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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 operated by Pan Am

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...)

Selected article

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...)

Selected image

Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Mark J. Rebilas
An F-14D Tomcat assigned to the "Tomcatters" of Fighter Squadron Three One (VF-31) sits poised for launch on one of four steam-powered catapults aboard the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). Stennis and her embarked Carrier Air Wing One Four (CVW-14) are currently at sea conducting training exercises.

Did you know

...that Luftwaffe ace Erich Rudorffer flew more than 1000 missions during World War II, and was shot down sixteen times by enemy flak and fighters? ...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 François Denhaut built the world's first flying boat, or seaplane with a hull?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the suborbital rocket plane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004.

Selected Aircraft

F-4E from 81st Tactical Fighter Squadron dropping 500 lb (230 kg) Mark 82 bombs
F-4E from 81st Tactical Fighter Squadron dropping 500 lb (230 kg) Mark 82 bombs

The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic fighter-bomber originally developed for the U.S. Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. Proving highly adaptable, it became a major part of the air wings of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Air Force. It was used extensively by all three of these services during the Vietnam War, serving as the principal air superiority fighter for both the Navy and Air Force, as well as being important in the ground-attack and reconnaissance roles by the close of U.S. involvement in the war.

First entering service in 1960, the Phantom continued to form a major part of U.S. military air power throughout the 1970s and 1980s, being gradually replaced by more modern aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon in the U.S. Air Force; the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet in the U.S. Navy; and the F/A-18 in the U.S. Marine Corps. It remained in use by the U.S. in the reconnaissance and Wild Weasel roles in the 1991 Gulf War, finally leaving service in 1996. The Phantom was also operated by the armed forces of 11 other nations. Israeli Phantoms saw extensive combat in several Arab–Israeli conflicts, while Iran used its large fleet of Phantoms in the Iran–Iraq War. Phantoms remain in front line service with seven countries, and in use as an unmanned target in the U.S. Air Force.

Phantom production ran from 1958 to 1981, with a total of 5,195 built. This extensive run makes it the second most-produced Western jet fighter, behind the F-86 Sabre at just under 10,000 examples.

  • Span: 38 ft 4.5 in (11.7 m)
  • Length: 63 ft 0 in (19.2 m)
  • Height: 16 ft 6 in (5.0 m)
  • Engines: 2× General Electric J79-GE-17A axial compressor turbojets, 17,845 lbf (79.6 kN) each
  • Cruising Speed: 506 kn (585 mph, 940 km/h)
  • First Flight: 27 May 1958
  • Number built: 5,195
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

September 13

  • 2009 – D-ALCO, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 operated by Lufthansa Cargo is severely damaged in a heavy landing at Mexico City International Airport. Post landing inspection revealed that there were wrinkles in the fuselage skin and the nose gear was bent. It is reported that the aircraft may be written off.
  • 2009 – An Israeli Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16A Block 10A Fighting Falcon 140, ex-78-0337, from the Nevatim Israeli Air Force Base, Beersheba, Israel crashes near the P'nei Chever settlement in the Southern Hebron Hills at 1345 hrs. killing the pilot. The incident occurred during military training including a simulated dogfight with another aircraft. During a sharp turn, the pilot Captain Assaf Ramon the only son Colonel Ilan Ramon who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, suffered either loss of consciousness or mechanical failure leading to the crash.
  • 2001 – Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U. S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
  • 1997 – Luftwaffe Tupolev Tu-154M, 11+02, c/n 813, call sign GAF 074, of 1 Staffel/FBS (Flugbereitschaft), used for Open Skies treaty verification, collided with a USAF Lockheed C-141B Starlifter, 65-9405, call sign REACH 4201, of the 305th AMW, about 120 km (75 mi) W of the coast of Namibia over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 24 aboard the Tu-154 and all nine on the C-141. Accident investigations by both countries, released 31 March 1998, found that the Tu-154 was flying at the wrong altitude, 35,000 feet (11,600 m.) instead of 39,000 feet (12,900 m.), and was thus primarily at fault. Contributory factor was chronically poor ATC in the area.
  • 1982 – Spantax Flight 995, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF, is destroyed by fire after an aborted take-off at Málaga, Spain; fifty of the 294 on board die.
  • 1974 – The U. S. Air Force SR-71 Blackbird 61-17972, flown by Captain Harold B. “Buck” Adams (pilot) and Major William C. Machorek (reconnaissance systems officer), flies 5,447 miles (8,771 km) from London to Los Angeles in a world record 3 hours 47 min 39 seconds at an average speed of 1,435.59 mph (2,311.74 km/h).
  • 1971 – Lin Biao, second-in-charge of the People’s Republic of China, is killed in the crash of a Hawker Siddeley Trident near Öndörkhaan, Mongolia.
  • 1955 – Six people were killed when a North American B-25 suffered engine failure on takeoff from Mitchel Field, NY, and crashed into Greenfield Cemetery, Hempstead, NY.
  • 1946 – Major General Paul Bernard Wurtsmith (9 August 1906 – 13 September 1946), of Strategic Air Command, is killed when his North American TB-25J-27-NC Mitchell, 44-30227, of the 326th Base Unit, MacDill Field, Florida, crashes at ~1130 hrs. into Cold Mountain near Asheville, North Carolina. In February 1953, the United States Air Force named Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda Township, Michigan, in his honor.
  • 1944 – The first Supermarine Spiteful prototype, NN660, a converted Spitfire XIV, first flown 30 June 1944, returning from flight from the A&AEE, Boscombe Down, crashes this date while in unplanned mock combat with a Spitfire at low altitude, killing test pilot Frank Furlong. No reason for the loss is officially established, although after an incident that happened to him, Jeffrey Quill suggests it may have been due to the Spiteful's aileron control rods sticking - previous Sptifires had used cables. Control rods are checked for binding in all future Spitefuls and the problem does not re-occur. Quill had chosen Furlong for his test team after they had flown together during the Battle of Britain.
  • 1943 – Off Salerno, the American light cruiser USS Philadelphia (CL-41) avoids two German guided bombs, but a guided bomb badly damages the British light cruiser HMS Uganda and another fatally damages a British hospital ship During the evening, 82 C-47 Skytrains and C-53 Skytroopers flying from Sicily drop 600 paratroopers of the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division behind Allied lines in the Salerno beachhead.
  • 1942 – U. S. Army Air Forces bombers fly a 1,200-mile (1,900 km) round-trip raid against Japanese forces at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands from Umnak for the last time. They will begin flying raids from Adak, 400 miles (640 km) closer to Kiska, the following day.
  • 1940 – The Imperial Japanese Navy’s Mitsubishi A6 M Zero fighter scores its first aerial victories, when a flight of Zeroes attacks 27 Nationalist Chinese fighters over Chungking and claims to have destroyed all of them; actual Chinese losses probably are 13 to 24 aircraft. No Zeroes are lost.
  • 1935 – Millionaire film producer and amateur air racer Howard Hughes shattered the world land plane speed record in his home built Hughes Racer airplane.
  • 1928 – In an effort to speed up the time it takes for mail to reach the United States via Europe, a single-engined Liore et Oliver LeO 198 airplane is catapulted off the Ile de France ocean liner, reducing the time it takes mail to reach the United States by one whole day.
  • 1913 – Aurel Vlaicu, Romanian engineer and inventor, dies near Câmpina, Romania, while attempting to fly across the Carpathian Mountains in his Vlaicu II airplane.
  • 1906 – Traian Vuia flies a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft becoming the first fixed wing aircraft to fly in Europe.
  • 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont successfully flies his Santos-Dumont 14-bis aircraft at Château de Bagatelle, for the first time.

References

  1. ^ "Four killed in Aleppo as Syria fighting rages". Times of India. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  2. ^ "Plane crashes in eastern Venezuela". BBC News. 14 September 2010. Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
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