Portal:Aviation/Today in aviation

May 3

• 2013 – A United States Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker crashes 100 miles (161 km) west of the U.S. Air Force Transit Center at Manas base at Manas International Airport outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, leaving two of its crewman dead and one missing.

• 2013 – Israeli Air Force aircraft strike a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles at Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria. The shipment had orioginated in Iran and was destined for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

• 2010 – Death of Günter F. Wendt, German-American engineer noted for his work in the U. S. manned spaceflight program. "There is no reason to say I am narrow-minded. Just do it my way and you will have no problem at all."

• 2009 – XM715, a Handley Page Victor, briefly becomes airborne during a fast taxi run at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, United Kingdom. The aircraft is not airworthy and was not intended to have flown.

• 2009 – Táchira helicopter crash: A Fuerzas Terrestres Venezuela Mil Mi-17 Hip helicopter crashes on a border patrol with Colombia with 18 fatalities including the Venezuelan General Domingo Faneite. The accident occurred near the town of El Alto de Rubio, in Táchira state, Venezuela.

• 2007 – Death of Walter Marty Schirra, Jr., American test pilot, US Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo), fifth American and the ninth human to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times.

• 2007 – A Chicago businessman who owned a ranch near Twin Bridges and his passenger were killed Thursday morning when the small jet they were flying crashed while trying to land at the Beaverhead County Airport at Dillon. At about 1040 mountain daylight time (MDT), a Cessna Citation S550, N22HP, collided with terrain during a circling instrument approach at Dillon, Montana.

• 2006 – Armavia Flight 967, an Airbus A320, crashes into the Black Sea near the Russian city of Sochi, killing all 113 on board.

• 2005 – Airwork Flight 23, a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner crashes in Taranaki, New Zealand killing both crew members.

• 2002 – 2002 Jalandhar India MiG-21 crash: An Indian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 pilot ejects after takeoff, with the aircraft crashing into a Jalandhar bank building, killing eight on the ground.

• 1998 – STS-90, Space Shuttle Columbia mission is back on earth

• 1986 – Air Lanka Flight 512, a Lockheed L-1011, is bombed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, killing 21 of 148 on board.

• 1985 – Aeroflot Flight 8381, a Tupolev Tu-134, collides with a Soviet Air Force Antonov An-26; both aircraft crash near Zolochev, Ukraine, killing all 94 on board both aircraft.

• 1983 – The first CC 134 Challenger Jet was delivered to 412 Squadron.

• 1982 – A Gulfstream II from Algerian government is shot down above the border between Iran and Turkey. Both Iran and Iraq rejected responsibility.

• 1982 – Iraq shoots down an aircraft bound for Tehran, Iran, carrying Algerian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ben Yahia and 12 of his colleagues. The incident ends an Algerian attempt to mediate between Iran and Iraq and bring an end to the Iran-Iraq War.

• 1977 – Shortly after 1100 hrs. English Electric Canberra PR.9 aircraft, XH137, of No. 39 Squadron was returning to its base at RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon, after a routine training flight. About two miles from the end of the runway, it crashed by some houses in the estate of Oxmoor in the village of Hartford, north-east of Huntingdon. Three young children were killed and five people were injured, of whom two are detained in hospital. The two RAF members of the crew were also killed, said Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Frederick Mulley.

• 1976 – A Pan Am Boeing 747SP makes a record around-the-world flight, taking 1 day 22 hours.

• 1973 – Death of Louis Prosper Gros, French WWI flying ace who served also in WWII.

• 1968 – Death of Bernard Artigau, French WWI flying ace, pioneering commercial pilot who also served in WWII

• 1968 – Braniff Flight 352, a Lockheed L-188A Super Electra en route from Houston, Texas to Dallas, breaks up in mid-air in a thunderstorm and crashes near Dawson, Texas; killing its five crew and 80 passengers. Nine years earlier Braniff Flight 542 crashed 49 miles (79 km) away in Buffalo.

• 1965 – The U. S. Marine Corps's first attack helicopters, modified UH-1 Es of Marine Observation Squadron 2 (VMO-2), arrive at Da Nang, South Vietnam, to begin operations in the Vietnam War.

• 1963 – First flight of the production form Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche.

• 1961 – The Boeing Airplane Company changes its name to Boeing Company.

• 1955 – The first pre-series Sud-Ouest SO 9050 Trident II was flown.

• 1952 – The first landing at the North Pole is made by Americans Lt. Col. William P. Benedict and Lt. Col. J. O. Fletcher on a ski-and-wheel equipped Air Force Douglas C-47.

• 1950 – HMS Ark Royal (R09) is Launched at Birkenhead. Audacious-class aircraft carrier, Royal navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier and world's first aircraft carrier to be commissioned with an angled flight deck.

• 1950 – The 2nd prototype Blackburn B-54 Y. A.8. with a crew of three makes his first flight.

• 1949 – Birth of Albert Sacco, Jr.,American chemical engineer who flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia on shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995.

• 1949 – First launch, of Viking 1.( Viking Rocket) It attained an altitude of 50 miles (80 km). The altitude was limited by a premature engine cut-off, eventually traced to steam leakage from the turbine casing.

• 1948 – Second Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, BuNo 37971, NACA 141, crashes on takeoff on 20th flight for NACA (46th total take-off) at Edwards AFB, California, due to compressor disintegration that cut control runs in fuselage, killing NACA pilot Howard C. Lilly. Lilly is the first NACA pilot to die while on duty, and the first pilot who had flown at supersonic speed to be killed.

• 1945 – Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers sink the German passenger ships SS Cap Arcona and SS Deutschland and the German cargo ship SS Thielbek in the Bay of Lübeck, unaware that the ships are carrying more than 10,000 concentration camp prisoners. About 5,000 people die aboard Cap Arcona (the second-greatest loss of life in a ship sinking in history) and about another 2,750 aboard Thielbek, and there also is a heavy loss of life aboard Deutschland.

• 1945 – (3-4) The fifth Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 125 kamikazes. They sink three destroyers and two smaller ships and damage the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable, the light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62), four destroyers, a destroyer-minelayer, and three smaller ships.

• 1943 – During an inspection tour, Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews (1884–1943) is killed in crash of Consolidated B-24D-1-CO Liberator, 41-23728, of the 330th Bomb Squadron, 93d Bomb Group, 8th Air Force,[193] out of RAF Bovingdon, England, on Mt. Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes peninsula after an aborted attempt to land at the RAF Kaldadarnes, Iceland. Andrews and thirteen others died in the crash; only the tail gunner, S/Sgt. George A. Eisel, survived. Others KWF included pilot Capt. Robert H. Shannon, of the 330th BS, 93rd BG; six members of Andrews' staff, including Maj. Ted Trotman, B/Gen. Charlie Barth, Col. Marlow Krum, and the general's aide, Maj. Fred A. Chapman; and Capt. J. H. Gott, navigator. Andrews was the highest-ranking Allied officer to die in the line of duty to that point in the war.[194] At the time of his death, he was Commanding General, United States Forces, European Theatre of Operations. Camp Springs Army Air Field, Maryland, is renamed Andrews Field (later Andrews Air Force Base), for him on 7 February 1945.

• 1942 – Tragedy at Kufra - Three Bristol Blenheim Mk. IVs, Z7513, Z7610, and T2252, of No. 15 Squadron, South African Air Force, detached to support Allied ground forces garrisoning the oasis at Kufra in Libya, become lost whilst on a familiarization flight and land in the Libyan Desert. They are not found until 11 May by which time only one of twelve crew survive. Z7610 and T2252 are flown out in May but damaged Z7513 is abandoned in place.

• 1942 – In a raid on the Arctic convoy PQ 15, six Heinkel He 111 s of the Luftwaffe’s I. Gruppe, Kampfgeschwader 26, make Germany’s first torpedo bomber attack of World War II. They sink two merchant ships outright and damage a third, which a German submarine later sinks. Three of the He 111 s are lost.

• 1937 – Death of Cosimo Rennella, Italian born Ecuadorian WWI flying ace, and pioneering aviator in South America Pre and post WWI war.

• 1941 – (3-6) RAF aircraft continue to attack Iraqi positions surrounding RAF Habbinya and Iraqi airfields, eventually forcing Iraq forces to withdraw on May 6.

• 1928 – Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps aircraft see action in China during the Tsinan Incident.

• 1928 – USN LT’s Arthur Gavin and Zeus Soucek, takes off in a PN-12 seaplane for a world duration record for Class C seaplanes.

• 1926 – Birth of Georgi Konstantinowitsch Mossolow, Soviet test Pilot.

• 1924 – Birth of Robert Kenneth "Ken" Tyrrell, British WWII flying mechanic, Formula 2 racing driver and founder of the Tyrrell Formula One constructor

• 1923 – The Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation is formed by Igor Sikorsky at a Long Island chicken farm.

• 1923 – U. S. Air Service Fokker T-2 pilots Lts. Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready complete the first non-stop flight across the United States in 26 hours, 50 min, 38.4 seconds from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Wickenburg, Arizona.

• 1918 – Atlantic City, New Jersey became the first US municipal airport (Bader Field).

• 1918 – Death of Samuel Parry, Welsh WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident in a Bristol F.2b.

• 1918 – Death of Omer Paul Demeuldre, French WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Spad.

• 1915 – Birth of Ugo Drago, Italian WWII Pilot.

• 1907 – The Wright brothers are elected honorary members of the Vienna Aviation Club, Austria.

• 1896 – Birth of Louis Marcel Germain 'Marcel' Doret, French Aerobatic, Record breaker and test pilot.

• 1896 – Birth of Karl Allmenröder, German WWI flying ace.

• 1891 – Birth of William Graham Westwood, South African WWI flying ace

• 1866 – Birth of Richard von Kehler, German Balloon pioneer.

• 1812 – Birth of William Samuel Henson, pre-Wright brothers aviation engineer and inventor.

• 1695 – Birth of Henri Pitot, French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the Pitot tube.

References

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