Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 15

December 15

• 2012 – Ten Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan members attack Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar, Pakistan, with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, targeting Pakistani militiary facilities where attack helicopters are based and triggering a gun battle of over an hour with Pakistani security forces during which five of the attackers are killed. Three grenades strike airport property and two more land in adjacent neighborhoods. Four residents of the neighborhoods are killed and 30 to 40 injured. The five surviving attackers all are cornered and killed by Pakistani police the following day.

• 2010 – Last operation by a Harrier Jump Jet, from RAF Cottesmore.

• 2010 – A Tara Air flight operated by DHC-6 Twin Otter 9N-AFX crashed into a mountain shortly after departure from Lamidanda Airport, Nepal. The aircraft was operating a chartered passenger flight to Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal. All 19 passengers and crew were killed.

• 2009 – First flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner

• 2006 – First flight of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

• 2005 – Introduction: Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. It reaches an altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 m) in less than three minutes.

• 1997 – A chartered Tupolev Tu-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharjah (emirate), United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.

• 1996 – The merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing is announced

• 1989 – KLM Flight 867, a Boeing 747 flying from Amsterdam to Anchorage, Alaska, flies through a cloud of volcanic debris, subsequently losing power from all four engines. The crew is able to restart the engines and land the plane safely.

• 1978 – Retired: Fairey Gannet

• 1970 – Artem Mikoyan, founder of the dynasty of MiG fighters, dies at age 65.

• 1970 – U.S. Navy Grumman C-2 Greyhound, BuNo 155120, of VRC-50, crashes on takeoff from USS Ranger, in the Gulf of Tonkin. Stalled after catapult launch with a probable load shift of the cargo, reaches extreme nose-up attitude, goes into a hammerhead stall, and crashes off the carrier's port bow, 9 killed, 7 missing. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlDmMwI9cik

• 1970 – RAF English Electric Canberra, XM267, 'E', of No 3(F) Sq­ron, crashed at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, while on detachment from Sq­ron base at RAF Laarbruch, Germany. On approach to Akrotiri runway pilot elected to carry out an over shoot. When both engines were throttled up the starboard engine responded and increased power; port engine failed to respond. The effect of this was the aircraft 'cartwheeled' and port wing hit the ground killing both crew and passenger. Pilot F/O R. Ellis, Navigator F/O R MacMillan, one passenger Senior Aircraftman Kim Petty-Fitzmaurice.

• 1965 – Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford, is launched from Cape Canaveral. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.

• 1959 – Maj J W Roberts sets a new airspeed record of 1,526 miles per hour (2,456 km/h) in a F-106 Delta Dart

• 1955 – The de Havilland Mosquito flies its final operational sortie with the Royal Air Force

• 1954 – Orenda Iroquois jet engine, designed for the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, made its first test run.

• 1951 – No. 421 Sq­ron returned after training in England and was relocated at St. Hubert, Quebec. They were re-equipped with North American F-86 Sabre fighters.

• 1951 – Introduction: Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation

• 1948 – First flight of the Northrop X-4 Bantam

• 1948 – No. 2401 Radar Sq­ron (Auxiliary) – Later designated Aircraft Control and Warning Sq­ron – was formed at Montreal.

• 1944 – Noorduyn Norseman, 44-70285, c/n 550, disappears over the English Channel with Maj. Glenn Miller, pilot John Morgan and Lt. Col. Norman Baessell on board after departing RAF Twinwood Farm, Clapham, Bedfordshire, England. Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) 10770. It is believed that the plane was lost by straying into a forbidden zone in mid-channel which was designated for the jettisoning of surplus ordnance. On that day, a sq­ron of RAF Avro Lancasters had aborted a mission and were salvoing their bombloads in this zone. One crewman, a navigator, claims to have looked down and seen a Norseman flying low over the water. Before he could draw any attention to this, the Norseman was apparently overwhelmed by bomb splashes and disappeared. Other conspiracy theories about the disappearance have also been advanced.

• 1944 – U. S. forces land on Mindoro. Over the next 30 days, there will be 334 alerts of Japanese air attack on the beachhead. Kamikaze attacks begin immediately, and persist until January 4, 1945.

• 1943 – Boeing FortressBoeing Fortress of No. 168 (HT) Squadron, piloted by W/C RB Middleton, left Rockcliffe, Ontario with mail for Canadian servicemen overseas. This began RCAF air transport operations on a global scale.

• 1943 – (15-25) Japanese aircraft at Rabaul bomb U. S. forces on Bougainville nightly, killing 38 and wounding 136.

• 1943 – Fifth Air Force aircraft cover U. S. Army landings at Arawe. A strike on the landing forces by 64 Japanese naval aircraft is unsuccessful.

• 1941 – The RCAF No. 419(B) Squadron formed with Wellington IC aircraft.

• 1939 – First flight of the SNCASE Languedoc

• 1937 – A Spanish Republican offensive in the area of Teruel, Spain, begins. The ensuing Battle of Teruel will last until February 22, 1938, and involve 120 fighters, 80 bombers, and 100 other aircraft on the Republican side and 150 fighters, 100 bombers, and 110 other aircraft on the Nationalist side.

• 1920 – The first of a number of flying schools to train reserve pilots for the military opens at Orly, south of Paris.

• 1919 – First flight of the Swiss airline Ad Astra Aero S. A. was founded in Zurich.

• 1916 – First flight of the Anatra D.