October 2018 Fly Bites

[Angry Turnip]

26th Oct 1907....Henry Farman sets a world powered heavier-than-air distance record of 771 m (2,530 ft) using a Voisin 1907 biplane.

26th Oct 1922....The first landing is made on USS Langley by Lt Cdr Geoffrey DeChevalier in an Aeromarine 39,a two seater training biplane that could be fitted with pontoons or wheeled undercarriage.

26th Oct 1925....The Schneider Trophy race flown at Baltimore,USA.Won by Jimmy Doolittle (USA) in a Curtiss R3C at 374.28 km/h (232.57 mph)R. J. Mitchell's Supermarine S.4 was damaged before the race.

26th Oct 1931....First flight of the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth.Chief Test Pilot Hubert Broad was at the controls.It was operated by the RAF and many other operators as a trainer.Approx 250 are airworthy.

26th Oct 1940....First flight of the NAA P-51 Mustang.A long-range,single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber.It was transformed by fitting a license built version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 66 supercharged engine.

26th Oct 1942....Japanese carrier aircraft fatally damage the carrier USS Hornet.It is finished off by Japanese destroyers,becoming the only U.S.fleet carrier ever to be sunk by enemy surface ships.

26th Oct 1943....First flight of the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow"),a heavy fighter that had a performance much better than other twin-engine designs due to its unique push-pull configuration.

26th Oct 1952....A BOAC flight departing Rome's Ciampino airport failed to become airborne and ran into rough ground at the end of the runway.Two pax sustained minorinjuries,G-ALYZ was a total loss.

26th Oct 1958....Tom Sonter accidentally discovers the wreckage of Avro 618 Ten Southern Cloud,which had disappeared without trace over the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales on March 21, 1931.

26th Oct 1958....The first commercial flight by a Boeing 707 jet airliner takes place,on Pan American World Airways transatlantic service from New York City to Paris,with a fuel stop in Newfoundland.

26th Oct 1962....The last Boeing B-52 off the production line is delivered to the US Air Force.

26th Oct 1967....First flight of the BAC 167 Strikemaster,essentially an armed version of the Jet Provost T Mk 5,modified with an uprated engine,wing hardpoints,two machine guns under the intakes etc

26th Oct 1968....First flight of the Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante,a Brazilian general purpose 15–21 passenger twin-turboprop light transport.It was designed for military and civil use.501 were built.

26th Oct 1973....First flight of the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet,a light attack jet and advanced jet trainer.It is used by the Patrouille de France display team.Many are still in service,and civil use.

26th Oct 1993....ValuJet Airlines begins operations.It merged into Air Trans in Nov 1997.It is infamous for Flight 592,a DC-9 flying from Miami to Atlanta,crashed into the Florida Everglades in 1996.

26th Oct 2007....First flight of the Embraer Lineage 1000,a variant of the Embraer 190 regional jet airliner,launched as a private jet,an "ultra-large" business jet with comfortable seating for 19.

26th Oct 2011....All Nippon Airways flies the first commercial flight of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner,from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

[smudge]

25th Oct 1979....The ROKAF takes delivery of the last U.S.-built McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.It is the 5,057 Phantom to roll out from the plant at St. Louis, Mo., since May 1958.

It's crazy to think that the F-4 seemed ancient after 21 years, but we've been building Typhoons for 24 years...

[Angry Turnip]

27th Oct 1909....Mrs. Ralph van Deman flies for four minutes with Wilbur Wright becoming the U.S.’s first female passenger.Her husband was known as "The Father of American Military Intelligence."

27th Oct 1926....First flight of the Blériot 165,a twin engine biplane airliner.Just two were built for Air Union to replace the Farman Goliath on their Paris–London route.

27th Oct 1931....The Detroit Aircraft Corporation files for bankruptcy.Eventually,the Lockheed portion of the company is bought out of receivership.

27th Oct 1944....First flight of the Bristol Buckmaster,a twin engine advanced trainer.The trainee and instructor were seated side by side with a wireless operator seated behind.112 were built by 1946.

27th Oct 1959....First flight of the Myasishchev M-50,a Soviet prototype four-jet engine supersonic strategic bomber.One flying prototype was built,it is displayed at Monino Aviation Museum.

27th Oct 1960....Air Mali is founded.was set up gave the airline exclusive rights on domestic and international flights.UK government donated 3 ex-BEA Douglas DC-3s,the airline folded in 1988.

27th Oct 1961....The first Saturn I heavy launch vehicle (SA-1) lifted off from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Canaveral,Florida.This was a test of the first stage only.The upper stages were dummies.

27th Oct 1962....A CIA Lockheed U-2F ,with USAF insignia 56-6676,is shot down by a single Soviet-manned SA-2 missile battery at Banes,Cuba.Not a direct hit,but pieces of shrapnel punctured the canopy.

27th Oct 1979....First flight of the Panavia Tornado ADV,a long-range,twin-engine interceptor version of the swing-wing Tornado.It had a longer nose that the IDS/ECR housing a Foxhunter radar.

27th Oct 1988....First flight of the ATR 72,a twin-engine turboprop,short-haul regional airliner,which could seat 72–78 passengers in a single-class arrangement.Over 1000 have been built to date.

[Angry Turnip]

28th Oct 1936....First flight of the Dornier Do 19,a four-engine heavy bomber.One prototype flew,it was converted to a transport in 1938.The other two were scrapped.It had a crew of ten.

28th Oct 1945....First flight of the LWD Szpak,a Polish utility aircraft.Ten were built in 1947-1948 by the PZL (later WSK) in Mielec as the first Polish post-war aircraft built in a series.

28th Oct 1952....First flight of the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior,a strategic bomber for the USN,later as an electronic warfare platform,tactical air reconnaissance,and high capacity refueling tanker.

28th Oct 1954....First flight of the North American FJ-4 Fury,a swept-wing carrier-capable fighter-bomber for the USN and USMC.It was a relative of the USAF F-86 Sabre,but had many differences.

28th Oct 1957....The first production Boeing Model 707-120 jet rolls out.Powered by Pratt & Whitney JT3C turbojet engines,which first flew on December 20, 1957.

28th Oct 1962....First flight of the  Westland Wasp,a small 1960s British turbine powered,shipboard anti-submarine helicopter.The last Wasp was finally withdrawn from service in 1988.

28th Oct 1972....First flight of the Airbus A300,a wide-body twin-engine jet airliner.Air France was the launch customer 30 May 1974.Some are still in service as freighters.

28th Oct 1974....First flight of the Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard,a French carrier-borne strike fighter.It became well known during the Falklands War along with the Excocet anti-ship missile.

28th Oct 1982....The last Air France Boeing 707 commercial service before retiremant,is from Tunis to Paris.

[Angry Turnip]

29th Oct 1901....The Aero Club of Great Britain is founded,it was granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910.It had a clubhouse at 119 Piccadilly,which it retained until 1961.

29th Oct 1917....Lt.Heinrich Gontermann,known as the Balloon Strafer,receives fatal injuries when his Fokker Dr.I 115/17,breaks up in mid-air as he performed aerobatics over his home airfield.

29th Oct 1918....The Danish airline Det Danske Luftfartselskab is founded.It was Denmark's national airline from 1918 until it merged to create Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in 1951.

29th Oct 1936....Soviet aircraft are in combat for the first time in Spanish Civil War as Tupolev SB-2 bombers with Soviet pilots,and Spanish crew bomb Seville in support of Republican forces.

29th Oct 1953....USAF Lt Colonel Frank K. “Speedy Pete” Everest sets a world speed record of 755.151mph,flying a North American YF-100 A Super Sabre.

29th Oct 1956....Operation Kadesh,begins with strikes by IAF Mustangs against Egyptian forces in Sinai,and a parachute drop by DC-3s of a 400-man Israeli battalion near the Sinai’s Mitla Pass.

29th Oct 1959....First flight of the Antonov An-24,a Soviet 44-seat twin turboprop transport airliner.It had military and civilian operators,it was built under license in China as the Yian Y-7.

29th Oct 1963....The first Canadair CL-41 Tutor trainer entered RCAF service.It served as the Canadian Forces jet trainer until it was replaced by the CT-155 Hawk and CT-156 Harvard II in 2000.

29th Oct 1996....First flight of the PZL SW-4 Puszczyk,a Polish light single-engine multipurpose helicopter.From 2016 onwards,the civil version will be called AW009,SW-4 for military versions.

29th Oct 1998....Launch:Space Shuttle Discovery STS-95 at 2:19:34 pm EST.Mission highlights:SPACEHAB;John Glenn flies again.Bill Clinton attended the Shuttle launch,the only US President ever to do so.

29th Oct 2005....Ghana International Airlines launched with inaugural flight from Accra to London,using a Boeing 757 wet leased from Ryan International Airlines.13th May 2010 they folded.

29th Oct 2008....The United States Department of Justice approves Delta Air Lines’ purchase of Northwest Airlines and the companies formally begin merging their operations.

29th Oct 2010....Cargo planes bomb plot:A terrorist plot to send bombs by air freight from Yemen to the United States via the United Kingdom is uncovered.

29th Oct 2018....Lion Air Flight JT 610,a Boeing 737 Max 8 from Jakarta to Depati Amir airport in Pangkal Pinang,crashes in the sea after 13 minutes with no survivors.

[Angry Turnip]

30th Oct 1909....John Moore-Brabazon in a Short Brothers aircraft flies the first circular mile in the UK and wins £1,000 from the Daily Mail newspaper.

30th Oct 1918....Flying a SPAD XIII fighter,Eddie Rickenbacker shoots down a German observation balloon near Remonville,France,for his 26th and final aerial victory.

30th Oct 1944....Kamikazes damage the aircraft carriers USS Franklin (CV-13) and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) off Leyte.

30th Oct 1961....The Soviet Union detonates Tsar Bomba over an island in the Arctic Ocean.The 58 megaton bomb remains the largest manmade explosive ever detonated.

30th Oct 1962....Third prototype Hawker Siddeley P.1127,XP972,first flown 5 April 1962,is severely damaged when the Bristol-Siddeley Pegasus 2 fails following a main bearing seizure during a high-G turn.

30th Oct 1976....Pan Am Flight 50,operated by the 747SP N533 PA,lands back in San Francisco 54hrs 7min 12 secs after it left,setting a new speed record for a round-the-world polar flight.

30th Oct 1978....The Indian government approves the purchase of the SEPECAT Jaguar for the Indian Air Force.A British-French jet attack aircraft,the Jaguar was also exported to Oman,Ecuador and Nigeria.

30th Oct 1979....Sir Barnes Wallis dies,aged 82.Best known for inventing the Dam Busters bouncing bomb,the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb.He was knighted in 1968.

30th Oct 1985....Launch:Space Shuttle Challenger STS-61-A at 17:00:00 UTC.Mission highlights:Spacelab-D1,Germany funded mission,last successful mission of Challenger.

[Angry Turnip]

Last one of the month already...

31st Oct 1917...All Fokker Triplanes are grounded due to a spate of accidents,with affected flight crew reverting temporarily to Albatros D.Va and Pfalz D.III scouts.They resumed flying 28 November.

31st Oct 1920...A Curtiss JN-4 became the first airplane used in a political campaign by spreading socialist literature for candidate Eugene V.Debs.He won 3.4% of votes despite being in prison.

31st Oct 1930...Michael Collins,future American astronaut,was born.Collins was selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts 1963,he flew in space twice.His first was Gemini 10.

31st Oct 1931...First flight of the Westland Wallace,a two-seat,general-purpose biplane.In 1933 a Westland Wallace became the first aircraft to fly over Everest.There was no Westland Gromit :-)

31st Oct 1943...First flight of the Budd RB-1 Conestoga,a twin-engine,stainless steel cargo aircraft for the USN.It pioneered designs in US cargo aircraft,later used in modern cargo airlifters.

31st Oct 1956...The United Kingdom and France begin Operation Musketeer,an attempt to seize the Suez Canal from Egypt during the Suez Crisis,closely coordinated with Israel’s Operation Kadesh.

31st Oct 1956...A US Navy R4D Skytrain is the first aircraft to land at the South Pole.The R4D Skytrain was the USN/USMC version of the C-47.

31st Oct 1960...British European Airways retires its last piston-engined airliners.

31st Oct 1973...Three terrorists escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin,after a hijacked Aérospatiale Alouette II helicopter lands in the prison’s exercise yard to pick them up.

31st Oct 1974...First flight of the Avioane Craiova IAR-93 Vultur,a twinjet,subsonic,close support,ground attack and tactical reconnaissance aircraft.88 were built and they retired 1998.

31st Oct 1987...British Airways accepts the airline's first women pilots.Lynn Barton was one of the first,she became a BA Captain in 1996 and retired in 2016.In 2008,BA had around 170 female pilots

31st Oct 1997...The first upgraded Tornado GR4,the strike attack version of the aircraft with modified systems and avionics,was delivered to the RAF at Boscombe Down to begin flight trials.

31st Oct 2000...The first resident crew of the ISS lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft.The ISS has been continuously manned ever since.

31st Oct 2003...British Airways’ flagship and first Concorde,G-BOAC,makes its final flight,ferrying from London Heathrow to Manchester,where it sits on display.

31st Oct 2012...First flight of the Shenyang FC-31,a twin-engine, mid-size fifth-generation jet fighter.It`s design is clearly closely based on the F-22 Raptor.


Well,that`s it for another month TBC.