Portal:Aviation

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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am.

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896. A major leap followed with the construction of the Wright Flyer, 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 engine which enabled aviation to become a major form of transport throughout the world. In 2024, there were 9.5 billion passengers worldwide according to the ICAO. As of 2018, estimates suggest that 11% of the world's population traveled by air, with up to 4% taking international flights. (Full article...)

Selected article

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...)

More selected articles

Selected image

Eurocopter EC 145

Swiss rescue helicopter in action.

Did you know

...that five USAAF airmen were awarded the Medal of Honor following Operation Tidal Wave, a low-level bombing of Romanian oil refineries on 1 August 1943? ...that Indra Lal Roy of the Royal Air Force became India's first flying ace after he achieved 10 victories in thirteen days during World War I? ... that Arthur Hartley developed the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation which is credited with safely landing 2,500 aircraft during World War Two?

General images -

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

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  "Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation)
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  Delta Air Lines' economy class cabin on a Boeing 767 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Often published as a photo of Santos-Dumont during the prize-winning flight, this is actually an earlier attempt using his "Number 5" (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airfield in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
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  Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation)
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  An Airbus A321 of Vietravel Airlines parking next to a Vietnam Airlines Airbus A350-900 and a Cargolux Boeing 747-400 widebodies, highlighting their size differences. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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  Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
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  A Boeing 777X. It is under testing and will be the largest twinjet, with the widest and longest fuselage to enter production. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
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  1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
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  Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
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  First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation)
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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  Swiss International Air Lines' business class cabin on an Airbus A340 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  An Airbus A380 of Qantas. The A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The General Electric GE90 was the most powerful turbofan engine. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation)
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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal

• May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
• August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
• June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
• January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
• January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
• January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
• October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
• October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
• September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
• August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia

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

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  Commons
  Free media repository
• 
  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals
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  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base
• 
  Wikinews
  Free-content news
• 
  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations
• 
  Wikisource
  Free-content library
• 
  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools
• 
  Wikivoyage
  Free travel guide
• 
  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Selected biography

Sophie Blanchard (25 March 1778 – 6 July 1819) was a French aeronaut and the wife of ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist, and after her husband's death she continued ballooning, making more than 60 ascents. Known throughout Europe for her ballooning exploits, Blanchard entertained Napoleon Bonaparte, who promoted her to the role of "Aeronaut of the Official Festivals", replacing André-Jacques Garnerin. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1814 she performed for Louis XVIII, who named her "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration".

Ballooning was a risky business for the pioneers. Blanchard lost consciousness on a few occasions, endured freezing temperatures and almost drowned when her balloon crashed in a marsh. In 1819, she became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident when, during an exhibition in the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, she launched fireworks that ignited the gas in her balloon. Her craft crashed on the roof of a house and she fell to her death. She is commonly referred to as Madame Blanchard and is also known by many combinations of her maiden and married names, including Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Sophie Armant and Madeleine-Sophie Armant Blanchard.

Selected Aircraft

Avro Arrow replica at CASM Arrow rollout in 2006

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) in Malton, Ontario, Canada, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953. Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry, the CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft (15,000 m), and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. Not long after the 1958 start of its flight test program, the development of the Arrow (including its Orenda Iroquois jet engines) was abruptly and controversially halted before the project review had taken place, sparking a long and bitter political debate. The controversy engendered by the cancellation and subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production, remains a topic for debate among historians, political observers and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered... The incident was a traumatic one... and to this day, many mourn the loss of the Arrow."

• Span: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
• Length: 77 ft 9 in (23.71 m)
• Height: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
• Engines: 2×Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.91 (607 mph, 977 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
• First Flight: 25 March 1958
• Number built: 5

Today in Aviation

April 12

• 2011 – The Air France Airbus A380 F-HPJD collides on the ground with the Comair Bombardier CRJ-700 N641CA at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, spinning the CRJ-700 through 90°. The Airbus sustains slight damage, but the CRJ-700 is substantially damaged.

• 2010 – A United States Navy Rockwell Sabreliner crashed in Morganton killing all four crew on board.

• 2007 – An unarmed Panavia Tornado ECR of the German Air Force crashes in a rock face 46.550328°N 7.923805°E near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, killing the pilot. The weapons system officer ejects and is rescued severely injured from the rock face by a local helicopter rescue team. The crash occurs minutes after refueling in Emmen during an authorized navigation training in the Swiss Alps while returning to Germany from a long-distance flight to Corsica, France.

• 2005 – A GT Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 100 aircraft crashes in Indonesia, all 18 on board die.

• 2004 – MH-53M Pave Low 69-5797 of 16th SOW/20th SOS shot down by RPG near Fallujah, three on board are wounded. Helicopter was later destroyed.

• 2001 – Magyar Légierő, Hungarian Air Force Mil Mi-24D, 579, collides with Mil Mi-24V, 715, while performing low-level formation flight over the range near Gyulafirátót, killing both crews.

• 1990 – Widerøe Flight 839, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, crashes into the Norwegian Sea just after takeoff from Værøy Airport in Værøy, Norway, when strong winds crack its tail rudder and tailplane, rendering it uncontrollable. All five people on board die. Værøy Airport is closed after the accident due to the danger posed by bad weather and replaced by Værøy Heliport farther to the south.

• 1989 – A British Airways Concorde loses a large piece of its rudder on a flight between Christchurch and Sydney

• 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-D at 13:59:05 UTC. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments, first flight of a sitting politician in space, Jake Garn, first impromptu EVA of program to fix Syncom F3 (Leasat 3).

• 1981 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-1 at 12:00:03 UTC. It is the first reusable orbital spacecraft flight and the first flight of Columbia.

• 1980 – Transbrasil Flight 303 was a flight from São Paulo-Congonhas to Florianópolis. The aircraft was a Boeing 727-27 C aircraft, registration PT-TYS with 58 people on board. The aircraft crashed on approach to the Hercilio Luz Airport. Only three individuals survived. The aircraft was on a night instrumental approach to Florianópolis Airport under a severe thunderstorm. The aircraft went off course, struck a hill (Morro da Virgínia) and exploded. Probable causes are misjudgment of speed and distance, inadequate flight supervision, failure to initiate a go-around and improper operation of the engines.

• 1975 – United States Marine Corps helicopters from the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LPH-10) and the attack aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19) evacuate the staff of the U. S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

• 1973 – A USN Lockheed P-3C-125-LO Orion, BuNo 157332, c/n 185-5547, of VP-47 and a Convair 990-30A-5, N711NA, '711', "Galileo", c/n 30-10-1, (formerly N5601G of American Airlines), belonging to NASA, collided while on final approach to NAS Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, California and crashed short of the runway. The planes fell on the Sunnyvale Municipal Golf Course and 16 of the 17 people aboard the two planes were killed.

• 1971 – The US Air Force’s 3first Aerospace Rescue Squadron evacuate Charles Lindbergh and a group of scientists from Mindanao Island, Philippines, after their helicopter had crashed.

• 1966 – U. S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses strike targets in North Vietnam for the first time.

• 1966 – First flight of the Pilatus PC-7 (Prototype)

• 1961 – Yuri Gagarin makes the first human spaceflight in Vostok 1, orbiting the Earth once, in 108 min.

• 1951 – 48 USAF B-29 Superfortresses attack the Sinuiju Railway Bridge on the Yalu River.

• 1945 – USS Mannert L. Abele is sunk by an Ohka

• 1944 – Fifth Air Force aircraft again attack Japanese airfields around Hollandia.

• 1943 – The Japanese conduct their largest air raid in the Southwest Pacific thus far in World War II, with 174 planes – 131 fighters and 43 medium bombers – Attacking Port Moresby, New Guinea. The raid causes little damage, and the 44 Allied fighters that intercept the Japanese shoot down five aircraft, all fighters, for the loss of two of their own.

• 1942 – The Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard reports that due to German air attacks on Malta’s naval base “practically no workshops were in action other than those underground; all docks were damaged; electric power, light and telephones were largely out of action. ”

• 1940 – RAF Bomber Command loses six Hampdens and three Wellingtons in a daylight raid against German forces at Stavanger, Norway. It is the last daylight raid by the two types of aircraft in northwestern Europe.

• 1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England.

• 1935 – First flight of the Bristol Blenheim, a British light bomber, makes takes off from Filton, England on its maiden test flight.

• 1928 – (12-13) Major James Fitzmaurice (pilot), Baron guenther Von Huenefeld and Captain Hermann Koehl made the first east to west crossing of the Atlantic in a Junkers Bremen. They flew from Baldonell, Ireland to Greenley Island, Canada in 37 hours.

• 1918 – The final Zeppelin raid on England is carried out.

• 1918 – The Loughead brothers fly their seaplane, the F-1, from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

• 1918 – Captain H. W. Woollett of No. 43 Squadron RAF scores six victories in two sorties, including five Albatros D.Vs.

• 1911 – Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop flight from London to Paris

• 1911 – Lieutenant T. Gordon Ellyson became the Navy’s first pilot.

References

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