Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 17

April 17

• 2012 – Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, accompanied by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) T-38 Talon chase plane, carries the retired Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, where Discovery is slated to replace the Space Shuttle Enterprise on display at the Smithsonian Institution's nearby Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a part of the National Air and Space Museum. The delivery flight includes low-level passes over the Cape Canaveral area as well as flybys at an altitude of 1,500 feet (457 meters) over Washington, D.C.-area landmarks.

• 2010 – UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter goes down about 12 miles (19 km) north of Tikrit. One U.S. service member is killed and 3 others are injured .

• 2009 – TAROM ATR 42-500 YR-ATA suffers a birdstrike on approach to Iasi International Airport, Romania, resulting in a large hole in the nosecone. A safe landing is subsequently made.

• 2009 – Línea Turística Aereotuy Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan YV-1811 crashes shortly after take-off from Canaima Airport, Venezuela, killing one of the eleven people on board.

• 2009 – Mimika Air Flight 514, operated by Pilatus PC-6 PK-LTJ crashes into Mount Gergaji, Indonesia, killing all ten people on board.

• 2007- Go! (airline) began operations.

• 2005- AH-64D Apache 03-5370 from 4th Squadron, 3d ACR makes hard landing near Baghdad.

• 1998 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-90 at 2:19 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

• 1997 – A Delta II 7925 rocket carrying the first GPS Block IIR satellite, GPS IIR-1, exploded only 13 seconds after liftoff, raining flaming debris all over Launch Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

• 1996 – A Grumman F-14B Tomcat converted from Grumman F-14A-120-GR Tomcat, BuNo 161444, 'AD 201', of VF-101, based at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, crashes near Norfolk, Virginia, the fourth accident for the type this year. The two crew survive.

• 1995 – A LearJet C-21, the U.S. military version of the LearJet 35A, crashed in a wooded area four miles south of Alexander City, Alabama, while trying to make an unplanned landing at the airport. The plane was en route to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, from Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. An Air Force spokesman said that the plane carried a crew of two and six passengers. Killed in the crash were Clark G. Fiester, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force; Maj. Gen. Glenn A. Profitt II, director of plans and operations for the Air Education and Training Command at Randolph; Col. Jack Clark II; Maj. Hubert B. Fisher, who was assigned to the Pentagon; the aircraft commander, 1st Lt. Paul Bowers; an instructor pilot, Capt. Paul Carley; and two passengers who had joined the flight on a "space available" basis, Air Force Maj. James K. Horne and Army Sgt. Padro Mercado.

• 1986 – Hindawi affair: Israeli security guards at London Heathrow Airport discover explosives in the luggage of an Irish woman attempting to board an El Al airliner. Her Jordanian fiancé, Nezar Hindawi, is arrested for planting the bomb without her knowledge in an effort to destroy the airliner.

• 1985 – CP Air began first Boeing 737 Series A 300 service when C-FCPG flew from Vancouver to Winnipeg and Toronto.

• 1982 – CAAC Flight 3303, a Hawker Siddeley Trident, crashes into a mountain near Yangsuo while on approach to Guilin Liangjiang International Airport in heavy weather; all 112 on board die.

• 1982 – Death of William Price (aviator), British WWI flying ace.

• 1974 – Death of Wilhelm Thöne, German WWI flying ace.

• 1973 – First flight of the PZL-106 Kruk

• 1973 – Federal Express delivers its first package.

• 1972 – The Soviet Union claims that American airstrikes have damaged four of its merchant ships in Haiphong Harbor.

• 1970 – The crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft and its three astronauts returns to earth safely after suffering an explosion en route to the moon.

• 1970 – A Sikorsky CH-53D helicopter flies between London and Paris to demonstrate that modern helicopters can provide reliable inter-city services.

• 1969 – First powered flight of the Martin Marietta X-24A

• 1969 – Soyuz 4 returns on earth.

• 1966 – First flight of the Chengdu J-7, People's Republic of China-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.

• 1966 – First total transition flight of the Canadair CL-84 "Dynavert", Canadian V/STOL turbine tilt-wing monoplane prototype.

• 1964 – Jerrie Mock arrives in Columbus, Ohio in a Cessna 180, completing a solo round-the-world flight and becoming the first woman to make such a journey.

• 1963 – Joseph A. Walker flies the North American X15 A to a height of 82,600 m (271,000 feet) and, having flown higher than 50 miles, he qualifies for astronaut wings.

• 1958 – First flight of the LIPNUR Belalang

• 1957 – First flight of the Nord 3202

• 1949 – Avro Tudor Mark IVB 'Star Ariel' passenger aircraft (British piston-engined airliner based on the four-engine Lincoln bomber) owned and operated by British South American Airways (BSAA) disappeared without trace over the Atlantic Ocean while on a flight between Bermuda and Kingston, Jamaica, part of the Bermuda Triangle legend.

• 1945 – The fight to liberate Apeldoorn in the Netherlands began when first Canadian Inf. Brigade supported by tanks of the first Hussars, tried to seize control of the main bridge over the Apeldoorn Canal. Stiff opposition is encountered and new plans to encircle the city are made. 2nd Bde. Crosses the canal south of the city, outflanking the enemy who withdraw to the west. When Canadian soldiers enter the city, they are greeted by thousands of cheering Dutch citizens.

• 1944 – F/O TC Cooke and crew in a Consolidted Canso of No. 162 Sq­ron sank the German submarine U-311, southwest of Iceland.

• 1944 – Howard Hughes sets a new US transcontinental speed record, flying a Lockheed Constellation

• 1943 – Birth of Daniel Charles Brandenstein US Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut.

• 1942 – 12 Lancaster bombers – six each from No. 44 (Rhodesia) Sq­ron and No. 97 Sq­ron – carry out the longest low-level penetration thus far in World War II and the first daylight raid by the Lancaster in an attack on a submarine diesel engine factory at Augsburg, Germany. The two sq­rons fail to rendezvous and four of the No. 44 Sq­ron bombers, led by South African Air Force Sq­ron Leader John Dering Nettleton, are shot down by German fighters shortly after crossing the North Sea, but Nettleton pushes on with the two surviving Lancasters and attacks the target against heavy antiaircraft artillery fire. He is awarded the Victoria Cross for the mission. No. 97 Squadron loses one Lancaster.

• 1942 – Sixteen North American B-25 Mitchells, led by Col. Jimmy Doolittle, leave for the pivotal raid on Japan.

• 1941 – During dive tests to determine why wrinkles are appearing on the surface plates of the wings, Lt. Manbeye Shimokawa, squadron leader at Yokosuka Naval Air Corps, is killed in Mitsubishi A6M Model 21, number 135, equipped with balance tabs, when, during pull-out at 1,500 meters from dive from 4,000 meters, parts are seen by ground observers to depart from the port wing, fighter drops nose, plunges into ten fathoms of water off Natsu Island. Pilot found in recovered wreckage with head injuries from striking instrument panel on impact. Aeronautical Technical Establishment investigation reveals that flutter and vibration tests had not simulated the stiffness distribution of actual airframes and that the ailerons and horizontal stabilizers had been torn out. Fighter had previously been assigned to the carrier Akagi.

• 1939 – The Renard R-36, Belgian all-metal fighter prototype single seat aircraft, crashed near Nivelles, killing pilot Lt. Visconte Eric de Spoelberg.

• 1934 – First flight of the de Havilland Dragon Rapide

• 1934 – First flight of the Fairey Swordfish

• 1931 – The second of two Westland Westbury twin-engine test bed fighter prototypes, J7766, retrofitted with Bristol Jupiter VIII engines with reduction gearing, suffers engine-start accident at Martlesham Heath this date. With Hucks starter turning over engine, with the throttle accidentally wide open, the aircraft suddenly jumps the chocks and collides with the Hucks vehicle, being damaged beyond economical repair :struck off charge.

• 1926 – Western Air Express starts its service between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

• 1920 – The Venezuelan Air Force is formed, with a flying school at Maracay

• 1913 – Briton Gustav Hamel lands after a non-stop flight of 4 hours and 18 min from Dover, England, to Cologne, Germany in a Blériot XI.

• 1902 – Gustave Whitehead reportedly flies his Whitehead Aeroplane No. 22 flying boat on an 11 km (7 mile) flight and lands safely.

• 1899 – Birth of Nevil Shute, popular British novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer.

• 1892 – Birth of Thomas Mottershead VC, DCM, British WWI pilot.

• 1892 – Birth of Amedeo Mecozzi, Italian WWI flying ace, WWII general of the Italian Regia Aeronautica and a military theorist credited as the founding father of the "Attack air force" doctrine

• 1891 – Birth of Hans Klein, German WWI fighter ace, and WWII luftwaffe high-ranking officer.

• 1890 – Birth of Paul Petit (aviator), French WWI flying ace

• 1886 – Birth of Glenn L. Martin, American aviation pioneer, Founder of the Glenn L. Martin Company.

• 1885 – Birth of Karl Nikitsch, Austro-Hungarian WWI flying ace

• 1847 – Birth of Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky, Russian scientist, founding father of modern aero- and hydrodynamics. Whereas contemporary scientists scoffed at the idea of human flight, Zhukovsky was the first to undertake the study of airflow.