Portal:Aviation/Today in aviation

2011 – The Dubai-based airline Emirates orders 50 Boeing 777 airliners worth about US$18,000,000,000 – the largest order in terms of commercial value in Boeing's history – with an option to purchase 20 more 777s for another $8,000,000,000.^[1]

2008 – An Antonov An-12 crashes after takeoff from Al Asad Air Base, killing all 7 crew members.^[2] Six members of the crew and one passenger died, three of them were Russians. The crew also consisted of a Belarusian, two Ukrainians and an Indian citizen.^[3]

1993 – China Northern Airlines Flight 6901, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes on approach to Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport, Xinjiang, China; killing 12 of the 102 on board; pilot error is blamed.

1992 – The famous ‘golf balls’ at RAF Fylingdales were replaced in service by the three sided pyramid structure of the new AN/FPS-115 phased-array radar.

1981 – Ben Abruzzo and crew make the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon, in the Double Eagle V

1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 533, a NAMC YS-11, plunges into Seto Inland Sea after an overrun at Matsuyama Airport, Shikoku, Japan, killing all 50 passengers and crew; this crash is the first loss of a YS-11.

1958 – Seventh of 13 North American X-10s, GM-19313, c/n 7, on X-10 Drone BOMARC target mission 2, out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The X-10 flies out over the ocean, then accelerates toward the Cape. However the Bomarc A fails to launch. Autoland is successful, but again the drag chute and landing barrier both fail, and the vehicle burns after overrunning the runway.

1951 – A USAF Fairchild C-82A-FA Packet, 45-57801, c/n 10171, 'CQ-801', of the 11th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, en route from Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany to Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, France, goes off-course due to wind drift, compounded with having received weather briefings for 8,000 feet (2,400 m), but flew at 6,000 feet (1,800 m), hits the side of Mt. Dore in poor weather at ~1300 hrs., 20 miles (32 km) SW of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Six crew and 30 passengers all killed. It was transporting US Army postal workers to set up a military post office at Bordeaux, France. This remains the worst all-time C-82 accident in terms of human loss.

1950 – The 1950 Tête de l'Obiou C-54 crash: A Curtiss Reid Flying Services-operated C-54 Skymaster crashes 30 mi (48 km) from Grenoble, France on the Tête de l'Obiou mountain; all 52 passengers and crew die.

1944 – civil air services to London are restored, with the first flights carried out by Railway Air Services

1943 – American preparatory bombing for the amphibious landings in the Gilbert Islands begins with a strike by 17 U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators against Japanese forces on Betio island at Tarawa Atoll. For the next week, B-24s raid Betio, Butaritari, or both every day, Mili four times, and Jaluit and Maloelap twice each, destroying several Japanese aircraft. Japanese aircraft strike Nanumea and Funafuti once each, destroying one B-24 and damaging two.

1942 – A U. S. Navy OS2U Kingfisher floatplane rescues U. S. World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and two other survivors of a ditched B-17D Flying Fortress from a life raft. They had been adrift in the Pacific for 22 days.

1940 – Introduction: Handley Page Halifax with the Royal Air Force’s No. 35 Squadron

1926 – Schneider Trophy race flown at Hampton Roads, USA. Won by Mario De Bernardi (Italy) in a Macchi M.39 at 396.698 km/h (246.5 mph).

1916 – Sole prototype of the Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) V1, a single-seat, all-metal fighter with pod-type fuselage and pusher 160 hp (120 kW) Maybach Mb III engine, designed by Dipl-Ing Claudius Dornier, and built by the Abteilung 'Dornier' of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH at Seemoos, near Friedrichshafen, attempts initial flight. After a series of ground hops in September by Bruno E. Schröter, this pilot refused to fly the prototype due to pronounced tail-heaviness. Oblt. Haller von Hallerstein, instead undertakes initial flight this date, but the V1 performs a loop immediately after take-off, crashing, killing pilot. No further development undertaken of the type.

1915 – Flying a BE.2c, Royal Naval Air Service Flight Commander J. R. W. Smyth-Pigott makes a daring night bombing attack on a bridge of the Berlin-Constantinople railway over the Maritsa River at Kuleli Burgas in the Ottoman Empire from an altitude of 300 feet (91 meters). Although the bridge sruvives, he receives the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry.

1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies the Santos-Dumont 14-bis a distance of 722 feet (220 m) in 21 seconds on the grounds of the Château de Bagatelle. With the event happening after over two years of successful Wright brothers flights in the United States, this is recorded as the first officially observed aeroplane flight in Europe and the distance Santos-Dumont flies is the first officially recognized airplane distance record.

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