wind don't blow and the chain don't break" but the wind blew and slowed the crossing to 2 hours 49 minutes.  The radio transmitter button also failed and the batteries went flat and the pilot ran out of water... but he made it.  The aircraft is now in the National Air & Space Museum.
http://www.avinc.com/about/gossamer-albatros

1994... Maiden flight of the Boeing 777, weighing 405 times as much as Mr Blériot's overloaded model XII.  The PW4077-powered airframe WA001, reg N7771, was later refurbished as a -267 with RR Trent engines and sold to Cathay Pacific as B-HNL.  It was withdrawn from use on 01 June 2018 and is currently stored at ZSAM Xiamen.  Some oddities about WA001:
1. It is the only 777 to have flown with engines from all three manufacturers
2. The wing spar construction differs slightly from the later airframes and required a structural life limit as a result
3. Boeing retains an option to repurchase the airframe for a nominal sum for return to a museum in the USA

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[smudge]

Busy tomorrow so you get them early:

13 June

1965... Maiden flight of the BN Islander, prototype G-ATCT taking-off from Bembridge.  After eight hours of flight-testing it was given a special-category CofA on 16 June to fly to the Paris Air Salon, which it did the following day.  Basic price of an Islander in 1965 was £17,750; fxtop.com says that's about £255,000 today with inflation which is about the going rate for a secondhand piston Islander.

1983... Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to pass beyond the orbit of Neptune.  It had been launched on 2 March 1972 atop an Atlas-Centaur.  NASA lost communications in 2003 but as of today it is about 18 billion kilometres from Earth.  It should reach the area of Aldebaran in another two million years but it doesn't carry a Golden Record like the later Voyagers.  Sorry, Aldebarans.

2015... Maiden flight of the six-tonne Airbus H160 helicopter, F-WWOG flying from Marignane.  List price is $15 million.

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14 June

1919... In the latest hare-brained attempt to fly the Atlantic non-stop, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown departed from Lester's Field in Newfoundland at 14:43 local time in converted Vimy IV G-EAOU.  The aircraft was overloaded by 1,000lb to 14,000lb with 865 gallons of fuel and cruising speed was around 65 mph at 5,000ft, though they seldom achieved such dizzy altitudes at at one occasion went down to 300ft.  On four occasions Lt Brown had to climb out of the cockpit to clear ice off the wings and radiators.  Will they make it across the 1,890 miles...?

1923...  The New Zealand Permanent Air Force was established, a core of 11 administrative personnel who supported the all-volunteer New Zealand Air Force.  It was renamed as the RNZAF in 1935 and became an indepedent military arm on 1 April 1937.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/rnzaf

1985... TWA 727 registration N64339 was hijacked as it departed Athens, heading to Rome as TWA847.  For the next two weeks it flew back and forth between Algiers and Beirut in accordance with the hijackers' demands.  One hostage was killed, US Navy diver Robert Stethem.
http://www.thisdayinworldhistory.com/june-14-1985-the-hijacking-of-twa-flight-847/

2013... Maiden flight of the Airbus A350, with A350-900 F-WXWB lifting-off from Toulouse-Blagnac at 10:00 local time.

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15 June


1919... They made it!  Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown made a messy but successful landing in Derrygimla Bog near Clifden, Galway at 08:40 local time.  They had achieved the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in 16 hours 27 minutes.  The Vimy was recovered and later in 1919 won the England to Australia Air race piloted by the Smith brothers and it is preserved at Adelaide airport.  Meanwhile a memorial marks the landing spot in Galway:
https://www.tripadvisor.ie/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g211883-d215833-i224099508-Alcock_and_Brown_Landing_Site-Clifden_County_Galway_Western_Ireland.html

1928... Imperial Airways Argosy G-EBLF raced the LNER train 'Flying Scotsman' between London and Edinburgh.  After breakfast in the Savoy hotel the passengers headed to Croydon and Kings Cross respectively and the race began at 10:00 local time.  The Argosy made stops at Bircham-Newton and Cramlington and arrived in Turnhouse only 15 minutes before the train pulled into Waverley station!  But apparently both companies thought that this was splendid PR and arranged another race in 1932.

1936... Maiden flight of the Vickers 271 Crecy, flown for ten minutes by 'Mutt' Summers from Brooklands.  This is better known as the Wellington, renamed in September, but extensive redesign was required and the production prototype type 285 first flew in December 1937.  Which is why the later Warwick bomber is the earlier type number 284.

1943... Maiden flight of the Arado Ar 234, Flugkapitän Selle piloting the 234V-1 prototype serial GK-IV from Rheine.  Only 274 were built but had an effect out of proportion to their numbers.  Many were captured by the Allies but the majority were scrapped after testing, or even used as targets on ranges!  Only one survived and is on display in the Udvar-Hazy Center.

2017... Maiden flight of the SAAB Gripen E, making a 40 minute flight from Linköping.  In case you can't tell it from other modern grey jets, it's the one that is slightly lighter grey in colour.

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16 June

1932... the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation of Burbank closed-down after several years of dire financial results.  It had been founded in Santa Barbara in 1916 by Allan and Malcolm Loughead ( hence the name ).  An industrialist who had dabbled unsuccessfully in aviation, Robery Ellsworth Gross, raised $40,000 with his brother to buy Lockheed and see if he could make a go of it.
https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/gross-robert/

1955... Maiden flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-4, piloted by Grigoriy Sedov.  It had the same design as the Ye-2, flown on 15 February, except for a delta wing rather than swept.  With a change to an R-11 engine it became the Ye-4/2 and the prototype of the MiG-21.

1963... Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, lauched aboard Vostok 6 from Baikonur for a three-day mission.  She was also the first civilian in space, as her rank of Lieutenant in the VVS was only honorary.  Her craft was in orbit with Vostok 5 containing Valeri Bykovsky who had been launched on 14 June; he retains the record for the longest period alone in space, 4 days 23 h 7 min.  Spare a thought for Irina Solovyova, her backup, who never flew into space

1990... Maiden flight of the BAe 1000 business jet, G-EXLR flying for 2hrs 5 minutes from Chester.  Flight had been planned for several months earlier but had been delayed by strike action.  The 1000 was a cleaned-up and stretched version of the 125 Series 800, with PW305 engines, but the whole 125 range was sold to Raytheon in 1993 as part of which the fuselage of 'EXLR was shipped to Wichita.

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17 June

Plenty of maiden flights today. 

1922... A Fairey IIIF named 'Portugal' arrived in Rio de Janeiro after the first airborne crossing of the South Atlantic, which had commenced on 30 March (!).  It had been started by a modified IIID named 'Lusitania', with extra fuel tanks and extended wings, but that crashed during an earlier stage.  Pilot was Captain Sacadura Cabral and navigator Captain Gago Coutinho; the latter had developed a special sextant with artificial horizon, used for the first time on this crossing but later universally adopted for airborne astro-navigation.

1955... Maiden flight of the Tupolev Tu-104, making a 37-minute flight with the undercarriage down.  The first Soviet jet airliner was based on the Tu-16 bomber and had the most powerful engines in the World at that time, two AM-3 producing 8.7 tonnes each.  In terms of weight it is about equivalent to an A319 today ( 71 tonnes ) but less commodious, maximum capacity being 117 seats.

1959... Maiden flight of the Dassault Mirage IV, for 40 minutes from Melun-Villaroche.  The flight had been delayed due to redesign of the vertical fin after vibration problems in pre-flight testing.  A stretched, Spey-engined version was seriously considered for the RAF after the TSR.2 was cancelled.  Last flight of a IV was on 23 June 2005 but the C-135F tankers that supported it continue in service*.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/seb_flickr/32251081391/

1961... Maiden flight of the HAL HF-24 Marut, the first indigenous Indian fighter.  Designed by a team led by Kurt Tank ( of Focke-Wulf ) it was underpowered and never achieved its potential; later ideas to install RB.199 or Atar engines never proceeded.  Only 147 were built but it was well regarded as a ground-attack aircraft, handling like a bigger and faster Hunter.

1983... First test flight of the Martin-Marietta MX Peacekeeper ICBM, flying 6,700km from Vandenberg AFB to drop six unarmed RVs on the Kwajalein range.  There were all sorts of ideas on how to base MX ( later MGM-118 ) including Dense Pack, Shell Game, Valley Cluster, Rail Garrison and Big Bird; a slow aeroplane carrying one MX which would remain airborne for a week with refuelling.  In the end they put them into hardened Minuteman silos which was an anticlimax.  The final Peacekeeper was retired on 19 September 2005.

1997... Maiden flight of the Eurocopter EC155, an upgrade of the AS.365 Dauphin with a much bigger cabin.



*Why are they not designated KC-135s?  Because the Kennedy administration refused to provide tankers to France, on the grounds that they were tools to support the independent French nuclear force.  However an Undersecretary signed-off the supply of cargo aircraft...


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[smudge]

18 June

1861... Thaddeus Lowe sent a telegram to President Lincoln from a hot-air balloon 500 feet above the White House, this being the first transmission from an airborne station. 
https://www.nga.mil/About/History/NGAinHistory/Pages/ThaddeusSCLowe.aspx

1932... Maiden flight of the Dewoitine D500 from Blagnac.  This was Emilé Dewoitine's first design to use a low wing instead of a parasol and though it looks primitive today it was a clean, all-metal monoplane which entered service when the RAF was still occupied with the Gloster Gauntlet biplane.  As a side note, there is a street named after the designer in Toulouse today and Airbus' postal address is: 2 rond-point Emile Dewoitine, 31700 Blagnac, Toulouse.
https://www.passionair1940.fr/Armee%20de%20l'Air/Appareils/Chasse/Dewoitine-D510/EN-Dewoitine-D510.htm

1972... BEA Trident 1C G-ARPI crashed close to the town of Staines shortly after departing Heathrow as BEA548.  All 118 onboard were killed.  Because of the departure route passing over populated areas a noise-abatement profile had been adopted but the flight crew implemented all the steps at too low a speed, and also retracted the slats in a turn, which resulted in a stall leading to an unrecoverable deep-stall.
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19720618-0

1981... Official maiden flight of the Lockheed YF-117, FSD-1 79-10780 piloted by Hal Farley flying from from Tonopah AFB.  This followed four years of flying experience with the smaller Have Blue testbeds and allegedly a couple of earlier hops in the YF-117.  The F-117 was officially 'revealed' in November 1988 after it had commenced daylight flights, but the photo was so poor that it was another two years before we really knew what it looked like.  Lockheed footage of the flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnsH7TMeyA0

[smudge]

19 June

1901... Edward Langley sent his Quarter Scale Aerodrome on two unmanned flights, which gave him the confidence to proceed with building the full-scale Aerodrome A.  Unfortunately, just scaling-up the design didn't work structurally or aerodynamically and when the Aerodrome crashed twice without flying in 1903 he gave-up on the whole idea of aeroplanes.  Sources differ on whether the Quarter Scale flew on 18 or 19 June, the Smithsonian goes with 18:
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/langley-quarter-scale-aerodrome

1931... In an outbreak of 'Channel Glider Fever', Canadian opera-singer Lissant Beardmore made  the first gliding crossing of the English Channel, in just over 30 minutes.  His Proffessor glider was towed to 14,000ft from Lympe and landed near St. Inglevert.  Unfortunately such was his haste to take the record for Britain that the flight wasn't properly recorded or observed.  Robert Kronfeld achieved a return trip on 20 June in his glider Wien and won the Daily Mail prize of £1,000 for the first two-way crossing, whilst Herr Krause sponsored by Lyons Tea gave up on that day after three attempts.

1937... Maiden flight of the Airspeed AS.10, selected as the RAF's standard twin-engined trainer and named Oxford. 8,381 were built by Airspeed, DH and Percival and after the war 141 were converted to the civilian Consul standard.  Only six Oxfords survive in museums.

1984... First flight of the GD F-16C variant, 83-1118 flying from Forth Worth. This marked the transition from the original Light Weight Fighter concept to a multi-mission bomb-truck.  The last production F-16C had an MTOW of 48,000lb versus 30,500lb for the YF-16.  Not many other aircraft had a 60% increase in weight but I think the winner is the Spitfire, increasing 210% between Mk.I and the Seafire F.Mk.47!

2006... First flight of the Lockheed C-5M variant, intended to extend the Galaxy's lifetime beyond 2040.  Updated avionics and new CF-6-80C2 engines, it no longer has the buzzsaw noise on take-off
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L12Este_wnE

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[smudge]

20 June

1897... Perry Pilcher gave the first public demonstration of flying in the UK when he was tow-launched into the air on his glider 'Hawk' at Eynsford in Kent.  The glider is preserved at the National Museum of Scotland:
https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/science-and-technology/made-in-scotland-changing-the-world/scottish-science-innovations/percy-pilchers-hawk-glider/

1941... The United States Army Air Forces was established under Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, superceding the Army Air Corps and absorbing all aviation assets of the Army.  Unusually it was not established as an independent force and only lasted six years, but at its peak in WW2 it had 2.3 million men and 80,000 aircraft.

1943... A USAAF aircraft ( type unstated ) 'discovered' the New Quebec meteorite crater on an oblique-photography mapping mission.  It is 3.44 km in diameter, but the photos were only made public in 1950.
http://craterexplorer.ca/pingualuit-impact-crater/

1950... Maiden flight of the General Aircraft GAL.60, G-AMUX at Brough.  Refined under Blackburn's ownership as the B.101 and ordered by the RAF as the Beverley.

1951... Maiden flight of the Bell X-5, flown by Jean Ziegler from Edwards AFB.  It was the first variable-geometry aircraft to fly.  133rd and final flight was on 25 October 1955 piloted by NACA pilot Neil Armstrong.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-081-DFRC.html

1956... Maiden flight of the Beriev Be-10 at Taganrog.  It subsequently set many World records for amphibians.  One of the more obscure NATO reporting names allocated, MALLOW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-JR5IqsZcw

1958... Maiden flight of the Westland Wessex, HAS.Mk.1 XL727 being the first of the type to have been built at Yeovil from the Sikorsky designs.

[Angry Turnip]

Smudge, you're doing a great job, thanks - only 2 more days to do 

[smudge]

21 June

So that's the Summer Solstice passed, now the long drop to mid-Winter

1936... Maiden flight of the Handley-Page HP.52 Hampden, K4240 piloted by Major Cordes from Radlett.  There was a lot of Swedish interest in the type but they weren't allowed to watch it because it was classified Secret!  1,532 Hampdens and ( Shorts-built ) Herefords were built but none survive intact, though there is a project to rebuild AE436 from wreckage:
https://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/history/Hampden-AE436.htm

1951... Maiden flight of the Handley-Page HP.88, built at Brough under contract to General Aircraft. Based on a Supermarine Attacker fuselage with Swift wingroots, its crescent wing intended to provide data for the development of the Victor.  However it took so long to debug that it didn't contribute much of value, and also killed test pilot Duggie Broomfield.     

1961... Maiden flight of the Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair, G-ANYB on a two-hour flight from Southend.  It had been converted from 1945-vintage C-54B cn 10528.  Two more were converted at Southend and 18 at Stansted.  Aer Lingus eventually had three but I don't know if they ever made it up North.

1968... Final flight of a Lockheed A-12, with CIA pilot Frank Murray piloting Article 131 from Groom Lake to Palmdale in the early-morning gloom.  #131 is now preserved at the Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham AL.
http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/a-12_final_flight.html

2004... Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne N328KF performed the first non-government-funded suborbital flight, reaching 328,491ft altitude on Flight 60L/15P afer launch from the White Knight carrier aircraft.  Pilot was Mike Melvill and there were some control issues which led to re-entry well south of its intended point, but it glided back safely to Mojave Spaceport.  The registration is a hint as to the altitude required.

[smudge]

22 June

1909... Wyckoff, Church & Partridge of New York became the first retail aeroplane dealership in the World, offering Curtiss designs alongside motor cars.  Glen Curtiss had already sold one aeroplane to a customer and that led to a five-year dispute by the Wright brothers who claimed a patent on all Flying Machines.  Unfortunately for them no-one in Europe cared much about their patent and their designs became obsolete whilst they bickered amongst themselves.

1933... Maiden flight of Tupolev ANT-25, serial RD-1 piloted by Mikhail Gromov.  It was designed solely for long-range record-breaking flights and these included non-stop from Moscow to Vancouver.
http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/aircraft/Tupolev-Ant25.html

1945... Maiden flight of Vickers 498 Viking, or VC.1, G-AGOK flown by Mutt Summers from Wisley.  163 were built and formed the nucleus of British European Airways until the Viscount era.  G-AJDL crashed at Nutts Corner on 05 January 1953 killing 27.

1954.. Maiden flight of Douglas A4D Skyhawk, Bob Rahn flying XA4D-1 BuNo 137812 from Edwards AFB to which it had been trucked.  Unit cost for production A4D-1 was under budget at $860,000 and 100 knots faster than specification.  2,920 Skyhawks built to February 1979.

1984... Maiden flight of Rutan Model 76 Voyager, N269VA flying for just over 30 minutes from Mojave.  Designed for non-stop, unrefuelled circumnavigation it could carry five times its own weight in fuel.  Only one built and after achieving its goal was preserved at the National Air and Space Museum, above the welcome desk!
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/rutan-voyager

1990... Prototype Northrop YF-23, PAV-1, was rolled-out at Edwards AFB.  Normally I wouldn't bother with such events, but who can ignore the awesome Black Widow II...  Unfortunately Northrop again suffered the Curse of the Odd Number and the Lockheed-Boeing-GD YF-22 was selected as ATF winner.
http://yf-23.net/galleries/PAV1.html

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[Angry Turnip]

A big thank you to Mr.Smudge for keeping the June flight bites going while I was away on hols :-)


23rd June 1905....The first flight of the Wright Flyer III,it was almost identical to the earlier models,it featured a 20hp 4-cylinder engine.

23rd June 1921....The first flight of the Short brothers built R-38 class airship.It was registered as R-38 but carried the US serial number ZR-2.It was destroyed in an accident 23rd Aug 1921.

23rd June 1924....Lt Russell Maughan makes the first one-day crossing of the USA,completing the flight from Long Island to San Francisco in a Curtiss PW-8 in 21 hours,48 min.

23rd June 1924....The prototype Focke-Wulf A 16 monoplane made its first flight.Capable of carrying four passengers,it was the first product of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH.

23rd June 1931....Wiley Post and Harold Gatty set off to fly around the world in a Lockheed Vega,the Winnie Mae,covering 15,474 miles in 8 days 15 hours 51 min – A new record.

23rd June 1935....First flight of the Bristol Bombay,a transport/medium bomber.The Bombay's main service was in the Middle East,particularly with 216 Squadron RAF.51 were built.

23rd June 1942....First flight of the Martin JRM Mars a large,four-engined cargo transport seaplane.One example of the aircraft still remains in limited service based out of Sproat Lake,British Columbia.

23rd June 1951....The famous non-fatal Grumman F9F-2 Panther ramp strike accident occurs as Cdr.George Chamberlain Duncan attempts landing on USS Midway in BuNo 125228-it has been used in several films.

23rd June 1985....Air India Flight 182,a Boeing 747-237B (VT-EFO) is destroyed by a bomb at an altitude of 31,000 feet and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A total of 329 people were killed.

23rd June 1994....First flight of the Antonov An-38,a stretched and upgraded version of Antonov's earlier An-28.It is a twin-engined turboprop transport aircraft.

[Angry Turnip]

24th June 1910....J.A McCurdy crashed attempting a flight in the Canadian Aerodrome Company’s Baddeck No. 2 biplane at Lakeside Quebec,he was the first Canadian to be issued a pilot's license.

24th June 1918....The RAF deploys its new 1,650lb bomb for the first time,when one is dropped on Middelkerke,Belgium by a Handley Page O/400 of No. 216 Squadron RAF.

24th June 1918....The first scheduled Canadian airmail flight is made,between Montreal and Toronto.Cpt Brian Peck and Cpl, E.W. Mathers,flew a Curtiss JN4.

24th June 1922....Construction begins on US Airship USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) at Lakehurst Naval Air Station,and first flew in September 1923.It was destroyed 25th Sept 1925.

24th June 1924....Portuguese Com.Brito Pais and Cpt.Sarmento de Beires end their eastbound attempt to circumnavigate the world in the de Havilland DH.9A Patria II at Macau after covering 11,000 miles from Lisbon.

24th June 1930....Dr.Albert Taylor and Leo Young of the Aircraft Research Laboratory,Washington, D. C.,succeed in tracing the position of airplanes in flight using wireless detection equipment.

24th June 1943....The RAF uses chaff,codenamed "Window",for the first time to foil German radar during the Operation Gomorrah raids on Hamburg.It`s use had been held back for several years in case the Germans copied it.

24th June 1944....The Luftwaffe makes its first operational use of "Mistel" composite aircraft.It was a fighter and a bomber crammed with explosives,that would be released by the fighter near the target.

24th June 1948....The start of the Berlin blockade.The Western Allies organized the airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin.flew over 200,000 flights in one year were carried out by several airforces.

24th June 1956....First flight of the Sukhoi SU-9,a Soviet single-engine,all-weather,missile-armed interceptor.Over 1100 of the "Fishpot" fighters were built although they are much overlooked in the west.

24th June 1960....First flight of the Hawker Siddeley HS 748,a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed by the British firm Avro-it was powered by a pair of Rolls Royce Dart turboprops.

24th June 1980....First flight of the Microturbo Microjet 200,a French two-seat lightweight jet trainer. It featured side-by-side seating for an instructor and student,and a V-type tail.

24th June 1982.... British Airways Flight 9,a Boeing 747-200,G-BDXH flies through a cloud of volcanic ash south of Java;all engines fail in flight,the crew is able to restart the engines and make a safe landing.Despite the lack of time,Cpt Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement....

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem.All four engines have stopped.We are doing our damnedest to get them going again.I trust you are not in too much distress"

24th June 1986....First flight of the Grob G520T,a turboprop long-endurance,high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.It is powered by a Honeywell TPE331-14F turboprop of 750HP.

24th June 1994.... 1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash:LtCol Arthur "Bud" Holland,maneuvered the bomber beyond its operational limits and lost control.The crash is now used in military and civilian aviation environments as a case study in teaching crew resource management.