Portal:Aviation

Despite her surname, Jeana Yeager is not related to Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 planes, the airplane outperformed both the other entries and the Air Corps' expectations. Although losing the contract due to an accident, the Air Corps was so in favor of the B-17 that they ordered 13 B-17s regardless. Evolving through numerous design stages, from B-17A to G, the Flying Fortress is considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft. From its pre-war inception, the USAAC touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a high-flying, long-ranging potent bomber capable of defending itself. With the ability to return home despite extensive battle damage, its durability, especially in belly-landings and ditchings, quickly took on mythical proportions.

The B-17 was primarily involved in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command's night-time area bombing in Operation Pointblank, which helped secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated, to a lesser extent, in the War in the Pacific.

July 23

• 2011 – NATO aircraft strike a Libyan government military storage facility, a multiple rocket launcher, and a command-and-control node in the Brega area.^[1]

• 2010 – A Canadian Forces McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet, 188738, of 419 Moose Squadron, based at Cold Lake, crashed at Lethbridge County Airport during a low-speed, low-altitude practice run for the Alberta International Airshow, the pilot Capt. Brian Bews, 36, ejected in a Martin-Baker seat seconds before the fighter fell off on its starboard wing and impacted on the airfield. He suffered a compression fracture in three vertebrae but is expected to fully recover.

• 2009 – An Uzbekistan Air Force Mil Mi-24 Hind Helicopter on a routine training exercise crashes near the airport of Chirchiq, Tashkent Province, Uzbekistan killing the 2 crew.

• 2009 – A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II crashes on take-off after from the Erhaç Air Base in Malatya, Turkey due to a technical fault caused by drop-tank falling from the aircraft. The two crew members successfully eject from the aircraft and were hospitalized after the incident.

• 2008 – Deceased: Dick Johnson (glider pilot), 85, American glider pilot, aeronautical engineer, plane crash.

• 1999 – All Nippon Airways Flight 61: Wielding a knife, passenger Yuji Nishizawa hijacks All Nippon Airways Flight 61, a Boeing 747. After he fatally stabs the captain, he is overpowered by the crew and the co-pilot lands the plane safely at Haneda, Japan.

• 1999 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-93 at 12:31 am EDT. Mission highlights: Chandra X-ray Observatory deployed.

• 1994 – A U.S. Navy North American T-2C Buckeye, BuNo 157051, '0601', of VT-19, based at NAS Meridian, Mississippi, crashed at 1355 hrs. shortly after take-off from NAS Oceana, Virginia, impacting in a wooded area several hundred yards past the runway, with both crew ejecting before the crash. Instructor pilot Lt. Mark Sharp, 32, of Portland, Oregon, died at 1814 hrs. in Virginia Beach General Hospital, said a Navy spokesman, but Marine Lt. Carl Hogsett, 26, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was reported in good condition at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

• 1993 – China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119, a BAe 146, overruns the runway at Yinchuan Hedong Airport, Ningxia, China after an aborted takeoff; the aircraft crashes into a lake, killing 54 passengers and 1 crew member.

• 1983 – Air Canada Flight 143, a Boeing 767, runs out of fuel above Manitoba because of a miscalculation; the crew successfully glides the aircraft to a safe landing at a former Air Force base (and current drag strip) at Gimli, Manitoba; the aircraft becomes known as the "Gimli Glider".

• 1979 – The British government announces plans to privatise British Airways and publicly sell British Aerospace shares.

• 1977 – After threats of shutting down transatlantic air traffic, the U. S. and British governments reach the Bermuda II accord, giving British airlines additional ports of entry in the United States and removing American airlines' rights to carry passengers beyond London and Hong Kong.

• 1977 – (23-24) Further Egyptian Air Force attacks destroy large numbers of Libyan aircraft before a ceasefire ends the war. Egypt admits the loss of two planes during the last two days of the war.

• 1973 – Eddie Rickenbacker, WW I fighter pilot, dies at 82.

• 1973 – Ozark Air Lines Flight 809, a Fairchild-Hiller FH-227, crashes short of the runway at St. Louis International Airport due to windshear from a thunderstorm, killing 38 of 44 on board.

• 1973 – Japan Air Lines Flight 404, a Boeing 747, is hijacked after takeoff from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands; one hijacker is killed and the flight's purser injured by a grenade blast; after several days and multiple flight legs, the passengers are released in Benghazi, Libya and the aircraft is blown up on the ground; this is the first loss of a Boeing 747-200.

• 1971 – First flight of the GAF Nomad

• 1968 – Three members of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijack El Al Flight 426 from Rome to Tel Aviv. Diverting to Algiers the negotiations extend over forty days. Both the hijackers and the hostages go free.

• 1956 – Bell X-2 rocket plane sets world aircraft speed record of 3,050 kph.

• 1956 – First flight of the Dassault Étendard II

• 1955 – First flight of the PZL TS-8 Bies

• 1954 – The 1954 Cathay Pacific Douglas DC-4 shootdown: a Cathay Pacific Douglas DC-4 is attacked by two PLAAF La-7 fighters and crashes off Hainan Island, killing 10 of 19 on board.

• 1952 – First flight of the Fouga CM.170 Magister

• 1950 – aircraft carrier USS Boxer crosses the Pacific Ocean in record time, from Alameda, California to Yokosuka in 8 days 16 hours.

• 1947 – First (US Navy) air squadron of jets, Quonset Point, RI.

• 1945 – The Japanese submarines I-400 and I-401 depart Japan to launch a surprise air strike on American ships at Ulithi Atoll using six submarine-launched Aichi M6 A floatplanes painted in American markings. The two submarines will abort the mission and jettison the aircraft on 16 August when they learn of Japan’s surrender.

• 1944 – During strikes on the southern half of Tinian, aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Essex (CV-9) and USS Langley (CVL-27) fly almost 200 sorties, those from the escort aircraft carriers USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) and USS Kitkun Bay (CVE-71) fly over 50, and those of the U. S. Army Air Forces’ Saipan-based 318th Air Group fly over 100, including 18 sorties with a new weapon, the napalm bomb.

• 1944 – Focke-Wulf Fw 190C V33 prototype, Werke Nummer 0058, modified to Fw 190 V33/U1 as prototype for Ta 152H-0 with 1,750 hp (1,300 kW) Junkers Jumo 213E-1 engine and new wing fuel tanks of the definitive Ta 152H-1, comprising three tanks in each inner portion, located just aft of the truncated mainspar, first flown 12 July 1944, crashes out of Langenhagen, setting back the flight test program.

• 1944 – Two Curtiss RA-25A Shrikes, of the 4134th Base Unit, Spokane Army Air Field, collide in flight while participating in a flypast for an air show near Spokane, Washington. Part of a three-plane formation, the left-hand aircraft collided with the middle plane during a turn, both crashing into a valley. Pilot 2nd Lt. George E. Chrep and engineer-rated passenger Sgt. Joseph M. Revinskas were killed in the crash of 42-79804, while pilot 2nd Lt. William R. Scott and passenger Captain Ford K. Sayre, a noted snow skier on the east coast, were killed in the crash of 42-79826. A Paramount Pictures newsreel crew caught the accident on film, which was examined by the crash investigation board for clues to the accident. This footage was later incorporated into the 1956 film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

• 1941 – During Operation Substance, Italian high-level and torpedo bombers attack a resupply convoy of six fast store ships bound for Malta escorted by a British naval forces including the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. The high-level bombers are ineffective and Fairey Fulmars from Ark Royal shoot down two of them, but the six torpedo bombers fatally damage the destroyer HMS Fearless and cripple the light cruiser HMS Manchester.

• 1940 – “Blitz” all-night air raid by German bombers on London begins.

• 1937 – The International Military Aircraft Competition in Debendorf near Zuich provided the picturesque venue for the first major demonstration of the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

• 1932 – An aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont hangs himself

• 1930 – Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss dies at age of 52.

• 1917 – Maj. Benjamin D. Foulois, one of the great figures of early American aviation, is appointed commanding officer of the Airplane Division of the U. S. Signal Corps.

• 1913 – With his biplane fitted with electric lights on the wings and his landing area outlined with small blazes, H. W. Blakeley makes the first night flight in Canada at the Dominion Livestock Show and Fair at Brandon, Manitoba.

• 1906 – Having abandoned his helicopter project, Alberto Santos-Dumont unveils a new aircraft, the No.14 bis. at Bagatelle, France. The odd-looking machine is dubbed canard (duck).

• 1905 – The first flight of the Wright Flyer III took place in June 1905.^[2] This is the first fully controllable and practical version of the original Flyer.