November 2018 Flight Bites

[Angry Turnip]

Another new month already...

1st Nov 1918...French fighter pilot René Fonck scores his 75th and final victory.He ends the war as the highest-scoring Allied ace of World War I.He was one of the most decorated French war heroes.

1st Nov 1939...The first jet-powered plane,the Heinkel He 178,is demonstrated to officials of the Reich Air Ministry for their consideration as a warplane.The Nazi bigwigs pass on the design.

1st Nov 1940...The Avro 679 Manchester,twin-engine medium bomber entered RAF service in November 1940,barely twelve months following the outbreak of WWII.It was regarded as an operational failure. 

1st Nov 1944...Japanese kamikazes attack the United States Seventh Fleet in Leyte Gulf,sinking one and damaging five destroyers.

1st Nov 1944...A Boeing F-13 Superfortress photographic reconnaissance aircraft conducts a mission over Tokyo.It is the first allied aircraft to fly over Tokyo since the April 1942 Doolittle Raid.

1st Nov 1950...Lt Khominich S.Fedorovich shoots down a F-80 Shooting Star from his MiG-15,the first aerial victory by a jet over another jet.

1st Nov 1956...Aircraft from HMS`s Eagle,Albion,Bulwark conduct airstrikes against Egyptian airbases,destroying 200 aircraft by nightfall and knocking the Egyptian Air Force out of action.

1st Nov 1968...President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration suspends all American bombing of North Vietnam;Operation Rolling Thunder is suspended.

1st Nov 1980...British Airways terminates Concorde services to Bahrain and Singapore.A dispute with India prevented supersonic speeds in Indian airspace,the route was declared not viable.

1st Nov 1984...British Airways and some other international airlines begin relief flights carrying food and supplies to Ethiopia.

1st Nov 1984...American Eagle Airlines began operations.Known as Envoy Air Inc.from 2014,began as a collection of regional carriers with contracts to carry the American Eagle brand name.

1st Nov 1989...Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) bans smoking on many flights.

1st Nov 1992...Landing: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-52 at 9:05:53 am EST, Runway 33, Kennedy Space Center. Fla.

1st Nov 1993...Landing: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-58 at 10:05.42 am EST, Runway 22, Edwards AFB, Calif. It would be Columbia‘s final landing at Edwards.

1st Nov 2007...Paul Tibbets,US Air Force retired Brigadier General and Pilot of B-29 “Enola Gay” over Hiroshima,dies at the age of 92.

1st Nov 2011...LOT Polish Airlines Flight 016,a Boeing 767-300ER,makes a successful belly landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport in Warsaw,after its landing gear fails to extend.231 people are unharmed.

[Angry Turnip]

2nd Nov 1923....Flying a Curtiss R2 C-1,U.S.Navy Lieutenant H.J.Rowe sets a new world airspeed record of 259.16 mph.It was a racing single-seater biplane with a monocoque fuselage.

2nd Nov 1943....First flight of the Grumman F7F Tigercat,a USN/USMC heavy fighter.It saw action as a night fighter and attack aircraft during the Korean War.364 were built by production end in 1946.

2nd Nov 1947....With Howard Hughes as pilot,the Hughes H-4 Hercules,known as the “Spruce Goose, ” makes its first and only flight,traveling at 135mph for about a mile at an altitude of 70 feet.

2nd Nov 1954....The VTOL Convair XFY transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and back.The Convair XFY Pogo tail-sitter was an experiment in vertical takeoff and landing.

2nd Nov 1956....Aerial reconnaissance reveals the destruction of the Egyptian Air Force,the British invasion force commander,orders British and French aircraft to begin a wide-ranging interdiction campaign

2nd Nov 1992....First flight of the Airbus A330,a medium- to long-range wide-body twin-engine jet airliner.Air Inter was the launch customer in 1994.Over 1400 have been built in various specs.

2nd Nov 2012....Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral,Florida,to an exhibition hall at Cape Canaveral's main tourist stop to be put on                          display. It is the final act of the Space Shuttle Program

[Angry Turnip]

3rd Nov 1909....Alec Ogilvie patents the first airspeed indicator.The ASI measures the pressure differential between static pressure from the static port,and total pressure from the pitot tube.                                                      This difference in pressure is registered with the ASI pointer on the face of the instrument.The airspeed of an aircraft shown in miles per hour (MPH), knots, or both.

3rd Nov 1915....Flt Sub-Lt Fowler makes the first take-off of an aircraft with a wheeled undercarriage from a ship,when he flies a Bristol Scout C from HMS Vindex.

3rd Nov 1926....Captain Charles Lindbergh jumped from his disabled airplane during a night airmail flight,making this the fourth time he has had to use his parachute to save his life.

3rd Nov 1926....First flight of the Boeing F2B,a biplane fighter of the USN.It was used by the Three Sea Hawks aerobatic flying team,famous for its tied-together formation flying.33 were built.

3rd Nov 1936....New Soviet Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters fly their first missions of the Spanish Civil War,supporting Republican forces,allowing them to gain air superiority over Nationalists.

3rd Nov 1944....The first Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs are launched against the US.Balloons were launched in the winter to take advantage of the more favourable winter jet stream.

3rd Nov 1945....The prototype Boeing 314,flying boat named the Honolulu Clipper,makes an emergency landing in the Pacific 650 miles east of Oahu due to double engine failure.

3rd Nov 1952....First flight of the Saab 32 Lansen,a two-seat,transonic military aircraft.Three principal variants of the Lansen were built for attack (A 32A),fighter (J 32B),and reconn (S 32C).

3rd Nov 1973....NASA launches Mariner 10,a robotic space probe intended to fly past Venus and Mercury,reaching both planets the following February and March respectively.It`s still up there.

3rd Nov 1994....Launch:Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-66 at 11:59:43.060 am EDT.Mission highlights:ATLAS-3 science platform.The crew of six was lead by Donald R. McMonagle.

3rd Nov 2000....Last flight of an EC-135E Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft,60-374 – nicknamed “The Bird of Prey” is delivered the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

3rd Nov 2003....British Airways Concorde G-BOAG leaves London Heathrow at 1500Z as BA9093C for the final time.It would fly on to Seattle Boeing Field,and retire to the Museum of Flight.

3rd Nov 2009....UM-239, a Xian MA60 operated by Air Zimbabwe, hits five warthogs on take-off from Harare International Airport. The take-off is rejected but the undercarriage collapses.

[Angry Turnip]

4th Nov 1884....Harry Ferguson,irish aviator and inventor and the first person to fly in Ireland.After delays the Ferguson monoplane finally took off from Hillsborough on 31 December 1909.

4th Nov 1909....John Moore-Brabazon makes the first live cargo flight by airplane,when he puts a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane.Ryaniar`s business model?

4th Nov 1923....Flying a Curtiss R2C-1,a racing biplane,USN Lieutenant Alford J.Williams,Jr.sets a new world airspeed record of 266.59 miles per hour.

4th Nov 1924....First flight of the Canadian Vickers Vedette,the first aircraft in Canada designed and built to meet a specification for Canadian conditions.It was a single-engine biplane flying boat.

4th Nov 1927....Flying a Macchi M.52 seaplane,Mario de Bernardi sets a new world airspeed record of 297.8 mph mph near Venice.

4th Nov 1932....First flight of the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing,a biplane with an atypical negative wing stagger,the lower wing is farther forward than the upper wing.

4th Nov 1942....First flight of the Latécoère 631 a civil transatlantic flying boat powered by 6 radial engines.The type was not a success, being unreliable and uneconomic to operate.

4th Nov 1953....The Douglas DC-7 begins service with American Airlines,allowing the company to offer coast-to-coast,nonstop service.

4th Nov 1962....The USAF detonates a nuclear-tipped Nike-Hercules ground-to-air missile,69,000 feet over Johnston Island.It would be the last atmospheric nuclear test ever performed by the U. S.

4th Nov 1966....First ever automatic blind landing by a passenger aircraft when a British European Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident landed in dense fog.

4th Nov 1968....First flight of the Aero L-39 Albatros,a high-performance military trainer.It was the first trainer aircraft to be equipped with turbofan power,and was exported to several countries.

4th Nov 1977...The first production aircraft of the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet,a light attack jet and advanced jet trainer,makes it`s first flight.480were built,with many still in service.

4th Nov 1981....NASA aborted the second flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia,just 31 seconds before the launch due to a computer mis-match.Commodore VIC-20 vs Sinclair ZX-81 ? lol

4th Nov 1982....Pan Am inaugurates service from Los Angeles to Sydney,at 7,487 non-stop miles (11,979 km),it is the longest non-stop flight in the world.

4th Nov 1993....First loss of a Boeing 747-400.China Airlines Flight 605, a Boeing 747-409, overruns Kai Tak Airport runway 13 while landing during a typhoon.No serious injuries are reported.

4th Nov 2010.... Qantas Airbus A380 VH-OQA,suffered a substantial mechanical failure of its left inboard engine after taking off from Singapore Changi Airport.The flight turned back and landed safely.

[smudge]

4th Nov 1942....First flight of the Latécoère 631 a civil transatlantic flying boat powered by 6 radial engines.The type was not a success, being unreliable and uneconomic to operate.

Uneconomic but utterly stunning...

Only 10 were built and they were withdrawn after the disappearance at sea of F-BDRC in August 1948.

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[Angry Turnip]

Following the loss of F-BDRC in 1948,the Latécoère 631 was withdrawn from service by Air France,but other operators carried on.
Five of the eleven aircraft built were written off in accidents and one was lost during World War II.

28 March 1950, SEMAF's F-BANU crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Cap Ferret, Gironde with the loss of all twelve people on board.The aircraft was on a test flight from Biscarosse.

10 September 1955,Société France-Hydro's F-BDRE suffered the failure of a wing,and crashed with the loss of eight of the sixteen people on board.The aircraft was on a flight from Lac Lérè,Chad to Douala,French Cameroons en route to Biscarosse for maintenance.

[Angry Turnip]

5th Nov 1908...Wilbur Wright receives the Grand Gold Medal of the Aéro Club of France for advances in aviation.

5th Nov 1911...Calbraith Rodgers completes the first coast-to-coast airplane flight across the USA in the Vin Fiz Flyer – Taking 49 days,70 stops with several crashes en-route.

5th Nov 1915...LtCdr Henry Mustin,launched from North Carolina via catapult in a Curtiss Model AB-2,recording both the world's first catapulting of an aircraft from a ship and a ship underway.

5th Nov 1921...Curtiss test pilot Bert Acosta wins the Pulitzer Trophy in a Curtiss CR-2 and establishes a new closed-circuit airspeed record of 176.7 mph.

5th Nov 1938...Non-stop flight by a pair of Vickers Wellesleys from Egypt to Darwin.This sets a new world distance record of 7,158 miles.It`s still the longest flight with a single piston engine.

5th Nov 1947...First flight of the Scottish Aviation Pioneer,a STOL utility transport.It could carry a pilot and up to four passengers.The RAF used it in the Malayan Emergency,Aden and Cyprus.

5th Nov 1956...The British and French bombing campaign against Egypt ends,with fixed-wing aircraft from the three British aircraft carriers alone having flown 1,300 sorties.3 Para land at El Gamil.

5th Nov 1959...A small engine fire forces pilot Scott Crossfield to make an emergency landing on Rosamond Dry Lake,Edwards AFB,California,in North American X-15,56-6671.

5th Nov 1981...First flight of the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II.The AV-8B is used by the USMC,the Spanish Navy,and the Italian Navy.The UK abandoned the Harrier II project in 1975.

5th Nov 1995...Landing:Space Shuttle Columbia STS-73 at 6:45:21 am EST,KSC Runway 33.The crew of 7 was lead by Kenneth D. Bowersox.

5th Nov 2003...British Airways Concorde G-BOAG became the last Concorde to leave JFK by air.It flew to Seattle Boeing Field and retired to Museum of Flight, Seattle.

 

[Angry Turnip]

6th Nov 1922....First flight of the  Bristol Bullfinch,an experimental fighter/recon aircraft.Variants were built as both parasol wing monoplanes and biplanes,both proved unsuccessful,3 prototypes were built.

6th Nov 1922....First flight of the Dornier Do J Wal,a twin-engine German flying boat.It had a high-mounted wing,with two piston engines mounted in tandem in a central nacelle above the wing.

6th Nov 1923....First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.61,a conventional biplane fighter.The Polish Air Force ordered 250,as well as purchase licences.The Romanian Air Force also ordered 100 aircraft.

6th Nov 1929....First flight of the Junkers G.38,a large German four-engined transport.During the 1930s,the design was licensed to Mitsubishi,who built six  designated Ki-20.

6th Nov 1935....First flight of the Hawker Hurricane prototype K5083,a single-seat fighter designed by Sydney Camm.It was at the forefront of Britain’s defence in 1940.Over 14,500 were built.

6th Nov 1936....Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion,a force of about 100 aircraft,begins to depart Germany for Seville,Spain,to support Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War.

6th Nov 1942....First flight of the Heinkel He 219 Uhu,a twin engine night fighter.It had advanced intercept radar,was also the first operational military aircraft to be equipped with ejection seats.

6th Nov 1945....After its piston engine fails,a mixed-propulsion Ryan FR-1 Fireball flown by USMC pilot J.C. West makes the first landing under jet power on an aircraft carrier,on USS Wake Island.

6th Nov 1956....The first ship-based helicopter assault takes place,as helicopters from HMS Ocean and HMS Theseus land 425 Royal Marines of 45 Commando and 23 tons of stores in Port Said,Egypt.

6th Nov 1957....First flight of the Fairey Rotodyne,a compound gyroplane.It had a tip-jetrotor that burned a mixture of fuel and compressed air bled from two wing-mounted Napier Eland turboprops. 

6th Nov 1980....First flight of the MacCready Solar Challenger,a solar-powered electric aircraft,powered entirely by the photovoltaic cells on its wing and stabilizer, without reserve batteries.

6th Nov 2002....National Airlines,already operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy,permanently ceases operations.The airline operated a fleet of 19 Boeing 757-200s in a two-class configuration.

[Angry Turnip]

7th Nov 1910...Pilot Didier Masson takes flight on a biplane designed by E.Lilian Todd across the Garden City aviation field.Todd is credited for being the first woman in the world to design airplanes.

7th Nov 1945...Gp Cpt H.J.Wilson sets a new official airspeed record of 606 mph (976 km/h) in a Gloster Meteor.Unofficial German speed records by the rocket-powered Me 163 had exceeded 625 mph.

7th Nov 1950...BOAC retires its last flying boat airliners from service.The Solent 2 introduced by BOAC could carry 34 passengers and 7 crew.

7th Nov 1966...First flight of the Pilatus PC-11,an all-metal intermediate glider.It has a 15-metre wingspan and no flaps.Air brakes are provided on the top surface of each wing for glidepath control.

7th Nov 1976...First flight of the Dassault Falcon 50,a super-midsized,long-range business jet,featuring a trijet layout with an S-duct air intake for the central engine.

7th Nov 1976...The first non-stop trans-Canada flight by jet fighters was carried out by two 434 Squadron CF-5 s using mid-air refueling.

7th Nov 2001...Concorde resumes flying after a 15-month hiatus.It featured more secure electrical controls,Kevlar lining on the fuel tanks and specially developed burst-resistant tyres.2003 it is retired.

7th Nov 2006...FedEx announces the first cancellation of the Airbus A380.Instead FedEx orders 15 Boeing 777 Freighters.

[Angry Turnip]

Not very much to report this day.

8th Nov 1936....Soviet aircraft play an important role in the Republican defense of Madrid.There were about 300 Russian pilots in or around Madrid by the end of November 1936.

8th Nov 1942....Pilots equipped with anti-G suits carried out combat operations for the first time in history.They were members of 807 Squadron FAA,wearing the Canadian designed Franks suit.

8th Nov 1950....Lt.Russell Brown shoots down a MiG-15 from his F-80 Shooting Star,the first victory USAF over soviet MiG-15.

8th Nov 1978....First flight of the Challenger 600,a family of bizjets.First produced by Canadair,then produced from 1986 by Canadair as a division of Bombardier Aerospace.Over 1000 built.

8th Nov 1984....Launch:Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-A at 12:15:00 UTC.Mission highlights:Multiple comsat deployments,retrieval of two other comsats Palapa B2 and Westar VI.

8th Nov 1989....A KC-10A Extender tanker aircraft refuels a Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bomber for the B-2's first aerial refueling.

[smudge]

8th Nov 1978....First flight of the Challenger 600,a family of bizjets.First produced by Canadair,then produced from 1986 by Canadair as a division of Bombardier Aerospace.Over 1000 built.

Started life as the LearStar design which Bill Lear shopped around for a taker.  He got a royalty on each Challenger, and the Lear family later sued Bombardier and won back-payments for the CRJ too.  Should've changed the model number away from CL-600... or have built the FJX!

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[Angry Turnip]

Indeed,it had a messy start to it`s life and all sorts of legal wrangles.

After disagreements,Bill Lear was phased out of the project,and in March 1977 it was renamed the Challenger 600.
The original conventional tailplane was in the engine exhaust path,and it was changed for a T-tail.

[Angry Turnip]

9th Nov 1904....Wilbur Wright flies the Wright Flyer II a distance of 3 miles near Dayton,Ohio,the first flight of longer than five seconds.

9th Nov 1932....Wolfgang von Gronau and crew in a Dornier Wal D-2053 called the "Grönland Wal" completed the first flight around the world by a seaplane.Their flight took 111 days.

9th Nov 1944....First flight of the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter,a long-range heavy military cargo aircraft.C-97s served in the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

9th Nov 1946....First flight of the Lockheed R6V Constitution,a large propeller-driven double-decker transport for the U.S. Navy and Pan American Airways.Only two of were ever built.

9th Nov 1961....USAF Major Robert M White flew the North American X-15 at 4,093 mph (6,590 km/h),making him the first pilot to fly a winged craft at six times the speed of sound (Mach 6).

9th Nov 1967....Launch of the Apollo 4 mission,an unmanned Saturn V,the largest launch vehicle ever to fly successfully.It was the first Apollo flight after the stand-down after the Apollo 1 fire.

9th Nov 1980....Dan-Air registers the last commercial flight by a de Havilland Comet.The aircraft flew enthusiasts on a round-trip flight from London.

9th Nov 2005....Launch:Venus Express,the first exploration mission of the European Space Agency,launched from Kazakhstan.It arrived on Venus the following April.

[Angry Turnip]

10th Nov 1907...Henry Farman becomes the first European to be airborne in a powered heavier-than-air machine for longer than 1 minute,he flies for 1min 14secs covering a distance of 3,379 ft.

10th Nov 1919...First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.27,a small French airliner.It was built by adapting the design of the S.20 fighter into a airliner with a small cabin within the fuselage.

10th Nov 1945...First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-11,a trainer aircraft used by the Soviet Air Force,and other Soviet-influenced air forces from 1947 until 1962.Over 4500 were produced.

10th Nov 1949...First flight of the Sikorsky H-19,an improved version of the HRP helicopter.It was known as the Westland Whirlwind built under license,it served with the RN and RAF.

10th Nov 1970...The first of two Russian unmanned lunar rovers,Lunokhod 1,was launched.As mission Luna 17,the craft was the first remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body.

10th Nov 1982...First flight of the Mil Mi-28 "Havoc" a Russian all-weather,day-night,military tandem,two-seat anti-armor attack helicopter.It carries a single gun undernose,plus external loads.

10th Nov 1988...The US Air Force publicly unveils the F-117 Nighthawk,a single-seat,twin-engine stealth attack aircraft.It first flew in 1981 and was retired in April 2008,due to the F-22.

10th Nov 2003...The final flight of BA Concorde G-BOAD is flown from (LHR) to New York’s JFK,to deliver the aircraft to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.It was JFK’s very last Concorde movement.

10th Nov 2005...The Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner establishes a new world record for nonstop distance by a commercial airplane,11,664 nautical miles in 22hrs and 42mins from Hong Kong to London.

10th Nov 2008...Ryanair Flight 4102,EI-DYG,from Frankfurt to Rome Ciampino Airport,suffered multiple bird strikes on approach,despite warnings to go around,both engines ingested birds,port side                                               landing gear collapsed on touchdown.Final accident report has still not been released.

 

[Angry Turnip]

11th Nov 1918....The Armistice with Germany brings World War I to an end..... " At the going down of the sun,and in the morning,we will remember them "

11th Nov 1922....Étienne Oehmichen flew 'Oehmichen No.2',an improved helicopter featuring small vertically mounted rotors which rotated in the opposite direction from the large lifting rotors.

11th Nov 1924....Lieutenant Dixie Kiefer makes the first night catapult launch from a ship, the U. S. Navy battleship USS California (BB-44).His aircraft is a Vought UO-1.

11th Nov 1935....A.W.Stevens (born Belfast,Maine) and O. A. Anderson set a new balloon altitude record of 72,395 ft near Rapid City,South Dakota.Their Explorer II record held until 1956.

11th Nov 1935....Jean Batten becomes the first woman to fly solo across the South Atlantic,taking 2 days 13hrs to cross from Senegal to Brazil in a Percival Gull.

11th Nov 1942....Hostilities between Allied and French forces in French North Africa end.U.S Navy planes have shot down 20 French aircraft in air combat and destroyed many more on the ground.

11th Nov 1946....First flight of the Short Solent,a 4 engine passenger flying boat.It was developed from the Short Seaford,itself a development of the Short Sunderland.Just 16 built.

11th Nov 1946....First flight of the Avions Fairey Belfair,also known as the Tipsy Belfair.A 2-seat light aircraft,it was a victim of the glut of light aircraft on the market following World War II.

11th Nov 1946....First flight of the Sud-Ouest SO.6000 Triton.The first French jet aircraft began in 1943,as a clandestine project.A German Junkers Jumo 004-B2 was fitted aboard the first prototype.

11th Nov 1956....First flight of the Convair B-58 Hustler,the first operational jet bomber capable of Mach 2 flight.It used a delta wing with four General Electric J79 engines in underwing pods.

11th Nov 1966....Gemini 12,the 18th manned American space-flight,launched.It was the 10th and final manned Gemini flight.Commander was James A. Lovell with  Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

11th Nov 1970....The UK government agrees to fund development of the Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan,rescuing the project from bankruptcy.RB211`s powered amongst others the Boeing 747,757 and 767.

11th Nov 1982....Launch:Space shuttle Columbia STS-5 at 12:19:00 UTC.Mission highlights:Multiple comsat deployments.First EVA of program canceled due to suit problems.

11th Nov 1983....First flight of the CASA/IPTN CN-235,a medium-range twin-engined transport,it has been used as a regional airliner and military transport.It has proved popular worldwide.

11th Nov 2009....Swedish airline MCA Airlines declares bankruptcy.MCA Airlines was a scheduled airline based in Stockholm,Sweden.It was only founded 2008.

[Angry Turnip]

12th Nov 1906....Alberto Santos-Dumont set the first world record recognized by the FAI,by flying 722 ft in 21.5 secs.He also became the first person to be filmed in an airplane in flight.

12th Nov 1912....The first display of naval aircraft at an Imperial Japanese Navy fleet review takes place at Yokohama,with Lt Yōzō Kaneko flying a Farman seaplane and Lt Sankichi Kōno a Curtiss seaplane.

12th Nov 1919....Keith and Ross Smith set out to fly a Vickers Vimy,G-EAOU,from England to Australia,the first time this had been attempted,They arrive in Darwin on December 18.

12th Nov 1921....The first air-to-air refueling was made when Wesley May stepped from the wing of one aircraft to that of another,carrying a five-gallon can of gasoline strapped to his back.

12th Nov 1932....First flight of the de Havilland DH.84 Dragon,a small commercial twin engine biplane.They were used worldwide with military and civilian operators.Over 200 were built.

12th Nov 1941....The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was torpedoed,by the German submarine U-81.The carrier sank the following day in the Mediterranean Sea east of Gibraltar.

12th Nov 1944....29 RAF Avro Lancaster bombers carrying 12,000-pound "Tallboy" bombs score two hits and a near miss on the German battleship Tirpitz at Altenfjord, Norway,causing the ship to capsize.

12th Nov 1970....First flight of the Kawasaki C-1,a twin-engined short-range military transport,used by the JASDF.They entered service in Dec 1974 with 31 aircraft built.

12th Nov 1980....Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Saturn,flying 77,000 miles above its surface and taking photo of its rings.

12th Nov 1981....Launch:Space shuttle Columbia STS-2 at 15:09:59 UTC.Mission highlights:First reuse of a manned orbital space vehicle;first test of Canadarm robot arm; Truncated due to fuel cell problem.

12th Nov 1995....Launch:Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-74 at 7:30:43.071 a.m. EST.Mission highlights:2nd Shuttle-Mir docking.Delivered docking module.IMAX cargo bay camera.

[Angry Turnip]

13th Nov 1907....First flight of the Cornu helicopter.Widely credited with the first free flight of a rotary-wing aircraft.It made a number of short hops,staying aloft for over a minute.

13th Nov 1926....The Schneider Trophy race is flown at Hampton Roads,USA.Won by Mario De Bernardi (Italy) in a Macchi M.39 at 246.5 mph.It also set world speed records that year.

13th Nov 1940....The Handley Page Halifax enters RAF service.A four-engined heavy bomber,Halifaxes flew a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs,while 1,833 aircraft were lost.

13th Nov 1942....A USN OS2U Kingfisher floatplane rescues US WW I ace Eddie Rickenbacker,and two other survivors of a ditched B-17D from a life raft.They had been adrift in the Pacific for 22 days.

13th Nov 1981....Ben Abruzzo and crew make the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon,in the Double Eagle V.He died on 11/2/1985 when the Cessna 421 he was piloting crashed near Albuquerque.

13th Nov 1992....First flight of the Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey,a US two-seat,single-engine,flying boat sold as a kit aircraft for amateur construction as well as a light-sport aircraft.

13th Nov 2011....Emirates orders 50 Boeing 777 airliners worth about US$18,000,000,000,the largest value order in Boeing's history,with an option to purchase 20 more 777s for another $8,000,000,000.

[Angry Turnip]

14th Nov 1910...Eugene Burton Ely took off in a Curtiss pusher from a temporary platform erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham.The first take-off from a ship.

14th Nov 1930...First flight of the Handley Page H.P.42/H.P.45 were British four-engine biplane airliners.They were the land-based backbones of Imperial Airways,four of each were built.

14th Nov 1933...Fred Haise,American astronaut,was born.Haise was the Lunar Module Pilot on the aborted Apollo 13 lunar mission.Later he flew 5 flights as the Commander of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

14th Nov 1935...First flight of the Noorduyn Norseman,a Canadian single-engine bush plane.It remained in production for almost 25 years with over 900 produced.It could be fitted with floats.

14th Nov 1942...First flight of the Lockheed XP-49,a development of the P-38 Lightning fighter,to use the new 24-cylinder P+W X-1800 engine.No gain was made on the P-38,and the project scrapped.

14th Nov 1944...RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory,his wife Dora,and 8 aircrew are killed when Avro 685 York Mk. C.I, MW126,crashes south of Grenoble,France,in a blizzard.

14th Nov 1969...NASA launches Apollo 12,the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.Commander Charles"Pete"Conrad and LMP Alan L.Bean spent just over 1 day and 7 hrs on the lunar surface.

14th Nov 1970...First flight of the Aerosport Rail,a minimalist ultralight,designed by Harris Woods.It is little more than a 2 by 5 inch squared aluminium tube (rail) with all-metal wings and a T-tail.

14th Nov 1974...The first McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle,an F-15B is delivered to the United States Air Force 555th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron at Luke Air Force Base.

14th Nov 1981...Landing: Space shuttle Columbia STS-2 at 21:23:11 UTC.The flight was cut short when one of the three fuel cells that produced electricity and drinking water failed.

14th Nov 1987...Air Transat,a Canadian low-cost leisure airline based in Montreal, Quebec,began airline operations,their first flight is from Montreal to Acapulco.

14th Nov 1996...First flight of the Mil Mi-28N,attack helicopter.It`s most significant feature is a radar in a round cover above the main rotor,a nose mounted  a TV camera and FLIR.

14th Nov 2006...EasyJet announces an order for 52 Airbus A319`s.They are the largest operator of the Airbus A319 worldwide with 132 in service.

14th Nov 2008...Launch:Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126 at 19:55 EST.Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF2: MPLM Leonardo,crew rotation.The crew of 7 are lead by ex USN Cpt Christopher Ferguson.

14th Nov 2009...Pilot Dave Stock is killed in English Electric Lightning T5 ZU-BEX during an airshow at AFB Overberg,South Africa after a hydraulic failure,he had tried to eject,but the canopy ejection failed.

[Angry Turnip]

15th Nov 1916....First flight of the Boeing Model 2/Model C.A two-seater training seaplane,the first "all-Boeing" design and the company's first financial success.56 were built for the USN and USAAS.

15th Nov 1926....T. Neville Stack and B. S. Leete leave England in an attempt to reach India by air in a de Havilland DH.60.They will arrive in Karachi (then part of British India) on January 8 1927.

15th Nov 1929....First flight of the McDonnell Doodlebug,a light aircraft that was built to win a 1927 safety contest.It was a tandem-seat low wing taildragger with fabric covered steel tube fuselage.

15th Nov 1932....First flight of the Hall XP2H-1,a US prototype four-engined biplane flying boat.Intended as an experimental very-long-range maritime patrol aircraft, a single example was built.

15th Nov 1943....Harvey Gray,in a Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender,testing the stall performance at altitude,it suddenly flipped over on its back and fell in an inverted descent.He bailed out.

15th Nov 1945....First flight of the PZL S-1 was a Polish trainer and liaison prototype.It was a two-seater,in open cockpits with windshields,fixed conventional landing gear,with a rear skid.

15th Nov 1956....A SAS Douglas DC-7 C sets a new distance record for commercial airlines by flying 6,005 miles nonstop from Los Angeles to Stockholm,Sweden,following the Great Arctic Circle route.

15th Nov 1957....First flight of the Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya.It was the largest and fastest passenger plane at that time.It has held the official title of fastest propeller-driven aircraft since 1960.

15th Nov 1965....The first pole-to-pole circumnavigation flight took place in a modified Flying Tiger Line Boeing 707-349C carrying 40 scientists,guests,and crew.Total time:62 hours,27 minutes.

15th Nov 1972....Ansett Airlines Flight 232 was an attempted hijacking of a Fokker Friendship bound for Alice Springs from Adelaide.It was the first aircraft hijacking in Australia.The hijacker was killed.

15th Nov 1990....STS-38 was a Space Shuttle mission by NASA using the Space Shuttle Atlantis.It was the 37th shuttle mission,and carried a classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense.

15th Nov 2005....Boeing formally launches the stretched Boeing 747-8 variant with orders from Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines.130 have been built.Two will become VC-25B`s to replace the VC-25A.

15th Nov 2007....China Southern Airlines officially joins the SkyTeam alliance,making it the 1st alliance with a mainland China carrier.

[Angry Turnip]

16th Nov 1909....German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin forms the world’s first commercial airline,DELAG [Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (German for "German Airship Travel Corporation")

16th Nov 1915....Victor Carlstrom became the first pilot to fly from Toronto to New York. Carlstrom flew in a Curtiss R-2 biplane and was in the air for 6 hours and 40 min.

16th Nov 1920....QANTAS is formed at Longreach,Queensland.The airline's first aircraft was an Avro 504K."QANTAS", is an acronym for its original name,Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services

16th Nov 1938....HMS Ark Royal enters service with the Royal Navy as the world’s first aircraft carrier with deck armor.It was commissioned on 16 December 1938,and sank 14th Nov 1941.

16th Nov 1945....Pan American World Airways resumes commercial seaplane service between California and Hawaii,using Boeing Clipper aircraft it has leased to the U.S. Navy during World War II.

16th Nov 1946....First flight of the Saab 90 Scandia,a twin-engined,short- to medium-haul passenger aircraft.Only 18 were built as sales struggled against a glut of ex-military DC-3`s and similar.

16th Nov 1959....First flight of the Canadair CL-44,a Canadian turboprop airliner and cargo aircraft based on the Bristol Britannia.12 were for the RCAF as the CC-106 Yukon.27 were built as airliners.

16th Nov 1965....Russia’s Venera 3, the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface,is launched.It`s mission is to explore the surface of Venus.Its comms systems had failed before it got there.

16th Nov 1970....First flight of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar,a medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner.Its trijet configuration has three Rolls-Royce RB211 engines.250 were built.

16th Nov 1973....Skylab 4 launches into orbit as the fourth Skylab mission,bringing the third and final crew to the space station.The mission lasted just over 84 days.

16th Nov 1982....Landing:Space shuttle Columbia STS-5 at 14:33:26 UTC.Mission highlights:Multiple comsat deployments.First EVA of program canceled due to suit problems.

16th Nov 1984....Landed:Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-A at 11:59:56 UTC KSC,Runway 15.Mission highlights Multiple comsat deployments,retrieval of two other comsats which were refurbished and reflown.

16th Nov 2004....NASA's X-43 reaches a record speed of Mach 10 or 7,000 mph.It was an experimental unmanned hypersonic aircraft with multiple planned scale variations to test aspects of hypersonic flight.

16th Nov 2009....Launch:Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129 at 19:28:09 UTCT.Mission highlights:ISS assembly flight ULF3:ExPRESS Logistics Carriers (ELCs) 1 & 2.

[Angry Turnip]

17th Nov 1906....The Daily Mail of London offers a £10,000 prize for the first flight from London to Manchester.Followed up later by a £1,000 prize for the first flight across the English Channel.

17th Nov 1915....Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ52, L 18, destroyed in shed fire at Tondern during refilling.

17th Nov 1926....Mario de Bernardi breaks his four-day old world speed record,reaching 258.875 mph in the same Macchi M.39 at Hampton Roads,Virginia,USA.

17th Nov 1943....First flight of the General Motors/Fisher P-75 Eagle,a fighter with an extremely high rate of climb,using the most powerful liquid-cooled engine then available,the Allison V-3420.

17th Nov 1947....First flight of the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar,a twin engine,twin boom military transport.By the time production ceased in 1955,more than 1,100 C-119s had been built.

17th Nov 1954....A USAF B-47 Stratojet bomber is forced by bad weather to remain aloft for 47 hours 35 min,requiring air-to-air refueling nine times before successfully landing.A queue for the loo?

17th Nov 1956....First flight of the Dassault Mirage III,a family of single-seat,single-engine,fighter aircraft.It has been used in active combat roles in multiple conflicts by a number of operators.

17th Nov 1995....Rollout of the first HAL Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) technology demonstrator,TD-1.This was a proof of concept demonstrator,but it didn`t fly until Jan 2001 due to changing requirements.

17th Nov 1997....ValuJet Airlines terminated operations after merging to AirTran Airways.After a crash in Florida,ValuJet's cost-cutting practices came under scrutiny.

17th Nov 2003....Concorde G-BOAE departed London Heathrow for the last time.It flew direct and retired at Grantley Adams International Airport,Barbados.The flight took less than 4 hrs.

[Angry Turnip]

Quite a number of first flights for todays flight bites.


18th Nov 1911....Flown by Cdr Schwann,a modified Avro Type D biplane with floats became the first seaplane to take off from British sea water,it`s flight was brief and the aircraft was damaged landing.

18th Nov 1922....First flight of the Dewoitine D.1,a French single-seat fighter.It was a high-wing monoplane,with a metal oval-section fuselage with duralumin sheet skin.Approx 500 built.

18th Nov 1930....First flight of the Boeing XP-9,Boeing`s first monoplane fighter aircraft.The sole prototype exhibited unsatisfactory characteristics,and the project was scrapped.

18th Nov 1942....First flight of the Tachikawa Ki-77,a Japanese twin engine,long-range experimental transport.Just two were built.One is thought to have been shot down in July 1943.

18th Nov 1944....First flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-83,a Japanese experimental long range heavy fighter.Four prototypes were built and displayed remarkable maneuverability for aircraft of their size.

18th Nov 1955....First powered flight of the Bell X-2,a rocket-powered,swept-wing research aircraft.It`s XLR25 rocket engine,was based on the variable-thrust JATO engine built by Robert Goddard.

18th Nov 1964....First flight of the Grumman C-2 Greyhound,a twin-engine,high-wing cargo aircraft designed to carry supplies,mail,and passengers to/from aircraft carriers of the US Navy.

18th Nov 1966....Cpt WJ.Knight flies the X-15 to a record speed of Mach 6.33 or 4,250 mph.In the X-15 program,13 flights by 8 pilots met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding an altitude of 50 miles.

18th Nov 1967....First flight of the Dassault Mirage G,a two-seat twinjet variable-geometry prototype fighter.Although Dassault built and flew prototypes,the project was cancelled.

18th Nov 1978....First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet,a twin-engine,supersonic,all-weather,carrier-capable,multirole combat jet,designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft.

18th Nov 1985....Cessna is purchased by General Dynamics,whom in turn,sold Cessna to Textron Inc,in 1992.

18th Nov 1997....The FBI concludes its investigation of the TWA Flight 800 crash,declaring there is no evidence of foul play.The NTSB’s investigation would continue.

18th Nov 2002....American Airlines and British Airways announce plans to code-share some transatlantic flights,the partnership is heavily restricted by US regulators.

18th Nov 2009....Virgin America commences services between their San Francisco (SFO) hub and Fort Lauderdale (FLL),as well as LAX-FLL.

[Angry Turnip]

19th Nov 1903....Léon Y.K.Levavasseur promoted his Antoinette engine,a lightweight powerplant for aircraft.His innovations included the V8 engine,direct fuel injection,and liquid engine cooling.

19th Nov 1915....First combat S+R:Richard Bell-Davies flying a Nieuport 10,rescued his wingman who had been shot down in Bulgaria.He received the Victoria Cross for his actions.His wingman got a DSC.

19th Nov 1921....Flying a Curtiss CR-2,Bert Acosta sets a new world speed record of 197.8 mph.

19th Nov 1922....Malert (Magyar Legiforgalmi) is formed,a fore-runner of MALÉV Hungarian Airlines.

19th Nov 1931....The Sikorsky S-40 amphibious flying boat enters service with Pan American.Piloted by Charles Lindbergh,flying from Miami,to the Panama Canal Zone with various island stops.

19th Nov 1932....A national monument to the Wright Brothers is unveiled at Kitty Hawk,North Carolina.
 
19th Nov 1932....First flight of the ANF Les Mureaux 170,a prototype French fighter.It was a single-engined, single-seat parasol monoplane,but only two were built as it was rejected for service.

19th Nov 1938....Construction begins on a new airport serving the nation’s capital, Washington, D. C. built in nearby Virginia, and this airport will become Ronald Reagan National Airport.

19th Nov 1952....A North American F-86D Sabre fighter sets a new world speed record of 698.505 mph.

19th Nov 1958....The Fokker F27 Friendship,the first production aircraft,an F27-100 model,was delivered to Irish airline Aer Lingus;it performed its first revenue flight in the following month.

19th Nov 1960....First flight of the Hawker Siddeley P.1127,the first(V/STOL) jet fighter-bomber.By the end of the year the aircraft had achieved both vertical take-off and horizontal flight.

19th Nov 1969....Apollo 12 lands on the Moon,Charles Conrad and Alan L.Bean become the third and fourth humans to walk on its surface.Bean accidently fried a colour TV camera by pointing it at the sun.

19th Nov 1996....Launch:Space Shuttle Columbia STS-80 at 2:55:47 p.m EST.Mission highlights: Wake Shield Facility; ASTRO-SPAS.It was the longest Shuttle mission flown at 17 days,15 hrs,53 mins.

19th Nov 1997....Launch:Space Shuttle Columbia STS-87 at 14:46 EST.Mission highlights:Microgravity experiments,2 EVAs,SPARTAN.Crew member Kalpana Chawla,was later killed in the 2003 Coloumbia disaster.

19th Nov 1999....Launched: Shenzhou 1,China's first spacecraft.After orbiting the Earth 14 times, the command for retrofire was sent by the Yuanwang 3 tracking ship off the coast of Namibia.

[Angry Turnip]

Not much to report for this day.

20th Nov 1945....First flight of the Saab 91 Safir,a three (91A, B, B-2) or four (91C, D) seater,single engine trainer.323 were built when production ended in 1966.It had a de Havilland Gipsy Major X engine.

20th Nov 1953....Scott Crossfield flies the Douglas Skyrocket past Mach 2,the first flight to reach this speed.The world airspeed record is now set at 1,291 mph.

20th Nov 1978....The US Air Force orders development of the KC-10 Extender.It was developed to supplement the KC-135 Stratotanker.It features hose and drogue,and a centreline boom system.

20th Nov 1998.... Air Tahiti Nui commences flight operations.It`s fleet of five Airbus A340-300s will be replaced by four Boeing 787-9s,which are due to be delivered in 2018 and 2019.

[Angry Turnip]

Sorry these are a bit late,I got a new router and it wasn`t just as straight forward to install as I had hoped.


21st Nov 1917....21-24 – The Zeppelin LZ-104 "Das Afrika-Schiff" makes a 4200 mile journey through Africa in 96 hours with an average speed 44mph.

21st Nov 1947....First flight of the Grumman F9F Panther,a USN single-engined,straight-winged day fighter.It was the first jet aircraft used by the Blue Angels aerobatics demonstration team.

21st Nov 1952....First flight of the Percival Pembroke,a high-wing twin-engined light transport aircraft.It served with the RAF as the Percival Pembroke C.1 replacing the Avro Anson.128 were built.

21st Nov 1970....US aircraft begin the first major bombing campaign of North Vietnam since 1968.Over 300 aircraft attack the Mu Gia and Ban Gari passes.

21st Nov 1980....Air Micronesia Flight 614,operated by a Boeing 727-100C registered N18479,crashed while landing at Yap International Airport.All of the 67 passengers and 6 crew survived.

21st Nov 1981....Aeroflot is banned from flying to the United States,after an earlier Aeroflot flight had overflown American military installations,straying from its supposed flight path.

21st Nov 1986....The first ever RAF air-to-air refuelling of a fully-loaded passenger carrying transport,a VC-10,was carried out on a trooper flight to Oman as part of Exercise Saif Sareea.

21st Nov 1989....A British Airways Boeing 747 narrowly misses crashing into the Penta hotel near Heathrow Airport in bad weather.The captain resigned and commited suicide a year later.

21st Nov 1990....First flight of the Hongdu JL-8 (Nanchang JL-8),a two-seat intermediate jet trainer and a light attack aircraft.It is a joint project between China and Pakistan,it has also been exported.