2006 – Rollout of the first Block 20 RQ-4 Global Hawk at Northrop Grumman’s Plant 42 manufacturing facility in Palmdale, California.
2000 – RAF BAE Systems Hawk T.1, XX266, of the Red Arrows demonstration team suffers birdstrike while returning to Exeter from a display at Dartmouth, Devon, ~17 miles (27 km.) SW of Exeter, punching large hole in starboard wing. Aircraft made safe landing at Exeter Airport.
1990 – The United States Marine Corps‘ 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade has deployed 124 aircraft to Saudi Arabia. The U. S. Air Force’s Military Airlift Command has flown 259 sorties in support of the brigade’s deployment.
1977 – AA USAF McDonnell-Douglas RF-4C Phantom II (66-0424) from RAF Alconbury crashed in a field at Thuine, Germany. Both crew perished and Capt. Alan Aertker, WSO is credited with remaining with the aircraft rather than ejecting to avoid devastation of the village. No civilians were injured or killed in the crash and citizens of Thuine erected a monument near the crash site.
1976 – The British Airways Concorde registered G-BOAD makes her maiden flight out of Filton, England. Today she is on display at the USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.
1970 – A Lockheed TF-104G Starfighter, 27+30, c/n 5732, of MFG 1, Marineflieger, downed by engine failure due to FOD, shortly after take-off from Jagel Air Base at Glücksburg in northern West Germany, both crew ejecting safely. Although the cause of the crash was not immediately known, a spokesman said it might have been struck by a bird in flight. This was the 122nd West German Starfighter crash since the type entered service in 1961.
1965 – First Curtiss-Wright X-19A prototype, 62-12197, was destroyed in a crash at the FAA's National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center, Caldwell, New Jersey, (formerly NAS Atlantic City), when gearbox fails followed by loss of propellers at 0718:44 hrs EDT. Test pilot James V. Ryan and FAA copilot Hughes ejected in North American LW-2B seats as the now-ballistic airframe rolled inverted at 390 feet, chutes fully deployed in 2 seconds at ~230 feet. Elapsed time between prop separation and ejection was 2.5 seconds. Airframe impacted in dried out tidewater area after completing 3/4 of a roll at 0719. Crew suffers minor injuries from ejection through canopy. The program was subsequently cancelled. This will be the last airframe design from two of the most famous company names in aviation. Second prototype, reported in some sources to have been scrapped, survives at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, and is later recovered by the National Museum of the United States Air Force for preservation.
1955 – Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129585, of VF-124, suffers collapsed starboard main landing gear during a hard landing aboard USS Hancock while she was operating in the vicinity of Hawaii.
1951 – For the first time in the Korean War, U. S. Navy fighters escort U. S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress bombers as F9 F Panthers of Fighter Squadron 51 (VF-51) and F2 H-2 Banshees of Fighter Squadron 172 (VF-172) from the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) cover B-29 s on a raid on Rashin, Korea. They encounter no enemy aircraft.
1950 – ARAF Douglas Dakota C.4, KN630, of No. 52 Squadron crashes in dense jungle near Kampong Jenera during a target making and supply dropping mission, 12 dead. Nine Britons, along with three Malaysians onboard, are killed when the Dakota crashes into a ravine near Kampung Jendera, in the Sungai Beluar valley in the communist-infested jungles of Gua Musang, Kelantan. The Britons who perished were identified as RAF crew pilot Lt Edward Robert Talbot, 27, from Dorchester; navigator Sgt Geoffrey Carpenter, 23, from West Norwood; and signaller Sgt Thomas O'Toole, 34, from Merthyr Tydfil. The Royal Army Service Corps air despatchers were Corporal Phillip Bryant, 25, from Southend-on-Sea; and Privates Peter Taylor, 20, from Bournemouth; Roy Wilson, 21, from Birkenhead and Oliver Goldsmith, 21, from Neston - all drivers. The passengers were army officer Major John Proctor and land development officer Anker Rentse. The Malaysians were police constable Mohammed Abdul Lalil Jalil, civilian Yaacob Mat and an Orang Asli guide, Saiap Alais Sherda, from the Sakai tribe. RAF records showed the plane, based in Changi, Singapore, had flown to Kota Baru with three crew and four despatchers. In Kota Baru, the aircraft picked up the five passengers and flew east of Kampung Jendera to drop a marker flare at a clearing for eight Lincoln bombers. "The aircraft made a second low-level pass to drop another marker flare when it is believed that it suffered engine trouble due to the adverse weather condition, making it unable to clear a ridge. It then rammed into trees and crashed into a ravine, killing all aboard. The crash happened when the country was struggling with communist insurgents, a period known as the Malayan Emergency (1948-60), when British, Commonwealth and other security forces in Malaya fought the insurgents. The Communist Party of Malaya had demanded Malaya's independence, but Britain responded by mounting a large-scale military and political counter-insurgency operation. Malaya finally won Independence on Aug 31, 1957." On 15 March 2012, the remains of the crew were reburied at the Commonwealth War Grave in Cheras with full military honours in the presence of both British and Malaysian Defence Ministry officials, and members of the Ex-British Army Association of Malaysia.
1947 – The first Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, Bu. No. 37970, flown by Major Marion E. Carl, U.S. Marine Corps, set a world speed record of 650.797 mph (1,047.356 km/h) over a 3-kilometer straight course at Muroc Army Air Field, California. This exceeded the record set by Commander Turner F. Caldwell, Jr., U.S. Navy, flying the same aircraft five days earlier, by 10.053 mph (16.178 km/h) (FAI Record File Number 9865)
1945 – A U. S. Army Air Forces P-38 Lightning fighter piloted by Colonel Clay Tice becomes the first American aircraft to land in Japan following the armistice of August 15.
1942 – U. S. Marine Corps SBD Dauntless dive bombers conduct the first bombing raid by Henderson Field-based aircraft, attacking Japanese shipping approaching Guadalcanal.
1942 – The Prince George, Duke of Kent (George Edward Alexander Edmund; 20 December 1902 - 25 August 1942) is killed while a passenger on a Short Sunderland Mk. III flying boat, W4026, 'DQ-M', of 228 Squadron. Thirteen of 14 on board killed including the Duke of Kent, three members of his staff, pilot Flt. Lt. Frank Goyen, Wing Cmdr. Moseley, and six other crew. Tail gunner Sgt. Andrew Jack was thrown clear of the wreckage in his turret, suffering burns and other injuries. The plane was en route from Evanton, Rosshire to Iceland, and then on to Newfoundland. The four-engined Sunderland struck Eagle's Rock near Ben Morven but the accident was never fully explained and several conspiracy theories have been circulated regarding the accident and Prince George's mission. Sole survivor Jack refused to discuss the accident throughout his life, fuelling the conspiracies.
1940 – 25-26 – Britain makes its first air raid on Berlin of the war.
1936 – Nationalist aircraft bomb Cuatro Vientos Airport in Madrid, Spain.
1930 – Eddie August Schneider sets the junior transcontinental air speed record. He flew from Westfield, New Jersey
1928 – The crash of a B. C. Airways Ford Trimotor in Puget Sound, Washington, during bad weather kills seven people and is called Canada’s first major air disaster.
1922 – Captain Norman MacMillan and cine-photographer Geoffrey Mallins are rescued from the Bay of Bengal when their round-the-world attempt in a civilianised Fairey IIIC is thwarted by engine failure.
1919 – The first daily international flights begin, with the Aircraft Transport and Travel company flying a de Havilland DH.16 between London (Hounslow Heath Aerodrome) and Paris – Le Bourget Airport.
1917 – One of four Vickers F.B.26 Vampire, B1484, piloted by Vickers test pilot Harold Barnwell, crashes at Joyce Green, when he attempts a spin without sufficient altitude for recovery. Pilot KWF.
1914 – Pyotr N. Nesterov is first pilot to down an enemy aircraft in aerial combat when he rams an Austro-Hungarian plane flown by Baron von Rosenthal.
1912 – Royal Navy aviator Wilfred Parke becomes the first pilot ever to recover from a spin, regaining control of his Avro Type G biplane 50 feet from the ground at Larkhill, England.
1784 – The son of a Scottish minister, James Tytler, makes the first manned balloon hop in England when his hot-air device makes a brief uncontrolled ascent with Tytler in the basket to an altitude of a few hundred feet.
