Portal:Aviation

During his formative years Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and in South Africa. During the Boer War, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. While convalescing in Switzerland he took up bobsleighing and after a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Some months later, Trenchard returned to South Africa before volunteering for service in Nigeria. During his time in Nigeria, Trenchard commanded the Southern Nigeria Regiment for several years and was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule and quell inter-tribal violence.

In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and was subsequently appointed as second in command of the Central Flying School. He held several senior positions in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, serving as the commander of Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he briefly served as the first Chief of the Air Staff before taking up command of the Independent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff under Winston Churchill in 1919, Trenchard spent the following decade securing the future of the Royal Air Force. He was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years.

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four-engined airliner manufactured by Airbus S.A.S. It first flew on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse–Blagnac Airport. Commercial flights began in late 2007 after months of testing, with the delivery of the first aircraft to launch customer Singapore Airlines. During much of its development phase, the aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX, and the nickname Superjumbo has also become associated with the A380.

The A380 is double decked, with the upper deck extending along the entire length of the fuselage. This allows for a spacious cabin, with the A380 in standard three-class configuration to seat 555 people, up to maximum of 853 in full economy class configuration. Only one model of the A380 was available: The A380-800, the passenger model. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world superseding the Boeing 747. The other launch model, the A380-800F freighter, was canceled and did not join the ranks of the largest freight aircraft such as the Antonov An-225, An-124, and the C-5 Galaxy.

• Span: 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in)
• Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
• Height: 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in)
• Engines: 4 * Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance GP7200 (311 kN or 69,916 lbf)
• Cruising Speed: 0.85 Mach (approx 1,050 km/h or 652 mph or 567 kn)
• First Flight: 27 April 2005
• Number built: 254 (including 3 prototypes)

August 18

• 2012 – Suffering engine trouble, an Aviatour Air Piper PA-34-200 Seneca I crashes in the sea off Masbate in the Philippines, killing three of the four people on board and injuring the lone survivor. Among the dead is Philippine Secretary of the Interior Jesse Robredo, whose body will be recovered from the sea on 21 August.^[1]

• 2003 – A Polish Sukhoi Su-22M-4K, of 8 ELT, flying at 3000 meter (10,000 ft) altitude, during antiaircraft artillery exercises, is shot down at 1600 hrs. within the confines of the Wicko Morskie range, near Ustka by 2K12 Kub missile. Another account ascribes the downing merely to a "technical malfunction". The pilot, Lt. Col. Andrzej Andrzejewski, safely ejected and alighted in Baltic Sea 21 km (11 nmi) from the coast, and – after one-and-half hour spent in water – picked up by Mi-14PS SAR helicopter from Siemirowice Air Base. Andrzejewski will subsequently perish on 23 January 2008, CASA C-295 crash.

• 1989 – A Qantas Boeing 747, (747-438), VH-OJA, City of Canberra, flies non-stop from London to Sydney, setting a world record for a four engine jet, after having flown 17,039.00 kilometers (10,587.54 miles) in 20 hours, 9 minutes, 5 seconds at an average speed of 845.58 kilometers per hour (525.42 miles per hour). FAI Record File Numbers 2201, 2202. This flight took place 16–17 August 1989.

• 1988 – Aleksandr V. Shchukin, a test pilot for the eventually-scrapped Buran shuttle program, is killed when his Sukhoi Su-26M crashes this date.

• 1978 – First flight of the Pilatus PC-7 (Production)

• 1974 – Lockheed C-141A Starlifter, 65-0274, of the 437th MAW, Charleston AFB, South Carolina, hits Mount Potosi at the 19,000 foot level, ~17 miles from destination, John F. Kennedy International Airport, La Paz, Bolivia, killing seven crew.

• 1967 – First flight of the Handley Page Jetstream

• 1965 – First flight of the Kamov Ka-26

• 1963 – Twin accidents aboard the USS Constellation (CV-64) kill three. First, an McDonnell F-4B-10-MC Phantom II, BuNo 149436, 'NK', of VF-143, snaps arresting cable during night landing, goes over the side, pilot Lt. Robert J. Craig, 31, of San Diego is lost with his unidentified RIO, three deck crew injured by whipping cable. Then several hours later, in unrelated accident, Missile Technician 2nd Class Robert William Negus, originally from Lompoc, California, is crushed by a missile, the Navy in San Diego reported.

• 1960 – A C-119 Flying Boxcar recovers a data capsule from the Discoverer 14 satellite in mid-air.

• 1951 – RCAF aerobatic team flying DH 100 Vampire fighters performed at the National Air Races in Detroit, Michigan.

• 1951 – Boeing XB-47-BO Stratojet, 46-065, first prototype of two, stalls on landing, suffers major structural damage. No injuries. Another source cites date of 18 August 1950.

• 1945 – Last U.S. air combat casualty of World War II occurs during mission 230 A-8, when two Consolidated B-32 Dominators of the 386th Bomb Squadron, 312th Bomb Group, launch from Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, for a photo reconnaissance run over Tokyo, Japan. Both bombers are attacked by several Japanese fighters of both the 302nd Air Group at Atsugi and the Yokosuka Air Group that make 10 gunnery passes. Japanese aces Sadamu Komachi and Saburo Sakai are part of this attack. B-32 piloted by 1st Lt. John R. Anderson, is hit at 20,000 feet, cannon fire knocks out number two (port inner) engine, and three crew are injured, including Sgt. Anthony J. Marchione, 19, of the 20th Reconnaissance Squadron, who takes 20 mm hit to the chest, dying 30 minutes later. Tail gunner Sgt. John Houston destroys one attacker. Lead bomber, Consolidated B-32-20-CF Dominator, 42-108532, "Hobo Queen II", piloted by 1st Lt. James Klein, is not seriously damaged but second Consolidated B-32-35-CF Dominator, 42-108578, loses engine, has upper turret knocked out of action, and loses partial rudder control. Both bombers land at Yontan Airfield just past ~1800 hrs. after surviving the last air combat of the Pacific war. The following day, propellers are removed from Japanese aircraft as part of surrender agreement. Marchione is buried on Okinawa on 19 August, his body being returned to his Pottstown, Pennsylvania home on 18 March 1949. He is interred in St. Aloysius Old Cemetery with full military honors. B-32, 42-108578, was scrapped at Kingman, Arizona after the war.

• 1945 – Seven Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft make the last kamikaze attack of World War II.

• 1944 – The U. S. Navy submarine USS Rasher (SS-269) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō off Cape Bolinao, Luzon, with the loss of 747 lives. There are over 400 survivors.

• 1943 – RCAF contributed 74 aircraft to the RAF attack on the German rocket experimental facility at Peenemunde.

• 1943 – Following a Royal Air Force bombing raid on the test facilities at Peenemünde on 17 August, the Messerschmitt Me 163B Komets of training unit EK 16 are moved to a new airfield at Anklam. The airframes are towed to the new location, with one Komet, suffering malfunctioning flap hydraulics, ferried by test pilot Paul Rudolf Opitz. After casting-off from the tow plane, the rocket fighter's landing skid fails to function, the airframe decelerates over a patch of rough and rutted ground at the end of the landing run following an otherwise normal approach. Pilot suffers two damaged vertebrae due to hard landing, spends three months in hospital. Investigation reveals that a force of 15 to 30Gs were required to cause this injury, and Me 163Bs are subsequently fitted with a torsion sprung seat for the pilot, eliminating this type of injury

• 1942 – (Overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force flies its first mission, with 31 Pathfinder aircraft attempting to mark the target – The German submarine base at Flensburg – For a main force of 87 bombers. The raid is a complete failure; Flensburg is untouched, and the aircraft scatter their bombs widely over the towns of Sønderborg and Aabenraa in Denmark. One Pathfinder aircraft and three other bombers fail to return.

• 1941 – The Butt Report is issued. It reveals a widespread failure of Royal Air Force Bomber Command aircraft to deliver their payloads to the correct target.

• 1941 – The U. S. Navy commissions Naval Air Station Midway at Midway Atoll.

• 1937 – Col. William Caldwell McChord, (1881–1937), rated a junior military aviator in 1918, was killed while trying to force-land his Northrop A-17, 35-105, near Maidens, Virginia. At the time of his death, he was Chief of the Training and Operations Division in HQ Army Air Corps. Tacoma Field, Washington, was renamed McChord Field, 17 December 1937.

• 1932 – 18-19 – Jim Mollison makes the first solo East-to-West crossing of the Atlantic, flying a de Havilland Puss Moth from Dublin to New Brunswick

• 1932 – Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns set a new balloon altitude record of 16,201 m (53,153 ft).

• 1930 – Captain Wolfgang von Gronau and crew make the first east to west crossing of the Atlantic from Germany to New York.

• 1926 – An Air Union Blériot 155 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at College Farm, Hurst, Aldington due to engine failure, killing 3 of 15 on board; the pilot initially survives, but dies a day later.

• 1922 – Arthur Martens makes the first sailplane flight of over one hour at the Wasserkuppe. His aircraft, named Vampyr (“Vampire”) is designed by Wolfgang Klemmperer.

• 1911 – The sole Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.1 crashes at Farnborough, pilot Lt. Theodore J. Ridge killed. Ridge was an inexperienced pilot, despite being Assistant Superintendent at the factory (who had only been awarded his Pilot's certificate the day before, and was described as "an absolutely indifferent flyer"). The combination of the unskilled pilot and the marginally controllable aircraft proved fatal - the S.E.1 stalled in a turn and spun in, killing Ridge. No further development of this one-off design undertaken.

• 1903 – Karl Jatho makes a flight with his motored airplane in front of 4 people. His craft flies up to 200 feet (60 m) up to few yards/m above the ground in a powered heavier-than-air craft.

• 1901 – At the invitation of Chanute, Wilbur Wright addresses the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago with a 10,000-word paper titled “Some Aeronautical Experiments. ”

• 1871 – Alphonse Pénaud achieves the first flight of an inherently stable airplane when his Planophore is flown 131 feet 11 seconds before the Société de Navigation Aérienne in the Tuileries Gardens, Paris.

• 1805 – First woman to pilot her own balloon: Sophie Blanchard, when she flew solo from the garden of the Cloister of the Jacobins in Toulouse.