Portal:Aviation

Assigned as a P-40 pilot with the 45th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Fighter Group at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, 2nd Lt. Gabreski witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but did not become airborne in time to engage the attackers.

In March 1943 Gabreski became part of the 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, and in May was promoted to Major and named commander of the 61st Fighter Squadron, which included six Polish nationals as pilots in 1944. He made his 28th kill on July 5, 1944, passing Eddie Rickenbacker's record from World War I to become America's top ace (although several pilots passed him by the end of the war).

Col. Gabreski flew combat again during the Korean War, as commander of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, piloting an F-86 Sabre. He was credited with 6.5 MiG-15 kills, making him one of seven U.S. pilots to be aces in more than one war (the others are Col. Harrison Thyng, Col. James P. Hagerstrom, Major William T. Whisner, Col. Vermont Garrison, Major George A. Davis, Jr., and Lt.Col. John F. Bolt, USMC).

He ended his career as a commander of several tactical and air defense wings, his last assignment being commander of the 52d Fighter Wing at Suffolk County Air Force Base in Westhampton Beach, New York.

The Beechcraft King Air is a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by the Beech Aircraft Corporation (now the Beechcraft Division of Hawker Beechcraft). The King Air has been in continuous production since 1964, the longest production run of any civilian turboprop aircraft. It has outlasted all of its previous competitors and as of 2006 is one of only two twin-turboprop business airplanes in production (the other is the Piaggio Avanti).

Historically, the King Air family comprises a number of models that fall into four families, the Model 90 series, Model 100 series, Model 200 series, and Model 300 series. The last two types were originally marketed as the Super King Air, but the "Super" moniker was dropped in 1996. As of 2006, the only small King Air in production is the conventional-tail C90GT.

• Span: 50 ft 3 in (15.33 m)
• Length: 35 ft 6in (10.82 m)
• Height: 14 ft 3 in (4.35 m)
• Engines: 2 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21 turboprops , 550 shp (410 kW) each
• Cruising Speed: 284 mph (247 knots ,457 km/h)
• First Flight: May 1963

May 12

• 2011 – A Eurocopter X3 (X-Cube), French experimental compound helicopter, flew at a speed of 430 km/h (267 mph).

• 2011 – An EMBRAER Super Tucano from Brazilian Air Force crashed close to Manibu countryside, near the cities of Ceará-Mirim and Pureza, 50 km north of Natal. The pilot, Danilo Bello Seixas, died during his first solo flight.

• 2010 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 operated by Airbus A330-202 5A-ONG crashed on approach to Tripoli International Airport, Libya, killing 103 people.
• 2011 – Judy Wexler becomes the first woman to pilot a human-powered helicopter, remaining airborne for 4 seconds and achieving an altitude of a few inches in the University of Maryland's Gamera I.

• 2010 – After taking off from the base at Rimini, an Italian Air Force NH 500 helicopter of 15º Stormo (83º Centro CSAR) flew about fifty feet above the ground when the engine suddenly quit. The helicopter autorotated to impact. Both occupants escaped unhurt.

• 2009 – A South African Air Force Agusta Westland AW109E, helicopter, 4022, crashes at the Woodstock Dam, near Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aircraft from No. 17 Squadron SAAF was travelling from Durban International Airport to a satellite base of the 87 Helicopter Flying School SAAF at Dragon's Peak, Drakensberg for a week long training exercise. Flying with two another aircraft at low level and at high speed over the surface of the Dam, the helicopter stuck the water and crashed, then sinking into the lake killing the 3 crew.

• 2004 – The last F-4 Phantom fighters are withdrawn from service with the Israeli Air Force.

• 2002 – Death of Alfred Vogt, German glider designer.

• 2002 – The hangar housing Buran OK-1K1 in Kazakhstan collapses, due to poor maintenance. The collapse kills eight workers and destroys the orbiter as well as a mock-up of an Energia carrier rocket.

• 2001 – Death of Alexei Andreyevich Tupolev, Soviet aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. He also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the Tu-2000.

• 1998 – A Mauritanian Air Force Antonov An-24B, RA-12973, c/n 9346505, crashes near Néma, Mauritania during a sandstorm killing 39 of the 42 people on board.

• 1987 – Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 155657, of VA-142, misses trap on the USS Lexington, both crew eject as jet leaves deck, lightened airframe climbs away, even on reduced power, to crash in the Gulf of Mexico ~50 miles S of NAS Pensacola, Florida. Footage of this accident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvEDNdyFBU&feature=related.

• 1984 – Entered Service: Airbus A310 with Air France.

• 1982 – Braniff Airways ceased all operations, thus ending 54 years of service in the American airline industry. Braniff flights at DFW that morning were suddenly grounded, and passengers on the jets were forced to disembark, being told that Braniff now ceased to exist.

• 1975 – The Mayaguez incident begins. U. S. Air Force and U. S. Navy aircraft begin searching for the American container ship SS Mayaguez, which Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces seized earlier in the day in the Gulf of Thailand.

• 1972 – SA-7 Grail surface-to-air missiles shoot down five American AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters in five minutes near An Loc, South Vietnam.

• 1970 – Indian Air Force prototype HAL HF-24 Marut HF 001, BR 461, is lost due to unknown circumstances in the sea off of Goa while on routine ferry flight. Squadron Leader K. L. Narayan is lost with aircraft.

• 1967 – First flight of the Aermacchi AM.3, Italian single engine high wing observation aircraft, joint venture between Aermacchi and Aeritalia, initially designated the MB-335.

• 1965 – After loss of control as a result of a gyroscope problem, Luna 5 crashed. It was the second Soviet spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon.

• 1965 – The prototype HFB-320 Hansa Jet crashes due to a tail design problem; killed was manufacturer Hamburger Flugzeugbau’s chief test pilot.

• 1964 – American flyer Joan Merriam Smith lands her Piper Apache to complete the second round-the-world flight by a woman. she took 56 days.

• 1962 – Birth of Gregory Harold "Box" Johnson, former colonel in the United States Air Force and a NASA astronaut.

• 1960 – A USAF C-130 Hercules drops a record 35,000 lb (15,876 kg) by parachute.

• 1959 – Capital Airlines Flight 75, a Vickers Viscount 745D flying from New York City to Atlanta, breaks up in flight over Chase, Maryland, due to loss of control in severe turbulence; all 31 on board are killed.

• 1958 – First flight of the Morane-Saulnier Epervier MS.1500 (en: Sparrowhawk), French two-seat ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft.

• 1958 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command NORAD agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.

• 1954 – Operational introduction of the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, which first flew 3 Jun 1950.

• 1953 – Bell X-2, 46-675, exploded in belly of Boeing EB-50D Superfortress mothership during captive LOX topping-off test and was dropped into Lake Ontario. Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler's body dropped with airframe and Bell flight engineer Frank Wolko is also apparently carried over the side in the explosion. Neither body recovered. The EB-50D, 48-096, limps into Niagara Falls Airport, New York – never flies again. Death of Jean "Skip" Ziegler, American test pilot, killed in the explosion of the Bell X-2 during a captive-carry flight test.

• 1952 – Death of Elia Antonio Liut, Italian Aviation pioneer, first pilot to fly over the Andes.

• 1952 – Squadron Leader P. G. Fisher makes the first non-stop, unrefuelled flight from England to Australia in an English Electric Canberra bomber in a record 23 hours 5 min.

• 1950 – AAfter the United States Air Force gives Convair a contract to install an Allison J33-A-29 jet engine with afterburner in place of the Allison J33-A-23 in the Convair XF-92A, 46-0682, test pilot Chuck Yeager attempts ferry flight from Edwards AFB, California to the Convair plant at San Diego but engine fails immediately after take off, forcing an emergency landing on the dry lakebed. Airframe is subsequently trucked to San Diego.

• 1949 – Berlin Blockade by the Soviets is lifted at one minute after midnight.

• 1945 – A kamikaze hits the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) at Hagushi anchorage, Okinawa.

• 1945 – 12-13 – Aircraft carrier's of Task Force 58 strike targets on Kyushu and Shikoku. The British Pacific Fleet’s carriers strike the Sakishima Gunto.

• 1941 – First flight of the Platt-LePage XR-1, also known by the company designation PL-3, early American twin-rotor helicopter.

• 1940 – First bombing over Germany by the Royal Air Force.

• 1940 – First operational sortie of the Boulton Paul Defiant. Defiants flew with six Spitfires of 66 Squadron, and a Ju 88 was shot down over the Netherlands.

• 1938 – The US Navy commissions its sixth aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise.

• 1938 – Three B-17 Flying Fortresses use dead reckoning navigation to intercept the ocean liner SS Rex more than 600 miles at sea.

• 1936 – First flight of the Loire 102, French flying boat designed as a mail plane by Loire.

• 1936 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 110, often called Me 110, twin-engine heavy fighter (Zerstörer – German for "Destroyer").

• 1930 – With the Latécoère 28 "Comte-de-la-Vaulx", Jean Mermoz takes off from Saint-Louis, Senegal, to Natal, Brazil for the first south Transatlantic Postal flight.

• 1927 – First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Starling A. W.14, British single-engine biplane fighter.

• 1927 – First flight of the Yakovlev AIR-1 was a 1920s Soviet two-seat light biplane the first aircraft designed and built by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yakovlev.

• 1926 – The Norge (semi-rigid Italian-built airship) reached the North Pole, at which point the Norwegian, American and Italian flags were dropped from the airship onto the ice. The expedition was the brainchild of polar explorer and expedition leader Roald Amundsen, the airship's designer and pilot Umberto Nobile and American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, who along with the Aero Club of Norway financed the trip.

• 1912 – Guido Nardini is the first Italian to cross the English Channel.

• 1912 – The Central Flying School (CFS), Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors is established.

• 1902 – Brazilian Augusto Severo and French engineer Georges Saché fly the semi-rigid airship Pax, which Severo designed, over Paris for its maiden flight. When they begin to lose control of the airship, it catches fire and explodes 1,200 feet (366 m) above Montparnasse Cemetery, killing both men instantly.

• 1893 – Birth of Tenente Silvio Scaroni, Italian World War I fighter pilot credited with 26 victories. He was the second ranking Italian ace of the war.

• 1890 – Birth of Kurt Student, German Luftwaffe general who fought as a fighter pilot during WWI and as the commander of German Fallschirmjäger (Paratroopers) during the Second World War.

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