July Aviation Bites

[Angry Turnip]

Ok folks,another month,a hosepipe ban and still no sign of rain-just like most of the summers of the 1970`s.


1st July 1872....Louis Blériot,the French pioneer aviator who made the world’s first airplane flight across the English Channel,is born in Cambrai,France.

1st July 1911....First US Navy airplane is delivered a Curtiss D Triad as Navy A-1,first flown by Lt T G Ellyson.This was followed by a Curtiss A-2 and Wright B-1.

1st July 1914....The Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps is separated from the RFC and established it as a separate service,the Royal Naval Air Service,under the control of the Royal Navy.

1st July 1915....The French Navy seaplane carrier Pas-de-Calais is commissioned.It is the first paddle steamer to serve as an aviation vessel.

1st July 1916....The beginning of the Battle of the Somme WWI.In the five months of the battle,the British lose 782 aircraft and 576 pilots but maintain air superiority over the battlefield.

1st July 1919....London's first airport is opened,at Hounslow Heath.The facilities include a permanent Customs hall.It closed in 1920 when Croydon Airport opened.

1st July 1920....Belgium establishes the first internal air-service of any European colony,with the Lara-Ligne Aérienne Roi Albert in Belgian Congo.

1st July 1923....First commercial flight operated by SABENA between Brussels and London.The airline was founded 23rd May 1923,it filed for bankruptcy Nov 2001.

1st July 1926....A Blackburn Dart torpeado bomber makes the first night landing on an aircraft carrier,HMS Furious,a modified battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy during the First World War.

1st July 1926....The Royal Swedish Air Force,air force branch of the Swedish Armed Forces,is formed.By 1945 the Swedish Air Force had over 800 combat-ready aircraft, including 15 fighter divisions.

1st July 1927....Richard Evelyn Byrd with crew (Balchen, Acosta, and Noville) with their Fokker F.VIIa/3m "America" arrive from Roosevelt Field East Garden City, New York over Paris.

1st July 1928....The first aviation weather reports were sent through teletype from Washington, D. C. to stations in Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois.

1st July 1933....First flight of the Douglas DC-1,an American prototype and first model of the famous United States DC (Douglas Commercial) commercial transport aircraft series.Only one was built.

1st July 1946....The U. S. Navy establishes Experimental Squadron 3 (VX-3).Equipped with Piasecki HRP-1 Rescuer helicopters,the world’s first official all-helicopter squadron.

1st July 1948....First commercial flight from Idlewild Airport (golf course) which will become later New York International Airport and then John F. Kennedy International Airport.

1st July 1952....The Portuguese Air Force is formed by the amalgamation of the nation’s various previous air arms.

1st July 1954....Vought becomes an independent company for the first time since 1929,taking the name Chance Vought Incorporated.

1st July 1954....The Japan Air Self-Defense Force is founded.Following World War II,the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were dissolved and later replaced by the JSDF.

1st July 1960....British United Airways is formed,a private, independent[nb 1] British airline formed as a result of the merger of Airwork Services and Hunting-Clan Air Transport.

1st July 1961....The Royal Air Force deploys Hawker Hunter fighter/bombers to reinforce Kuwait,which is under threat from Iraq.Simultaneously it deploys Canberras and Valiant aircraft to Malta.

1st July 1962....The Boeing Vertol 107 BV 107-II-2 helicopter enters service with New York Airways.

1st July 1968....Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253A,a Douglas DC-8,is forced to land in the Soviet Union;on board are over 200 American troops bound for Vietnam.It had strayed into Soviet Airspace.

1st July 1975....First flight of the Valmet L-70 Vinka,a Finnish-designed piston-powered military basic trainer aircraft.30 were built but it failed to find export customers.

1st July 1976....The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution opens in Washington D. C.it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and spaceflight.

1st July 1978....July 1-19 – Frank Haile Jr and William Wisner fly two Beechcraft Bonanzas around the world in formation.

1st July 1989....The crowd at the Paris air show is stunned when the Soviet Sukhoi Su27 performs its 'Cobra' manoeuvre.

1st July 1997....Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-94 at 2:02:02 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

1st July 1998....JAL Express,operated by Japan Airlines,commenced operations.It began operations with a Boeing 737-400.It ended operations on 30 Sept 2014 after being fully integrated with Japan Airlines.

1st July 2002....America West Flight 556,an Airbus A319 is ordered back to the terminal at Miami before take-off after security screeners report that the pilots appear intoxicated;the pilots are eventually jailed.

1st July 2002....First flight of the Pilatus PC-21,a turboprop-powered advanced trainer,A key aim for the PC-21 was to allow future jet pilots to perform the majority of training using the type.

1st July 2004....Cassini – Huygens,flagship-class NASA-ESA-ASI spacecraft,enters into orbit around Saturn. No onion rings were found :-)

[Angry Turnip]

2nd July 1859....Two American balloonists,John Wise and John La Mountain,fly in their balloon from St. Louis,Missouri to Henderson,New York.The 809-mile trip takes 20 hours.

2nd July 1900....Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flies the first rigid airship,the LZ1 Zeppelin from Lake Constance,Friedrichshafen.It carries five passengers on a 20-minute flight.

2nd July 1910....Claude Grahame-White,in his Farman biplane,won the £1,000 first prize for Aggregate Duration in Flight (1 hr 23 min 20 secs) at the Midlands Aviation Meeting at Wolverhampton.

2nd July 1919....British airship R34 begins the first airship crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and the first east-to-west Atlantic flight, leaving East Fortune, Scotland, to arrive in New York on July 6.

2nd July 1926....The United States Army Air Service becomes the United States Army Air Corps.

2nd July 1934....The Armée de l’Air is separated from the French Army,to become the independent French Air Force,although retaining the name Armée de l’Air.Trust the French to complicate simple things.

2nd July 1937....Soviet pilot Paulina Osipenka sets a women non-stop flight record of 2416 km between Novgorod and Archangelsk with a Beriev MP-1bis,Variant of the Beriev MBR-2,Soviet reconnaissance flying                              boat.

2nd July 1937....Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean en route,in their Lockheed Electra 10E to Howland Island during an attempt to circumnavigate the world.

2nd July 1938....A Heinkel He-116R,German 4 engine long-range mail plane,sets an endurance record,covering 6,178 miles un-refueled,at an average speed of 133 mph after a 48 hours 18 min flight.

2nd July 1959....First flight of the Kaman SH-2 Seasprite,a US ship-based helicopter with anti-submarine,anti-surface threat capability,including over-the-horizon targeting.184 were built.

2nd July 1960....Textron Inc. purchases Bell Aircraft Corporation.

2nd July 1967....First flight of the Sukhoi Su-24 T-6:2,a Soviet supersonic,all-weather attack aircraft.It has a variable-sweep wing,twin-engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for its two crew.

2nd July 1985....Launch of Giotto,a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency,intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet.

2nd July 1997....Death of James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart,American film and stage actor,and also instructor pilot in single and twin-engine aircraft during WWII.He rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the                               United States Air Force Reserve, becoming the highest-ranking actor in military history.

2nd July 2001....Liverpool Airport is renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport. Calm down,calm down!

2nd July 2005....First Trans-Atlantic flight re-enactment:Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreated Alcock and Brown`s flight in a Vickers Vimy replica,they landed on the 8th fairway of the Connemarra                           Golf Course.

[Angry Turnip]

3rd July 1921....Zeppelin LZ120 'Bodensee' is transferred,and renamed as Esperia,to Italy in the context of war reparations as set down in the Treaty Of Versailles.

3rd July 1929....Lt A. W. Gordon hooks a Vought VO-1 onto US Navy airship USS Los Angeles in successful parasite fighter experiment.

3rd July 1933....First flight of Tupolev ANT-16,an experimental heavy bomber.The ANT-16 was designed under the doctrine that size and payload were more important for a bomber than speed.

3rd July 1936....The first flight of the Short Empire,a medium-range four-engined monoplane flying boat.It was developed and manufactured in parallel with the Short Sunderland maritime patrol bomber.

3rd July 1937....The first flight of the Dornier Do 24,a three-engine flying boat for maritime patrol and search and rescue.A total of 279 were built among several factories from 1937 to 1945.

3rd July 1937....July 3-6 – Pan Am and Imperial Airways flying boats conduct joint survey flights over the Atlantic in preparation for the commencement of regular services.

3rd July 1948....First flight of the North American A-2 Savage,a carrier-based medium bomber built for the US Navy.It was powered by two piston engines and a turbojet buried in the rear fuselage.

3rd July 1950....Supermarine Seafires of 800 Naval Air Squadron and Fairey Fireflys of 827 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Triumph fly the first non-US sortie over Korea.

3rd July 1950....F9 F Panther's of VF-51 flying from USS Valley Forge become the first US jet fighters to go into combat.A North Korean Yak-9 is shot down.

3rd July 1952....First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-24,a Soviet twin-engine,tandem rotor,transport helicopter.The initial variant could carry up to 30 airborne troops or 3000kg of cargo.

3rd July 1968....In the 1968 BKS Air Transport Heathrow crash,an Airspeed Ambassador freight aircraft experiences metal fatigue and crashes while landing,striking two unoccupied British European Airways                                   airliners.One of the BEA aircraft is repaired but is lost in the 1972 Staines air disaster.

3/4th July 1976..Three Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules carry commandos to Entebbe,Uganda to rescue the 258 passengers of an Air France Airbus hijacked six days earlier.

3rd July 1982....First flight of the General Dynamics F-16XL,a derivative of the F-16, with a cranked-arrow delta wing,that is over twice the size of that of the standard F-16 wing.

3rd July 1984....US low cost carrier,Air Florida suspends all their flights after going bankrupt.At the time they closed down,they had a fleet of 58 aircraft,including 5 DC-10`s.

3rd July 1987....Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson,became the first hot-air balloon travelers to cross Atlantic.Their balloon,at the time,is the largest ever flown at 2.3 million cubic feet of capacity.

3rd July 2001....Hainan Island incident–3 months after its emergency landing at Lingshui airbase in China,the US Navy EP3E Aries III is air freighted back to America on a chartered Russian Antonov An-124-100.

3rd July 2002....Steve Fossett completes round-the-world balloon flight,He broke three balloon records along the way;fastest time around the world 13 days,3 mins,longest distance solo 20,483.25 miles),and                                 longest time solo 355 hrs,50 min.

3rd July 2008....First flight of the Cirrus Vision SF50,a single-engine,low-wing,seven-seat,very light jet aircraft.It is also equipped with the company's Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS).

[Angry Turnip]

4th July 1908.....German experimental airship Zeppelin LZ-4 makes a 12-hour flight crossing the Alps.It covers the 235 miles from Friedrichshafen to Zürich and reaches speeds of 32 mph.

4th July 1911.....The first ever commercial cargo to be carried by an aircraft when The General Electric company paid £100 to have a case of electric lamps flown from Shoreham to Hove in England.

4th July 1915.....German Lt Oswald Boelcke claims his First victory,a Blériot Parasol,while flying an Albatros C. I two-seater with Lt von Wühlisch as the observer/gunner.

4th July 1922.....Lothar-Siegfried Freiherr von Richthofen,German WWI ace,younger brother of top-scoring ace Manfred von Richthofen,killed in the crash of his LVG C VI due to an engine failure.

4th July 1927.....First flight of the Lockheed Vega.It became famous for its use by a number of record-breaking pilots who were attracted to the rugged and very long-range design.

4th July 1930.....Brothers John, Kenneth, Albert, and Walter Hunter set a new record after a flight of 553 hours 40 min over Chicago using two Stinson SM-1 Detroiters as refueler and receiver.

4th July 1952.....58 Republic F84 Thunderjets take off for a trans-ocean flight of 10,895 miles, with seven stops,from Georgia in the USA to Yokota in Japan.

4th July 1956.....A Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft makes its first operational overflight.It is designed to fly at subsonic speeds and photograph the earth from over 60,000 feet.

4th July 1957.....First flight of the Ilyushin Il-18,a large 4-engine turboprop airliner.It was one of the world's principal airliners for several decades and was widely exported.

4th July 1958.....First flight of the SAN Jodel D.140 Mousquetaire,a French five-seat light touring monoplane based on the earlier Jodel D.117.Some 243 factory built examples were built.

4th July 1958.....Ghana Airways is founded.BOAC held a 40% share,whom began operating the Accra–London route on 16 July 1958 with a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser,Ghana`s first aircraft was a de Havilland Heron.

4th July 1964.....The last flight by the RCAF of an Avro Lancaster B.X.It was flown by F/L Lynn Garrison in KB-976,at the Calgary International Air Show.

4th July 1973.....A Grumman HU-16 Albatross,American large twin-radial engine amphibious flying boat,sets a world record for twin-engine amphibians reaching 32,883 feet.

4th July 1975.....First flight of the Boeing B747SP-a modified version of the Boeing 747 jet airliner which was designed for ultra-long-range flights.

4th July 1986.....First flight of the Dassault Rafale,a twin-engine,canard delta wing,multirole fighter aircraft.The Rafale is referred to as an "omnirole" aircraft by Dassault.

4th July 1997.....Mars Pathfinder (MESUR Pathfinder),American spacecraft carrying a base station with roving probe,lands on Mars.

4th July 2006.....Launch:Space Shuttle Discovery STS-121 at 18:37:55 UTC.Mission highlights:ISS Flight ULF1.1: Supply,crew.It was considered a Return to Flight test mission after the Columbia Accident.

[Angry Turnip]

5th July 1883....Birth of Jacques Benjamin de Lesseps,French aviator and 2nd man to fly the English Channel by airplane.He served with distinction in the French Air Force,commanding a squadron.

5th July 1913....A seaplane carrier participates in the Royal Navy’s annual maneuvers for the first time,as HMS Hermes embarks two seaplanes,the Short Folder S.64 biplane and a Caudron G.3 amphibian.

5th July 1917....First flight of the Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker,it became famous as the aircraft in which Manfred von Richthofen gained his last 19 victories,and in which he was killed on 21 April 1918.
 
5th July 1917....First flight of the Fairey N.9,a British experimental floatplane.It carried out the first shipborne catapult launches from Royal Navy ships,and was later sold to Norway.

5th July 1921....First flight of the de Havilland DH.29 Doncaster,an experimental long-range monoplane.Two aircraft were built between 1920 and 1921 at Stag Lane Aerodrome.

5th July 1927....Lady Bailey establishes a new light airplane altitude record of 17,283 feet,in a de Havilland D. H. 60 Moth,at the company’s airfield in Edgeware, Middlesex.

5th July 1928....Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo Del Prete in their Savoia-Marchetti S.64 land near Natal, Brazil,coming from Montecelio,Italy after a 49 h 19 m 4466 mile flight.

5th July 1929.... Curtiss-Wright Corporation is formed,a merger of 12 companies associated with Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company of Buffalo New York,and Wright Aeronautical of Dayton, Ohio.

5th July 1939....First scheduled airmail flight by autogiro from Philadelphia's 30th Street Post Office roof to Camden,New Jersey's Central Airport is made by John M. Miller with a Kellett KD-1 B.

5th July 1942....First flight of the Avro York,designed by Roy Chadwick,it was a transport developed from the Avro Lancaster.VIPs who flew on Yorks,included Winston Churchill,LV633 was his personal aircraft.

5th July 1944....The first U. S. rocket-powered military aircraft,the MX-324 flying wing prototype,flies at Harper Dry Lake,California.The pilot was Harry Crosby.

5th July 1958....First flight of the Bristol Type 192 Belvedere,a twin-engine,tandem rotor military helicopter.The Belvedere was Britain's only tandem rotor helicopter to enter production,26 were completed.

5th July 1969....First flight of the Shenyang J-8,a high-altitude Chinese-built single-seat interceptor fighter aircraft.The J-8 was not produced until 1979 and entered service in 1980.

5th July 1979....French aviation pioneer and aircraft manufacturer Emile Dewoitine died at the age of 87.

[Angry Turnip]

6th July 1919....The first person to arrive in the United States by air from Europe is Englishman Flt. Lt. J. E. M. Pritchard.He arrives with the airship R.34,after leaving Scotland on July 2.

6th July 1926....First flight of the Macchi M.39,a racing seaplane designed and built by the Italian aircraft company Aeronautica Macchi.Piloted by Major Mario de Bernardi it won the 1926 Schneider Trophy.

6th July 1938....First flight of the Loire-Nieuport LN.401,a French naval dive-bomber.It served in WWII in the Battle of France,but losses were heavy.68 aircraft were produced in different versions.

6th July 1947....First flight of the Dassault MD 315 Flamant,a French light twin-engined transport for the French Air Force.The Flamant served in Cambodia,Madagascar, Tunisia,and Vietnam.

6th July 1951....Aerial refueling is used under combat conditions for the first time,with a KB-29 Superfortress refueling four RF-80 Shooting Stars over North Korea.

6th July 1960....Sikorsky’s S-62 amphibious helicopter wins federal approval for operation as a commercial passenger aircraft.

6th July 1976....Launch of Soyuz 21,Soviet manned mission to the Salyut 5 space station.Mission ended abruptly with cosmonauts Boris Volynov and Vitaly Zholobov returning to earth after 49 days in orbit.

6th July 1998....Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport closed at 1:28 am with the lights of its 13/31 runway being switched off.The new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok opened on the same day at 0625

6th July 2007....First flight of the Epic Victory,an experimental jet designed by Epic Aircraft,based in Bend,Oregon.It is a single-engine jet that was intended to be powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PW600.

[Angry Turnip]

7th July 1914....American physics professor,Robert H. Goddard receives a patent for his two-stage solid fuel rocket.Goddard received very little public support for his research and development work.

7th July 1920....First flight of the Fairey Pintail,a single-engine floatplane fighter.It was developed for the RAF,but the only orders placed were for three for the Imperial Japanese Navy.

7th July 1929....First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.10,a military trainer seaplane built in Norway.It was powered by a 1 × Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah IIA,of 300 hp.Only four were completed.

7th July 1937....Curtiss receives the largest order placed with an airplane manufacturing company since 1918,when the United States Army Air Corps orders 210 P-36 Hawks.

7th July 1946....Aviator Howard Hughes is gravely injured when he mishandles a propeller pitch control failure and crashes his controversial Hughes XF-11 reconnaissance plane,on it`s first flight.

7th July 1948.... Silver City Airways,using a Bristol Freighter,operated the world's first cross-Channel air ferry service between Lympne near Folkestone in Kent and Le Touquet,France

7th July 1950....First Farnborough airshow held organised by the Society of British Aircraft Constructors.It was initially an annual event,but has been biennial since 1962.Held on even number years.

7th July 1961....First flight of the Soviet Mil Mi-8,a medium twin-turbine helicopter.The Mi-8 is among the world's most-produced helicopters,used by over 50 countries.Still in production with 17,000+ built.

7th July 1962....Colonel Georgi Mossolov,sets a new world absolute speed record for airplanes,flying the Soviet Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152,a prototype interceptor aircraft at 1666mph.

7th July 1962....First flight of the Lockheed XV-4 Hummingbird,a U.S. Army project to demonstrate the feasibility of using VTOL in a jet.Both prototype aircraft were destroyed in accidents.

7th July 1965....McDonnell Aircraft completes its 1,000th F-4 Phantom II multirole fighter/bomber.

7th July 1981....First solar-powered aircraft flight across the English Channel.MacCready Solar Challenger flew 163 miles from Pontoise–Cormeilles,to RAF Manston,staying aloft 5 hours and 23 min

7th July 1988....Launch of Phobos 1,Soviet unmanned space mission to study Mars.It suffered a terminal failure en route.Phobos 2 launched 12th July,attained Mars orbit, but contact was lost.

7th July 2010....The Solar Impulse I HB-SIA makes a circumnavigation of the planet,the first by a solar powered aircraft.The flight also set records for length of flight and altitude for solar powered aircraft.

[Angry Turnip]

8th July 1932....First flight of the Supermarine Scapa,a general reconnaissance flying boat.It was developed from the Southampton and formed the basis of the later Stranraer flying boat.Design was by                                        RJ.Mitchell.

8th July 1941....The first combat use of any variant of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress,is a trial raid by three Royal Air Force Fortress I heavy bombers on the naval barracks at Wilhelmshaven.

8th July 1947....Roswell Army Air Field public information officer Walter Haut issued a press release stating that personnel from the 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disc",which had crashed near                           Roswell.

8th July 1947....First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-23 (NATO-Flora),a Soviet fighter powered by an unlicensed copy of the Rolls-Royce Derwent V.It was fitted with tricycle landing gear and over 300 were built.

8th July 1947....First flight of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser,a large airliner developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter military transport.Innovative features included two passenger decks and a pressurized cabin.

8th July 1948....First flight of the Ilyushin Il-28 (NATO-Beagle),a Soviet medium twin engine jet bomber.It was also licence-built in China as the Harbin H-5.Over 6,630 were built.

8th July 1952....New York Airways begins inter-airport helicopter services to link Idlewild,La Guardia,and Newark airports.Passenger flights started with Sikorsky S-55 helicopters.

8th July 1958....First flight of the Borgward BFK-1 Kolibri,a German three-seated utility helicopter,designed by Heinrich Focke.Development ended after the two prototypes,as Borgward went bankrupt.

8th July 1960....First flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-150,a Soviet prototype single-seat fighter/interceptor,part of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-150 family.

8th July 1977....Death of Katherine Stinson,US early female flier and aviation pioneer.She set flying records for distance,endurance,and aerobatic`s,and taught at her family's aviation school.

8th July 1991....A US Navy F/A-18 Hornet is forced to shoot down an E-2 Hawkeye after its crew abandons it following an engine fire.

8th July 1992....First flight of the Bede BD-10,an attempt to introduce the world's first kit-built jet-powered general aviation supersonic aircraft.Five examples were built,three of these crashed.

8th July 1994....Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-65 at 12:43:01 pm EDT. Mission highlights: First Shuttle-Mir docking.

8th July 2007....Boeing 787 Dreamliner rollout at Boeing's Everett factory.The Dreamliner is an American long-haul,mid-size widebody,twin-engine jet airliner.

8th July 2011....Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-135 at 15:29 UTC. Mission highlights:(MPLM) Raffaello. Final flight of Atlantis,final flight of the Space Shuttle program.

[Angry Turnip]

9th July 1910....Walter Brookins reaches an altitude of 6,175 feet in a Wright biplane,becoming the first to fly a mile high and wins a prize of $5,000.

9th July 1910....Léon Morane became the first person to fly at 100 km/h (62 mph)he also set an altitude record,of 2,500 m (8,200 ft).He died during the epidemic of 'Spanish' flu in October 1918.

9th July 1924....The first recorded flight of a live bull takes place when champion breeder Nico V is flown from Rotterdam to Paris,by KLM in a Fokker F.III transport.

9th July 1933....Charles Lindbergh and his wife begin a major route-proving tour of the North and South Atlantic.Flying their Lockheed Sirius as NR-211,it was retrofitted to be a float plane.

9th July 1941....Attacked at their airfield by a 27-aircraft Soviet Air Force bomber regiment,Luftwaffe Major Günther Lützow of Jagdgeschwader 3 and his fighter unit take off and shoot down all 27 bombers.

9th July 1945....A RCAF Supermarine Spitfire from Rivers,Manitoba,photographed the eclipse of the sun for the first time from an aircraft at 34,000 feet.

9th July 1957....First flight of the Aviation Traders ATL-90 Accountant.A British twin-engined 28-passenger turboprop airliner.Just one was built,Aviation Traders was founded in 1947 by Freddie Laker.

9th July 1959....A Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant makes the first non-stop flight from England to Cape Town.The Valiant was Vickers' last purpose-built military aircraft.

9th July 1964....Lockheed test pilot Bill Park ejects safely from Lockheed A-12,60-6939,on approach to Groom Dry Lake,during test flight after total hydraulic failure.He had taken the A-12 to 96,000 feet.

9th July 1968....First flight of the Hawker Siddeley HS 780 Andover,a twin-engined turboprop military transport.Developed from the HS748,The Andover had a kneeling landing gear to ease ramp loading.

9th July 1976....First flight of the Antonov An-32 (NATO Cline),a twin-engined turboprop military transport.Essentially a re-engined An-26,high placement of the engine nacelles,give it a distinctive look.

9th July 1979....Voyager 2 made its closest approach of Jupiter.Launched by NASA on August 20, 1977,16 days before its twin,Voyager 1.Apprently know one told James T.Kirk.

9th July 1991....Bombardier-Navigator Lt. Keith Gallagher suffers partial ejection from U.S. Navy Grumman KA-6D Intruder 7 miles from the carrier.Pilot Lt.Mark Baden lands safely,Gallagher survives.

[Angry Turnip]

10th July 1914....German Reinhold Böhm flies his Albatros-biplane 24 hours and 12 min without refueling and nonstop.This one-man-flight record lasted until 1927.

10th July 1916....First flight of The Savoia-Pomilio SP.2, Italian biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft,a refined version of the SP.1,basic configuration from the Farman MF.11.

10th July 1919....British rigid airship the R-34,takes off from Long Island-New York,for a trip back to Pulham-Norfolk,for the First Atlantic double-crossing (return flight).

10th July 1929....First flight of the Macchi M.67,an Italian racing seaplane designed for the Schneider Trophy race.It was plagued with problems from it`s engine,an Isotta-Fraschini Asso 1000.

10th July 1935....The Bell Aircraft Corporation is founded in Buffalo,New York.The company was purchased in 1960 by Textron, and lives on today as Bell Helicopter.

10th July 1938....Howard Hughes,with 4 crew members,begin a record-breaking round-the-world flight in a specially modified Lockheed Super Electra.They cut in half the time set by Wiley Post in 1933                                           -their flying time is 71 hours,11 min,10 seconds.

10th July 1940....The Battle of Britain commences with the first German attacks on British convoys in the English Channel.The battle offically ran from 10th July 1940 until 31st Oct 1940.

10th July 1942....First flight of the Douglas A-26 Invader,a twin-engined light bomber and ground attack aircraft.The Invader also saw service during several major Cold War conflicts.

10th July 1943....Operation Husky,the British and American landings on Sicily begins.Supporting naval forces include the British aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Formidable.

10th July 1947....First flight of the Airspeed Ambassador,a British twin piston-engined airliner.Sometimes referred to as "Elizabethans",as they were originally ordered and popularised by BEA.

10th July 1962....Launch of Telstar,First satellite to successfully relay through space the First television pictures,telephone calls,fax images and provided the First live transatlantic television feed.

10th July 1968....First flight of The Mil V-12 (NATO Homer),is the largest helicopter ever built.It has hold dimensions similar to the Antonov An-22,intended to lift major items of combat materiel.

10th July 1978....Airbus Industrie announces a decision to proceed with development of the A300 B10.The designation is later changed to the A310.

10th July 2000....EADS is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra,Dornier,DaimlerChrysler Aerospace,and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA).Eventually it all became Airbus.

10th July 2013....A Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator lands aboard USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77) in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia.

[Angry Turnip]

11th July 1907....Louis Bleriot makes his first truly successful flight in the  Blériot VI "Libellule" ("Dragonfly").The flight was approx 100 ft but he carried out longer flights later that month.

11th July 1914....Lincoln Beachy was the first pilot in Canada to Loop-the-loop and accomplish inverted flight.This was done at Winnipeg,Manitoba.He was killed at San Francisco during a display in March 1915.

11th July 1933....First flight of the Dewoitine D.332,a French eight-passenger airliner.It was powered by three Hispano-Suiza 9V radial engines,and had a crew of three.

11th July 1935....Laura Ingalls arrives in Burbank,after an 18-hour flight from New York,making her the first woman to fly east to west across the United States.

11th July 1935....First flight of the Soviet Yakovlev UT-2,a single-engine tandem two-seat low-wing monoplane that was the standard Soviet trainer until replaced by the Yakovlev Yak-18.

11th July 1939....First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.12,a seaplane built in Norway in 1939 as a military trainer aircraft.One was built prior to Germany invading in 1940.

11th July 1963....First flight of the Grumman American AA-1,a family of light,two-seat aircraft.Production lasted 10 years with 1820 aircraft built.

11th July 1978....The UK government agrees to fund development of the BAe 146,a short-haul airliner and a regional airliner with four turbofan engines mounted on pylons underneath the wings.

11th July 1979....Second Lockheed Have Blue stealth testbed,c/n 1002,was lost at Groom Lake,on its 52nd flight when a hydraulic leak set the aircraft on fire.The pilot ejected safely.

11th July 2002....First flight of the Adam A500 is an American six-seat civil utility aircraft.It is of pod-and-boom,push-pull configuration with its two Continental TSIO-550-E piston engines .

[Angry Turnip]

12th July 1785....The first manned balloon ascent in Holland is made by Jean-Pierre Blanchard.

12th July 1910....Death of Charles Rolls,motoring and aviation pioneer,becomes the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a display near Bournemouth.

12th July 1916....United States Navy armored cruiser North Carolina becomes the first ship to launch an aircraft by catapult while underway,launching a Curtiss flying boat.

12th July 1929....First flight of The Dornier Do X,a German flying boat,semi-cantilever monoplane powered by twelve engines mounted in six tower nacelles on the wing.Three aircraft were completed.

12th July 1945....Death of Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen,German WWI fighter ace and high-ranking officer in WWII,cousin of Lothar and Manfred von Richthofen.He died from a brain tumor as a POW.

12th July 1952....First flight of the  Beecraft Honey Bee,an all-metal V-tailed homebuilt aircraft,that was designed by Walter E. Mooney.Just one example was built.

12th July 1957....President Eisenhower becomes the first U. S. president to fly in a helicopter when he is flown from the White House to an unnamed military post in a USAF Bell UH-13 J.

12th July 1966....First flight of the Northrop M2-F2,a heavyweight lifting body based on studies at NASA's Ames and Langley research centers.They were dropped from a B-52 mothership and glided back.

12th July 1980....First flight of the McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender,an aerial refueling tanker.It incorporates military-specific equipment for its primary roles of transport and aerial refueling.

12th July 1985....First flight of the Antonov An-71,a Soviet AWACS aircraft,developed from the An-72 transport.Only three prototypes were built before the program was cancelled.

12th July 1988....First flight of the Scaled Composites Triumph,a twin-engine,business jet prototype,designed and built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites for Beechcraft.Just one was built.

12th July 2001....Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-104 at 05:04 am EDT.Its primary objectives were to install the Quest Joint Airlock and help perform maintenance on the International Space Station.

[Angry Turnip]

13th July 1909....The first flight made by an Englishman in an English airplane takes place when Roe flies his Roe I triplane for the first time at Lea Marsches in Essex.He flies only 100 ft.

13th July 1913....Léon Letort flies his Morane-Saulnier monoplane fitted with an 80-hp Le Rhône engine,590 miles making the first non-stop flight between Paris and Berlin.

13th July 1925....Western Airlines is founded,it was a large airline based in California.By the mid 1930s,Western Air Express had introduced new Boeing 247.It merged with Delta Air Lines in 1987.

13th July 1950....The first flight of the Orenda engine on a Lancaster test bed at Malton.Orenda Engines was a Canadian aircraft engine manufacturer and parts supplier.

13th July 1969....Launch of Luna 15 (Ye-8-5 series),a Soviet unmanned space mission to the moon also called Lunik 15.It launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission.Armstrong and Aldrin had already set                                foot on the Moon when Luna 15 fired its main retrorocket engine to initiate descent to the surface at 15:47 UT on 21 July 1969 and it crashed shortly after.

13th July 1986....First flight of the PZL-130 T Turbo Orlik,a Polish turboprop single engine two seat trainer.Export versions have a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 A-25 A turboprop.

13th July 1988....The 1988 British International Helicopters Sikorsky S-61N crash in the North Sea due to an engine fire;all 21 on board survive.after it made a controlled ditching in the sea.

13th July 1992....First flight of the 3I Sky Arrow,an Italian 2 tandem seat,pusher configuration,high wing and carbon fibre light aircraft.Engine is a 1 × Rotax 912 F2(98.6 hp).

13th July 1995....Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-70 at 9:41:55.078 a.m. EDT.Mission highlights: TDRS-G/IUS deployed.The satellite was ejected from Discovery's cargo bay exactly on time.

[Angry Turnip]

14th July 1905....Orville Wright has a serious crash with Wright Flyer III,upon which the brothers alter the aircraft.The front rudder is mainly the culprit for the Flyer’s insistent pitching.

14th July 1913....First flight of the Cody Floatplane,was designed and built by Samuel Franklin Cody.It suffered a structural failure during flight trials,and both Cody and his passenger were killed.

14th July 1914....Dr. Robert H. Goddard is granted a patent for his liquid fuel rocket engine.He is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket which flew in 1926.

14th July 1916....First flight of The Bristol M.1 Monoplane Scout,a British WWI monoplane fighter.It holds the distinction of being the only British monoplane fighter to reach production during WWI.

14th July 1919....At the World War I victory parade on the Champs-Elysées in Paris,French pilot Charles Godefroy flies his Nieuport fighter under the arches of the Arc de Triomphe.

14th July 1933....Wiley Post,flying a Lockheed Vega,sets out to attempt the first around the world solo flight.His flight begins and ends at Floyd Bennett Field in New York.Returning on 22nd July.

14th July 1936....Royal Air Force is re-organised,RAF Fighter Command,RAF Bomber Command,RAF Coastal Command,and RAF Training Command are established.

14th July 1936....First flight of the Kawanishi H6K,an Imperial Japanese Navy flying boat.It was used during World War II for maritime patrol duties.The Allied reporting name was Mavis.

14th July 1937....Mikhail Gromov,A.Yumashev and S.Danilin established a new non-stop flight distance record of (6,306 mi) from Moscow to San Jacinto,California,USA via the North Pole in a Tupolev ANT-25.

14th July 1948....First flight of the The Supermarine Seagull ASR-1,a British amphibious,military flying boat and the last to be built by the Supermarine company.Just 2 were completed.

14th July 1948....Vampire F3 s of No. 54 Squadron RAF became the first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.The six aircraft go via Stornoway,Iceland and Labrador to Montreal and USA.

14th July 1951....First flight of the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation.The L-1049 was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC-6 airliner.Military versions were also built for the US.

14th July 1954....First flight of the McDonnell XV-1 was an experimental compound gyroplane.The program was terminated due to the tip-jet noise,and complexity of the technology.

14th July 1954....First prototype Handley Page Victor bomber,WB771,is lost when the tailplane detaches while making a low-level pass over the runway at Cranfield.

14th July 1965....The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the First close-up photos of another planet.It was designed to conduct scientific observations of Mars and to transmit these observations to Earth.

14th July 1971....First flight of the VFW-Fokker 614,a twin-engined jetliner.It`s most distinctive feature was that its engines were mounted in pods on pylons above the wing.Just 19 were built.

14th July 1982....First flight of the Harbin Y-12,a Chinese built high wing twin-engine turboprop utility aircraft.Power plants are 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 turboprops with Hartzell propellers.

14th July 1988....First flight of the SOCATA TBM 700,high performance single-engine turboprop light business and utility aircraft manufactured by Daher.It is used in civil and military roles.

14th July 1993....The first production C-17 was delivered to Charleston Air Force Base,South Carolina.The first C-17 squadron,the 17th Airlift Squadron,became operationally ready on 17 January 1995.

[Angry Turnip]

15th July 1916....William Boeing founds the Pacific Aero Products Company.In 1917 it will be renamed Boeing Airplane Company.The current Boeing is the result of merger with McDonnell Douglas in August 1997.

15th July 1923....Dobrolyot,an early Soviet Union air transport organisation,opens its first scheduled domestic service,between Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod.October 29th 1930,Dobrolyot was abolished.

15th July 1927....First flight of the Bristol Bagshot,a prototype heavily armed British fighter.Flight testing revealed serious problems with the design,and the project was abandoned.

15th July 1933....Wiley Post began First solo flight around world in a Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae.Fifty thousand people greeted him on his return on July 22 after 7 days,18 hours,49 minutes.

15th July 1934....Continental Airlines is founded,originally Varney Air Lines was an airline company that started service on April 6, 1926,as an air-mail carrier.It become part of United in 2012.

15th July 1938....First flight of The production model Dornier Do 22/ a German three-seat,parasol wing monoplane,single-engined military floatplane.Approx 30 were completed.

15th July 1939....Clara Adams,the "maiden of maiden flights,"set the unofficial record for passenger travel around the world via commercial air travel.Adams was not a pilot,her activities popularized air travel.

15th July 1941....Luftwaffe ace Werner Mölders shoots down two Soviet aircraft,raising his victory total to 101.He becomes the first pilot to claim 100 victories.He died in a plane crash Nov 1941 enroute to                                the funeral of Ernest Udet.

15th July 1942....The Republic of China Air Force’s American Volunteer Group – The “Flying Tigers” – is transferred to the United States Army Air Forces,in which it becomes the 23rd Fighter Group.

15th July 1946....First flight of the Canadair North Star,a Canadian development of the Douglas DC-4.Canadair used Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engines to achieve a much higher cruising speed of 325 mph.

15th July 1954....First flight of the Boeing 367-80,known simply as the Dash 80,a four-engine jet prototype.It served as base for the design of the KC-135 tanker and the 707 airliner.

15th July 1964....First flight of the SIAI-Marchetti SF.260,an Italian light aircraft which has been commonly marketed as a military trainer and aerobatics aircraft.Still in production as the Leonardo SF-260.

15th July 1975....First international manned space flight occurs between the Soviet Soyuz 19,and an Apollo spacecraft.It was known in the west as Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).The unnumbered Apollo                                    vehicle was a surplus from the terminated Apollo program and the last one to fly.

15th July 1997....The first flight of the Beriev Be-103 Bekas,an amphibious seaplane.Its hallmark and most distinguishing design feature is the water-displacing wing,an unusual feature for a seaplane.

15th July 2004....First flight of the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master,a military twin-engine trainer aircraft.Originally co-developed with Yakovlev as the Yak/AEM-130,the partnership was dissolved in 2000.

15th July 2009....Launch:Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-127 at 22:03 UTC.Mission highlights:ISS assembly flight 2J/A:JEM Exposed Facility (EF) & JEM ELM ES.The launch had been scrubbed five times.

[Angry Turnip]

Quite a few first flights in todays listings.


16th July 1911....The LZ 10 Schwaben,a German rigid airship,enters commercial service.It will go on to become the first commercially successful passenger aircraft.First flight was 26thJune 1911.

16th July 1920....First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.34,a  French twin-seat,single-engine biplane flight trainer.The side-by-side seating arrangement was unique for its time.150 aircraft were built.

16th July 1921....Cambridge wins the first (and last) air race between Oxford and Cambridge universities,using 6x S.E.5 A`s aircraft.They flew a 129 mile circuit start/finish at Hendon.

16th July 1921....First flight of the Avro 552,a British light biplane aircraft,the Argentine Navy purchasing 12 examples of a float-equipped version.Two similar machines were purchased by Bulgaria.

16th July 1930....Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) is formed,when Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express merge.

16th July 1938....Luton Airport is opened by Secretary of State for Air,Kingsley Wood.During World War II,it was a base for the RAF,Percival Aircraft had a factory at the site until the early 1960s.

16th July 1945....First atomic weapon is successfully detonated at the Trinity test site,Alamogordo in New Mexico,USA.It was the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki,August 9,1945.

16th July 1947....First flight of the Saunders-Roe SR./A.1,a prototype flying boat jetfighter.The two SR./A.1 prototypes were fitted with the first two production Martin-Baker ejection seats built.

16th July 1948....First flight of the Vickers Viscount,a British medium-range turboprop airliner.It became one of the most successful and profitable of the first post-war transport aircraft.

16th July 1951....First flight of the AISA I-11,a Spanish two-seat civil utility aircraft.The Spanish Air Force then ordered 125 for use in training and liaison roles.$10 were built in total.

16th July 1956....First flight of the Lavochkin La-250 "Anakonda",a Soviet high-altitude interceptor.Powerplant: 2 × Lyulka AL-7F turbojets,22,050 lbf afterburning thrust each-project scrapped 1959.

16th July 1957....First flight of the Aerotécnica AC-14,a Spanish five-seat helicopter.The engine was forward of the main rotor,and used the ducted exhaust from the turboshaft to counter the torque of the main                            rotor at low speeds.

16th July 1965....First flight of the North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco,a twin-turboprop light attack and observation aircraft.360 were built with a few airworthy on the airshow circuit.

16th July 1969....Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy,on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.The landing was broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience.Don`t call Buzz Aldrin a liar!

16th July 1970....First flight of the Aérospatiale SN 601 Corvette,a French business jet.Sales of the type were disappointing, leading to only 40 Corvettes being constructed,including the prototypes.

16th July 1986....The Atlas Cheetah is first unveiled,a fighter aircraft built as a major upgrade of the Dassault Mirage III by the Atlas Aircraft Corporation (later Denel Aviation) of South Africa.

16th July 1999....A Piper Saratoga piloted by John F. Kennedy, Jr.,crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard,Massachusetts.Their were several contributing factors to the crash.

More here....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Jr._plane_crash

[Angry Turnip]

17th July 1908....The first aviation legislation of the USA is passed - a municipal ordinance requiring an annual license and regulating aircraft within the city limits of Kissimmee,Florida.

17th July 1913....The Royal Navy introduces the term “ seaplane ” previously,seaplanes had been known as “hydro-aeroplanes. ”.

17th July 1914....First flight of the Vickers F.B.5,known as the "Gunbus",it was a two-seat pusher military biplane of the WWI.It was the first aircraft purpose-built for air-to-air combat to see service,making it                               the world's first operational fighter aircraft.

17th July 1939....First flight of the Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter,a a multi-role aircraft.It was used as a night fighter,ground attack,torpedo bomber,and more.Almost 6000 were built from 1940-1946.

17th July 1944....HMS Formidable,HMS Furious,and HMS Indefatigable launch a raid by 44 Fairey Barracuda bombers escorted by 48 fighters against the German battleship Tirpitz at her anchorage in Norway.

17th July 1947....First flight of the Sud-Ouest Corse,a French cargo/passenger transport.Powered by two Renault 12S engines,it had seating up to 13 passengers.60 aircraft were built for Aeronavale.

17th July 1948....A Catalina seaplane operated by a Cathay Pacific subsidiary,is hijacked with 23 pax and 3 crew on board by a group attempting to rob the passengers.This is the earliest known airliner hijacking.

17th July 1949....First flight of the Vickers Varsity,a British twin-engined crew trainer operated by the RAF.First production aircraft were delivered for operational use in 1951 to No. 201 AFS at RAF Swinderby.

17th July 1962....Maj Robert M. White (USAF),pilots the North American X-15 to a record altitude of 314 750 feet (59 miles, 96 km).This qualified him for USAF astronaut wings,becoming the first "winged"                                       astronaut.

17th July 1970....Retirement of the Northrop HL-10,one of five American heavyweight lifting body designs flown at NASA's Flight Research Center.

17th July 1975....American Apollo capsule links up to a Russian Soyuz capsule in orbit,marking the first space collaboration between the two nations.It was NASA`s last manned mission until the first                                              Space Shuttle in 1981.

17th July 1978....First flight of the Soko G-4 Super Galeb,a Yugoslav single-engine,advanced jet trainer and light ground-attack aircraft.Powerplant:1 × Rolls-Royce Viper 632-46 ,(4,000 lbf) thrust.

17th July 1984....Launch of Soyuz T-12,the 7th manned spaceflight to the Soviet space station Salyut 7.Crew member Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to ever perform a spacewalk.

17th July 1989....First flight of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit,a heavy penetration strategic bomber,featuring low observable stealth technology.It is a flying wing design with a crew of two.

17th July 1991....Launch of ERS-1,European remote sensing satellite (ERS),European Space Agency's first Earth-observing satellite.

17th July 1996....TWA Flight 800,a Boeing 747,explodes in mid-air above the ocean off East Moriches,New York.The probable cause of the accident was explosion of flammable fuel vapors in the center fuel tank.

17th July 2014....Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17)was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down on 17 July 2014 while flying over eastern Ukraine.

[Angry Turnip]

18th July 1914....The Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps is formed in Washington, D.C., with 60 officers, 260 men, and 6 airplanes.

18th July 1915....Katherine Stinson became the first woman to perform a loop,at Cicero Field in Chicago, Illinois,and went on to perform this feat some 500 times without a single accident.

18th July 1930....First flight of the Blackburn R.B.2 Sydney,a longrange maritime patrol flying boat developed for the RAF.It had triple tailfins and its three engines arranged on the wing's leading edge.

18th July 1942....First flight of the Messerschmitt Me 262,was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft.Captured Me 262s were studied and flight tested by the major powers after the war.

18th July 1966....Gemini 10,the first mission to complete a double rendezvous with other spacecraft,is launched from Cape Canaveral.Crew is John Young and Michael Collins,both later went on Apollo missions.

18th July 1967....The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark,a supersonic,medium-range interdictor and tactical attack aircraft enters USAF service.It is probably best known for taking part in airstrikes against Libya                             in 1986.

18th July 1970....First flight of the Aeritalia G.222,a medium-sized STOL military transport.It was developed to meet a NATO specification,but Italy was initially the only NATO member to adopt the type.

18th July 1974....NASA buys a Boeing 747 from American Airlines,and under a $30 million contract from Rockwell International,Boeing begins modifying it into the first Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

18th July 1984....Beverly Lynn Burns becomes the first female Boeing 747 airline captain,flying PEOPLExpress flight 604 from Newark to LAX.The achievement earned her extensive media attention.

18th July 2000....First flight of the Dassault AVE-D Petit Duc,a French sub-scale experimental stealth UAV.The Dassault A.V.E became the first stealth unmanned aircraft to fly in Europe.

18th July 2002....First flight of the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed weapons system,a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted inside a modified Boeing 747-400F.

18th July 2009....British World War I veteran,and last surviving founder member of the Royal Air Force,Henry Allingham,passes away at the age of 113.

18th July 2010....The Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes its first international appearance at the Farnborough Airshow,UK.

[Angry Turnip]

19th July 1909....Hubert Latham makes the first attempt to cross the English Channel.He flies 7 milesfrom Calais in an Antoinette IV and crash lands in the water.

19th July 1918....Seven Sopwith 2 F.1 Camels from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Furious attack the Imperial German Navy airship base at Tondern,destroying the Zeppelins L 54 and L 60.

19th July 1920....First flight of the The Vickers R.80 airship,designed in an innovative streamlined shape by company designer Barnes Wallis-what ever happened to him? :-)

19th July 1924....First flight of the Blériot 135,a French 4 engine airliner.One of the two built was a converted 115, the other new. Both saw service with Air Union on their Paris–London route.

19th July 1937....The official search for missing flyers Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan was abandoned.Their Lockheed Electra came down in the vicinity of Howland Island on an around the world flight attempt.

19th July 1943....First flight of the Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender,an unusual configuration prototype fighter.It had a canard configuration,a rear-mounted engine,swept wings,and two vertical tails.

19th July 1957....A USAF Northrop F-89 J Scorpion launches a live MB-1 'Ding Dong' nuclear rocket.The Scorpion stemmed from a requirement for a night fighter to replace the P-61 Black Widow.

19th July 1960....The Canadair CL-44,a Canadian turboprop airliner and cargo aircraft based on the Bristol Britannia,enters service with the RCAF as the CC-106 Yukon.39 were completed.

19th July 1961....MGM's," By Love Possessed " starring Lana Turner,is shown on a TWA Boeing 707,the first feature film exhibited on a regularly scheduled commercial airline flight.One for the pub quiz fans.

19th July 1963....Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 m (347,800 feet),62 miles high on X-15 Flight 90.He flew at the 2nd fastest speed in the X-15A-1:4,104 mph(Mach 5.92) .

19th July 1985....Teacher,Sharon Christa McAuliffe is chosen by NASA to be the first private citizen passenger in the history of space flight.

19th July 1989....United Airlines Flight 232,a McDonnell Douglas DC-10,suffers a complete hydraulic system failure over Iowa after the tail-mounted engine disintegrates.It crash lands at Sioux City.

[Angry Turnip]

20th July 1908....Orville Wright warns Glenn Curtiss that the wing flaps used in the AEA’s June Bug are an infringement of the Wrights’ patent.In fact it used triangular ailerons designed by Alexander Graham Bell.

20th July 1925....First flight of the Boeing Model 40,a single-engined biplane that was widely used for airmail services in the United States.It became the first aircraft Boeing built to carry passengers.

20th July 1936....Twenty Junkers Ju 52s ferry Spanish Nationalist troops from Morocco to Spain in the world's first major military airlift.

20th July 1940....The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan began operations when students started training at No. 1 Service Flying Training School at Camp Borden,Ontario.

20th July 1948....Sixteen Lockheed Shooting Stars complete the first west to east transatlantic flight by jet aircraft.It was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces.

20th July 1951....First flight of the Hawker Hunter,a British jet-powered fighter.It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engine and the swept wing.

20th July 1956....First flight of the Aerotécnica AC-12 Pepo,a Spanish two-seat light helicopter.Designed by Jean Cantinieau it featured a distinctive "spine" above the fuselage pod.

20th July 1969....Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon."That's one small step for man,one giant leap for mankind."he famously said.Apollo 11 was Armstrong,Arldrin and Collins.

20th July 1971....First flight of the Mitsubishi T-2,a jet trainer aircraft used by the JASDF.It was clearly reminiscent of that of the two-seat Jaguar."Blue Impulse" display team used the T-2.

20th July 2005....First flight of the Grob G180 SP,a low-wing twin-engined composite corporate jet.Post insolvency of Grob Aerospace in 2008,a continuation of the project was announced in 2009.

20th July 2007....First flight of the Boeing X-48,an experimental UAV built to investigate the characteristics of blended wing body aircraft.The X-48B has a 21-foot wingspan.

[smudge]

19th July 1957....A USAF Northrop F-89 J Scorpion launches a live MB-1 'Ding Dong' nuclear rocket.The Scorpion stemmed from a requirement for a night fighter to replace the P-61 Black Widow.

Subsequently AIR-2 Genie.  The story of the men at Ground Zero below the shot, part of the Plumb Bob series, and the unseen photographer:

https://www.rafu.com/2013/12/the-atomic-filmmaker/

“I asked what kind of protective gear I was going to have, and they said, ‘Nothing.’ I had a baseball cap with me, and I said, ‘I better wear that just in case.’”


I get annoyed when the Sun comes out and changes illumination on a scene.  I can't fathom how I'd change my exposure with 15 kilotonnes going off above me...

[Angry Turnip]

21st July 1909....The first international Zeppelin (airship) show is held in Frankfurt,Germany. What,no Stairway to Heaven? :-)

21st July 1919....Anthony Fokker founds the Dutch Aircraft Factory at Schiphol.His company was responsible for a variety of successful aircraft including the Fokker trimotor.

21st July 1939....First flight of the Short S.26 G-class,a large transport flying-boat with non-stop transatlantic capability.Three aircraft were built for Imperial Airways,but went into military service.

21st July 1943....First flight of the Curtiss XP-62,a prototype heavily armed,high-performance,single-engine fighter.Project was cancelled,it would affect deliveries of Curtiss-built P-47 Thunderbolts.

21st July 1946....A McDonnell FH Phantom makes the first landing by a jet aboard a US aircraft carrier,USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.The FH Phantom was the first jet deployed by the USMC.

21st July 1947....First flight of the Aero Ae-45,a twin-piston engined civil utility aircraft produced in Czechoslovakia.It proved a great success,with many of the 590 produced being exported.

21st July 1951....Canadian Pacific Air Lines Douglas DC-4 disappearance occurred on a flight from Vancouver,Canada to Tokyo,Japan;all 37 on board are presumed dead; the aircraft has never been found.

21st July 1961....First manned spacecraft to sink at sea was Gus Grissom‘s Liberty Bell 7.Grissom was saved from drowning by Navy rescue personnel.

21st July 1974....Turkish paratroopers parachute into Cyprus to ambush a convoy carrying the Greek Cypriot commander of the Cypriot Navy,Commander Papayiannis.He escapes,and the Turks are killed.

21st July 1974....Turkish Air Force strike aircraft mistakenly attack the Turkish Navy destroyers Kocatepe,Adatepe,and Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak off Paphos,Cyprus.

21st July 1976....Canadian government announced that the Lockheed Aurora CP-140 maritime patrol aircraft would replace the Argus long-range patrol aircraft.

21st July 1980....The General Dynamics F-16,a single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft is is officially named the Fighting Falcon.Many F-16 pilots call it The Viper.

[Angry Turnip]

22nd July 1914....Britain’s first airplane passenger service is launched.The short-lived service flies from Leeds to Bradford and back,at half-hour intervals.

22nd July 1929....Lufthansa uses a catapult to launch a Heinkel He12 mail plane from the passenger liner Bremen,250 miles from New York,getting the mail on its way before the ship reached port.

22nd July 1933....Wiley Post lands after completing the first solo flight around the world.He proves the value of navigating instruments,especially the automatic pilot,which he used on this flight.

22nd July 1942....The first P-38 F Lightning fighters of the U. S. Army Air Forces’ 14th Fighter Group depart Maine,for the UK via Iceland.They become the first fighters to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

22nd July 1944....The last of 5,936 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers is completed.It was the United States Navy's main carrier-borne scout plane and dive bomber from mid-1940 through mid-1944.

22nd July 1955....First flight of the Republic XF-84H "Thunderscreech",an experimental turboprop aircraft derived from the F-84F Thunderstreak.Powered by a turbine engine mated to a supersonic propeller.

22nd July 1959....The Sud-Aviation Caravelle enters service with Air France.It holds the distinction of being the world's first jet-powered airliner to be developed for the short/medium-range market.

22nd July 1959....Aeroflot began operations with the Antonov An-10,on the Moscow – Simferopol route.The AN-10 was a Soviet four-engined turboprop passenger transport.Also used by the Soviet Military.

22nd July 1974....The US Navy and Marine Corps evacuate 500 people from Cyprus,away from the conflict erupting between Greece and Turkey on the island.

22nd July 1983....Dick Smith achieves the first solo circumnavigation of the globe in a helicopter.Using a Bell Jetranger III named Australian Explorer,he covers 35,258 miles.

22nd July 1984....First flight of the PZL AN28,a development of license-built Antonov An-28.The maritime patrol and reconnaissance variants are named PZL M28B Bryza ("sea breeze").

22nd July 2011....The Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth at the end of STS-135,the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program.

[smudge]

22nd July 1959....Aeroflot began operations with the Antonov An-10,on the Moscow – Simferopol route.The AN-10 was a Soviet four-engined turboprop passenger transport.Also used by the Soviet Military.

There was originally a plan to manufacture a spare rear-door tail for each An-10 so that in the event of war they could be converted to An-12-alikes, but at some point the two designs diverged so much that it became unfeasible.

[Angry Turnip]

23rd July 1906....Alberto Santos-Dumont unveils a new aircraft,the No.14 bis. at Bagatelle,France.The odd-looking machine is dubbed canard (duck).

23rd July 1917....Maj. Benjamin D. Foulois,is appointed commanding officer of the Airplane Division of the U.S. Signal Corps.

23rd July 1930....Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss dies at age of 52.Founder of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company,now the Curtiss-Wright Corporation.

23rd July 1937....The International Military Aircraft Competition in Debendorf near Zuich is the venue for the first major demonstration of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter.

23rd July 1952....First flight of the Fouga CM.170 Magister,a French two-seat jet trainer.It featured a distinctive butterfly tail configuration,and powered by a pair of Turbomeca Marbore turbojets.

23rd July 1955....First flight of the PZL TS-8 Bies,a Polish trainer aircraft used from 1957 to the 1970s by the Polish Air Force and civilian aviation.251 were built in the production run.

23rd July 1956....First flight of the Dassault Étendard II,prototype fighter.It proved to be underpowered and showed nothing like the promise of the Mirage series and was quickly abandoned.

23rd July 1971....First flight of the GAF Nomad,an Australian built twin-engined turboprop,high-wing,(STOL)aircraft.As of December 2009,only one Nomad is still flying in Australia.

23rd July 1973....Eddie Rickenbacker,WW I fighter pilot dies at the age of 82 in Zurich.He was also a race car driver and automotive designer,and long time head of Eastern Air Lines.

23rd July 1979....The British government announces plans to privatise British Airways and publicly sell British Aerospace shares.

23rd July 1999....Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-93 at 12:31 am EDT. Mission highlights: Chandra X-ray Observatory deployed.

23rd July 2011....NATO aircraft strike a Libyan government military storage facility, a multiple rocket launcher, and a command-and-control node in the Brega area.