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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

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United Airlines Flight 93 was a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight from Newark International Airport, in Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco International Airport. It was hijacked by four men as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Over 40 minutes into the flight the hijackers breached the cockpit, overpowered the pilots and took over control of the aircraft, diverting it toward Washington, D.C. Several passengers and crew members made telephone calls aboard the flight and learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As a result, the passengers decided to mount an assault against the hijackers and wrest control of the aircraft.

The plane crashed in a field just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., killing all 44 people aboard, including the hijackers. Many witnessed the impact from the ground and news agencies began reporting on the event within an hour. The plane fragmented upon impact, leaving a crater, and some debris was blown miles from the crash site. The remains of everyone on board the aircraft were later identified. Subsequent analysis of the flight recorders revealed how the actions taken by the passengers prevented the aircraft from reaching either the White House or United States Capitol. A permanent memorial is planned for construction on the crash site. The chosen design has been the source of criticism and is scheduled to be dedicated in 2011. (Full article...)

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Did you know

...that a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was used in the 2004 film Flight of the Phoenix? ...that the fighter pilot Aleksandr Kazakov destroyed 32 German and Austro-Hungarian planes during WWI, while his formal tally of 17 is explained by the fact that only planes crashed in the Russian-held territory were officially counted? ...that François Denhaut built the world's first flying boat, or seaplane with a hull?

More Did you know facts

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The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

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Selected biography

Sophie Blanchard
Sophie Blanchard (25 March 1778 – 6 July 1819) was a French aeronaut and the wife of ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist, and after her husband's death she continued ballooning, making more than 60 ascents. Known throughout Europe for her ballooning exploits, Blanchard entertained Napoleon Bonaparte, who promoted her to the role of "Aeronaut of the Official Festivals", replacing André-Jacques Garnerin. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1814 she performed for Louis XVIII, who named her "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration".

Ballooning was a risky business for the pioneers. Blanchard lost consciousness on a few occasions, endured freezing temperatures and almost drowned when her balloon crashed in a marsh. In 1819, she became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident when, during an exhibition in the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, she launched fireworks that ignited the gas in her balloon. Her craft crashed on the roof of a house and she fell to her death. She is commonly referred to as Madame Blanchard and is also known by many combinations of her maiden and married names, including Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Sophie Armant and Madeleine-Sophie Armant Blanchard.

Selected Aircraft

The Pregnant Guppy was a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built in the USA and used for ferrying outsized cargo items, most notably NASA's components of the Apollo moon program. The Pregnant Guppy was the first of the Guppy line of aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines, Inc. The design also inspired similar designs such as the jet-powered Airbus Beluga, and the Boeing 747 LCF designed to deliver Boeing 787 parts.

  • Span:141 feet, 3 inches.
  • Length: 127 feet.
  • Height: 31 feet, 3 inches.
  • Engines: 4 3500hp P&W R-4360.
  • Cruising Speed: 250 mph
  • First Flight:September 19, 1962
  • Number built: 1
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Today in Aviation

May 2

  • 2011 – Operation Neptune Spear. 2 modified Black Hawk helicopters ("stealth" versions) carrying Navy seals lands in at Abbottabad, Pakistan, and kill Terrorist Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Lade, founder of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets.
  • 2010 – A Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter of the United States Army carrying two soldiers of the 116th Aviation Group, was participating in a routine drill when it crashed on a ramp while taxiing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, shortly before 1400 hrs. Both crew were taken to hospital. Pilot 1st Lt. Jonathan Shively Jr., 33, of Jamestown, died of injuries, but second pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Roger Carpenter, 46, of Spartanburg, was in stable condition.
  • 2009 – Uli Dembinski, German aerobatic pilot, establishes a record of 333 loops with his Yak-55.
  • 2005 – Two F/A-18C Block 39/40 Hornet fighter jets of VMFA-323, BuNos 164721 and 164732, collide over south-central Iraq, during a sortie from USS Carl Vinson, killing the two pilots.[2]
  • 1999 – The same day an American F-16 was shot down near Šabac and an A-10 Thunderbolt II was heavily damaged, operation control lost contact of an UAV in the Adriatic Sea, close to the coast and minutes from landing. Local fishermen witnesses give credit to the rumors this was a covered Dassault Mirage F1B (codename yogsothoth) damaged in dogfight over Beograd. Reports of airplane discharging something at sea were collected by coast guard, as well as the bail out of two pilots. Following the accident, never credited by the air force, it was confirmed that jet fighters were dropping unused weapons into the sea before landing.
  • 1998 – The 100th and final B-1 B was delivered.
  • 1981 – A 55-year-old Australian man, Laurence James Downey, enters a lavatory aboard Aer Lingus Flight 164, a Boeing 737-200 with 107 other people on board, five minutes before landing at London Heathrow Airport in London, England, douses himself with petrol (gasoline), and walks into the cockpit with a cigarette lighter in his hand. He demands that the airliner fly to Iran, then specifies France when the flight crew tells him that the aircraft lacks the fuel to fly to Iran. The plane lands at Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport in Le Touquet, France, where Downey demands that Pope John Paul II make public the Third Secret of Fatima. After 10 hours, French police storm the plane and arrest Downey without injury to anyone.
  • 1975 – Death of Emil Meinecke, German WWI flying ace and Fokker test pilot post WWI.
  • 1970 – ALM Flight 980, a Douglas DC-9 operated by Overseas National Airways, ditches near St. Croix, Virgin Islands, killing 23, including two infants and one crew member; 40, including 4 crew members, survive.
  • 1968 – Death of Edwin Charles "Ted" Parsons, American former French Foreign Legionnaire, WWI flying ace, Rear Admiral of the US Navy, Hollywood aviation technical advisor, FBI Special Agent, and author.
  • 1967 – Delivery to the USAF of the A-37 A and named Dragonfly begins.
  • 1964 – A North Vietnamese frogman sinks the U. S. Navy aviation transport USS Card (T-AKV-40) – formerly the escort aircraft carrier USNS Card (CVE-11) – pierside while she unloads helicopters at Saigon, South Vietnam. She soon is refloated and repaired.
  • 1958 – Roger Carpentier beats Watkin's two-week-old world altitude record when he flies to 79,452 feet in a Sud-Ouest SO 9050 in Istres, France.
  • 1956 – A USAF Boeing B-47E-85-BW Stratojet, 52-0450, c/n 450732, of the 98th Bomb Wing (also reported as of the 372d Bomb Squadron, 307th Bomb Wing), crashes short of runway, Lincoln AFB, Nebraska. One account states that it was on instrument approach. Another states that it came down "three miles short of the Northwest runway after departing on an evening training mission. Eyewitnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to belly in for a landing, crashed, then exploded and burned. The crash site was on farmland owned by Edmund Nelson, ½ mile west of 79 Hi-way and 2 ½ miles north of U.S. 34." KWF are Captain Marion J. Perdue, aircraft commander, 33, San Antonio, Texas; 2nd Lieutenant Linwood M. McIntosh, co-pilot, 22, Dallas, Texas; Captain Charles H. Stonesifer, navigator/bombardier, 35, Maricopa, California; and Staff Sergeant William F. Rockholt, crew chief, 24, Fellows, California. All crew were from the 345th Bomb Squadron.
  • 1945 – Death of Eric James Brindley Nicolson, British WWII fighter pilot, only Battle of Britain pilot and the only pilot of RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross, killed in the crash of a RAF B-24 Liberator in which he was flying as an observer.
  • 1945 – The British East Indies Fleet's 2first Aircraft Carrier Squadron – consisting of the aircraft carriers HMS Emperor, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker – begin support of Operation Dracula, a British assault on Rangoon, Burma. Their aircraft fly 110 sorties, bombing Japanese forces in support of a British amphibious landing.
  • 1942 – The Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho sinks with the loss of 101 lives after the U. S. Navy submarine USS Drum (SS-228) had torpedoed her late the previous evening 40 nautical miles (74 km) off Omaezaki, Japan. There are 472 survivors.
  • 1941 – The Anglo-Iraqi War between British forces and a pro-Axis Iraqi government begins with 41 Royal Air Force Station Habbaniya- and Shaibah-based Royal Air Force planes launching a surprise attack against Iraqi forces surrounding Habbaniya and Iraqi airfields. Royal Iraqi Air Force aircraft respond. By the end of the day, the British have destroyed 22 Iraqi aircraft on the ground, losing five of their own.
  • 1936 – American parachutist, Clement Joseph 'Clem' Sohn, makes his first jump in England, at Hanworth airfield near London. Unusually, Sohn attached wings to his body, which were deployed when he opened his arms and legs and allowed him to glide.
  • 1932 – Death of Otto Jindra, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace who, post war, became Czechoslovakian citizen and was instrumental in raising a Czechoslovak Air Force.
  • 1927 – Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue, leading the U. S. Army Pan American Flight, a public relations goodwill mission to promote U. S. aviation in South America, Flying 5 Loening OA-1 A seaplanes complete the mission after having traveled 22,000 miles (35,200 km) in 59 flight days, stopping at 72 cities along the route.
  • 1919 – A U.S. Army seaplane en route on afternoon flight from Balboa, Panama to France Field, near present-day Colón, Panama, with three aviators on board, suffers engine failure shortly after departure. Pilot Lt. J. R. L. Hitt attempts landing on Miraflores Lake but aircraft falls short and hits the front of the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal at ~1700 hrs. Airframe crumples "like a house of cards", according to account published by the Panama Star & Herald on 3 May. Hitt, Lt. Thomas Cecil Tonkin, and Maj. Harold Melville Clark (4 October 1890 - 2 May 1919) are all thrown from the plane into the water of the lock. "Lieutenant Tonkin was undoubtedly killed instantly by the twisting timbers of the machine. ...Major Clark sank to the bottom of the lock, and it's not known whether he was killed in the crash or whether he drowned", stated the article. Hitt was severely injured in the crash, but was rescued by bystanders. The Panama Star & Herald reported that a diver was sent to retrieve Clark's body. The Army rules his death as an accident due to internal injuries caused by "aeroplane traumatism", according to a War Department report on Clark's death dated 8 May 1919, and awards his mother $10,000. Clark is buried 29 May 1919, with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Clark had made the first-ever inter-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands on 15 March 1918, in a Curtiss N-9 of the 6th Aero Squadron. Fort Stotsenburg, established in the Philippines in 1902, is renamed Clark Air Base with the establishment of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.
  • 1918 – Death of Edgar Scholtz, German WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Fokker DR. I
  • 1918 – Death of Federico Fenu, Italian Balloonist.
  • 1917 – Camp Borden Aerodrome was formally taken over by RFC Canada – The first of the new training fields.
  • 1916 – Eight German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties. The Zeppelin L 20 is wrecked in a storm off Stavanger, Norway on the return journey.
  • 1909 – John Moore-Brabazon the first resident British citizen to make a recognized powered heavier-than-air flight in the UK, flying from The Aero Club's ground at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin biplane Bird of Passage.
  • 1895 – Birth of Orvil Arson Anderson, American pioneer balloonist.
  • 1892 – Born Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, was a German pilot and is still regarded today as the "ace of aces". He was a very successful fighter pilot, military leader and flying ace who won 80 air combats during World War I.
  • 1891 – Birth of General Sir Hesperus Andrias 'Pierre' van Ryneveld, South African military commander, WWI fighter ace, raid pilot and WWII high-ranking officer.
  • 1883 – Birth of Alessandro Cagno (nickname Sandrin), Italian racing driver and aviation pioneer.

References

  1. ^ "Engine fault 'caused Sudan crash'". BBC News, 3 May 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  2. ^ "Second Pilot Identified in F/A-18 Crash". United States Navy. 2007-05-05. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
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