Today in Military Aviation history - new updates

[GOOSE]

September 14

1976 - An F-14A Tomcat rolls off the deck of USS John F. Kennedy and sinks in international waters. A major salvage operation is launched to retrieve the fighter lest it fall into Soviet hands.

[GOOSE]

September 15

1987 - a Eurocopter Panther sets new time-to-altitude records for helicopters in its class.

1950 - Task Force 7, centred on five US Navy carriers and one of the Royal Navy, supports the USMC assault on Green Beach, paving the way for the Inchon Landing.

1948 – The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour (1,080 km/h).

1943 - 15-16 - first use of the "Tall Boy" 12,000 lb (5,455 kg) bomb by RAF Lancasters.

1940 - Germany makes its heaviest daylight raid on London.

1916 - French submarine Foucault is sunk by two Austrian flying boats, becoming the first submarine to be sunk by an aircraft.

[GOOSE]

September 16

1975 – The first prototype of the MiG-31 interceptor makes its maiden flight.

[GOOSE]

September 17

1993 - the F/A-18 Hornet logs its 2 millionth flying hour - achieved in only ten years of operations.

1976 – The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA.

1944 – World War II: Allied Airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.

1916 – World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.

1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.

[GOOSE]

September 18

1947 - the United States Air Force becomes its own fully independent military command.

[GOOSE]

September 19

Nothing of military significance known. Can you help?

[Flyingmonster]

September 20

1902 - The Wright brothers make the 1st of nearly 1,000 glides on their modified No. 3 glider in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. It is this glider, made of spruce wood and cloth, which incorporates for the 1st time the flight controls of the modern airplane.

1904 - Wilbur Wright with the Flyer II flew the 1st complete circle in history by a manned heavier-than-air powered machine, covering 4,080 feet (1,244 m) in about a minute and a half.

1916 - The sole Sage Type 2, prototype British two-seat fighter aircraft, crash-landed during a test flight at Cranwell after the rudder post gave way. No further development was carried out.

1916 - Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd is founded.

1936 - A. B. Yumashev sets a record flight with a 12,000 kilograms (26,000 lb) payload to 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) with a Tupolev TB-3 (ANT-6).

1939 - 1st RAF aerial victory of WWII. A Messerschmitt Bf 109 is shot down by a Fairey Battle gunner Sgt. F. Letchard of No.88 Squadron during a patrol near Aachen.

1942 - 1st flight of The FFVS J 22, swedish single-engine fighter aircraft developed during WWII.

1943 - 1st flight of The de Havilland DH.100 Vampire, British jet-engine fighter.

1943 - 1st flight of The Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, WWII and Korean War era patrol bomber of the US Navy derived from the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

1945 - An experimental Gloster Meteor with Rolls-Royce Trent engines makes the 1st turboprop-powered flight.

1949 - 1st flight of the Blackburn B-54 (YA.7), British prototype carrier-borne Anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

1951 - 1st flight of The Grumman F9F/F-9 Cougar, America aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft for the US Navy, based on the earlier Grumman F9F Panther.

1952 - Pilot Officer Jean Lennox Bird of the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) Volunteer Reserve is The 1st woman to receive Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot's wings,

1955 - 1st flight of The Nord 1500 Griffon I, French experimental ramjet-powered fighter aircraft.

1959 - Death of Mario Stoppani, Italian WWI flying ace and record breaker.

1971 - 1st hovering flight of The VFW VAK 191B, experimental German VTOL nuclear strike fighter prototype.

1993 - Death of Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, WWII German fighter ace, highest-scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions

2000 - Death of Gherman Stepanovich Titov, Soviet air force pilot and cosmonaut.

[Flyingmonster]

September 21

1916 - The Avro 521 (British two-seat fighter prototype) crashed at Central Flying School Upavon , killing pilot Lieutenant W.H.S. Garnett. Project cancelled.

1917 - Death of Ralph Luxmore Curtis, British WWI flying ace, from wounds received in action.

1921 - Death of Ernest Joseph Jules Maunoury, French WWI flying ace, killed in his SPAD 220 when his wings broke during a shooting exercise on a captive balloon.

1925 - Death of Marcel P. Viallet, French WWI flying ace

1937 - 1st fligth of the Hanriot H-220, French Twin engine 3 seat fighter prototype.

1938 - Death of Oscar M. Westover, major general and 4th chief of the United States Army Air Corps, His Northrop A-17AS experienced a high-speed stall and crashed in a crosswind short of the runway at Lockheed Aircraft's air field in Burbank, California

1942 - Convoy PQ 18 arrives at Archangelsk in the Soviet Union. During its voyage, aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Avenger have attacked 16 German submarines and contributed to the sinking of one, and Avenger’s fighters and the convoy’s antiarcraft guns have shot down 41 German aircraft. Because of these high losses, German aircraft rarely attack Arctic convoys again.

1942 - 1st flight of The B-29 Superfortress, American four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber.

1953 - North Korean pilot No Kum-Sok defects, bringing his MiG-15 with him to Seoul and collecting a $US 100,000 reward.

1964 - 1st flight of The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie, prototype version of the proposed B-70 american nuclear-armed deep-penetration strategic bomber

1967 - 1st flight of The Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne, American single-engine prototype attack helicopter.

1973 - 1st flight of the Beechcraft T-34C Turbo-Mentor (YT-34C), American propeller-driven, single-engined, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza, Turboprop PT6 reengined version of the T-34.

1982 - Death of Dietrich "Derk" Averes, German WWI fling ace.

[Flyingmonster]

September 22

1914 - 1st British air attack on Germany takes place when four Sopwith Tabloid three-seater of No.1 Squadron RNAS are despatched to attack the Zeppelin sheds at Dusseldorf and Cologne

1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 flying boat piloted by Flight Sub-Lieutenant N. Magor sinks the German submarine UB-32 in the North Sea. It is only time an aircraft sinks a German submarine during WWI.

1918 - Death of Joseph Joel "Joe" Hammond, New-Zealander raid pilot, WWI pilot and adventurer, in a crash after his aircraft spinned.

1918 - Australian flying aces Ross MacPherson "Hadji" Smith and his observer Ernest Andrew "Pard" Mustard, downed 3 Pfalz D.III and a Two-seater on a single mission with their Bristol F.2 Fighter.

1936 - The Loire-Nieuport LN 161, french prototype single seat fighter, crashed killing his pilot, Captain Coffinet.

1938 - 1st flight of The Curtiss-Wright Model 21 (also known as Curtiss-Wright Model 21 Demonstrator, Curtiss-Wright CW-21 Interceptor, Curtiss-Wright CW-21 Demon), US-built interceptor fighter aircraft

1940 - 1st flight (Glide flight) of The Heinkel He 280, German fighter prototype, 1st turbojet-powered fighter aircraft in the world.

1943 - Death of Takeo Okumura, japanese Sino-Japanese war and WWII fighter ace, Killed in action in his A6M2 Zero while escorting bombers.

1947 - A USAF C54 Skymaster makes a fully-automatic flight from Stephenville in Newfoundland to the UK.

1950 - 1st crossing of the Atlantic in a jet fighter, a EF-84E Thunderjet, is made by David C. Schilling, from RAF Manston in the United Kingdom to Maine in the United States, Using probe-and-drogue flight refuelling.

1961 - 1st flight of the The Mil Mi-2 (NATO Hoplite), Soviet small, lightly armored transport helicopter that could also provide close air support

1961 - 1st flight of the prototype de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo, Canadian STOL utility transport, based on an enlarged version of the DHC-4 Caribou powered by General Electric T64 turboprops.

1981 - An Ilyushin Il-86 flown by Commander G Volokhov and Second Pilot A Tyuryumin set Fédération Aéronautique Internationale records for flying payloads of 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65 tonnes over a 2,000 km closed circuit at an average of 975.3 km per hour

1992 - 1st flight of McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II Plus, Evolution of the second-generation vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) ground-attack aircraft, Anglo-American development of the British Hawker Siddeley Harrier.

1995 – An E-3B Sentry AWACS crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff; all 24 on board are killed.

1995 - Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the Nagar Kovil Maha Vidyalayam school in Jaffna, resulting in the death of, by varying accounts, 34-71 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians, primarily schoolchildren and the injury of many more.

2009 - Iran's only functional Airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-76MD is destroyed killing all 7. Sources conflict on the cause of the loss, with some stating that there was a mid-air collision with an Iranian Air Force Northrop F-5E Tiger II or a HESA Saeqeh, and others stating that the rotodome detached from the aircraft, striking and removing the tailplane while the aircraft was manoeuvreing for an emergency landing following an engine fire.

[Flyingmonster]

September 23

1916 - 11 Zeppelins attack England in a mass air-raid. 2 are shot down, LZ 76 by ground fire, and LZ 74 by Lt Frederick Sowrey with his Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c.

1917 - Death of Werner Voss, WWI German fighter ace, friend and rival of the famous Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, Killed by Arthur Rhys-Davids in his Fokker F.I while fighting against 6 S.E.5s

1917 - Death of John Lancashire Barlow , British WWI flying ace, killed in action as he took on 6 enemy aeroplanes, before his plane was forced into a nosedive.

1921 - Death of Bernard Henri Barny de Romanet, French WWI fighter ace and successful sporting pilot, Killed while practicing for the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race.

1931 – A Pitcairn OP-1 autogyro conducts landing and take-off trials aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1). It is the U.S. Navy’s 1st experiment with a shipborne rotary-wing aircraft.

1931 - 1st flight of the USS Akron (ZRS-4), American helium-filled rigid airship designed as a flying aircraft carrier for launching F9C Sparrowhawk biplane fighters for the US Navy.

1941 - Hans-Ulrich Rudel single-handedly german pilot, sinks a Soviet battleship (the Marat) on Kronstadt harbor in the Leningrad area flying a Junkers Ju 87.

1943 - Death of Carlo Negri, Italian WWII pilot, 1st casualty of the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force, executed by firing squad by the Germans shortly after his capture.

1961 - Potez Air Fouga, french aircraft company, is completely absorbed into Etablissements Henry Potez SARL.

1961 - Birth of William Cameron "Willie" McCool, USN test pilot, NASA astronaut and pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107 which disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth's atmospher

1983 - Death of Hugh Granville 'Child pilot' White , British Royal Flying Corps WWI fighter ace.

1986 - Death of Gottfried von Banfield, most successful Austro-Hungarian WWI naval aeroplane pilot, known as the 'Eagle of Trieste'. He may have been the only flying ace who flew a flying boat to five or more victories.

[Flyingmonster]

September 24

1910 - 1st UK aircraft reconnaissance is made during the British Army's autumn manoeuvres, when Captain Bertram Dickson locates the 'Blue Army'. Unfortunately, Dickson is captured when he lands in 'enemy territory' to make his report and is later interviewed by the Home Secretary, Winston S. Churchill, who shows great interest in the possibilities of aerial reconnaissance in warfare.

1911 - HMA N°1 'Mayfly', aerial scout airship for the British Royal Navy, 1st British rigid airship to be built, breaks in half and is wrecked during a pre-commissioning ground test.

1914 - Lieutenants D.S. Lewis and B.T. James use airborne radio for the 1st time in warfare. Both members of No.4 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, were involved in directing an artillery shoot from the air during the 1st Battle of the Aisne. Their radio log begins "A very little short. Fire! Fire!" And ends 40 minutes later with "I am coming home now".

1916 - 11 Zeppelins attack England in a mass air-raid. Two are shot down, LZ 76 by ground fire, and LZ 74 by Lt Frederick Sowrey with his BE2c .

1918 - Lt David Ingalls claims his 5th victory with a Sopwith Camel, becoming the only US Navy ace of WWI and 1st USN fighter ace.

1918 - Death of Edward Dannett Asbury, British WWI flying ace, killed in action in his D.H.9

1920 - Birth of Richard Ira "Dick" Bong, US highest-scoring air ace, (40 Japanese aircraft during WWII, all with the P-38 Lightning).

1926 - Death of Heinrich Kostrba, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace, 1st Austro-Hungarian pilot to score 3 victories in a single day and who founded and led the Czechoslovakian Flying Corps Post war, killed in a flying accident.

1929 - Lt Jimmy Doolittle is the 1st pilot to make a completely blind take-off, flight, and landing.

1935 - 1st flight of the Potez 453, French single seat monoplane flying boat fighter prototype.

1939 - 1st flight of The Handley Page Halifax HP57, British four-engined heavy bomber.

1942 - 1st flight of the Canadian Built de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito, British multi-role combat aircraft.

1944 - The Akitsushima, seaplane tender of the Imperial Japanese Navy, is sunk in Coron Bay off Coron Island in the Philippine Islands, by U.S. Navy carrier aircrafts from Task Force 38.

1958 - 1st successful use of an AIM-9 Sidewinder, a F-86 Sabre from Taiwan shot down a Chinese Mig-15.

1960 - 1st nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), is launched.

1966 - Marina Solovyeva sets a new women's airspeed record of 2,044 km/h (1,270 mph) in the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-76

1981 - An Ilyushin Il-86 flown by Commander G Volokhov and Second Pilot A Tyuryumin set Fédération Aéronautique Internationale records for flying payloads of 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80-tonne payloads over a 1,000 km closed circuit at an average of 962 km/h

1987 - 1st unrefuelled transatlantic crossing by a British fighter is made by a Panavia Tornado F3 returning to the United Kingdom from Arizona. The aircraft covered the 2200 nautical miles from Canada in 4 hours 45 minutes.

1996 - Death of Henry Charles Gordon, USAF fighter pilot in the Korean and Vietnam wars, test pilot and astronaut in the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.

1998 - 1st flight of The Beriev Be-200 Altair, Russian multipurpose amphibious aircraft , designed for fire fighting, search and rescue, maritime patrol, cargo, and passenger transportation,.

[Flyingmonster]

September 25

1916 - Death of Kurt Wintgens, German WWI fighter ace, 1st military fighter pilot to score a victory over an opposing aircraft, while piloting an aircraft armed with a synchronized machine gun, Killed in his Fokker E.III by a SPAD S.VII.

1918 - Death of Martin Dehmisch, German WWI flying ace, from wounds received in action by a S.E.5a the day before.

1920 - Geoffrey de Havilland and George Holt Thomas formed the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware.

1929 - 1st flight of The PZL P.1, Polish prototype fighter, 1st of the Polish PZL gull wing fighter series.

1934 - Birth of John Sumter Bull, U.S. Navy test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut.

1942 - 1st and only RCAF air combat in the North American theatre of war. S/L KA Boomer, CO of No. 111 Squadron, with his Kittyhawk destroyed a Japanese Nakajima A6M2-N (Ruff) fighter over Kiska, Alaska.

1942 - 4 de Havilland Mosquito aircraft of No. 105 Squadron RAF attack the Gestapo headquarters in Oslo, Norway.

1944 - Operation Market Garden Ends, It was an Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in WWII, largest airborne operation up to that time

1945 - 1st flight of The de Havilland DH.104 Dove.

1955 – The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.

1959 - A US Navy Martin P5M-2 Marlin patrolling out of NAS Whidbey Island, Washington on Puget Sound, is forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles west of the Washington-Oregon border. The Mark 90 nuclear bomb (not fitted with an active warhead) is lost and has never been recovered.

1960 - During operation Top Flight, A U.S. Navy McDonnell Douglas F4H-1 Phantom II sets a world speed record over a 100-km (62.1-mi) closed-circuit course, averaging 1,390.21 mph (2,237.26 km/hr).

1971 - Death of Robert Henry Magnus Spencer Saundby, WWI fighter pilot and WWII RAF high ranking officer.

1973 - 1st flight of the MBB Bo 106, german light, twin-engine, multi-purpose utility prototype helicopter, evolution of the Bo 105.

1974 - 1st flight of The Northrop F-5F Tiger II, light supersonic fighter aircraft, two-seat combat-capable trainer version.

1982 - 1st flight of The Ilyushin Il-102, Soviet experimental jet-powered ground-attack aircraft.

1989 - 1st flight of the last IAI Lavi prototype, israelian Fighter jet, in a two-seat technology demonstrator.

1991 - 1st flight of the Westland 'Battlefield' Lynx, proposed export army Lynx; approximately equivalent to Lynx AH. Mk 9, British multi-purpose military helicopter.

1997 - Death of Masaaki Shimakawa, Japanese Navy WWII fighter ace.

1997 - 1st flight of The Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut (NATO reporting name Firkin), also designated S-32 and S-37, Russian experimental supersonic jet fighter.

[garyscott]

http://www.itv.com/news/central/2012-09 ... -his-birth

Cheers for this Gary! - Jamie

[Flyingmonster]

September 26

1865 - Birth of Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, English aviatrix, raid pilot and ornithologist.

1887 - Birth of Barnes Neville Wallis, English scientist, engineer and inventor, best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the RAF in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during WWII.

1916 - 1st (official) flight test of the Albatros D.III, German biplane fighter aircraft.

1916 - Death of Max Ritter von Mulzer, German WWI flying ace, killed in a crash while testing the performance of a new Albatros D.I.

1917 - Death of Fritz Gustav August Kosmahl, German WWI flying ace, from wounds received in action.

1918 - Death of William Benson Craig, Canadian WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Sopwith Camel.

1918 - French WWI fighter ace René Fonck shot down 6 German aircrafts on that day.

1918 - German WWI fighter ace Franz Büchner shot down 4 SPAD XIII on that day.

1926 - 2 German Junkers G-24 lands back in Berlin from Peking. It was initially meant that they would fly all the way from Berlin to Shanghai, but they were prevented by military conflicts.

1933 - Death of William John Charles Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick, Scottish WWI fighter ace, founder of Aircraft Operating Company of South Africa Pty Ltd, Killed in his de Havilland DH.84 Dragon which stalled out at 250 feet (76 m) after making a steep turn.

1938 - Birth of Michael Vickers Love, American vietnam war pilot, USAF-NASA test pilot.

1939 - 1st Luftwaffe aircraft is shot down during operations against the UK. A Dornier Do18D flying boat of 2/Küstenfliegergruppe 506 is shot down by a Blackburn Skua of No.803 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, north of the Great Fisher Bank. The crew of the Do18 are rescued by the destroyer HMS Somali and the aircraft, which was still afloat, is sunk by gunfire.

1944 - The Kommando Nowotny, 1st WWII Luftwaffe jet fighter unit for testing and establishing tactics for the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter, is formed.

1948 - Birth of Vladimír Remek, 1st Czechoslovak in space and 1st cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the US.

1951 - 1st flight of The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen, twin boom British two-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm (the air component of the Royal Navy)

1953 - Mike Lithgow broke the world absolute speed record, reaching a speed of 737.7 mph (1,187 km/h) with a Supermarine Swift F4.

1955 - The Sole Folland Midge, British small, swept-wing subsonic light fighter aircraft originally developed as a concept demonstrator for the successful Folland Gnat, is destroyed in a crash.

1958 - A Boeing B-52D Stratofortress set a world speed record of 560.705 miles per hour (487 kn, 902 km/h) over a 10,000 kilometers (5,400 nmi, 6,210 mi) closed circuit without a payload, while another one established a world speed record of 597.675 miles per hour (519 kn, 962 km/h) over a 5,000 kilometer (2,700 nmi, 3,105 mi) closed circuit without a payload.

1965 - 1st flight of The Ling-Temco-Vought LTV A-7 Corsair II, American carrier-based subsonic light attack aircraft.

1970 - Death of Pietro Sordi, Italian AViator and WWI pilot.

1981 - Death of Bùi Thanh Liêm, Vietnam People's Air Force pilot, 1st Vietnamese and 1st Asian in space, killed in a MiG-21 aeroplane crash during a training flight over the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of northern Vietnam.

1987 - Romanian pilot Marian Smighelski, a student pilot in his 3d year at the Flight Academy at Boboc defected in Turkey with his Albatross L-39ZA

1999 - Death of Mark Hanna, RAF air force pilot, Managing Director and co-founder of the Old Flying Machine Company along with his father Ray, displaying vintage aircrafts all around the world, One of Britain’s most experienced display pilots of historic military aircraft. Killed from injuries after his Hispano Buchon, a Spanish-built version of the WWII German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter, caught fire on final approach and crashed at Sabadell near barcelona.

2002 - Death of Nils Ivar Bohlin, Swedish inventor who invented the 3-point safety belt while working at Volvo, aircraft designer for SAAB who also helped to develop ejection seats.

[Flyingmonster]

September 27

1910 - 1st United Kingdom aircraft radio is tested when the distinguished actor Robert Loraine reads of the Dickson exploit. He takes steps to fly his Bristol Boxkite to support the 'Blue Army'. The aircraft wass fitted with a 14 pound radio fitted by Thorne Baker, which Loraine uses to transmit simple one and two word messages using a Morse key strapped to his left knee, while controlling the aircraft with the other hand. The equipment had a range of about one mile and communications from ground to air achieved with hand-held lamp signals.

1918 - Death of Fritz Rumey, German WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Fokker D.VII.

1918 - Death of Captain Samuel Frederick Henry "Siffy" Thompson, WWI two-seater fighter ace, killed in his Bristol F.2b near Cambrai by Otto Schmidt with a Fokker D.VII.

1918 - Death of Thomas Proctor, Irish WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol F.2b.

1918 - Canadian WWI flying ace Lewis Hector "Hec" Ray with his Sopwith Dolphin shot down 3 Fokker D.VII and a Balloon on a single mission.

1922 - US Navy conducts the 1st large-scale torpedo bombing exercises. Eighteen Naval Aircraft Factory PTs attack three battleships and score 8 hits in 25 minutes.

1928 - The Under Secretary of State for Air, Sir Philip Sassoon, and the Director of Equipment, Air Commodore Longmore, begin a 9,900 mile flight from Felixstowe to Karachi and back, by Blackburn Iris II flying boat, to inspect Royal Air Force units in Malta, Egypt and Iraq

1935 - 1st flight of The Loire 250, French single-seat prototype fighter monoplane.

1940 - S/L Ernest Archibald "Ernie" McNab became the 1st RCAF ace during WWI, shooting down a Me 110 and a Ju 88 that day.

1940 - 1st convoy of aircraft to use the West African Reinforcement Route, six Hawker Hurricanes, led by a Bristol Blenheim carrying a navigator en route across the African Continent, arrives at Abu Sueir in Egypt, from Takoradi in the Gold Coast.

1942 - Death of George Hedley Stainforth AFC RAF, British Royal Air Force pilot and 1st man in the world to exceed 400 miles per hour. killed in action whilst piloting His Bristol Beaufighter at Gharib, near the Gulf of Suez.

1943 - Death of Hans-Dieter Frank, German Luftwaffe WWII night fighter ace, killed in a mid-air collision with another Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter.

1946 - Death of Geoffrey de Havilland Jr, British test pilot and the son of the English aviation pioneer and aircraft designer of the same name, killed when his de Havilland DH.108 breaks up in mid-air.

1949 - 1st flight of the Arsenal VG-90, French Single seat Carrier born jet fighter prototype.

1956 - 1st piloted airplane to exceed Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound) is the rocket-powered Bell X-2. Unfortunately, The X-2 began a series of diverging rolls and tumbled out of control. The pilot tried to regain control of the aircraft. Unable to do so, he separated the escape capsule. Too late, he attempted to bail out. Milburn G. "Mel" Apt was killed when the capsule hit the Edwards bombing range. The rest of the X-2 crashed five miles away.

1964 - 1st flight of The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2, British Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft prototype.

1976 - Birth of Luca Parmitano, Italian Air force pilot, test pilot and ESA spationaut.

1993 - Death of James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, American aviation pioneer and USAF pilot.

[Flyingmonster]

September 28

1912 - Death of Frank S. Scott, 1st enlisted member of the United States armed forces to lose his life in an aircraft accident, Killed in the crash of a Type-B Wright biplane along with pilot Lewis C. Rockwell.

1915 - Birth of Frank Neubert, German WWII dive bomber pilot, believed to have been the 1st victor in aerial combat in WWII.

1917 - Death of Kurt Wissemann, German WWI flying ace, Killed in action, credited with shooting down french fighter ace Georges Guynemer.

1918 - Death of Risdon MacKenzie Bennett, british WWI flying ace, Killed in action.

1924 - 2 of 4 Douglas World Cruisers ('Chicago' and 'New Orleans') of the U.S. Army Air Service arrive in Seattle, completing the 1st aerial circumnavigation of the world, taking 175 days for the journey, a Flying time of 371 hours 11 minutes which required 57 stops.

1934 - 1st flight of The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 'Sparviero', 3-engined Italian medium bomber with a wood and metal structure originally designed as a fast passenger aircraft. This low-wing monoplane, set 26 world records that qualified it for some time as the fastest medium bomber in the world.

1936 - Squadron Leader F.R.D. Swain took off from Farnborough with the Bristol Type 138 and climbed to an indicated 51,000 ft (15,440 m), engaging the auxiliary supercharger at 35,000 ft ( m). Swain ran low on oxygen on the two-hour flight and had to break the window of his pressure helmet once he had descended to a safe height. The data from this flight was homologated by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as a world's record of 49,967 ft (15,230 m).

1938 - 1st flight of The Avia B.35 (RLM designation Av-35), fighter prototype aircraft built in Czechoslovakia.

1952 - 1st flight of The Dassault MD.454 Mystère IV, French fighter-bomber aircraft, 1st transonic aircraft to enter service in French Air Force

1956 - Death of William Edward Boeing (born "Wilhelm Edward Böing"), American aviation pioneer who founded The Boeing Company.

1967 - Death of William Gordon Claxton Canadian WWI flying ace.

1970 - Death of St. Clair Streett, known as "Bill", American aviation pioneer, USAF major general and writer who first organized and led the Strategic Air Command (SAC).

1976 - Death of Raymond 'Collie' Collishaw, WWI RAF distinguished Canadian fighter ace, squadron leader, and commanding officer who served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and later the Royal Air Force. He was the highest scoring RNAS flying ace and the second highest scoring Canadian pilot of WWI and also served during WWII.

2007 - 1st flight of The Kawasaki XP-1 (previously P-X), Japanese military Maritime patrol aircraft.

2009 - 1st flight of The TAI/AgustaWestland T-129, (AgustaWestland designation AW729) , Italian/Turkish attack helicopter, enhanced version of the Agusta A129 Mangusta.

[Flyingmonster]

September 29

1918 - Death of Nicholson Stewart Boulton, British WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Bristol F.2b.

1918 - Death of Edward Barfoot Drake, British WWI flying ace, killed his Sopwith Camel by ground fire.

1918 - Death of Leslie Edwin Mitchell, British WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Bristol F.2b.

1918 - Death of Frank Luke Jr., American WWI fighter ace, ranking second among U.S. Army Air Service pilots after Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Landing his damaged SPAD XIII behind ennemy lines and Approached by German infantry, Luke drew his Colt Model 1911 pistol and fired a few rounds at his attackers before dying..

1927 - Death of Georg Wulf, German aviation pionneer, test pilot and aircraft designer, co-founder of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG company, killed in the crash of the Fw-19a 'Ente' during a demonstration of single-engine flight.

1931 - 1st flight of The Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11 (Høver M.F.11), Norwegian 3-seat, single-engined biplane used by the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service for maritime reconnaissance in the decade before WWII. The M.F. 11 was the main aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service up until the German invasion of Norway in 1940.

1931 - 1st fighter designed by the Lockheed firm at Burbank, California, the Lockheed-Detroit YP-24 (2 seat Fighter prototype) is delivered to the US Army.

1937 - 1st flight of the The Bloch MB.150, French low-wing, all-metal monoplane fighter aircraft with retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpit

1940 - Avro Ansons L9162 and N4876 of No. 2 Service Flying Training School RAAF collided in mid-air and became locked together in flight. A successful emergency landing was made at Brocklesby, New South Wales. L9162 became a ground instructional airframe, whilst N4876 was repaired and returned to service.

1942 - 1st flight of the Australian built De Havilland D.H.84 Dragon, British twin engine commercial aircraft, designed as navigation trainer for the Royal Australian Air Force.

1942 - The 3 Eagle Squadrons (US volunteers - Squadron N° 71, 121 &133) were officially turned over by the RAF to the fledgling 8th Air Force of the USAAF and became the 4th Fighter Group.

1946 - 1st flight of The Vought F7U Cutlass, American carrier-based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War era. It was a highly unusual, semi-tailless design, allegedly based on aerodynamic data and plans captured from the German Arado company at the end of WWII, last aircraft designed by Rex Beisel, who was responsible for the first fighter ever designed specifically for the U.S. Navy.

1950 - Captain Richard V. Wheeler makes a parachute jump of 12,938 metres (42,449 feet) at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

1954 - 1st flight of The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, American supersonic military jet fighter.

1968 - Death of William "Bill" Barton Bridgeman, American test pilot who broke aviation records while working for the Douglas aircraft company testing experimental aircraft. His airplane went down in the Pacific Ocean during a routine test flight from Los Angeles to Santa Catalina Island. His body was never found.

1972 - French Air Force test pilot Gilbert Klopfstein returns at Bretigny with the Nord 262 he had hijacked equiped with Klopfstein own prototype head-up display. After he succesfully demonstrated his invention (known today as the 'Klopfstein Display') to the USAF and the MIT and afraid of consequences at his return, He just gave the MIT pre-print report to his chief which was waiting on the tarmac with the military police and walked away. No arresting orders were given.

1990 - 1st flight of The Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics YF-22, American single-seat, twin-engined prototype fighter aircraft which will lead to the F-22 Raptor.

1998 - Lionair Flight 602 Antonov An-24RV with several high-ranking military officials of the Sri Lankan Army, is shot down by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels using MANPADS, killing all 55.

[Flyingmonster]

September 30

1917 - Death of Heinrich Gontermann, German WWI flying ace, while testing his new Fokker Dr.I, the plane broke in the air as he was permorming aerobatic maneuvers at low altitude.

1917 – The Royal Navy tests an aircraft catapult for the 1st time, using a compressed-air catapult aboard the catapult trials ship Slinger to launch an unmanned Short 184 with its fuselage fabric removed and engine replaced by ballast. On the same day, the Royal Navy conducts the first launch of an aircraft from a battleship or battlecruiser, when Royal Naval Air Service Flight Commander F. J. Rutland takes off in a Sopwith Pup from a platform mounted on a 15-inch (381-mm) gun turret of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse.

1918 - Death of Cecil Vernon Gardner, British WWI flying ace, from wounds received in actions 3 days before.

1932 - 1st flight of The Blackburn B-5 Baffin, British biplane torpedo bomber, development of the Ripon.

1942 - Death of Hans-Joachim Marseille, Gearman WWII flying ace. While returning to base, his new Bf 109G-2/trop's cockpit began to fill with smoke; blinded and half asphyxiated, he was guided back to German lines by his wingmen. When he bailed out, the left side of his chest struck the vertical stabiliser of his fighter, either killing him instantly or rendering him unconscious to the point that he could not deploy his parachute

1948 - 1st flight (as a glider) of the DFS 346, German rocket-powered swept-wing prototype vehicle, completed and flown in Soviet Union as the Bereznyak 346.

1949 - The Berlin Airlift officially ends. In total the USA delivered 1,783,573 tons and the RAF 541,937 tons, totaling 2,326,406 tons, nearly two-thirds of which was coal, on 278,228 flights to Berlin. The RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) delivered 7,968 tonnes of freight and 6,964 passengers during 2,062 sorties. The C-47s and C-54s together flew over 92 million miles in the process, the distance from Earth to the Sun.At the height of the Airlift, one plane reached West Berlin every thirty seconds

1949 - 1st prototype of the Avro 707 (also known as Type 707), British experimental aircraft built to test the tailess thick delta wing, crashes due to loss of control at low speed near Blackbushe.

1949 - Birth of Michel Ange-Charles Tognini, French test pilot, officer in the French Air Force, CNES and ESA astronaut.

1956 - Death of Charles Richard Fairey MBE, FRAeS, British aircraft manufacturer, involved with the development of many of the companies most important products including; aircraft, rotorcraft, marine craft, mechanical engineering and rocketry.

1975 - 1st flight of The Boeing AH-64 Apache, American four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew.

1986 - 1st flight of The Aero L-59 Super Albatros, Czech military trainer aircraft developed from the firm's earlier L-39 Albatros.

[Flyingmonster]

October 1

1912 - The German Military Aviation Service is formed.

1913 - Birth of Rolf Pingel, German WWII fighter ace.

1916 - Birth of Violet "Vi" Cowden, American aviator who served as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during WWII, she one of only 114 WASP to fly the fighter planes during the war, including the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-39 AiraCobra, P-63 Kingcobra, and her favorite and the "love of her life," the P-51 Mustang.

1917 - Birth of Guido Fibbia, Italian Spanish war pilot, WWII flying ace.

1917 - Death of Robert Hugh Sloley, South African WWI flying ace, killed in action in his S.E.5a.

1917 - Death of Charles Meredith Bouverie Chapman, British WWI flying ace. He died of shrapnel injuries received after a German bombing raid on No 29 Sqn's aerodrome at Poperinghe

1919 - The Australian Aircraft and Engineering Company is established to manufacture and sell Avro aircraft under license.

1938 - 1st flight of the Arsenal VG 30, fast French light fighter aircraft under development at the start of WWII.

1940 - The XF4U-1 (Chance Vought F4U Corsair prototype) becomes the 1st single-engine U.S. fighter to fly faster than 400 mph (640 km/h) by setting an average ground speed of 405 miles per hour (652 km/h) during a flight from Stratford to Hartford.

1941 - Death of Peter William Olbert 'Boy' Mould, British WWII fighter Ace, Killed over Malta in his Hurricane II during a dogfight with italian Macchi Mc-202.

1942 - 1st flight of The Bell P-59 Airacomet, 1st American jet fighter aircraft, designed and built during WWII.

1946 - The Belgian Air Force is re-established.

1947 - 1st flight of The North American F-86 Sabre (sometimes called the Sabrejet), American transonic jet fighter aircraft. Test pilot George Welch unofficially broke the sound barrier in a dive.

1948 - In the skies over Fargo, North Dakota, George F. Gorman, a pilot with the North Dakota National Guard, was flying a P-51 Mustang when he told the tower that he was going to pursue an object to determine its identity. After a 'dogfight' he broke the chase, unable to keep on contact with it. It was one of three "classic" UFO incidents in the late forties that "proved to [Air Force] intelligence specialists that UFO's were real."

1950 - The Danish Air Arm becomes the Royal Danish Air Force.

1956 - Avro Vulcan B1 XA897 departs Aden at 0250hrs on the final leg of its return journey from Australia to the UK, captained by Squadron Leader Howard and with Sir Harry Broadhurst flying as co-pilot. Unfortunately, the aircraft encountered extremely poor weather conditions while attempting to land at Heathrow airport and crashed on approach. The pilot and co-pilot successfully ejected, but the four crewmembers in the rear of the aircraft were killed.

1958 – NASA is created to replace NACA.

1963 - A ski-equipped Lockheed C130 Hercules, under the command of Rear Admiral James R. Reedy, makes a 1st transpolar non-stop flight from Capetown in South Africa to McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

1964 - Birth of Eric Allan Boe, USAF fighter pilot, test pilot and NASA astronaut.

1972 - Death of Alessandro Buzio, Italian WWI flying ace

1973 - Death of Thomas Cathcart Traill, British WWI flying ace and WWII high ranking officer.

1975 - 1st flight of The Bell Model 409/YAH-63, American experimental attack helicopter for the Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH) competition.

1976 - Death of George Stacey Hodson, British WWI flying ace and RAF WWII high ranking officer.

1985 - Operation Wooden leg : 8 Israeli F-15 Eagles refuelled in mid-flight over the Mediterranean Sea by a Boeing 707, bombs the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Hammam al-Shatt, Tunisia, 12 miles from the capital of Tunis.

1995 – US Navy disbands Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84), nicknamed the "Jolly Rogers".

2004 - Death of Frank Kendall "Pete" Everest Jr., USAF WWII fighter, aeroengineer and test pilot.

[Flyingmonster]

October 2

1916 - Zeppelin LZ72 (L31) is shot down by British fighter pilot Lt V Tempest over Potter's Bar, near London, killing Heinrich Mathy, Germany's foremost airship captain.

1917 - Irish WWI flying ace Edward Patrick Hartigan scores his first 4 victories (4 Albatros D.V) on a single mission.

1917 - Death of Colin Geen Orr MacAndrew, Scottish WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol Fighter

1918 - 1st flight of the Blériot Bl-74, French 4 seat 4 engine biplane bomber prototype.

1918 - Death of Christian Kairies, German WWI flying ace, from wounds received the day before.

1918 - Death of Maurice Lea Cooper, Irish WWI flying ace, killed by ground fire while bombing a train with his Sopwith Camel.

1918 - 1st flight of The Kettering Bug , American aerial torpedo, a forerunner of the German V-1 flying bomb, and UAVs or cruise missiles.

1919 - Death of Petar Marinovich (Pierre Marinovitch), French WWI flying ace, Killed in a senseless plane crash performing complicated aviation stunts to entertain the King and Queen of Belgium at Evere Airfield, Brussels, Belgium.

1921 - Birth of Albert Scott Crossfield,, normally known as Scott Crossfield, American naval officer and test pilot.(1st man to fly at Mach 2 with a Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket)

1924 - 1st flight of The Bernard SIMB V.2 French single-seat, single-engine French racing monoplane prototype

1935 - Birth of Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. , USAF officer and 1st African-American astronaut.

1938 - 1st flight of The Dewoitine D.520, French WWII fighter aircraft.

1939 - Birth of Yury Nikolayevich Glazkov, Soviet Air Force officer and cosmonaut.

1941 - Heini Dittmar sets a new airspeed record of 1,004 km/h (624 mph) in a Messerschmitt Me 163A. The record is unofficial because the flight (and the Me 163 programme) is kept secret.

1945 – A U.S. Navy PBM Mariner flying boat carrying Rear Admiral William Sample and eight others disappears near Wakayama, Japan.

1946 - 1st flight of The Vought F6U Pirate, Vought's 1st jet fighter, designed for US Navy . Although pioneering the use of turbojet power as the 1st naval fighter with an afterburner and composite material construction

1956 - 1st flight of The Hughes Model 269 (TH-55A Osage), American piston-powered light training helicopter.

1963 - 2nd Short SC.1 (1st British fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft) crashed in Belfast killing the pilot, J.R. Green.

1976 - Death of James Alfred Keating, American WWI flying ace

1980 – A Westland Sea King of 202 Squadron performs the rescue of 22 passengers from the Swedish ship Finneagle in the North Sea.