Portal:Aviation

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a Royal Air Force officer and was one of the inventors of jet propulsion. By the end of the war, Whittle's efforts resulted in engines that would lead the world in performance through the end of the decade.

Born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, Whittle left Leamington College in 1923 to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. A requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, in which he described what is today referred to as a motorjet.

Whittle and Hans von Ohain met after the war and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas. Ohain eventually convinced him that his work was independent and after that point the two became good friends.

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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

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July 8

• 2011 – Hewa Bora Airways Flight 952, a Boeing 727, crashes on landing at Bangoka International Airport, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 74 of 118 on board.

• 2011 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-135 at 15:29 UTC. Mission highlights: Payload Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Raffaello. Final flight of Atlantis, final flight of the Space Shuttle program.

• 2010 – The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first solar-powered aircraft capable of both day and night flight thanks to its batteries charged by solar power, makes its first overnight flight, taking off from Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland, and returning after 26 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds in the air, the first overnight flight by a solar-powered aircraft and the longest flight in history up to this time by a manned solar-powered aircraft. The flight also sets a record for the highest altitude ever attained by a manned solar-powered aircraft, reaching 8,744 meters (28,687 feet) above ground and 9,235 meters (30,298 feet) in absolute altitude.^[1][2]

• 2008 – Three Airmen of the 319th Special Operations Squadron, 1st Special Operations Wing, avoid serious injury when the leased Pilatus PC-12 they are training in crashes at the end of the runway at Hurlburt Field, Florida, Eglin Auxiliary Field 9, at ~2330 hrs. as they attempt a landing. The initial investigation finds that the turboprop encountered wake turbulence from another aircraft that had landed shortly before the accident. As a precaution, the three crew were taken to the Eglin hospital and released the same afternoon. Hurlburt leases the PC-12 to train Airmen for the U-28A, the Air Force's version of the single-engine utility aircraft, used in combat for intra-theatre support for the special operations forces.

• 2007 – Boeing 787 Rollout (7/8/2007) in Everett, Washington’s Boeing Everett Factory.

• 2006 – Aerospace scientists in Toronto conduct the first confirmed flight of a manned ornithopter operating under its own power.

• 2003 – Sudan Airways Flight 139, a Boeing 737-200, crashes shortly after taking off from Port Sudan, Sudan. The plane crashes into a hill while attempting an emergency landing. All 117 on board the plane perish; a two-year-old boy initially survives the crash, but dies the following day.

• 2000 – Aerocaribe Flight 7831, a British Aerospace Jetstream 32, crashes near Chulum Juárez, Mexico, killing all 19 on board.

• 1999 – Death of Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr., American naval officer, test pilot, astronaut and engineer, and the third person to walk on the Moon.

• 1994 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-65 at 12:43:01 pm EDT. Mission highlights: First Shuttle-Mir docking.

• 1992 – First flight of the Bede BD-10

• 1991 – A US Navy F/A-18 Hornet is forced to shoot down an E-2 Hawkeye after its crew abandons it following an engine fire

• 1988 – (8-13) 11-year old Chris Marshall flies a Mooney M20 from San Diego to Paris.

• 1983 – General Dynamics rolls out the 1,000th F-16 Fighting Falcon

• 1977 – Death of Katherine Stinson, US early female flier and aviation pioneer.

• 1967 – Boeing B-52 Stratofortress 56-0601 overran the runway on landing at Da Nang Air Base, Vietnam with the loss of five of her six crew. The aircraft had suffered an electrical malfunction that led to the flameout of two engines and was attempting to make an emergency landing.

• 1966 – US airline strike begins and lasts until Aug 19th.

• 1965 – Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near 100 Mile House, British Columbia after the explosion of a device in the lavatory; all 46 passengers and six crew aboard perish.

• 1965 – Death of Albert Paul Mantz, American noted air racing pilot and movie stunt pilot, while flying the very unusual aircraft (Tallmantz Phoenix P-1) for the movie 'The Flight of the Phoenix'.

• 1962 – Alitalia Flight 771, a Douglas DC-8-43, crashes 11 km (6.8 mi) northwest of Junnar, India, while on approach to a landing at Bombay 84 km (52 mi) to the northeast. All 94 people on board die.

• 1960 – First flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-150, prototype single-seat fighter/interceptor, part of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-150 family.

• 1959 – The Argentine Navy commissions its first aircraft carrier, (V-1). She is the first aircraft carrier to enter service in Latin America.

• 1958 – First flight of the Borgward Kolibri, German three-seated utility helicopter, First German helicopter after WWII.

• 1958 – A Lockheed U-2A, 56-6713, Article 380, of the SAC's 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS), based at Laughlin Air Force Base, Del Rio, Texas, is lost near Wayside, Texas, when it goes out of control at high altitude, killing RAF pilot, Sqn. Ldr. Christopher Walker, one of four RAF officers in U-2 training. This aircraft, the 40th U-2 built, was delivered to the USAF in July 1957, and assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, where it was configured as a "ferret" aircraft.

• 1956 – A USAF Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star, based out of Lackland AFB, Texas, crashes into side of Pleasant Mountain in Denmark, Maine, killing Capt. Gordon L. Draheim. Cause determined to be disorientation and fuel exhaustion.

• 1953 – Sabena begins the first international helicopter service, linking Belgium, the Netherlands and France

• 1952 – New York Airways begins inter-airport helicopter services to link Idlewild, La Guardia, and Newark airports.

• 1952 – Israeli IAF/DF de Havilland Mosquito T.3, 2119, as Capt. Daniel Shapira demonstrates a take-off to Lt. Ze'ev Tavor it goes badly, airframe ending up in the weeds. Despite this, both pilots eventually become test pilots. This was the first Israeli loss of the type.

• 1950 – U. S. Navy P2 V-3 Neptunes of Patrol Squadron 6 (VP-6) begin air patrols along the east coast of Korea.

• 1948 – A USAF Douglas C-47A-30-DK Skytrain, 43-48256[157] crashes near Wiesbaden, Germany, killing three crew. This was the first accident during the Berlin Airlift. KWF were 1st Lt. George B. Smith, 1st Lt. Leland V. Williams, and Karl v. Hagen of the Department of the Army. (One source incorrectly lists this crash as involving a C-54 Skymaster.)

• 1948 – First flight of the Ilyushin Il-28

• 1948 – The USAF accepts its First female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

• 1947 – First flight of the Boeing 377

• 1947 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-23

• 1947 – The Kenneth Arnold sightings: Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.

• 1946 – First of two Vought XF4U-5 Corsairs, created by mating Vought F4U-4 Corsair BuNo 97296 with a Pratt & Whitney R-2800-32W radial engine, first flown 3 July 1946, lost during routine test flight when pilot Bill Horan attempts dead-stick landing at Stratford, Connecticut. Airframe destroyed, pilot killed.

• 1944 – The second B-29 Superfortress raid on Japan attacks four cities on Kyūshū from bases in China.

• 1944 – Swordfish aircraft from the British Merchant Aircraft Carrier (or “MAC-ship”) MV Empire MacCallum mistakenly sink the Free French submarine La Perle. It is the only time that MAC-ship-based aircraft sink a submarine.

• 1943 – British air raid sinks U-232.

• 1941 – A trial raid by three Royal Air Force Fortress I heavy bombers on the naval barracks at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, is the first combat use of any variant of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

• 1940 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes torpedo the French battleship Richelieu at Dakar, Senegal, damaging her. Richelieu is not seaworthy again for a year.

• 1940 – (Overnight) 64 British bombers strike airfields in the Netherlands and ports in north Germany and lay sea mines. Germany’s first specialized night fighter unit, Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, scores its first victory, as Oberfeldwebel Hermann Förster shoots down a Whitley off Heligoland.

• 1940 – (8-13) Italian high-level bombers subject ships of the British Mediterranean Fleet to repeated heavy attacks while the fleet is at sea in the Mediterranean. They score only one hit, on the light cruiser HMS Gloucester.

• 1936 – First landing of an aircraft at Rhein-Main-Flughafen (Today Frankfurt am Main Airport) is made by a Junker Ju-52.

• 1935 – Birth of Vitaly Ivanovich Sevastyanov, Soviet cosmonaut

• 1908 – Thérèse Peltier becomes the first woman to fly in an aeroplane. She is a passenger on a flight made by Léon Delagrange at Turin.

• 1892 – Birth of Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, Soviet aircraft designer, known as "King of Fighters".

• 1883 – Birth of Charles Rumney Samson CMG, DSO & Bar, AFC, British naval aviation pioneer and WWI pilot.

• 1838 – Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin is born in Baden, Germany. The first large-scale builder and pioneer of rigid dirigible balloons, Zeppelin made his first balloon ascent while serving as a volunteer and observer for the Union Army in America’s Civil War.

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