Portal:Aviation

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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...)

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Rear view of CFM56-5
Rear view of CFM56-5
The CFM International CFM56 series is a family of high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines made by CFM International with a thrust range of 18,500 to 34,000 pound-force (lbf) (80 to 150 kilonewtons (kN)). CFMI is a 50–50 joint-owned company of SNECMA and GE Aviation. Both companies are responsible for producing components and each has its own final assembly line. The CFM56 first ran in 1974 and, despite initial political problems, is now one of the most prolific jet engine types in the world: more than 20,000 have been built in four major variants. It is most widely used on the Boeing 737 airliner and under military designation F108 replaced the Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines on many KC-135 Stratotankers in the 1980s, creating the KC-135R variant of this aircraft. It is also one of two engines used to power the Airbus A340, the other being the Rolls-Royce Trent. The engine is also fitted to Airbus A320 series aircraft. Several fan blade failure incidents were experienced during the CFM56's early service, including one failure that was noted as a cause of the Kegworth air disaster, and some variants of the engine experienced problems caused by flight through rain and hail. However, both these issues were resolved with engine modifications. (Full article...)

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Swiss rescue helicopter in action.

Did you know

...that BŻ-1 GIL was the first Polish experimental helicopter? ...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 Walter Borchers was one of three brothers, all three received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II?

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

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Selected biography

Portrait of Flynn taken in 1929.

The Reverend John Flynn (25 November 1880 – 5 May 1951) was an Australian Presbyterian minister and aviator who founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance.

Throughout his ministerial training, Flynn had worked in various then-remote areas through Victoria and South Australia. As well as tending to matters spiritual, Flynn quickly established the need for medical care for residents of the vast Australian outback, and established a number of bush hospitals. By 1917, Flynn was already considering the possibility of new technology, such as radio and the aeroplane, to assist in providing a more useful acute medical service, and then received a letter from an Australian pilot serving in World War I, Clifford Peel, who had heard of Flynn's speculations and outlined the capabilities and costs of then-available planes. Flynn turned his considerable fund-raising talents to the task of establishing a flying medical service.

The first flight of the Aerial Medical Service was in 1928 from Cloncurry. In 1934 the Australian Aerial Medical Service was formed, and gradually established a network of bases nationwide. Flynn remained the public face of the organisation (through name changes to its present form) and helped raise the funds that kept the service operating.

Selected Aircraft

Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System (STS), was the spacecraft which was used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions. At launch, it consisted of a rust-colored external tank (ET), two white, slender Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), and the orbiter, a winged spaceplane which was the space shuttle in the narrow sense.

The orbiter carried astronauts and payload such as satellites or space station parts into low Earth orbit, into the Earth's upper atmosphere or thermosphere. Usually, five to seven crew members rode in the orbiter. The payload capacity was 22,700 kg (50,000 lb). When the orbiter's mission was complete, it fired its Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) thrusters to drop out of orbit and re-enter the lower atmosphere. During the descent and landing, the shuttle orbiter acted as a glider, and made a completely unpowered ("dead stick") landing.

  • Span: 78.06 ft (23.79 m)
  • Length: 122.17 ft (37.24 m)
  • Height: 58.58 ft (17.25 m)
  • Engines: 3 Rocketdyne Block 2 A SSMEs
  • Cruising Speed: 25,404 ft/s (7,743 m/s, 27,875 km/h, 17,321 mi/h)
  • First Flight: August 12, 1977 (glider), April 12, 1981 (powered).
  • Operational Altitude: 100 to 520 nmi (185 to 1,000 km)
  • Number built: 6 (+2 mockups)
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Today in Aviation

May 29

  • 2012 – A Pakistan Air Force F-7PG of the 31 Fighter Wing was destroyed by fire during maintenance at Quetta airbase.
  • 2007 – OH-58D(R) Kiowa 93-0978 from B Troop, 2–6 Cavalry Regiment is shot down between Baquba and Muqdadiyah with small arms, killing the chopper's two pilots.[3][4][5]
  • 2003 – A man attempts to hijack Qantas Flight 1737, a Boeing 717, in Melbourne, Australia, intending to crash the plane in Tasmania. He is overpowered by the flight crew and passengers, but injures three people.
  • 2001 – A US Navy McDonnell-Douglas FA-18C Hornet from VFA-106 crashed near Fort Pierce, Florida, during a ferry flight from NAS Oceana, Virginia, to NAS Key West, Florida. Pilot was killed.
  • 2001 – Three crew are killed when a Republic of Korea Army Boeing Vertol CH-47D Chinook, of the 301st Aviation Regiment, Icheon, crashes in Seoul, South Korea while installing a torch-shaped sculpture on the Han River Olympic Bridge, built to commemorate the 1988 Olympic Games. The Chinook had just lowered the flame-shaped statuary onto the bridge central tower when its rotors hit the sculpture and then the tower. The front rotor clipped the top of the sculpture and separated from the helicopter which then fell onto the span, breaking in two, with the rear bursting into flame on the bridge and the forward half falling into the river. No other casualties were reported. The bridge had been closed during the installation work. The dead were identified as pilot Chun Hong-yop, co-pilot Nam In-ho and Sgt. 1st Class Kim Woo-soo. Army scuba divers were working to recover the wreckage. Footage of this crash is widely available on the web.
  • 1986 – (29-June 1) The 5th FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Castellón de la Plana, Spain.
  • 1981 – The Bell X-14B, NASA N704NA, originally USAF 56-0422, upgraded from the A-configuration with an onboard computer and digital fly-by-wire control system installed to enable emulation of landing characteristics of other VTOL aircraft, and used in this test role, is damaged beyond repair in a landing accident this date. Airframe was saved from being scrapped and is now under restoration at the Ropkey Armor Museum, Crawfordsville, Indiana.
  • 1980 – Canadian Armed Forces accepted the first CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft at CFB Greenwood, NS.
  • 1977 – The keel of the first aircraft carrier to be built in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is laid at Ferrol.
  • 1975 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6700, Article 367, seventh airframe of first USAF contract, delivered to USAF at Groom Lake in February 1957, but apparently transferred to the Central Intelligence Agency by June 1957, then to Strategic Air Command in fall 1960, converted to U-2C by October 1966. Flyable storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, 1969. Converted for Advanced Location and Strike System (ALSS) project, 1972. Crashed in a heavily wooded area of West Germany ~100 miles NE of Bonn this date, Capt. Robert "Terry" Rendleman, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, escaping unhurt after experiencing flight control problems, aircraft entering Mach tuck at high altitude, forcing pilot to eject. He was taken to hospital in Wiesbaden in good condition, an Air Force spokesman said. Aircraft was on Constant Treat deployment of the ALSS system.
  • 1969 – A USAF General Dynamics F-111 on a training flight out of Nellis AFB, Nevada, crashes from low altitude when deficient wind-shield bulged down from the top of the canopy bow and instantly crazed. Tactical Air Command replaces 50 F-111 windshields in 1969 and 93 in 1970.
  • 1953 – The first of two 40 passenger de Havilland Comets arrived in Ottawa. With the arrival of this Aircraft, the RCAF became the first air force in the world to operate jet transports and the first operator to make scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings.
  • 1947United Airlines Flight 521, a Douglas DC-4, was a scheduled flight departing from LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland, Ohio. While attempting to take off from runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only six of those survived. It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. This record stood for less than 24 hours when an Eastern Airlines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland killing all 54 aboard.
  • 1947 – Twelve members of the Colombian army air force are injured in the crash landing of their transport at Bogotá, Colombia, after it collided in mid-air with a buzzard.
  • 1947 – A Boeing F-13A Superfortress, 45-21848, c/n 13742, of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, crashes shortly after take off from Ladd Field, Alaska, coming down 3 miles E of Fairbanks, Alaska. Three crew were reported missing while nine others were injured.
  • 1947 – An Army Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster courier plane, 42-72553, c/n 10658, of the 6th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, 5th Air Force, with 33 passengers and eight crew on board crashes into a mountain SW of Tokyo, Japan. An Army announcement said that it had not been determined whether or not there were any survivors. A revised count reported that there were 40 aboard the C-54, 28 enlisted, eight officers, and four civilians, all killed in the crash. They were reported to be burned beyond recognition. The flight, inbound from Korea, had apparently exploded as it approached Tachikawa Airfield for a landing.
  • 1947 – A captured, modified V-2 rocket, launched from White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, at 2030 hrs. CST, fails to reach its maximum altitude, and comes down ~three minutes later, impacting in Tepeyac cemetery, ~six miles S of Juarez, Mexico. Unburnt fuel explodes, with the blast being felt in both Juarez and El Paso, Texas. Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner, commander at White Sands, confirmed by telephone the launch of the rocket, but refused any further comment.
  • 1944 – Luftwaffe fighter ace Friedrich-Karl "Tutti" Müller (140 victories in 600 combat sorties) is killed in a landing accident at Salzwedel, when his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, Werknummer 410827, stalls on landing approach at low altitude. He is posthumously promoted to Oberstleutnant.
  • 1941 – The USAAC forms USAAC Ferrying Command|Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic to Britain.
  • 1943 – A merchant aircraft carrier, or “MAC-ship,” puts to sea with a convoy for the first time as MV Empire MacAlpine sets out from the United Kingdom with Convoy ONS 59 bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She carries four Swordfish aircraft of No. 836 Squadron.
  • 1943 – Japanese resistance on Attu ends.
  • 1941 – The United States Army Air Corps forms Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom.
  • 1941 – Geran dive bombers attack a British naval task force as it retires from Crete with evacuated British troops aboard. They fatally damage the destroyer HMS Imperial, sink the destroyer HMS Hereward, and damage the light cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Dido, and HMS Orion. A single bomb that strikes Orion kills 260 and wounds 280.
  • 1941 – Surviving elements of Fliegerführer Irak depart Iraq.
  • 1934 – The Collier trophy for the year’s outstanding aviation achievement is awarded in Washington, D.C. to Hamilton Standard Propeller Company for the development of the controllable-pitch propeller.
  • 1929 – Boeing Aircraft of Canada was incorporated by William Edward Boeing of Seattle, Henry Stonestreet Hoffar and Charles George Beeching of Vancouver, to design and build aircraft and to take over, as a going concern, the Hoffar-Beeching Shipyards at Vancouver.
  • 1925 – Alan Cobham lands the prototype de Havilland D.H.60 Moth after flying 1,000 miles to Zurich, Switzerland and back to Croydon, England in a single day.
  • 1923 – Reuben Fleet founds Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.
  • 1910 – Glenn Curtiss flies from Albany NY to New York City, a then-epic flight of about 150 miles. This could loosely be credited as the first air mail flight, for he unofficially carried a letter from Albany’s mayor to the mayor of NYC.
  • 1908 – The first passenger flight in Europe occurs as Henri Farman takes up Ernest Archdeacon for a brief flight at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.

References

  1. ^ Boone, John, "Pakistan: Senior Taliban Militants Killed By US Drone Strike," The Guardian, 29 May 2013, 15:28 EDT.
  2. ^ Khan, Ismail, and Ihsanullah Tipu Mejsud, "After Taliban Deputy’s Death, Hints of a Schism," The New York Times, May 30, 2013.
  3. ^ "Chopper attack, bombs kill 10 U.S. troops in Iraq". CNN.com. 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  4. ^ "10 GIs Die In Iraq On Memorial Day". CBS News. 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
  5. ^ "ARMY AIR CREWS: Kiowa Crewmembers Line of Duty Deaths". Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  6. ^ https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/28-may-1935/