Portal:Aviation
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Introduction
Aviation is 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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The airport's location and lack of transport links, as well as Montreal's economic decline relative to Toronto, made it unpopular with airlines. Eventually relegated to the simple role of a cargo airport, Mirabel became an embarrassment widely regarded in Canada as being a boondoggle, or a "white elephant," and one of the best examples of a failed megaproject. (Full article...)
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Did you know
...that British Airways unveiled a new corporate identity in 1997 which involved repainting its fleet with around 20 daring tailfin designs by world artists? ...that No. 112 Squadron RAF was the first unit from any air force to use the "Shark Mouth" logo on P-40 fighter planes? ...that the Lockheed NF-104A (pictured), equipped with a reaction control system as well as a rocket engine to supplement a jet engine, was a low-cost training vehicle for American astronauts in the 1960s?
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The Beechcraft King Air is a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by the Beech Aircraft Corporation (now the Beechcraft Division of Hawker Beechcraft). The King Air has been in continuous production since 1964, the longest production run of any civilian turboprop aircraft. It has outlasted all of its previous competitors and as of 2006 is one of only two twin-turboprop business airplanes in production (the other is the Piaggio Avanti).
Historically, the King Air family comprises a number of models that fall into four families, the Model 90 series, Model 100 series, Model 200 series, and Model 300 series. The last two types were originally marketed as the Super King Air, but the "Super" moniker was dropped in 1996. As of 2006, the only small King Air in production is the conventional-tail C90GT.
- Span: 50 ft 3 in (15.33 m)
- Length: 35 ft 6in (10.82 m)
- Height: 14 ft 3 in (4.35 m)
- Engines: 2 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21 turboprops , 550 shp (410 kW) each
- Cruising Speed: 284 mph (247 knots ,457 km/h)
- First Flight: May 1963
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Selected biography
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.
In the news
- 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
- January 23: Germany bans Mahan Air of Iran, citing 'security'
Today in Aviation
- 2011 – A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle carrying a live AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile misses the runway at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti, Djibouti, by three miles (4.8 km) and crashes near a residential area. Its missile does not explode, and no one is injured.[1]
- 2010 – Pamir Airways Flight 112, operated by Antonov An-24 YA-PIS crashed in the Salang Pass killing all 43 on board.
- 2007 – Three people, the two pilots and a passenger, were killed Thursday in the accident of a small plane of freight, which was crushed little after its takeoff of Walikale, in the East of the democratic Republic of Congo, one learned near the company. A plane bound for Goma was crushed this Thursday morning in Kilambo, in territory of Walikale, with approximately 300 km in the west of the chief town of North-Kivu.
- 2003 – Death of Gerhard Schöpfel, German WWII flying ace.
- 1997 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas X-36 tailless fighter technology demonstrator, power for which is provided by a 700 lb. s. t. Williams International F112 turbofan. The fighter takes off from Edwards AFB, California.
- 1992 – Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauß (IATA: MUC, ICAO: EDDM), starts operations as new Munich international airport.
- 1987 – An Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two Exocet missiles into the U. S. warship USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.
- 1986 – In the USS Stark Incident, an Iraqi Air Force Dassault Mirage F1 jet hits the United States Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark (FFG-31) with two Exocet antiship cruise missiles, badly damaging her and killing 37 and wounding 21 of her crew.
- 1981 – Death of Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, American high-altitude balloonist, and first woman to fly to the stratosphere.
- 1968 – Operation Delaware in South Vietnam’s A Shau Valley comes to an end. The U. S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) has captured a large amount of North Vietnamese equipment and supplies but has faced the heaviest enemy antiaircraft fire it has encountered thus far in the Vietnam War, losing 21 helicopters shot down during the operation.
- 1967 – Birth of Joseph Michael "Joe" Acaba, educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut. He became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut.
- 1964 – Death of John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, first Baron Brabazon of Tara, English aviation pioneer, first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom, awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1.
- 1962 – RAF Blackburn Beverly C.1, XL132, c/n 1033, bound for RAF Thorney Island, suffers engine fire while on approach, ditches in Chichester Harbour, UK. Two crew killed.
- 1958 – Four McDonnell F3 H Demon's and four F8U Crusaders make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic.
- 1954 – Royal Navy Supermarine Attacker FB.1, WA533, of 736 Squadron is damaged upon landing aboard HMS Illustrious when port main gear collapses. Airframe is repaired, but sees no more operational flying.
- 1950 – The air above Muroc Dry Lake, California, exploded in sonic booms as Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier put the XF-90 (long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort.) through high-speed dive tests, reaching Mach 1.12.
- 1946 – First flight of the Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster, American jet-powered prototype bomber aircraft.
- 1945 – Former Our Gang actor Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins (Robert E. Hutchins) is killed in a mid-air collision while trying to land a North American AT-6D Texan, serial number 42-86536, of the 3026th Base Unit, when it strikes North American AT-6C Texan, 42-49068, of the same unit, at Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California, during a training exercise. The other pilot, Edward F. Hamel, survives
- 1945 – First flight of the Lockheed P-2 Neptune, an American Maritime patrol and ASW (Air Anti-Submarine Warfare) Aircraft.
- 1944 – 99 B-24 Liberators of the U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Fifth and Thirteenth air forces strike Biak. On every day but one thereafter through the U. S. amphibious landings on Biak on May 27, the two air forces will conduct almost daily raids on Biak and the Vogelkop.
- 1944 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and U. S. carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) strike the oil refinery at Surabaya, Java.
- 1943 – Colonel Frank Gregory made the first helicopter landing aboard ship in Long Island Sound, USA with a Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter.
- 1943 – Boeing B-17 F-10-BO Flying Fortress Serial 41-24485, Memphis Belle (aircraft), 324th Bomb Squadron, makes her 25th Bombing mission. The aircraft and entire crew then returned to the United States to sell war bonds. The aircraft is undergoing extensive restoration at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
- 1943 – 17-18 – Specially modified RAF Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron make the "Dambusters" raids on the Möhne Reservoir, Edersee Dam, and Sorpe Dam.
- 1942 – The Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter, flew a distance of 1224 km.
- 1940 – (Overnight) 72 British bombers attack Bremen, Cologne, and Hamburg, killing at least 47 and injuring 127 in Bremen and Hamburg.
- 1938 – The US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act, leading to the construction of the Essex class aircraft carriers.
- 1935 – Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), crashes on the first day it arrives at NAS Anacostia. Pilot Lee Gelbach is unable to recover from a flat spin which develops during a ten-turn right-hand spin demonstration - bails out safely. A third Grumman XF3F-1 prototype will be built, using some parts salvaged from second prototype, also with BuNo 9727 (3rd), but pilot Bill H. McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.
- 1930 – Death of Max Valier, Austrian rocketry pioneer, killed when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin.
- 1929 – Colin Spenser (Jack) Caldwell was testing Canadian Vickers Vedette (single-engine biplane flying boat) G-CYZF (CV 122), when on entering a spin he found he was unable to recover. He abandoned the machine by parachute and landed safely on an island in the St Lawrence and became the first Canadian to save his life by a parachute.
- 1928 – First flight of the Vickers Vellore, British large biplane prototype designed as a freight and mail carrier.
- 1928 – Lady Heath (formerly Mrs. Elliot-Lynn) lands in London, becoming the first woman to fly solo from Cape Town, South Africa to London, England in an Avro Avian 594 Avian III.
- 1927 – First flight of prototype Bristol Bulldog MK1, British single-seat biplane fighter.
- 1927 – Major Harold C. Geiger (7 October 1884 - 17 May 1927), born in East Orange, New Jersey, a pioneer in Army aviation and ballooning, and commander of Phillips Field, Aberdeen, Maryland, is killed in the crash of his Airco DH.4B plane, 25-078. Six mechanics and officers at the Middleton Air Station, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania told The New York Times Geiger's plane took a 50-foot nose dive. Geiger managed to jump out just as the plane struck and burst into flames. He made desperate efforts to get clear of the wreckage and, according to the onlookers, half crawled and ran as far as the tail of the machine before he was overcome. There he dropped and the flames prevented the watchers from getting near enough to rescue him. When the U.S. Army Air Corps purchases Sunset Field near Spokane, Washington in 1941, it is named Geiger Field in his honor. The Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.
- 1924 – During its first aerial circumnavigation of the world, the westbound United States Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruiser arrive in northern Japan, completing the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by airplane.
- 1923 – Death of Thomas Scott Baldwin, U. S. Army major and pioneer balloonist. He was the first American to descend from a balloon by parachute.
- 1919 – The War Department in Washington, D.C. orders the use of the national insignia on all U. S. military aircraft.
- 1918 – Death of Eugene Gilbert, French WWI flying ace, in a crash while testing a plane at Villacoublay, France.
- 1916 – Parasite fighter experiments begin in the UK to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship.
- 1912 – Birth of Alexandru "Alecu" Şerbănescu, Romanian WWII leading fighter ace.
- 1911 – Igor Sikorsky makes what he called the first real flight of four minutes of his Sikorsky S-5, in a circuit of the field.
- 1911 – First flight of the Blackburn Mercury.
- 1900 – French-born gliding pioneer Octave Chanute replies to a letter from the Wright brothers. He recommends they study gliding tests carried out by a number of innovators, including Louis Pierre Mouillard and Percy Pilcher.
- 1895 – Birth of Georg Wulf, German aviation pioneer, test pilot and aircraft designer. He was one of the founder of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG company.
- 1879 – Birth of Hans Grade, German aviation pioneer.
References
- ^ Whitlock, Craig, "Drone Crashes Pile Up Abroad," The Washington Post, December 1, 2012, p. A8.
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