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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747

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 craft 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. 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...)

Selected article

BAE Systems' offices in Farnborough, UK
BAE Systems' offices in Farnborough, UK
BAE Systems is a British defence and aerospace company headquartered in London, UK, which has worldwide interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is the world's seventh-largest defence contractor and the largest in Europe. BAE was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of two British companies: Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC) and aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer British Aerospace (BAe). It has increasingly disengaged from its businesses in continental Europe in favour of investing in the United States. Since its formation it has sold its shares of Airbus, EADS Astrium, AMS and Atlas Elektronik. BAE Systems is involved in several major defence projects, including the F-35 Lightning II, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. The company has been the subject of criticism, both general opposition to the arms trade and also specific allegations of unethical and corrupt practices, including the Al-Yamama contracts with Saudi Arabia that have earned BAE and its predecessor £43 billion in twenty years. (Full article...)

Selected image

Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
A Supermarine Spitfire Mark XVI. The Spitfire was an iconic British single-seat fighter used by the RAF and many Allied countries in the Second World War. The Spitfire saw service during the whole of WWII in all theatres of war, and in many different variants. It is often credited with winning the Battle of Britain.

Did you know

...that Ansett Airlines Flight 232 from Adelaide to Alice Springs in 1972 was the first aircraft hijacking to take place in Australia? ...that the Aerocar Coot was a two-seat amphibious aircraft designed for home-building by Moulton Taylor? ...that François Denhaut built the world's first flying boat, or seaplane with a hull?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Wiley Hardeman Post (November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935) was the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits. His plywood aircraft, the Winnie Mae[1] is on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, and his pressure suit is being prepared for display at the same location. On August 15, 1935, Post and American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's plane crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska.

Selected Aircraft

AN-225 with the Soviet Space Shuttle, Buran.
AN-225 with the Soviet Space Shuttle, Buran.

The Antonov An-225 Mriya (Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a strategic airlift transport aircraft built by Antonov, and was the world's largest powered aircraft before its destruction in February 2022. Mriya (Мрія) means "dream" (inspiration) in Ukrainian.

With a maximum gross weight of 640,000 kg (1,400,000 lb), the An-225 was the world's heaviest aircraft. Although its wingspan is less than that of the Hughes H-4 "Spruce Goose", the latter never went beyond a single short low-altitude test flight, making the An-225 the largest aircraft in the world to take off more than once. Both the An-124 and An-225 are larger than the C-5 Galaxy, the largest aircraft in the U.S. inventory. The An-225 was also larger than the Airbus A380.

  • Span: 88.40 m (291 ft 2 in)
  • Length: 75.30 m n(246 ft 11 in)
  • Height: 18.1 m (59.3 ft)
  • Engines: 6× ZMKB Progress D-18 turbofans, 229 kN (51,600 lbf) each
  • Cruising Speed: 750 km/h (400 knots, 465 mph)
  • First Flight: December 21, 1988

Today in Aviation

June 11

  • 2013 – Air traffic controllers in France begin a strike to protest European Union plans to reorganize and privatize air traffic control over Europe.[2]
  • 2012 – The United Nations confirms for the first time that Syrian government helicopters have begun firing on rebel forces.[3]
  • 2009 – Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 5414, a Canadair CRJ-200ER, registration N857AS, makes an emergency landing at Hartsfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport, United States after an undercarriage malfunction. The aircraft is substantially damaged.
  • 1998 – A NAS Whiting Field instructor and his student pilot are killed near Key Largo, Florida, when their Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor hits another training plane in mid-air and crashes into 2 feet of water.
  • 1991 – The first crash involving a Bell-Boeing Osprey occurs when the fifth MV-22, BuNo 163915, three minutes into its maiden flight at a Boeing flight test facility at Wilmington, Delaware, suffers problems with the gyros due to incorrect wiring in the flight-control system and crashes into the ground from a 15-foot (4.6 metre) hover during an attempted landing, the left rotor striking first, the airframe turning over and catching fire. Two crew eject and survive. Two of the three roll-rate gyros had been wired in reverse. "To compound the problem, the flight control built-in test was not run before the flight. With the flight control voting logic discounting the correct gyro signal, the aircraft was doomed." As this airframe was heavily damaged on its acceptance flight, it never officially entered service. This airframe had been slated for avionics integration, autopilot, aircrew training, and operational evaluation.[4]
  • 1983 – The first aircraft carrier designed as such to be built in Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, is launched by Italcantieri at Monfalcone.
  • 1974 – Northrop YF-17 A 72-01569 becomes the first American fighter to break the sound barrier in level flight when not in afterburner.
  • 1971 – British pilot Shelia Scott makes the first flight by a light plane from equator to equator via the North Pole. Flying in a Pipper Aztec D, she covers 34,000 miles (54,718 km).
  • 1970 – The United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.
  • 1953 – The second Gloster Javelin prototype crashes after experiencing a deep stall killing test pilot Peter Lawrence.
  • 1944 – 216 aircraft from the 15 aircraft carriers of U. S. Navy Task Force 58 attack Japanese bases on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian, destroying 36 Japanese aircraft. Tinian will remain under almost daily U. S. air attack for the next six weeks.
  • 1944 – F/O L. Sherman and crew in Consolidated Canso of No. 162 Squadron sank the German submarine U-980 north of the Shetland Isles.
  • 1943 – The Italian garrison on Pantellaria surrenders after taking heavy bombing, the first ground captured by air power alone.
  • 1943 – (Overnight) 783 British bombers attack Düsseldorf, killing 1,326 people, injuring 2,600, and leaving 13 missing and 140,000 homeless. Fires burn 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of the city and there are 180 major building collapses. During the raid, the German Heinkel He 219 Uhu ("Eagle Owl") night fighter makes its combat debut in the early morning hours of June 12 in an experimental flight piloted by Major Werner Streib. Streib shoots down five British bombers – A Lancaster and four Halifaxes – In a single sortie, but his He 219 is wrecked in a landing accident when he returns to base.
  • 1942 – In response to orders from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to "bomb the enemy out of Kiska", U. S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers and U. S. Navy PBY Catalina flying boats begin a bombing campaign against Japanese forces at Kiska in the "Kiska Blitz". The PBYs bomb almost hourly for 72 hours before withdrawing on July 13, while Army Air Forces continue with twice-daily raids until late June. Flying a 1,200-mile (1,900 km) round trip, the Army bombers will continue to raid Kiska from a base on Umnak until September.
  • 1940 – "Haddock Force" – Two squadrons of Royal Air Force Bomber Command Wellingtons tasked to bomb Italy from bases around Marseilles, France – Attempts to launch its first raid. It fails when French soldiers block the runways after local French officials oppose the raid. Haddock Force is disbanded and returns to the United Kingdom the next day.
  • 1940 – (Overnight) RAF Bomber Command raids Italy for the first time, when 36 Whitleys set out to attack industrial targets in Turin; 23 turn back over the Alps and two others bomb Genoa, but nine succeed in attacking Turin.
  • 1940 – No. 1 Fighter Squadron shipped Overseas with its Hurricanes in time to take part in the Battle of Britain.
  • 1937 – An aerial bombardment by German aircraft of the Condor Legion and Italian aircraft precedes a renewed Nationalist offensive against the Basque defensive perimeter around Bilbao, Spain.
  • 1931 – The 40 passenger Handley Page HP-42 four-engine biplane enters service with British airline Imperial Airways, setting new standards of passenger service and comfort.
  • 1929 – At the Wasserkuppe, Alexander Lippisch's Ente becomes the first aircraft to fly under rocket power. [Note: The date may have been in 1928, according to "Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA."].
  • 1926 – The first flight of the Ford Trimotor, an all-metal monoplane which competes with the three-engine Fokker and becomes a pioneer American airliner. It is known affectionately as the "Tin Goose".
  • 1912 – Lieutenant Leighton W. Hazelhurst, Jr. (July 1887 - 11 June 1912) and Arthur L. Welsh (14 August 1881 - 11 June 1912) are killed in crash of Wright Model C, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, in College Park, Maryland, possibly the first multiple-death aviation crash involving a single airframe. (Balloon and airship crashes had prior multiple fatalities. The first multiple fatality airplane accident in history had occurred at Centocelle, near Rome, 3 December 1910, when Lt. Enrico Cammarota and Private S. Castellani became the 26th and 27th people to die in an airplane crash when their machines collided.) Hazelhurst was the third army officer to die in an aeroplane crash. Airframe had recently been purchased by the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps. The United States Army Signal Corps had established a series of tests for the aircraft, and Welsh and Hazelhurst were taking the Model C on a climbing test, one of the last in the series required by the Army. Shortly after takeoff, the plane pitched over while making a turn and fell 30 feet (9.1 m) to the ground, killing both crew members. They had both been ejected from their seats, with Welsh suffering a crushed skull and Hazelhurst a broken neck. The New York Times described Welsh as "one of the most daring professional aviators in America" and his flying partner Hazelhurst as being among the "most promising of the younger aviators of the army". A board of officers was formed by the United States Secretary of War Henry Lewis Stimson, which concluded that Welsh was at fault in the crash, having risen to 150 feet, with the plan to dive at a 45-degree angle in order to gain momentum for a climb, but had made the dive too soon, with the board's results reported in the June 29, 1912 issue of Scientific American. In a 2003 interview, a cousin of Welsh's reported the family's belief that the tests were run too rapidly and that Welsh was doomed to fail by carrying too much fuel and a passenger, giving a craft that would be unable to make the planned maneuver with the weight it was carrying.
  • 1897 – Salomon Andrée, N. Strindberg and K. Fraenkel attempt an Arctic expedition to the North Pole by free balloon from Spitzbergen, departing on 11 Jul 1897 [5][better source needed]. He and two companions crash within three days but manage to survive for several months in the pack ice. Their remains are discovered in 1930 on White Island. It was possible to develop the located film material.

References

  1. ^ Winnie Mae
  2. ^ Anonymous, "Europe Risks Air Traffic Chaos Over Strike", Al Jazeera, 12 June 2013 09:22.
  3. ^ "UN Observers Confirm Syria Aerial Attacks", Al Jazeera, 12 June 2012.
  4. ^ V22 Osprey Crash – via YouTube.
  5. ^ S. A. Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897
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