2009 – A United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk from Fort Campbell, Kentucky the home base of the 101st Airborne crashes while on a training exercise being carried-out by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). The accident occurred 400 ft below the summit of the 14,421 feet high (4,268 m) Mount Massive in the Sawatch Range, Colorado leaving 2 crew dead, 1 injured and 1 crew member missing.
2002 – Russian Air Force Mil Mi-26 helicopter is shot down by Chechen rebels using a portable SAM, probably an Igla, in Khankala, Russia. Of the 152 on board, 118 are killed.
1982 – Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to be launched into space.
1981 – Indian Airlines Flight 557 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Bangalore to Mangalore which overran the runway at Mangalore Bajpe Airport.
1981 – Two Libyan Air Force Sukhoi Su-22s are shot down off of the Libyan coast by two United States Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcats of VF-41 from USS Nimitz.
1981 – A Royal Australian Air Force Bell UH-1 Iroquois fatally crashed at Willamstown, New South Wales. All UH-1Bs are grounded.
1980 – Saudia Flight 163, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, lands at Riyadh International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia when a fire breaks out on board; the evacuation of the plane is delayed and all 301 on board die.
1969 – Embraer is founded by Brazil’s Ministry of Aeronautics.
1968 – Handley Page Victor K.1 XH646 of No. 214 Squadron RAF collided in mid-air near Holt, Norfolk, United Kingdom in bad weather with a 213 Squadron English Electric Canberra WT325, all four crew members of the Victor died.
1967 – U. S. Marine Corps Captain Stephen W. Pless, piloting a UH-1E attack helicopter near Quang Ngai, South Vietnam, drives Viet Cong forces away from Americans stranded on a beach and then lands under heavy fire to rescue them. He will receive the Medal of Honor for his actions, and his crew will receive the Navy Cross.
1963 – Two Boeing B-47 Stratojets of the 40th Bombardment Wing from Schilling AFB, Salina, Kansas, collide in mid-air over Irwin, Iowa during a nine-hour navigation, air-refuelling and radar bomb scoring mission. Bombers depart Schilling at 1125 hrs. and 1126 hrs., then collide in overcast shortly after 1230 hrs., coming down on two farms ~2 miles apart. Two crew DOA at Harlan Hospital, Irwin, Iowa, three treated for injuries, one located alive. SAC identifies three survivors as Capt. Richard M. Smiley, 29, of Arlington, Kansas, aircraft commander of one B-47; Capt. Allan M. Ramsey, Jr., 32, of Bainbridge, Georgia, Smiley's navigator; Capt. Richard M. Snowden, 29, navigator on second B-47. Listed as missing: Capt. Leonard A. Theis, 29, San Fernando, California, co-pilot on second B-47; dead is Capt. Peter J. Macchi, 29, Belleville, New Jersey, Smiley's co-pilot; second fatality not immediately identified. Smiley suffers head injuries, Ramsey, back injuries, and Snowden, burns and leg injuries.
1963 – A USAF Boeing QB-47E Stratojet, of the 3205th Drone Director Group, veers off course on touchdown at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, crashing onto Eglin Parkway parallel to runway 32/14. Two cars were crushed by the Stratojet, killing two occupants, Robert W. Glass and Dr. Robert Bundy, and injuring a third, Dorothy Phillips. Mr. Glass and Dr. Bundy both worked for the Minnesota Honeywell Corporation at the time, a firm which had just completed flight tests on an inertia guidance sub-system for the X-20 Dyna-Soar project at the base utilizing a McDonnell NF-101B Voodoo. Mrs. Phillips was the wife of Master Sergeant James Phillips, a crew chief at the base. Mrs. Phillips was treated for moderate injuries and released later that day. Both vehicles were destroyed by fire. Four firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation while fighting the blaze which reignited several times. Fire crews had to lay over a mile of hose to reach the crash from the nearest hydrant, as well. The QB-47 was used for Bomarc Missile Program tests, which normally operated from Auxiliary Field Three (Duke Field), approximately 15 miles from the main base, but was diverted to Eglin Main after thunderstorms built up over Duke.
1960 – In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
1960 – Sputnik 5 – The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.
1957 – 19-20 – Maj David Simons sets a new balloon altitude record of 101,516 ft (30,942 m).
1955 – Sixth of 13 North American X-10s, GM-19312, c/n 6, on Navaho X-10 flight number 16, out of Edwards AFB, California, demonstrates planned automated landing on first AFMTC flight, but drag chute does not deploy after landing. The vehicle overruns the skid strip, the nosewheel collapses in the sand in the overrun, the tanks rupture, and the vehicle burns.
1945 – Pilot 1st Lt. James K. Holt ferries captured Messerschmitt Me 262A, 500098, "Cookie VII", FE-4011, from Newark Army Air Base, New Jersey to Freeman Field, Indiana, with a refuelling stop at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at ~ 1600 hrs, as one of two Messerschmitts being sent for testing after arriving in the U.S. aboard the HMS Reaper. Upon landing at Pittsburgh, he experiences complete brake failure, overruns the runway, goes down steep incline, hits opposite side of ditch, tearing engines and undercarriage off of the jet and breaking the fuselage in half. Pilot is unhurt but airframe is a total loss.
1944 – 110 Seafire and Hellcat fighters from seven British and two American escort aircraft carriers supporting Operation Dragoon fly an armed reconnaissance toward Toulouse, France, where they destroy locomotives and rolling stock. They encounter German aircraft—one Junkers Ju 88, three Heinkel He 111 s, and one Dornier Do 217—for the first time during the operation and shoot all of them down.
1943 – Generaloberst Hans Jeschonnek, the Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe, commits suicide.
1942 – Six fighter and two army co-operation squadrons of the RCAF supported the Canadian attack on Dieppe, France.
1940 – The first combat mission of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Mitsubishi A6 M Zero (Allied reporting name “Zeke”) fighter takes place, as 12 Zeroes escort 54 Mitsubishi G3 M (Allied reporting name “Nell”) bombers over Chungking, but no Chinese aircraft rise to meet them.
1940 - At Mines Field (now known as Los Angeles International Airport), the first North American Aviation B-25 twin-engine medium bomber, serial number 40-2165, took off on its first flight with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls and engineer Roy Ferren in the co-pilot’s position.
1929 – The first metal airship built for the U. S. Navy makes its first flight. The ZMC-2 is a 22,600 cu. ft. helium balloon supported by transverse metal frames and longitudinal stiffeners with a thin metal covering forming the outer skin.
1921 – Gene Roddenberry, B-17 combat pilot and winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in the U. S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, was born in El Paso, Texas. Roddenberry was also a producer, screenwriter and creator of Star Trek. He became one of the first people to be buried in space upon his death 1991.
1919 – The United States readopts its pre-January 1918 official national insignia for U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Marine Corps aircraft, a white star centered in a blue circle with a red disc centered within the star. The marking will remain in use until June 1, 1942.
1918 – First of three crashes of new Fokker E.V. (Eindekker V, or monoplane five), six of which are delivered to Jasta 6 of the Imperial German Air Service on 7 August, to occur in a week, kills Leutnant Emil Rolff when wing fails, and, like the Fokker Triplane before it, the type is grounded for investigation. Problem traced to shoddy workmanship at the Mecklenburg factory where defective wood spars, water damage to glued parts, and pins carelessly splintering the members instead of securing them are discovered. Upon return to service two months later, design is renamed the Fokker D.VIII in an effort to distance type's reputation as a killer. Rolff had scored the first kill in the type on 17 August.
1918 – A US. Navy Curtiss 18-T-1 triplane flown by Curtiss test pilot Roland Rholfs establishes a new world speed record of 163 mph (232.32 km/hr) carrying a load of 1,076 lbs.
1911 – British naval officer Comdr. Charles R. Samson sets a new British endurance record of 4 hours, 58 min, 30 seconds. The Short S.38 biplane has special tanks allowing sufficient fuel for more than 4 hours flying.
1871 – Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio. He was co-inventor, with his brother Wilbur, of the first airplane to achieve powered, sustained, and controlled flight and the first fully practical powered airplane. Orville piloted the famous first flight at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina after winning a coin flip against his brother.
1913 – 700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pégoud becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.
