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June 1

2011 – Introduction: 747-8 (747-8I) with Lufthansa

2009 – Swedish airline Air Express Sweden is taken over by MCA Airlines

2009 – Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200 flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France, crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 occupants, including 12 crew; bodies and aircraft debris are not recovered until several days later; the aircraft itself is not found until 2011. The crash is the first fatal accident of the A330 and the worst-ever disaster involving the A330.

2008 –A U.S. helicopter crashes south of Baghdad, injuring two soldiers. The type of helicopter has not been revealed.^[1]^[2]

2007 – A Tanzania People’s Defence Forces passenger plane (reg JW9036) developed dual engine failure as the pilot manoeuvred to land at Dodoma airport, the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel S. M. Mayenga, said, and crash landed in the Kizota area of Dodoma. All thirteen people aboard survived.

2004 – America West Airlines starts service between Phoenix and Anchorage.

1999 – American Airlines Flight 1420, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, skids off the runway on landing at Little Rock, Arkansas during strong winds; eleven of 145 on board die.

1998 – MetroJet, operated by US Airways, began operations.

1992 – The United States Air Force‘s Strategic Air Command is disestablished.

1983 – Singapore Airlines announces it has bought six Boeing 747s and four Boeing 757s, making it the first Asian airline to buy the 757.

1981 – First flight of the Short 360

1976 – Aeroflot Flight 418, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain side on the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea; all 45 on board die.

1975 – A Kenyan Air Force Hawker Hunter crashes at Nairobi, Kenya, during celebrations marking the anniversary of self-rule in the former British colony, the airframe impacting only a few hundred yards from where President Jomo Kenyatta is addressing a public rally. The two crew of the fighter are killed instantly, with the jet narrowly missing a crowded bus as it skids across a four-lane highway. Passengers panic as the bus brakes to a halt and fills with smoke from the burning wreckage. A second Hunter jet makes an emergency landing at Nairobi International Airport, where, according to one witness, it narrowly misses a loaded Pan American jet "by a matter of feet." The airport closes briefly after the incident.

1964 – The Kenyan Air Force is established

1961 – United Air Lines absorbs Capital Airlines to become the largest airline in the West, with a fleet of 267 aircraft.

1960 – Trans-Canada Air Lines begins transatlantic services, flying between Montreal and London

1953 – No. 423 Squadron was reformed at St. Hubert, Quebec and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters.

1953 – The United States Air Force Thunderbirds are activated as the 3600th Air Demonstration Team at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona on 25 May 1953, flying Republic F-84 Thunderjets.^[3]^{[better source needed]}

1951 – British European Airways commences helicopter services between London and Birmingham

1950 – British European Airways commences the first regular passenger service to be flown by helicopter, between Liverpool and Cardiff.

1949 – A survey conducted by a firm of New York aviation consultants shows that for the first time in history air travel volume are greater than first class rail travel. Revenue passengers-miles for domestic airlines totals 603 million compared to 582 million for Pullman trains.

1948 – British European Airways commences the first helicopter airmail service in the UK

1948 – Entered Service: Convair CV-240 Convairliner with American Airlines

1948 – British European Airways (British European Airways) commences the first helicopter air mail service in the United Kingdom.

1948 – First flight of Cessna 170. The Cessna 170 is a general aviation aircraft produced by the Cessna Aircraft Company between 1948 and 1956. Over 5,000 were built, and over 2,000 are still accounted for today. The Cessna 170 landing gear is a taildragger configuration. It was replaced by the Cessna 172 which became the most popular light plane in history.

1944 – North West Air Command was formed at Edmonton under the command of A/V/M T. A. Lawrence.

1943 – Allied aircraft begin a final period of heavy bombing of Pantelleria during the ten days prior to the scheduled invasion of the island, during which they will fly 3,647 sorties.

1943 – In response to the Nazi dictatorship, the RCAF Second Tactical Air Force (2nd T. A. F.) was formed.

1943 – BOAC Flight 777, a Douglas DC-3, is shot down by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft over the Bay of Biscay, killing 17 passengers and crew, including actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that the flight was attacked because German intelligence believed that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was aboard.

1942 – Because of the similarity of the red disc in the center of the national insignia for U. S. military aircraft USAAC to Japanese markings, the United States adopts a new national insignia without the red disc, consisting simply of a white star centered in a blue circle USAAC roundel.The new marking will remain in use until July 1943.

1942 – (Overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command mounts what is nominally its second “thousand-bomber raid” – 956 bombers actually participate – Targeting Essen, Germany. Industrial haze spoils the attack; the British bombers kill only 15 people in Essen and destroy only 11 homes there, while widely scattered bombs strike Oberhausen, Duisburg, and at least eleven other cities and towns, which suffer more damage than Essen itself.

1941 – Germany completes the conquest of Crete. German airborne forces have suffered such heavy losses – probably 6,000 to 7,000 casualties and 284 aircraft lost – In the eleven days of fighting that Germany never again attempts a large airborne operation.

1941 – German Junkers Ju 88 bombers sink the British light cruiser HMS Calcutta 100 nautical miles (185 km) north of Alexandria, Egypt, as she retires after evacuating troops from Crete.

1940 – U. S. Army Air Corps announces plans for the construction of the world’s most powerful wind tunnel at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio.

1939 – First flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190

1939 – The Douglas DC-4 makes its first passenger flight from Chicago to New York.

1927 – Western Canada Airways inaugurated weekly air service from Winnipeg to Long Lake, Manitoba via Lac du Bonnet.

1925 – A car dealer covers himself in stamps worth $718 in a bid to be sent airmail from San Francisco to New York; the U. S. Post Office refuses to accept him.

1919 – A permanent flight of aircraft is stationed in San Diego to serve as a forest fire patrol. The machines are war-surplus Curtiss JN-4s.

1915 – The United States Department of the Navy awards its first contract for an airship – The DN-1-Class Blimp – To the Connecticut Aircraft Company.

1915 – Germany conducts the first zeppelin air raid over England.

1912 – The first military aeroplane flight in Norway is made by Lt Hans Dons in HNoMS Start an Etrich Taube(pictured).

References

^ Ross Colvin (2008-06-01). "Two US soldiers injured in Iraq helicopter crash". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
^ "US helicopter crashes in Iraq; 2 soldiers injured". The Associated Press. 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
^ United States Air Force Thunderbirds

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June 2

2012 – Allied Air Flight 111, a Boeing 727 cargo plane, overruns the runway on landing at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, and strikes a crowded minibus and a bicyclist on a nearby road. All four people on the plane survive, but the bicyclist and all 11 people on the minibus die.

2011 – NATO air attacks in Libya destroy ammunition and vehicle depots, a surface-to-air missile launcher, and a radar installation in Tripoli.^[1]

2009 – Deceased: British Air Vice-Marshal John Ernsting, 81.

2009 – 8Q-MAG, a DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Maldavian Air Taxi is destroyed when it crashes into the sea at the Haliveli Atoll, Maldives. All seven people on board survive.

2009 – A Royal Jordanian Air Force Slingsby T-67 Firefly while on a routine training flight being flown by a cadet pilot and instructor, crashes near the Al-Hassan Industrial Estate, Irbid, Jordan. The pilot, due to a technical fault, was unable to recover from a spin leaving 1 crew dead and 1 injured.

2008 – Aeroméxico Travel, operated by Aeromexico, commenced operations.

2002 – n Angolan Armed Forces Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes in poor weather killing 20 of the 25 on board. Among those on board were top military officials that were going to attend a disarmament ceremony by UNITA rebels.

1998 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-91 at 18:06:24 EDT. Mission highlights: Last Shuttle-Mir docking.

1995 – A U. S. Air Force F-16 C was shot down by a Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile while on a NATO air patrol in northern Bosnia; the pilot, Capt. Scott F. O’Grady, was rescued six days later.

1994 – 1994 Scotland RAF Chinook crash: A Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook HC.2 helicopter, ZD576, 'G', of Odiham Wing, crashes near Campbeltown, Scotland, killing 29 crew and passengers, including several top officials of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

1986 – The greatest distance achieved by a hang-glider is made by American Randy Haney who flies an unpowered hang-glider 199.75 miles (321.47 km) from his takeoff point.

1984 – Flight readiness firing of Discovery’s main engines.

1983 – Air Canada Flight 797, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9, catches fire during flight over Kentucky; 23 of 46 passengers die from smoke inhalation even after the crew successfully lands the aircraft in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1982 – A Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan B.2 XM597 on Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War is forced to divert to Brazil after breaking a refuelling-probe. The aircraft was interned at the Brazilian air force base, Aérea de Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro and was allowed to leave nine days later due to the arrival of Pope John Paul II on a pastoral visit to Brazil.

1972 – First flight of the Aérospatiale SA 360 Dauphin

1965 – First flight of the Aerotec Uirapuru

1958 – First flight of the Vought XF8U-3 Crusader III, the “Super Crusader”

1957 – Cpt Joseph Kittinger sets a new balloon altitude record of 96,000 ft (29,261 m)

1954 – Yugoslavian Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s attack a Belgian Douglas DC-3, which lands in Austria

1948 – Entered Service: Convair B-36 Peacemaker with the United States Air Force’s 7th Bombardment Wing (Heavy)

1945 – (2-3) Carrier aircraft of Task Group 38.4 strike Kyushu.

1944 – 54 Japanese planes attack U. S. landing forces off Biak, losing 12 of their number and inflicting almost no damage.

1943 – An hour into a routine training flight from the USS Lexington (CV-16) over the Gulf of Paria off Venezuela, 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick develops severe oil leak, cannot recover to either the carrier or land, and ditches his F4F Wildcat.[207] Although rescue forces arrive at the scene in eight minutes, neither he nor his plane are found, only an oil slick. Kinnick was the first Heisman winner to die. The University of Iowa renames their football stadium "Kinnick Stadium" in 1972.

1942 – Nos. 8, 111 and 118 Squadrons moved to Alaska to join No. 115 Squadron already there, to work with the US Forces against the Japanese threat.

1941 – First British Consolidated LB-30 Liberator II, AL503, on its acceptance flight for delivery from the Consolidated Aircraft Company plant at San Diego, California, crashes into San Diego Bay when flight controls freeze, killing all five civilian crew, CAC Chief Test Pilot William Wheatley, co-pilot Alan Austen, flight engineer Bruce Kilpatrick Craig, and two chief mechanics, Lewis McCannon and William Reiser. Craig, who had been commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1935 following Infantry ROTC training at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering, had applied for a commission in the Army Air Corps before his death. This was granted posthumously, with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, and on 25 August 1941, the airfield in his hometown of Selma, Alabama was renamed Craig Field, later Craig Air Force Base. Investigation into the cause of the accident causes a two month delay in deliveries, so the RAF does not begin receiving Liberator IIs until August 1941.

1941 – The United States Navy commissions USS Long Island (AVG-1), its first escort aircraft carrier – At the time designated an “aircraft escort vessel” (AVG) – At Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia.

1938 – Nationalist aircraft bomb Granollers, Spain, a town without military significance, killing about 100 people. Most of the dead are women and children.

1936 – First flight of the LACAB GR.8

1923 – First flight of the Boeing Model 15

1917 – Captain William Avery Bishop, 60 Squadron, flying a Nieuport 17, made a single-handed attack on a German aerodrome and shot down three enemy aircraft. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for this action.

1912 – The Lewis machine gun is first tested in an aircraft by the US Army. The results are extremely encouraging, and this weapon would go on to become the standard armament of many fighter aircraft during World War I.

1910 – Charles Rolls makes the first successful return flight over the English Channel

1794 – J. M. J. Coutelle and N. J. Conte of the French army’s “Aerostiers” at Mauberge, France make the first military use of a balloon, when they observe enemy positions from their captive balloon.

References

^ "Gaddafi To Send Representative to OPEC". Al Jazeera. 2 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

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June 3

2012 – On approach to a landing at Lagos, Nigeria, the crew of Dana Air Flight 992, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, reports engine trouble and declares an emergency. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft crashes into a furniture works and printing press building in the Iju-Ishaga neighborhood of Lagos, killing all 153 people aboard and ten people on the ground. Additional people on the ground are injured. This is the second-deadliest plane crash in Nigeria and the deadliest-ever involving an MD-83.

2011 – An American unmanned aerial vehicle strike in South Waziristan, Pakistan, kills Ilyas Kashmiri, a senior al-Qaeda member and leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami.^[1]

2011 – NATO attack helicopters go into combat in Libya for the first time, when two British Army Air Corps AgustaWestland Apaches operating from the Royal Navy amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean attack a radar site and an armed checkpoint near Brega and French Aérospatiale Gazelles simultaneously attack other Libyan government targets.^[2]

2007 – Paramount Airlines helicopter crash: A Mil Mi-8 helicopter operated by Paramount Airlines crashed near Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone, killing approximately 20 to 22 people.

2006 – A People's Liberation Army Air Force converted KJ-200 (converted from Shaanxi Y-8), Y-8F-600, AWACS crashes in Guangde County in the People's Republic of China. All 40 people on board died.

1977 – During an aerial demonstration at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport, Fairchild-Republic chief test pilot Howard W. "Sam" Nelson fails to recover from a loop in Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, 75-0294, c/n A10-0043, '97', from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, tail strikes runway with airframe in nose-high attitude, aircraft tumbles and disintegrates. Pilot dies en route to hospital.

1975 – First flight of the Mitsubishi F-1 59-5107

1973 – The first production Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner (pictured) broke-up during a demonstration flight at the Paris Air Show, killing 14.

1967 – Air Ferry Douglas DC-4 G-APYK on a charter flight from Manston Airport to Perpignan crashes into Mount Canigou, France, killing all 88 passengers and crew.

1966 – Gemini 9 launched; 7th US 2-man flight (Astronauts Stafford & Cernan aboard).

1966 – The Felthorpe Trident crash occurred when Hawker Siddeley Trident 1 C G-ARPY entered a deep stall from which the crew were unable to recover. The aircraft crashed at Felthorpe, Norfolk killing all four crew. This was the first loss of a Trident aircraft.

1965 – Gemini 4 launched; 2nd US 2-man flight (Astronauts McDivitt & White aboard). Astronaut Edward White became the first American to “walk” in space, during the flight.

1963 – Northwest Airlines Flight 293, a Douglas DC-7C, crashes into the Pacific Ocean, 182.5 miles (293.7 km) WSW of Annette Island, Alaska, killing all 101 on board.

1962 – Air France Flight 007, a chartered Boeing 707, skids and burns after the pilot rejects takeoff, killing many of Atlanta, Georgia 's civic and cultural leaders; two flight attendants are the only survivors, as 130 die in the worst one-aircraft accident to that date.

1962 – Bluegill, the first planned test of Operation Fishbowl, under Operation Dominic, to fly a nuclear warhead on Douglas SM-75 Thor IRBM, 58-2310, vehicle number 199, from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, fails. Launched just after midnight, the missile appears to be on a normal trajectory, but the radar tracking system loses track of the vehicle. Because of the large number of ships and aircraft in the area, there is no way to predict if the missile is on a safe trajectory, so the range safety officers order the missile with its warhead to be destroyed. No nuclear detonation occurs, but no data is obtained either. Although, by definition, this qualifies as a Broken Arrow incident, this test is rarely included in lists of such mishaps.

1959 – First class graduates from Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

1959 – RAF de Havilland DH-106 Comet 2R, XK663, is destroyed in a hangar fire at RAF Watton. No fatalities.

1959 – Second prototype North American XA3J-1 Vigilante, BuNo 154158, c/n NA247-2, crashes at Columbus, Ohio when hydraulic and electrical failures cause loss of control. Pilot was named Hopkins.

1954 – Cape Canaveral, Florida Missile Test Range, supports the first attempted recovery of a winged missile that flew a programmed pattern and then returned to the Cape for refurbishing and reuse. A Northrop N-69A Snark missile, GM-3394, was successfully guided for landing on the Cape Canaveral Skid Strip, but the missile's rear skid was not locked and the vehicle crashed and exploded upon contact.

1949 – First flight of the Lockheed XF-90.

1949 – Sole Sukhoi Su-15 (Aircraft P) twin-engined jet all-weather interceptor develops severe vibration during 39th test flight, breaks up in mid-air forcing pilot S. N. Anokhin to eject. Project abandoned, second prototype never finished.

1945 – (3-7) The ninth Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves only 50 kamikazes and causes no significant damage.

1944 – Air attacks in support of the upcoming U. S. amphibious landings in the Mariana Islands begin with a raid by Southwest Pacific land-based planes against Palau.

1944 – 41 Japanese planes attack U. S. landing forces off Biak, losing 11 of their number without inflicting any serious damage.

1944 – F/L RE McBride and crew in a Consolidated Canso of No. 162 Squadron sank the German submarine U-477 north of the Shetland Isles.

1943 – A Boeing B-17F-55-DL Flying Fortress, 42-3399, "Scharazad", of the Plummer Provisional Group, 318th Bomb Squadron, flying to Grand Island, Nebraska from Pendleton Army Air Base in Oregon crashes on Bomber Mountain in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. 10 crew members were killed. Wreckage finally discovered on 12 August 1945.

1942 – The Akutan Zero - During a Japanese raid on Dutch Harbor, eastern Aleutians, Alaska, the Mitsubishi A6M Model 21, 4593, 'D1-108', flown by Flying Petty Officer 1st Class Tadayoshi Koga (10 September 1922 - 3 June 1942) takes hit to oil line in a brush with a U.S. Navy PBY Catalina. Pilot realizes he cannot make return flight to carrier Ryujo so he attempts emergency landing on what appears to be grassy terrain on Akutan Island but turns out to be soft muskeg, fighter overturning as undercarriage makes contact, pilot killed by a broken neck. Attempt by Japanese submarine crew to rescue pilot is unsuccessful. U.S. Navy search team discovers nearly undamaged Zero with dead pilot still under the canopy, retrieves it and in August 1942 ships it to the Assembly and Repair Department at NAS North Island, San Diego, California for repair and evaluation, the second intact example to fall into American hands. Airframe had been built by Mitsubishi at Nagoya in February 1942.

1942 – In an effort to decoy U. S. forces away from planned Japanese landings on Midway Atoll and to cover planned Japanese landings on Attu and Kiska, aircraft from the carriers Junyo and Ryūjō strike Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. Although only 12 planes, all from Ryūjō, manage to reach Dutch Harbor, they inflict considerable damage.

1941 – RCAF 405 Squadron Wellington bombers made the first raid on Germany.

1941 – Emilio Mola y Vidal, first Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain (June 9, 1887 – 1937) was a Spanish Nationalist commander during the Spanish Civil War. He is best known for having coined the term “fifth column“. Mola died when the aircraft in which he was traveling crashed in bad weather while returning to Vitoria.

1937 – Heinkel He 112, outfitted with a Kummersdorf weapons range-designed 4B rocket motor, piloted by Captain Erich Warsitz, on flight from out-of-way Markwalde airfield at Neuhardenberg, ~70&nbspkm E of Berlin, after normal takeoff, pilot engages rocket at half power to avoid overheating. Shutting down after ten seconds of mild acceleration, and gliding "the pilot noticed a strong acrid odor of burning rubber and paint clearly perceptible hot gases flowed under the pilot's seat. The pilot looked to the rear and noticed a strong flickering in the tail area. The airplane at this time was still at an altitude of about a hundred meters. Because the pilot had to fear that the mobility of the control surfaces would be compromised by the fire in the tail section, and because the nitrogen for fire extinguishing was completely exhausted, he decided on an immediate landing. Sufficient altitude to extend the landing gear was no longer available. The aircraft landed with fully extended flaps on its belly and skidded about 45m along the ground. Damage was significant. An unanticipated region of low aerodynamic pressure around the tail had caused alcohol fumes to be sucked back into the fuselage, where they were ignited by heating or the ignition flame." Repaired, the aircraft flies a few more times over the summer but as the safety of the system is doubtful, a redesign is ordered.

1937 – The Spanish Nationalist commander General Emilio Mola dies when his plane crashes on the hill of Alcocero de Mola, near Burgos.

1936 – In a crash that closely parallels the loss of the Boeing 299, General Walther Wever, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe, is killed at Dresden, Germany on take-off in a Heinkel He 70 when he fails to activate a lever in the cockpit that unlocks the control services. Wever, a supporter of four-engine long-range bomber design, had been developing a strategic bombing capability for the Luftwaffe, but following his death, Hermann Göring cancels these projects and the German Air Force never fields a viable strategic bomber — despite the RLM selecting this day to ironically announce the Bomber A aircraft design competition for such an aircraft.

1936 – The British Air Ministry awarded a contract to Hawker for 600 Hurricane Mk. 1 fighters, the first of a new breed of high-speed, eight-gun interceptors for the RAF. This was the biggest peacetime order placed in Britain to date.

1932 – First flight of the RWD 6

1925 – Goodyear airship "Pilgrim" makes first flight (first with enclosed cabin).

1923 – First flight of the Vickers Venture

1918 – One Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, a four-engined German biplane strategic bomber, modified as a float-equipped seaplane for the Marine-Fliegerabteilung (Imperial German Naval Air Service), with the designation Type L, serial 1432, using Maybach engines, first flown on 5 September 1917, crashes during testing on this date.

1795 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard experiments with a parachute, releasing a silk parachute 20 feet in diameter, loaded with weight over England. Later he drops dogs attached to parachutes from his balloon.

References

^ Miller, Greg, "U.S. Set to Keep Kill Lists For Years,' The Washington Post, October 24, 2012, p. A8.
^ "Libya: UK Apache Helicopters Used in NATO Attacks". BBC News. 4 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

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June 4

2013 – Braving unsettled weather in the Midwestern United States, Solar Impulse aircraft HB-SIA completes the third leg of its trip across the contiguous United States, arriving at Lambert–St. Louis International Airport outside St. Louis, Missouri, where it is housed in an inflatable temporary hangar – the conventional hangar originally earmarked for it had been destroyed by a powerful storm on 31 May – in the first real-world test of an inflatable hangar. During the flight, the aircraft flies under cirrus clouds for the first time, and, to the surprise of its designers, its batteries continue to charge at 30 to 50 percent despite the diminished sunlight. The 1,040-km (646-mile) flight from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, which takes 21 hours 22 minutes at an average speed of 49 km/h (30.4 mph) and reaches a maximum altitude of 24,000 feet (7,315 meters), is the second-longest in terms of duration ever made in a solar-powered aircraft, exceeded only a flight of over 26 hours HB-SIA itself made in July 2010.^[1]^[2]

2012 – After a Libyan militia force takes control of part of Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, and demands the release of a kidnapped militia leader, a gun battle breaks out between the militiamen and Libyan government forces. Government authorities arrest 30 militiamen.^[3]

2012 – An American unmanned aerial vehicle strike in Pakistan kills Abu Yahya al-Libi, a leading al-Qaeda official.^[4]

2012 – A student at the Brazilian Air Force Academy was killed when he accidentally ejected from an Embraer T-27 while waiting to take off at Pirassununga-Campo Fonetenelle, Brazil.

2011 – British Army Air Corps Apache attack helicopters from HMS Ocean destroy several Libyan government targets near the Brega-Ajdabiya front line, including ammunition bunkers and radar installations. French Gazelles hit numerous targets around Brega in preparation for an expected rebel ground offensive.^[5]^[6]

2009 – A Hellenic Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 50S Fighting Falcon, 93-1059, '059', of the 347 Fighter Squadron based at Nea Anchialos Airforce Base crashes near the village of Michalitsi part of the Tzoumerka National Park, Ioannina, Greece. The aircraft flying with another F-16 from the 111th Combat Wing suffered a bird strike and engine failure forced the pilot to successfully eject.

1996 – First successful launch of the Ariane 5

1991 – A student pilot died after ejecting from his North American T-2C Buckeye, BuNo 158877, 'F 807', of VT-4, CTW-6, based at NAS Pensacola, Florida, which impacted on an embankment on the south side of Berryhill Road extension, N of Pace, Florida about 1300 hrs.

1986 – In Operation Poomalai, five Indian Air Force Antonov An-32 (NATO reporting name “Cline”) transport aircraft airdrop supplies by parachute into the city of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, to aid Tamil Tiger rebels who have been besieged there by Sri Lankan government forces during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Five Mirage 2000 fighters escort the An-32 s, but the Indian aircraft meet no opposition.

1980 – First flight of the Mitsubishi F-15J

1975 – Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King, BuNo 152711, of HS-4, departs Naval Auxiliary Air Field Imperial Beach, California, at 1900 hours, en route to the Helicopter Offshore Training Area to conduct a scheduled night anti-submarine sonar training flight. Pilot-in-command is LT Leo S. Rolek, co-pilot is LTJG Charles D. Neville. Twenty minutes later, the crew reports their position and commences operations with four approaches to sonar hover and four night/low visibility and wind-line rescue patterns with hover trim practice until dusk. After sunset (1953 hours), the crew conducts four more approaches to sonar hovers while practising dip-to-dip navigation with the pilots alternating approaches. Complying with reporting in every half-hour, the practices proceed normally until 2133. With the sonar dome lowered down to 100 feet below the water's surface, the hover of the helicopter becomes unstable. The two sonar operators, AWH3 Brady W. Turner and AWH3 Peter C. Cassidy, sink the sonar dome deeper in the ocean, hoping the stability will improve and, for a brief moment, it works. But, then the sonar dome begins to pull Helo '740' downward to 30 feet above the waterline. The helicopter, pulled backwards, impacts the water, sinks quickly. The four crewmen all egress and are picked up by a Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican shortly before midnight and transported to the Naval Hospital at San Diego. Three crewmen are released from the hospital in the days that follow, but the pilot, who suffered a ruptured spleen, dies in hospital over three weeks later. This aircraft was the famed Helo '66' that had retrieved the Apollo 13 crew from the Pacific on 17 April 1970.

1974 – Construction of OV-101, the first Space Shuttle, begins. It later will be named Enterprise.

1972 – The USAF Thunderbirds suffer their first fatal crash at an air show during Transpo 72 at Dulles International Airport. Major Joe Howard flying Thunderbird 3, McDonnell Douglas F-4E-32-MC Phantom II, 66-0321, experiences a loss of power during a vertical manoeuver, and breaks out of the formation just after it completes a wedge roll and was ascending at ~2,500 feet AGL. The aircraft staggers and then descends in a flat attitude with little forward speed. Although Major Howard ejects as the aircraft falls back to earth from ~ 1,500 feet slightly nose low, and descends under a good C-9 canopy, winds blow him into the ascending fireball. The parachute melts and the pilot plummets 200 feet, sustaining fatal injuries in fall.

1969 – Mexicana Flight 704, a Boeing 727-64, crashes on approach to Monterrey, Mexico, killing all 79 people on board. Among the dead is Mexican tennis star Rafael Osuna.

1969 – 22-year-old man sneaks into wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana & survives 9-hr flight to Spain despite thin oxygen levels at 29,000 ft.

1968 – Lockheed A-12, 60-6932, Article 129, lost off of Okinawa during a functional check flight (FCF) following an engine change after deployment to Kadena Air Base in support of Operation Black Shield. Pilot Jack Weeks was killed while flying (KWF).:33One source gives date as 2 June.

1967 – In the Stockport air disaster, a British Midland Canadair C-4 Argonaut carrying passengers returning from Palma de Mallorca is on approach to Manchester Airport when an engine loses power because of a design failure in the aircraft's fuel system; 72 of 84 on board are killed.

1965 – First flight of the Nanchang Q-5

1965 – A USAF Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar is destroyed in crash in field near the turnpike in Sabattus, Maine after double engine failure. Crew bails out and is uninjured.

1961 – Lieutenant Colonel David F. "Snapper" McCallister, Jr. (Commander, 142d Fighter Bomber Squadron, Delaware Air National Guard) and Brigadier General William W. Spruance (Assistant Adjutant General for Air) were flying a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star jet trainer out of Scott AFB, Illinois, when the aircraft lost power, and crashed. Colonel McCallister died and General Spruance received serious burn injuries. Milton Caniff is said to have based the character of Hotshot Charlie in the comic strip Terry and the Pirates on McCallister. He set a fighter record by flying his North American F-86 Sabre, "Cindee Lind 7th", 1,922 miles in 3 hours, 30 minutes to win the Air Force Association's Earl T. Ricks Memorial Trophy in 1956, given to Air Guard members for outstanding airmanship.

1959 – Max Conrad flies a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to New York, setting a new lightplane distance record of 7,683 miles (12,365 km).

1957 – World War II Japanese ace Maj. Teruhiko Kobayashi (1920–1957), flying with the reconstituted Japanese Self-Defense Air Force, is killed in the crash of a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star during a training flight when he crashes in bad weather on approach to Hamamatsu Air Base. He ordered his back-seater to eject when the aircraft developed problems. He had shot down three Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers and two Grumman F6F Hellcats with the 244th Sentai, although his widow claimed he had twice the number of Superfortress kills, a claim discounted by historian Takashi Sakurai.

1954 – Arthur Murray flies X-1 A rocket plane to record 27,000 m.

1948 – The Northwood mid-air collision happened on 4 July 1948 when a SAS DC-6, registration SE-BDA and a RAF Avro York, serial number MW248 collided over Northwood, London close to RAF Northolt. Thirty-nine passengers and crew of both aircraft died in Britain’s worst mid-air collision.

1948 – Philippine Airlines begins the first transpacific sleeper service, using Douglas DC-6 airliners between San Francisco, California, and Manila in the Philippine Islands.

1947 – A U.S. Marine Corps Vought F4U-4 Corsair crashes in the surf at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina during a VFW airshow, and pilot Lt. Gene Dial, of MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, walks some 15 feet to shore unhurt. The pilot, with four and a half years of service, said that he crashed once before during a carrier take-off.

1945 – Aichi E13A "Jake" floatplane, c/n 41116, of 634 Kokutai-Teisatsu, 302 Hikotai, crashed into the sea during night time search mission. Salvaged from waters off Kaseda city, Kagoshima prefecture on 22 August 1992, it is displayed in unrestored condition at the Kasedo Peace Museum, Kyūshū, Japan.

1944 – 34 Japanese aircraft attack an Allied task force of cruisers and destroyers as it approaches Biak, but inflict only slight damage. Four more make a torpedo strike overnight, but miss.

1943 – RAF Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vc, AR512, of 312 (Czech) squadron based at Churchstanton in the Blackdown Hills hits a train while conducting a mock-attack near Bradford-on-Tone just west of Norton Fitzwarren. The roof of at least one carriage is ripped off and several passengers, mainly WRENs, are killed. The plane flies on before eventually crashing near Castle Cary. The pilot, F/O Jaroslav Cermak, dies and is buried in Taunton.

1942 – No. 417 (Fighter) Squadron arrived in Egypt to serve with the Desert Air Force.

1942 – The Battle of Midway begins with a predawn torpedo strike by U. S. Navy PBY Catalinas against Japanese ships, which damages an oiler. After sunrise, 108 aircraft from all four Japanese aircraft carriers – Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū, and Sōryū – carry out a destructive strike on Midway Atoll, shooting down 17 and severely damaging seven of the atoll’s 26 fighters. A series of Midway-based strikes by various types of aircraft against the Japanese carriers sees the combat debut of the Grumman TBF Avenger, but achieve no hits and suffer heavy losses. All three U. S. aircraft carriers – USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Hornet (CV-8), and USS Yorktown (CV-5) – Launch strikes against the Japanese carriers; their 41 TBD Devastator torpedo bombers arrive first and achieve no hits, losing all but four of their number, but Enterprise’s and Yorktown’s SBD Dauntless dive bombers then arrive and inflict lethal damage on Akagi (which sinks on June 5) and Kaga and Soryu (which both sink later on June 4). A retaliatory strike by Hiryu fatally damages Yorktown (which sinks on June 7), but Enterprise and Yorktown dive bombers then fatally damage Hiryu (which sinks on June 5). The loss of all four of their carriers cause the Japanese to cancel the Midway operation and withdraw. It is widely considered to be the turning point of World War II in the Pacific.

1942 – 32 aircraft from Junyo and Ryūjō conduct another damaging strike against Dutch Harbor. Small strikes by U. S. Navy PBY Catalina flying boats and U. S. Army Air Forces bombers against the two Japanese aircraft carriers are ineffective.

1940 – The first Allied forces begin to withdraw from Norway, covered by aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

1940 – BOAC commences a twice-weekly service between England and Portugal, scheduled to connect with Pan Am flights from Lisbon to New York.

1935 – The Key brothers (Fred and Algene) fly twenty-seven days without landing, setting a world record for sustained flight in a Curtis Robin J-1, “Ole Miss. ”

1934 – The US Navy commissions its first purpose-built aircraft carrier, USS Ranger.

1932 – A Curtiss F9 C Sparrowhawk parasite fighter hooks onto the U. S. Navy dirigible USS Akron (ZRS-4) for the first time.

1932 – William G Swan, at Bader Field, Atlantic City NJ, makes the first Rocket-powered glider flight. He also carried some pieces of mail, which would undoubtedly qualify this flight as the first rocket air mail, as well. A second successful flight followed the next day.

1930 – Lt Apollo Soucek sets a new seaplane altitude record of 43,166 ft (13,157 ft) in a Wright XF3 W|

1927 – (4-6) With Charles A. Levine as his passenger, Clarence Duncan Chamberlin made a record nonstop transatlantic flight, in his monoplane Columbia, from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, to Eisleben, Germany, a distance of 3,911 miles (6,294 km), in 42 hours and 31 min.

1925 – First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.9

1920 – The US Army Reorganization Act is passed, dashing hopes for an independent air arm like Britain's Royal Air Force.

1919 – The British offer Canada Imperial a Gift of 100 aircraft with support equipment.

1915 – First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.1

1914 – First fatal British seaplane accident kills Lt. T. S. Cresswell and Cmdr. A. Rice of the Royal Navy. While ascending from the Calshot Air Station, the Short S.128 they are flying passes over motorboat on Southampton Water where Short's test pilot Gordon Bell and Lt. Spencer Grey are watching flight. At height of just over 200 feet, seaplane appears to break up and plummets into sea, killing both occupants. Some witnesses say that they believed that the seaplane stalled and that the wings folded up as structural limits were exceeded.

1784 – First untethered balloon flight by a woman. Madamne Elizabeth Thible, a French opera singer, in order to entertain Gustav III of Sweden in Lyon.

1783 – In Annonay, France, the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne, give the first public demonstration of their hot-air balloon by sending up a large model made of linen lined with paper.

References

^ Boyle, Alan, "Solar Impulse Airplane Records Another First In Storm-Hit St. Louis," NBC News, June 4, 2013, 8:37 a.m. EDT.
^ Solar Impulse Across America: St. Louis
^ "30 arrested after Libyan airport standoff". CNN News. 5 June 2012.
^ Miller, Greg, "U.S. Set to Keep Kill Lists For Years,' The Washington Post, October 24, 2012, p. A8.
^ Sengupta, Kim (5 June 2011). "NATO Strike Force in Libya Enjoys Quick Success with Apache Gunships". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
^ Graff, Peter (4 June 2011). "NATO Helicopters Ratchet Up Pressure on Gaddafi". Reuters. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

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June 5

2012 – 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, completes its first intercontinental flight, arriving at Rabat, Morocco, after a 19-hour flight across the Strait of Gibraltar from Madrid, Spain. The flight is the second and final leg of its intercontinental trip, which had begun on 25 May with a flight from its home base at Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland, to Madrid.^[1]^[2]

2011 – NATO airstrikes level the offices of Libya's state television service, Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation, and the Libyan government military intelligence offices in Tripoli.^[3]

2002 – Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-111 at 21:22:49 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS supply, crew rotation, Mobile Base System.

1991 – Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia STS-40 at 9:24:51 am EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

1991 – A Royal Australian Air Force McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A Hornet, A21-041, of 75 Squadron, crashes 100 kilometres NE of Weipa, Queensland. The pilot was killed. The wreckage was found in July 1994.

1989 – The massive Antonov An-225 Mriya flies in to Paris-Le Bourget for the 1989 Paris Air Show, carrying the Soviet Shuttle Buran on its back. When it takes of from Kiev to fly to Paris, the combination has a takeoff weight of 1,234,600 lb, the greatest weight ever lifted into the air.

1969 – The Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner becomes the first aircraft of its class to fly through the sound barrier when it exceeds Mach 1 at an altitude of 36,000 ft.

1969 – Rivet Amber, an RC-135E, 62-4137, operating out of Shemya AFB, went down in the Bering Sea. Despite a thorough search of the area, no wreckage and no survivors were ever found. The best theory is that the plane suffered some sort of catastrophic mechanical failure, as the last radio contact from the aircraft mentioned “vibration in flight”. Rivet Amber was returning to Eielson AFB for maintenance with a crew of 19 on board.

1969 – The American bombing of North Vietnam resumes after a seven-month pause.

1968 – North Vietnam demands an unconditional end to American bombing of its territory.

1967 – Boeing delivers its 1,000th jet airliner, a Boeing 707-120B for American Airlines.

1967 – June 5-10 – The Six Day War is fought between Israel and her Arab neighbors. In a pre-emptive strike, the Israeli Air Force destroys half of the Egyptian Air Force on the first night. By the end of the six days, 452 Arab aircraft had been destroyed for a loss of 46 Israeli aircraft.

1965 – The 1965 Fort Benning Mid-Air Helicopter Collision was a helicopter collision over Fort Benning, Georgia that left eighteen people dead. It occurred around 9:50 am.

1965 – The U.S. Navy begins full-time staffing of Dixie Station off South Vietnam by one aircraft carrier.

1965 – The U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier presence in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam reaches five ships.

1963 – President Kennedy announces that his administration would seek funds for the sponsored development of a supersonic transport aircraft.

1962 – A number three following RAF Hawker Hunter T.7 trainer (XL610) from No. 111 Squadron based at RAF Wattisham on a routine training flight flying in formation with two other aircraft crashes near Silk Willoughby, Lincolnshire, UK killing two crew members.

1958 – Second prototype Saunders-Roe SR.53, XD151, crashed during an abandoned take-off whilst testing at RAE Boscombe Down, killing its pilot, Squadron Leader John S. Booth, DFC. Project cancelled.

1956 – A USAF Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet of the 18th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron armed with 104 live rockets, strikes an automobile during an aborted take-off at Wold-Chamberlain Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, killing three of the five occupants of the vehicle; both F-89 crew members survive.

1952 – Exercise Bluebird: a Royal Netherlands Air Force Republic F-84 Thunderjet collided with the mast of the British Royal Navy motor launch HMML 2582 and crashed onto the deck in flames. The launch sank with the loss of fifteen crew and the pilot of the Thunderjet. The accident occurred in the Marsdiep, Netherlands.

1951 – The U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps begin Operation Strangle, a day-and-night air interdiction campaign against enemy roads, bridges, and tunnels across the width of the Korean Peninsula between 38 degrees 15 min North and 39 degrees 15 min North. It will continue until February 1952, but without the success hoped for it.

1950 – RCAF Colours were presented to the Force by the Governor-General, Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, at Ottawa, Ontario.

1948 – Northrop YB-49-NO, 42-102368, c/n 1488, crashes in desert near Muroc Air Force Base, California after both outer wings become detached from center section during spin recovery, killing pilot Maj. Daniel Forbes, co-pilot Capt. Glen Edwards, and three crew. Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas, is named for the pilot, and Muroc is renamed Edwards Air Force Base for the co-pilot on 5 December 1949. Flying wing bomber design will be revived in the 1980s as the B-2 Spirit.

1945 – A typhoon strikes U.S. Navy Task Force 38 southeast of Okinawa. The aircraft carriers USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Bennington (CV-20), USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24), USS San Jacinto (CVL-30), USS Windham Bay (CVE-92), and USS Salamaua (CVE-96) are damaged and the task force loses 76 aircraft.

1944 – Two Japanese bombers make a destructive strike against about 100 Allied aircraft paired wingtip-to-wingtip at Wakde, putting the base out of action for several days.

1944 – The B-29 Superfortress flies its first combat mission; 98 B-29s take off from bases in India and attack railroad shops in Bangkok, Thailand. Five are lost, none to enemy action.

1944 – June 5-6 – "D-Day" – The Allied invasion of France is spearheaded by paratrooper drops and assault glider landings.

1943 – In a battle over the Russell Islands between 81 Japanese Mitsubishi A6 M Zero fighters and 110 Allied aircraft, the Japanese lose 24 aircraft in exchange for seven U.S. fighters.

1931 – C.W.A. Scott breaks the record for the fastest solo flight from Australia to England, flying the 10,660 miles (17,160 km) from Wyndham, Australia to Lympne, England from May 26 to in 10 days 23 hours piloting a DH.60 Moth (Gipsy II).

1927 – The Verein für Raumschiffahrt ("Society for spaceship travel") is formed in Germany.

1918 – Douglas Campbell, the first American to become an ace while flying for an American unit, scores his sixth and final victory. Badly wounded during the flight, he sees no further combat.

1917 – The United States Navy’s First Aeronautical Detachment disembarks from the collier USS Jupiter in France under the command of Kenneth Whiting. It is the first U.S. military unit to arrive in Europe.

1909 – The first monoplane flight of over one hour is made by Englishman Hubert Latham on the Antoinette IV for one hour, seven minutes, 37 seconds.

1909 – John Berry and Paul McCullough win the U.S.’s first National Balloon Race, covering 377.9 miles – from Indianapolis, Indiana to Fort Payne, Alabama – in 25 hours 35 minutes.

1909 – First flight of the Roe I Triplane

1783 – Unmanned flight of the Montgolfier brothers hot-air-balloon (Montgolfière) in Vivarais, France. The Montgolfiers demonstrate a hot air balloon in public, at Annonay.

References

^ Solar Impulse: What Happened in 2012?
^ Abdennebi, Zakia, "Solar Plane Completes Maiden Intercontinental Trip," Reuters, 5 June 2012, 7:22 p.m. EDT.
^ "Libyan Live Blog: June 6, 2011 – 21:45". Al Jazeera. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

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June 6

2009 – Myanma Airways Flight 409, a Fokker F28-4000, registration XY-ADW, overruns the runway at Sittwe Airport, Myanmar. The aircraft is damaged beyond repair.

2004 – Alaska Airlines starts service between Denver and Anchorage and discontinues service between San Jose and Tucson.

1994 – China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303, a Tupolev Tu-154M, breaks up in mid-air and crashes near Xian, China, killing all 160 on board. The deadliest airplane crash ever to occur in China is attributed to a maintenance error.

1992 – Copa Airlines Flight 201, a Boeing 737-200 Advanced, crashes near Darién, Panama, killing all 47 passengers and crew on board; a faulty attitude indicator is the cause.

1982 – Aeroflot Flight 411, an Ilyushin Il-62, crashes after take-off from Sheremetyevo International Airport; all 90 on board are killed.

1982 – Westland Gazelle AH1 XX377 is shot down by friendly fire from HMS Cardiff during the Falklands War

1976 – Royal Air force receives first F-16.

1976 – The Double Six Tragedy, also known as the Double Six Crash, was a plane crash in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The plane, operated by Sabah Air, coming from Labuan crashed in the sub-district of Sembulan in Kota Kinabalu upon approaching Kota Kinabalu International Airport. The crash killed everyone on board the flight, including Tun Fuad Stephens, the Chief Minister of Sabah at that time.

1973 – The 1973 Paris Air Show crash was the crash of the second production Tupolev Tu-144 at Goussainville, Val-d’Oise, France, which killed all six crew and a further eight people on the ground. The crash, at the Paris Air Show, damaged the development program of the Tupolev Tu-144. One theory is that a French Mirage jet sent to photograph the aircraft without the knowledge of the Russian crew caused the pilots to take evasive maneuvers, resulting in the crash. Another theory is that in a rivalry with the Anglo-French Concorde, the pilots attempted a maneuver that was beyond the capabilities of the aircraft.

1971 – A United States Marine Corps McDonnell-Douglas F-4B Phantom II fighter jet collides with Hughes Airwest Flight 706, a Douglas DC-9, which crashes into the San Gabriel Mountains near Duarte, California, killing all 49 people aboard; the pilot of the Phantom also dies, while his radar intercept officer successfully bails out.

1970 – A USAF Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, 68-0212, c/n 500-0015, fifteenth off the production line, but first to be delivered to any operational Military Airlift Command wing, loses one tire and blows another on landing at Charleston AFB, South Carolina for the 437th MAW.

1967 – First transcontinental carrier-to-carrier jet flight. From USS Bonhomme Richard in the Pacific to USS Saratoga in the Atlantic, 03 h:28 m, in a Vought F8U Crusader flown by USN Capt Robert Dose & LCdr Paul Miller. Distance unstated.

1966 – Gemini 9 landed in the Pacific after 45 orbits of Earth during the 72 h 20 min flight.

1964 – Over Laos, Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U. S. Navy RF-8 A Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann. It is the first U. S. Navy aircraft and first American fixed-wing aircraft lost over Indochina in the Vietnam War era.

1964 – The historic aircraft collections of the Canadian War Museum, National Aviation Museum, and the Royal Canadian Air Force were displayed together for the first time at the Rockcliffe RCAF Station. The three collections together were designated the National Aeronautical Collection.

1964 – Silver City Airline announces that it has airlifted its one millionth car between England and continental Europe.

1945 – The Boeing B-29 Superfortress that led the first B-29 raid on Tokyo on 24 November 1944, 42-24592, named "Dauntless Dotty", of the 869th Bomb Squadron, 497th Bomb Group, 73rd Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force, departs Kwajalein at 0306 hrs. for the second leg of a ferry flight back to the United States, commanded by Capt. William A. Kelley, of Tifton, Georgia. Forty seconds after takeoff, the aircraft strikes the Pacific Ocean and sinks, killing 10 of 13 on board instantly. Co-pilot 1st Lt. John Neville, of Bradley, Illinois, tailgunner S/Sgt. Glenn F. Gregory, of Waldron, Illinois, and left gunner S/Sgt. Charles McMurray (also spelt McMurry in one source), of Memphis, Tennessee, are thrown from the wreckage and are recovered by a rescue boat after some 45 minutes in the water. A search for the lost airframe by the National Underwater and Marine Agency Australia has been proposed.

1944 – A huge airborne armada, nine planes wide and 200 miles long, carries American and British troops across the British Channel for the D-Day invasion of Europe.

1944 – Thirty-seven RCAF bomber, fighter and coastal squadrons took part in operations for the invasion of Normandy. The Allied invasion of France is spearheaded by paratrooper drops and assault glider landings. The Luftwaffe offers almost no resistance to the invasion.

1944 – First flight of the Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning was on 6 Jun 1944 at the Lockheed Burbank Plant.

1943 – (6-9) Allied aircraft drop an average of 600 tons (544,316 kg) of bombs per day on Pantelleria

1942 – The first nylon parachute jump occurred (Hartford, Ct).

1942 – Flying 112 sorties, carrier aircraft from Enterprise and Hornet sink the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma as she withdraws from the Midway area, bringing the Battle of Midway to an end. Three TBD Devastators participate; it is the last combat flight of the Devastator.

1942 – Four U. S. Army Forces B-24 Liberator bombers led by Major General Clarence L. Tinker take off from Midway to attack the Japanese bomber base on Wake Island. Tinker’s plane disappears after take-off and no wreckage or bodies are ever found.

1939 – Adolf Hitler reviews 14,000 veterans of the Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion in Berlin.

1936 – Aviation gasoline first produced commercially Paulsboro NJ.

1932 – First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta

1931 – Barker Field was opened at Toronto by Mrs. W. G. Barker and L/Col W. A. Bishop.

1927 – Canadian innovator Wallace Turnbull sells the parent of the variable-pitch propeller to Curtiss-Wright in the United States and Bristol in the United Kingdom. It will be successfully flight tested on June 29.

1917 – The world’s first landplane designed for use as a torpedo bomber, a Sopwith Cuckoo, is completed for the Royal Naval Air Service.

1915 – LZ 37 becomes the first Zeppelin destroyed in air-to-air combat when it is bombed by Flt Sub-Lt Reginald Warneford, RNAS.

1914 – First air flight out of sight of land (Scotland to Norway).

1910 – Robert Martinet wins the first cross-country air race, between Angers and Saumur, France (27 miles), in a Farman; he takes 31 min and 35 seconds.

1905 – Gabriel Voisin flies along the River Seine in his float-glider towed by a motorboat.

1903 – After several stationary stability trials, Ferdinand Ferber makes the first full trial of his glider No.6. It fails to take off in Nice, France.

References

Edit today's anniversaries

June 7

2024 – The ROKAF retires the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
2013 – Missiles fired by an American unmanned aerial vehicle strike a house in the village of Mangroti in the Shawal area of North Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least seven people described by officials as Islamic militants and seriously injuring four others.^[1]^[2]

2012 – Kenyan helicopters attack Al Shabaab positions in Kismayo, Somalia.^[3]

2009 – A Strait Air Britten-Norman Islander crashes on approach to Port Hope Simpson Airport, Canada, killing the pilot. The aircraft is destroyed.

1992 – American Eagle Flight 5456, a CASA C-212 operated by Executive Airlines, crashes into a swamp on approach to Eugenio María de Hostos Airport in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in heavy rain, killing all five people on board.

1989 – Surinam Airways Flight 764, a Douglas DC-8, crashes while attempting to land in heavy fog at Paramaribo, Suriname. The plane hits trees and flips upside down, killing 176 of 187 people on board.

1981 – Israeli Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons make a long-range strike into Iraq to destroy the nuclear reactor at Osirak

1973 – Bahamasair commences operations.

1966 – Robert and Joan Wallick set a round-the-world flight record.

1957 – Chance Vought Aircraft pilot James P. Buckner is killed while performing a high-speed flyby of CVA's tower at Hensley Field, Dallas, Texas, while demonstrating an Vought F8U-1 Crusader for a graduating class from the Navy Post Graduate School there. Executing a zoom climb after his low-altitude pass, he apparently overstresses the fighter and it disintegrates before he can eject. The aircraft's wreckage violently explodes at low altitude over Main Street in adjacent Grand Prairie, Texas, causing minor injuries to several bystanders, and pieces of the fighter are scattered throughout the floodplain of the nearby Trinity River; Buckner's body is recovered a few hours after the crash.

1947 – First flight of the Fouga CM.10

1946 – First flight of the Short Sturgeon
1944 – Nos. 401, 411 and 412 (Fighter) Squadrons of No. 126 (RCAF) Wing destroyed 12 enemy aircraft and probably destroyed or damaged five more over the Normandy beaches.

1942 – The English Electric-built Handley Page Halifax B Mk.II, V9977, on a test flight from RAF Defford carrying a secret H2S radar system crashes at 16:30 hrs at Welsh Bicknor, Herefordshire, killing the crew and several EMI personnel on board, including Alan Blumlein, pioneer of television and stereo audio recording. Blumlein, together with Cecil Browne and Frank Blythen, all from EMI, were attached to the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) at the time of the accident. Also killed was Geoffrey Hensby of TRE. Whilst flying at 500ft a fire starts in the starboard outer engine. Unable to extinguish it and by then too low for a parachute escape, whilst attempting to reach an open area to put down the fire burns through the outer main spar at low altitude causing the outer wing to fold and detach, whereupon the aircraft rolls almost inverted and impacts the ground. The aircraft's highly secret cavity magnetron is recovered the next day by a TRE team from RAF Defford led by Bernard Lovell. An investigation into the cause of the fire by Rolls-Royce concludes that an insufficiently tightened inlet valve tappet locknut during maintenance caused the inlet valve to drop, where it was hit by the rising piston and broken off at the stem, allowing burning fuel to enter the rocker cover whereupon it quickly spread. V9977 was one of only two Halifaxes fitted with H2S, the other being the Handley Page-built Mk II, R9490, used for trials of a klystron-based version of the system, developed for security reasons due to the difficulty of self-destructing a magnetron should its carrying aircraft come down over enemy territory. The crash of V9977 wiped out almost the entire H2S development team, delaying its introduction to the extent that Churchill has to be informed.

1942 – Major General Clarence Leonard Tinker, (21 November 1887 - 7 June 1942), of 1/8 Osage Indian heritage, leads four LB-30 Liberator IIs requisitioned by the USAAF on an attack, some sources state against retreating Imperial Japanese Navy units during the Battle of Midway, some sources state a bombing run on Wake Island). His LB-30, AL589, of the 31st Bombardment Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force, drops out of formation and is never seen again. Tinker was the first American general to die in World War II; his body was never recovered. He received the Soldier's Medal in 1931 and, posthumously, the Distinguished Service Medal. Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is named in his honor on 14 October 1942.

1942 – 119 (BR) Squadron and No. 128 (F) Squadron were formed at Sydney, N. S.

1940 – HMS Ark Royal brings aboard the five surviving Supermarine Walrus flying boats of No. 701 Squadron from Harstad and HMS Glorious the surviving Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron and Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron from Bardufoss as the Allied evacuation from Norway continues.

1938 – First flight of the Douglas DC-4E

1927 – The Supermarine S.5 racer, constructed to take part in the 1927 Schneider cup race; makes its first flight in Suffolk, England, piloted by Flight Lieutenant O. E. Worsley.

1920 – The U. S. Army orders 20 GAX (Ground Attack Experimental) triplanes from Boeing as the Model 10, an order later reduced to 10 before the first was delivered in May 1921.

1919 – Flying a Caudron G.3, Raymonde de Laroche of France sets a women’s altitude record of nearly 13,000 feet (3,962 m).

1912 - With Lieutenant Roy Carrington Kirtland flying a Wright Model B at College Park, Maryland, Captain Charles deForest Chandler was the first person to fire a machine gun mounted on an aircraft. The weapon was a prototype designed by Colonel Isaac N. Lewis.

References

^ Anonymous, "U.S. Drone Strike in Pakistan Said To Kill 7 Militants," UPI.com, June 8, 2013, 11:17 a.m. EDT
^ Craig, Tim, "Seven Killed in Suspected U.S. Drone Strike in Pakistan," washingtonpost.com, June 7, 2013.
^ Berhane, Daniel (June 9, 2012). "Kenyan Air Force Shells the Port Town Kismayo, Southern Somalia". Danielberhane.wordpress.com. Retrieved December 2, 2012.

Edit today's anniversaries

June 8

2009 – An Indonesian Army locally-built MBB Bo 105 crashes while flying in bad weather near to Situhaing village on West Java, killing all five occupants.
2008 – Deceased: Gene Damschroder, 86, American politician, WWII pilot, plane crash.
2007 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-117 at 23:38:04 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 13A: S3/S4 Truss, Solar Arrays, crew rotation.
1992 – GP Express Airlines Flight 861, from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia to Anniston Metropolitan Airport in Anniston, Alabama, crashed while attempting to land. The Beechcraft Model 99 had four passengers and a crew of two on board. There were three survivors. Two passengers and the captain received fatal injuries.
1991 – The “Herc” LAPES exercise was held at Mountain View.
1989 – A Soviet Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 suffers a bird strike during a display at the Paris Air Show. Pilot Anatoli Kvochur manages to prevent the plane from injuring anyone, and saves himself by ejecting at only 400 feet.
1988 – Nippon Airways announces that painting eyeballs on Jets cut bird collisions by 20%.
1982 – Argentine bombers destroy the British landing ship Sir Galahad and badly damage the landing ship Sir Tristram at Fitzroy on East Falkland Island, killing 51 men, 48 of them aboard Sir Galahad.
1982 – VASP Flight 168, a Boeing 727, crashes into a hillside in Brazil, killing all 137 on board.
1978 – Wardair became the first operator of the de Havilland Dash 7. The aircraft C-GXVF was named Don Braun after a famous Canadian bush pilot.
1978 – During ammunition certification tests by the Joint Test Force, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, Major (later Major General) Francis C. "Rusty" Gideon Jr. in Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, 73-1669, c/n A10-0006, call sign Paco 40, makes fourth firing pass of five, 100 rounds per pass, but experiences secondary gun gas ignition in front of the GAU-8 muzzle, causing oxygen starvation of engines necessitating emergency shut-down. Before he can relight the cooling engines, he runs out of altitude and ejects in Escapac ejection seat at 2,000 feet AGL, suffering severe injuries including a broken neck. Aircraft impacts on desert floor, whole sequence filmed from Northrop T-38 Talon chase plane. Pilot is treated at a Palmdale, California hospital, and returns to the A-10 cockpit six months later. Joe Baugher cites crash date of 8 August 1977. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD3Y_Qcqulw&NR=1&feature=fvwp
1967 – In the USS Liberty Incident, Israeli Air Force aircraft join Israeli Navy torpedo boats in attacking the U. S. Navy technical research ship USS Liberty (AGTR-5) in the Mediterranean Sea north of the Sinai Peninsula.
1966 – Second North American B-70A-2-NA Valkyrie prototype, 62-0207, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, following a mid-air collision with a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, NASA 813, previously 013, while the aircraft were in close formation for a photo shoot at the behest of General Electric. The pilot of the F-104N, Dr. Joseph A. Walker, late of the X-15 program, and Maj. Carl Cross, the copilot of the XB-70, are killed.
1963 – The National Museum of Naval Aviation opens at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida.
1960 – During a ground test run at Edwards AFB, California, the XLR-99 rocket engine of North American X-15-3, 56-6672, exploded, destroying the aircraft aft of the wing, and throwing the forward fuselage with pilot Scott Crossfield in it 30 feet forward. Fortunately, Crossfield was not injured. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXpEPZ6ZZIs
1959 – The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
1959 – First flight of the Wassmer WA-40
1959 – First flight of the North American X-15 (unpowered) from a B-52 at 11,500 m.
1957 – Royal Canadian Air Force Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.5, 18562, of No. 433 Squadron, North Bay, separated both wings during performance at London, Ontario, air show sustaining two fatalities. F/O's C.A. Sheffield and Les Sparrow died in the crash. Post crash film analysis suggested that the aircraft pulled +7 g's while configured for a maximum of +4.74 g.
1951 – Eight USAF Republic F-84E Thunderjets of the 560th Fighter-Day Squadron, 12th Fighter Escort Group, Bergstrom AFB, Texas crash near Richmond, Indiana. Mission escorting B-36 Peacemaker bombers from Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, to Selfridge AFB, Michigan. Worst mass air crash to date. Eight planes failed due to internal engine icing unknown to happen until this disaster. They were serials 50-1120, -1130, -1133, and -1209, and 51-0479, -0506, and -0679. Three pilots were killed. Classified Top Secret at time of incident out of fear that it was sabotage.
1948 – Air India commences a regular Bombay-London service by Lockheed Constellation.
1946 – A celebration of the Allied victory in World War II is held in London. It includes a flypast of 300 British aircraft over the city that stretches for 60 miles (97 km), led by a Hawker Hurricane that had fought in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
1945 – Carrier aircraft of Task Group 38.4 strike Kyushu. Aircraft bombing Kanoya Air Field employ variable time fuzes on 260-pound (118-kg) bombs for the first time as a means of attacking revetted Japanese aircraft.
1944 – Consolidated C-87-CF Liberator Express, 41-24006, c/n 801, crashes during attempted belly landing at Station 4, Jorhat, India, this date. Pilot was Lawrence C. Ackerson.
1944 – F/O K. O. Moore and crew of a Consolidated Liberator of No. 224 Squadron (RAF) sank two German submarines (U-629 and U-373) in 22 min off the French island of Ushant (Ouessant).
1944 – Ten U. S. Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchells escorted by P-38 Lightnings attack a force of six Japanese destroyers northwest of Manokwari, New Guinea, sinking one and damaging three.
1944 – Off Normandy, a German Heinkel He 177 badly damages the U. S. Navy destroyer USS Meredith (DD-726), which breaks in half and sinks the next day.
1942 – Goodyear prototype G-Class Blimp, G-1, purchased 23 September 1935, in constant use until it is lost in a mid-air collision on this date with another blimp, the L-2. The two blimps were conducting experimental visual and photographic observations during a night flight off Manasquan, New Jersey. Although twelve people were killed in the crash (one survivor),[132] the G-1 had demonstrated her capabilities as a trainer and utility blimp. As the Navy needed additional training airships during the World War II war time build up, a contract was awarded on December 24, 1942 for seven more G-class airships. These were assigned the designation Goodyear ZNN-G. (Z = lighter-than-air; N = non-rigid; N = trainer; G = type/class). The envelope size of these new G-class blimps was increased over that of the G-1 by 13,700 cubic feet (390 m3).
1941 – June 8-July 8 – The British invades Syria – Air combat between British and French aircraft.
1941 – Fourth prototype Heinkel He 177A Greif, V4, fails to pull out of a moderate dive during dive trials,[19] crashes into the Baltic, off Ribnitz. It was later discovered that the accident had resulted from the malfunctioning of an airscrew pitch control mechanism.
1940 – The German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau surprise HMS Glorious with no aircraft aloft or on her flight deck during her voyage from Norway to the United Kingdom and sink her and her two escorting destroyers with gunfire. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force lose 1,472 men aboard Glorious and the two destroyers; only 43 men survive.
1940 – No. 1 (F) Squadron, augmented by personnel of No. 112 (F) “City of Montreal” Squadron, sailed from Halifax, NS for Liverpool, England.
1928 – First US-to-Australia flight lands (Sir Charles Kingford).
1921 – The US Army carries out the first experiments in cabin pressurization, using a de Havilland DH.4.
1920 – Lieutenant John Wilson makes a world record parachute jump from 19,861 feet in San Antonio, Texas.
1919 – Biplane bomber, Cierva BCD3 (Barcala-Cierva-Diaz), designed by Juan de la Cierva, reminiscent of the German Gotha, powered by a trio of 220 hp Hispano-Suiza engines, called El Cangrejo (The Crab), is destroyed on a test flight when it stalls close to the ground. Pilot, Capt. Julio Rios Argiieso (also reported as Angueso), is shaken up but survives. Project is abandoned.
1919 – Royal Air Force Fairey IIIC seaplanes from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier/seaplane carrier HMS Pegasus bomb four Bolshevik naval vessels in North Russia, with little effect.
1918 – First prototype Handley Page V/1500 bomber, E4104, powered by tandem pairs of Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, first flown on 22 May 1918, crashes on thirteenth flight while piloted by Capt. Vernon E. G. Busby when all four engines quit at 1,000 feet altitude (300 m), possibly due to fuel starvation. Pilot attempts turn back to airfield but stalls and spins in. Four riding in the forward fuselage are killed on impact, two in rear rescued before airframe is consumed by fire, but one dies later of injuries. As aircraft was destroyed by post-crash fire, no determination could be made of cause of accident. Although two V/1500s of 166 Squadron are ready for a mission on 8 November 1918, bad weather cancels raid, and with the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 the type never flies operationally.
1908 – Alliott Vernon Roe flies his first aircraft at Brooklands, Surrey.
1905 – Gabriel Voisin succeeds in lifting off from the river Seine in his box-kite glider when towed by a motorboat.

References

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June 9

2009 – A Vietnamese People's Air Force Sukhoi Su-22M3/4 Fitter J/K crashes into a cornfield near Chieng Bay Hill, Thanh Hóa Province, Vietnam killing the pilot. The aircraft from the 923rd Fighter Regiment was on a routine training flight and suffered mechanical failure.

2009 – An Indian Air Force Antonov An-32 Cline transport aircraft crashes near a village in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh killing 13 defence personnel. The aircraft crashed over the Rinchi Hill above Heyo village, about 30 km from Mechuka advance landing ground in the district located about 60 km from the Indo-Chinese Line of Actual Control. Among the seven IAF men and six Army personnel on board the ill-fated aircraft were two wing commanders, two squadron leaders and a flight lieutenant.

2005 – Logan Airport runway incursion: After air traffic controllers at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, give them clearance to take off simultaneously on intersecting runways, US Airways Flight 1170, a Boeing 737-3B7 with 109 people on board, and Aer Lingus Flight 132, an Airbus A330-301 with 272 people onboard, nearly collide on takeoff. Disaster is averted when the US Airways first officer sees the approaching A330, realizes the aircraft could collide if they both become airborne, and pushes the control column forward to keep the 737 on the ground until the A330 passes 170 feet (52 m) overhead. The 381 people on the two planes suffer no injuries.

1997 – Air Malta Flight KM 830, a Boeing 737-200, registration 9 H-ABF, named Zurrieq, was a flight bound for Istanbul with 80 passengers and crew on board when it was hijacked 20 min after take off and diverted to Cologne. The Air Malta aircraft was hijacked by two men, one of the men went into the cockpit and showed the pilot what looked like sticks of dynamite strapped to his chest. Once in Cologne they asked for a doctor, a Turkish interpreter and a television crew to release a statement. The hijackers demanded the release of Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca, who at the time was serving a life sentence in Italy after trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. However three hours after landing, the men left the plane with their hands in the air. German police found no explosives on the aircraft and all passengers were released unharmed.

1996 – Eastwind Airlines Flight 517, a Boeing 737-200, loses rudder control while on approach to Richmond International Airport and makes an emergency landing; no fatalities.

1996 – The Swedish Air Force opens a new pilot training centre at Såtenäs

1995 – First flight of the Eurocopter EC120 Colibri

1995 – Ansett New Zealand Flight 703, a de Havilland DHC-8, crashes during a landing approach near the Tararua Range s, New Zealand, killing four of the 21 people on board and a dog.

1994 – An Antonov An-124 carries a 109-tonne diesel locomotive from London, ON (YXU), to Dublin (DUB), Ireland.

1989 – Jane Foster and Deanna Brasseur passed a course to become Canada’s first two female fighter pilots available for combat roles; possibly the world’s first.

1974 – The first flight of Northrop YF-17 experimental lightweight fighter is made. It is built to test what might be called the aerodynamics of agility, with all of the factors of weight, materials, and design geared to making it as agile as possible.

1964 – United Airlines Flight 823 was a scheduled flight from Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Huntsville International Airport, Huntsville, Alabama with 39 on board. At approximately 18:15 EST it crashed 2 miles northeast of Parrottsville, Tennessee after experiencing an uncontrollable fire on board, killing all 39. The fire of unknown origin initiated below the passenger floor and eventually involved the passenger cabin. One passenger attempted to abandon the aircraft through the No.4 escape window prior to impact but did not survive the free-fall. The ignition source was never determined, but it is thought the plane’s battery overheated or something in a passenger’s luggage caused the fire. According to NTSB investigators, lethal amounts of CO2 were present in the cockpit, explaining witnesses’ reports of the aircraft seen flying erratically. The fire eventually burned through the cockpit and it is likely the crew was unconscious by that time.

1958 – First flight of the Agusta AZ8-L

1958 – London Gatwick Airport opens after two years of extensive reconstruction. It is the first multimodal airport in the world, with direct rail connections from the main terminal to London and Brighton.

1956 – A Grumman F9F-4 Panther fighter jet of VMF-213, flown by a USMC Reserve pilot crashes into a row of houses near Wold-Chamberlain Field, striking the home at 5820 46th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. In addition to killing the pilot, Maj. George E. Armstrong, the crash kills five and injures twelve on the ground, most of whom are young children. This is the second time in five days that a military jet operating from this airport crashes and kills multiple civilians on the ground.

1953 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking T-6 crashed at Praderes, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1944 – Mid-air collision between two Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lewiston-based Vought F4U Corsair fighters over Lewiston, Maine; both are able to land and crews are uninjured.

1944 – Allied land-based aircraft strike Japanese airfields on Peleliu, Woleai, and Yap.

1944 – First flight of the Avro Lincoln.

1939 – The Heinkel He 100C V6, first flown in February 1939, after some test flights at the factory is flown to Erprobungstelle Rechlin on 25 April, where it spends most of its time as an engine testbed. On this date, the gear fails in flight, but the pilot manages to land the aircraft with little damage, and it is returned to flying condition in six days.

1938 – Nationalist aircraft bomb Granollers, Spain, a town without military significance, killing about 100 people. Most of the dead are women and children.

1938 – The Nicaraguan Air Force is formed as the Fuerza Aérea de la Guarda Nacional.

1936 – Sole Kellett YG-1 gyrocopter, 35-278, of the Material Division, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, acquired by the U.S. Army Air Corps for evaluation, is moderately damaged in a takeoff accident at Pope Army Airfield, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Pilot was Erickson Nichols.

1931 – First rocket-powered aircraft design patented (R Goddard).

1928 – Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew make the first flight across the Pacific Ocean in the Fokker F.VIIb-3 m Southern Cross. They left Oakland, California on May 31 and reach Brisbane via Honolulu and Fiji. The flight takes 83 hours.

1916 – Lt.j.g. Richard Caswell Saufley of the U.S. Navy, designated Naval Aviator No. 14, is killed in the crash of a Curtiss Model E hydro-plane (seaplane), AH-8, over Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida at the 8 hr., 51 min. mark of an attempted long-duration flight. Saufley Field, north of NAS Pensacola, is subsequently named for him.

1916 – With an envelope capacity of 170,000 cu. ft. and an endurance of 11 hours, the first of 45 Coastal (C)-type, nonrigid British airships ordered for the Royal Naval Air Service makes its first flight from the airship station at Pembroke.

1914 – Using a ramp constructed over the foredeck of the seaplane carrier Foudre, French Navy Lieutenant de Vaisseau Jean de Laborde attempts France’s second airplane takeoff from a ship and the first by a French naval aviator, but crashes.

1908 – The Aeronautical Society of the United States is established in New York.

1861 – Two members of the First Rhode Island Regiment, James Allen and Dr. William H. Helme, make the first U. S. Army trial captive balloon ascent.

References

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June 10

2012 – The Free Syrian Army reports that Syrian government attack helicopters have helped drive its forces out of the government' air defense base at Al-Ghantu, which they had briefly captured.^[1]

2012 – A Kenya Police Eurocopter AS350 crashes on a hill in the Kibiku area of the Ngong Forest just outside Nairobi, Kenya, killing all six people on board. Among the fatalities are Kenya's Minister of Interior Security and likely presidential candidate George Saitoti and Assistant Minister of Interior Security Joshua Orwa Ojode.

2011 – Syrian government attack helicopters go into action during Syrian Army military operations against the rebel stronghold of Jisr ash-Shugur. The operations will conclude successfully on 12 June.

2011 – The Government of Norway announces that it will begin a gradual withdrawal of the six Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons it has committed to Operation Unified Protector, the NATO intervention in the Libyan Civil War.^[2]

2008 – Sudan Airways Flight 109, an Airbus A310, crashes at Khartoum International Airport and breaks apart, catching fire. 30 deaths are confirmed, 6 passengers are listed as missing.

1999 – Canadian CF-188 Hornets began Operation Joint Guardian during the Kosovo Air War.

1990 – British Airways Flight 5390, a BAC One-Eleven, suffers explosive decompression over Didcot, Oxfordshire, England when one of the front windscreen panes blows out. The captain is partially sucked out of the cockpit, but a flight attendant manages to keep his unconscious body from falling from the aircraft. The first officer lands the aircraft safely at Southampton Airport. All on board survive.

1989 – First female USAF test pilot. Capt Jacquelyn S Parker graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB CA.

1987 – The Boeing Model 360 makes its first flight. The tandem rotored helicopter served as an Advanced Technology Demonstrator of many new design concepts.

1967 – First flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 prototype 23-11/1

1964 – First Lockheed XV-4A Hummingbird, 62-4503, (originally designated VZ-10) crashes, killing civilian Army test pilot. Aircraft had just transitioned from conventional to vertical flight at 3,000 feet (914 m) when control was lost. Airframe came down between Dobbins AFB and Woodstock, Georgia, injuring one civilian on ground.

1960 – Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538, a Fokker F-27, crashes into the ocean near Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing all 29 on board in Australia's worst civilian air disaster. This crash was responsible for the mandatory installation of cockpit voice recorders in airliners in Australia, followed by the rest of the world.

1953 – The final experimental test flight for the turbojet powered #3 Douglas D-558-I Skystreak is flown by A. Scott Crossfield.

1944 – Flying from Italy carrying one 1,000-lb (454-kg) bomb each, 46 P-38 Lightning fighters of the U. S. Army Air Forces 82nd Fighter Group make a very-long-range fighter-bomber attack on the Romanian-American Oil Refinery at Ploesti, Romania. They destroy 23 German aircraft in exchange for the loss of 22 P-38 s.

1944 – RCAF fighter wings 144, 127 and 143 moved to France.

1943 – In one of the heaviest and most concentrated air attacks thus far in World War II, Allied aircraft drop 1,571 tons (1,425,202 kg) of bombs on Pantelleria.

1942 – An U. S. Army Air Forces LB-30 Liberator on a reconnaissance flight discovers that Japanese forces have occupied Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.

1940 – Italy declares war on Britain and its allies and begins an aerial assault on Malta.

1936 – U.S. Navy Spartan NP-1, BuNo 3824, assigned at NAS Anacostia, Anacostia, D.C., ditches in the Back River, Virginia, after suffering engine failure following take-off from Langley Field, Virginia. Pilot J. Ware is KWF.

1919 – Ruth Law of the United States breaks the women’s altitude record, flying to 14,700 feet (4,481 m).

1913 – Marcel Brindejone des Moulinais wins the Pommeroy cup in Warsaw for the longest flight between sunrise and sunset, flying 900 miles from Paris.

1912 – The Austro-Hungarian submarine U-5 tows a kite balloon, apparently to determine the best coloration for submarines to avoid detection while underwater. Other than the experimental use of balloons from ships to bombard Venice in 1849 by its predecessor the Austrian Navy, it is the only operation of an observation balloon by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

1908 – First flying club and civil airport established. Aeronautical Society chartered at New York City, and Morris Park air field established.

References

^ Solomon, Jay, and Nour Malad, "U.S. Bolsters Ties to Fighters in Syria," The Wall Street Journal, 13 June 2012 9:10 p.m. EDT.
^ "Libya Live Blog: Monday, August 1, 2011 – 16:56". Al Jazeera. 1 August 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.

Edit today's anniversaries

June 11

2013 – Air traffic controllers in France begin a strike to protest European Union plans to reorganize and privatize air traffic control over Europe.^[1]

2012 – The United Nations confirms for the first time that Syrian government helicopters have begun firing on rebel forces.^[2]

2009 – Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 5414, a Canadair CRJ-200ER, registration N857AS, makes an emergency landing at Hartsfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport, United States after an undercarriage malfunction. The aircraft is substantially damaged.

1998 – A NAS Whiting Field instructor and his student pilot are killed near Key Largo, Florida, when their Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor hits another training plane in mid-air and crashes into 2 feet of water.

1991 – The first crash involving a Bell-Boeing Osprey occurs when the fifth MV-22, BuNo 163915, three minutes into its maiden flight at a Boeing flight test facility at Wilmington, Delaware, suffers problems with the gyros due to incorrect wiring in the flight-control system and crashes into the ground from a 15-foot (4.6 metre) hover during an attempted landing, the left rotor striking first, the airframe turning over and catching fire. Two crew eject and survive. Two of the three roll-rate gyros had been wired in reverse. "To compound the problem, the flight control built-in test was not run before the flight. With the flight control voting logic discounting the correct gyro signal, the aircraft was doomed." As this airframe was heavily damaged on its acceptance flight, it never officially entered service. This airframe had been slated for avionics integration, autopilot, aircrew training, and operational evaluation.^[3]

1983 – The first aircraft carrier designed as such to be built in Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, is launched by Italcantieri at Monfalcone.

1974 – Northrop YF-17 A 72-01569 becomes the first American fighter to break the sound barrier in level flight when not in afterburner.

1971 – British pilot Shelia Scott makes the first flight by a light plane from equator to equator via the North Pole. Flying in a Pipper Aztec D, she covers 34,000 miles (54,718 km).

1970 – The United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.

1953 – The second Gloster Javelin prototype crashes after experiencing a deep stall killing test pilot Peter Lawrence.

1944 – 216 aircraft from the 15 aircraft carriers of U. S. Navy Task Force 58 attack Japanese bases on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian, destroying 36 Japanese aircraft. Tinian will remain under almost daily U. S. air attack for the next six weeks.

1944 – F/O L. Sherman and crew in Consolidated Canso of No. 162 Squadron sank the German submarine U-980 north of the Shetland Isles.

1943 – The Italian garrison on Pantellaria surrenders after taking heavy bombing, the first ground captured by air power alone.

1943 – (Overnight) 783 British bombers attack Düsseldorf, killing 1,326 people, injuring 2,600, and leaving 13 missing and 140,000 homeless. Fires burn 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of the city and there are 180 major building collapses. During the raid, the German Heinkel He 219 Uhu ("Eagle Owl") night fighter makes its combat debut in the early morning hours of June 12 in an experimental flight piloted by Major Werner Streib. Streib shoots down five British bombers – A Lancaster and four Halifaxes – In a single sortie, but his He 219 is wrecked in a landing accident when he returns to base.

1942 – In response to orders from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to "bomb the enemy out of Kiska", U. S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers and U. S. Navy PBY Catalina flying boats begin a bombing campaign against Japanese forces at Kiska in the "Kiska Blitz". The PBYs bomb almost hourly for 72 hours before withdrawing on July 13, while Army Air Forces continue with twice-daily raids until late June. Flying a 1,200-mile (1,900 km) round trip, the Army bombers will continue to raid Kiska from a base on Umnak until September.

1940 – "Haddock Force" – Two squadrons of Royal Air Force Bomber Command Wellingtons tasked to bomb Italy from bases around Marseilles, France – Attempts to launch its first raid. It fails when French soldiers block the runways after local French officials oppose the raid. Haddock Force is disbanded and returns to the United Kingdom the next day.

1940 – (Overnight) RAF Bomber Command raids Italy for the first time, when 36 Whitleys set out to attack industrial targets in Turin; 23 turn back over the Alps and two others bomb Genoa, but nine succeed in attacking Turin.

1940 – No. 1 Fighter Squadron shipped Overseas with its Hurricanes in time to take part in the Battle of Britain.

1937 – First flight of the Kawanishi E11K

1937 – An aerial bombardment by German aircraft of the Condor Legion and Italian aircraft precedes a renewed Nationalist offensive against the Basque defensive perimeter around Bilbao, Spain.

1931 – The 40 passenger Handley Page HP-42 four-engine biplane enters service with British airline Imperial Airways, setting new standards of passenger service and comfort.

1929 – At the Wasserkuppe, Alexander Lippisch's Ente becomes the first aircraft to fly under rocket power. [Note: The date may have been in 1928, according to "Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA."].

1926 – The first flight of the Ford Trimotor, an all-metal monoplane which competes with the three-engine Fokker and becomes a pioneer American airliner. It is known affectionately as the "Tin Goose".

1920 – First flight of the Verville VCP

1912 – Lieutenant Leighton W. Hazelhurst, Jr. (July 1887 - 11 June 1912) and Arthur L. Welsh (14 August 1881 - 11 June 1912) are killed in crash of Wright Model C, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, in College Park, Maryland, possibly the first multiple-death aviation crash involving a single airframe. (Balloon and airship crashes had prior multiple fatalities. The first multiple fatality airplane accident in history had occurred at Centocelle, near Rome, 3 December 1910, when Lt. Enrico Cammarota and Private S. Castellani became the 26th and 27th people to die in an airplane crash when their machines collided.) Hazelhurst was the third army officer to die in an aeroplane crash. Airframe had recently been purchased by the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps. The United States Army Signal Corps had established a series of tests for the aircraft, and Welsh and Hazelhurst were taking the Model C on a climbing test, one of the last in the series required by the Army. Shortly after takeoff, the plane pitched over while making a turn and fell 30 feet (9.1 m) to the ground, killing both crew members. They had both been ejected from their seats, with Welsh suffering a crushed skull and Hazelhurst a broken neck. The New York Times described Welsh as "one of the most daring professional aviators in America" and his flying partner Hazelhurst as being among the "most promising of the younger aviators of the army". A board of officers was formed by the United States Secretary of War Henry Lewis Stimson, which concluded that Welsh was at fault in the crash, having risen to 150 feet, with the plan to dive at a 45-degree angle in order to gain momentum for a climb, but had made the dive too soon, with the board's results reported in the June 29, 1912 issue of Scientific American. In a 2003 interview, a cousin of Welsh's reported the family's belief that the tests were run too rapidly and that Welsh was doomed to fail by carrying too much fuel and a passenger, giving a craft that would be unable to make the planned maneuver with the weight it was carrying.

1911 – First flight of the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.1

1897 – Salomon Andrée, N. Strindberg and K. Fraenkel attempt an Arctic expedition to the North Pole by free balloon from Spitzbergen, departing on 11 Jul 1897 ^[4]^{[better source needed]}. He and two companions crash within three days but manage to survive for several months in the pack ice. Their remains are discovered in 1930 on White Island. It was possible to develop the located film material.

References

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June 12

2013 – In response to a call for industrial action by the European Transport Workers' Federation, air traffic controllers in 11 other countries engage in lower-key industrial actions in sympathy with the French strike, although flights are not disrupted in other countries.^[1]

2012 – A Pakistan Air Force Dassault Mirage 5D of 8 Squadron crashed near Uthal in south-west Pakistan, pilot ejected safely.

2012 – A Belarus Air Force Sukhoi Su-25 from the 116 Attack Air Base crashed in the Grodno region, pilot killed.

2009 – An Indonesian Air Force locally-built Aérospatiale SA 330J Puma crashed at Bogor, West Java during a test flight following maintenance of the helicopter, all four occupants killed.

2004 – OH-58D(R) Kiowa 94-0171 from A Company, 1–25th Aviation Regiment crashes north of Baghdad; both pilots safe.^[2]

2003 – AH-64D Apache of 101st Aviation Brigade helicopter shot down near Baghdad, both crewmembers survive.^[3]

2003 – F-16CG A United States Air Force F-16C Block 40B Fighting Falcon 88-0424 of 388th FW/421st FS crashes near Baghdad due to fuel starvation. The pilot ejected safely.^[4]

2001 – Jetsgo, a Canadian airline, commenced operations.

1999 – Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MK-1 demonstrator '01' with vectored thrust crashes on opening day of the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport. At the completion of a downward spiralling maneuver, the tail contacted the grass surface. With almost no forward speed the fighter was able to pull away from the ground, wings level, with an up pitch of 10-15 degrees and climb to ~150 feet (46 m), with the right jet nozzle deflected fully up and flames engulfing the left engine. Sukhoi test pilot Vyacheslav Averynov initiated ejection with navigator Vladimir Shendrikh departing the aircraft first. The Zvezda K-36D-3.5 ejection seats work perfectly and both crew descend on a taxiway unhurt. The Su-30 impacted some distance from the crew. Video of this accident is widely available on the internet.

1996 – Two Australian Army Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawk helicopters collide during a night training exercise near Townsville, Queensland, killing 18 soldiers.

1994 – First computer-designed commercial aircraft. Computer engineered Boeing 777-200 first flown.

1982 – First flight of the IAR 825

1982 – Operation Black Buck concludes with the last of five very-long range strikes on the Falkland Islands by Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bombers.

1979 – Bryan Allen flies the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel using pedal power. The Collier Trophy was awarded to Paul MacCready for his Gossamer Albatross, which crossed the English Channel with pilot Bryan Allen, who flew from Folkestone, England, to Cap Gris-Nez, France, in 2 hr., 49 min.^[5]^{[better source needed]}

1979 – First flight of the Rutan Long-EZ

1972 – American Airlines Flight 96, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, suffers explosive decompression when one of its cargo doors fails in flight; the crew manages an emergency landing at Detroit, Michigan and all 67 on board evacuate safely.

1966 – First flight of the Dassault Mirage F2

1966 – Escorting A-4 Skyhawks from the attack aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19) during a bombing raid northwest of Haiphong, North Vietnam, U.S. Navy Commander Harold L. Marr of Fighter Squadron 211 (VF-211) scores the first kill by an F-8 Crusader, shooting down a North Vietnamese MiG-17 (NATO reporting name "Fresco") with an AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile in an F-8E.

1965 – First flight of the Britten-Norman Islander

1961 – KLM Flight 823, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes while on approach to Cairo International Airport due to pilot error; 20 of 36 on board die.

1959 – Entered Service: C-130 Hercules with the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing USAF.

1950 – An Air France Douglas DC-4 (F-BBDE) on a flight from Saigon to Paris crashes in the Arabian Sea while on approach to Bahrain Airport, killing 46 of 52 on board.

1948 – First flight of the Avro Athena

1944 – Japanese aircraft cripple a U. S. destroyer off Biak.

1944 – The Japanese submarine I-10 uses a Yokosuka E14Y (Allied reporting name “Glen”) floatplane stored disassembled in cylinders on her deck to recconoitre Majuro. It finds nothing and is abandoned after it crashes upon return to I-10.

1944 – U. S. carrier aircraft from Task Group 58.4 attack a Japanese convoy north-northwest of Saipan, sinking 10 out of 12 merchant ships, a torpedo boat, three submarine chasers, and a number of fishing vessels.

1944 – (12–13) Task Force 58 aircraft attack Guam, Saipan, and Tinian, destroying almost all Japanese aircraft there, sinking a naval auxiliary and an entire flotilla of sampans, and damaging a cargo ship.

1944 – While attacking Cambrai, France, on 13 June 1944, an Avro Lancaster of No. 419 Squadron was shot down in flames. P/O Andrew C. Mynarski, the mid-upper gunner, made repeated attempts to free the tail gunner trapped in his turret. With clothing and parachute on fire, Mynarski finally gave up and jumped; he succumbed to his burns. Miraculously, the tail gunner survived the crash. Mynarski was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.^[6]^{[better source needed]}

1943 – Another large dogfight between Japanese and Allied aircraft over the Russell Islands yields almost identical results to those of June 5.

1941 – First RCAF bomber attack was carried out by No. 405 (Bomber) Squadron against Schwerte, Southeast of Dortmund Germany.

1937 – About 70 German and Italian aircraft attack Basque defenses around Bilbao over the course of several hours.

1934 – In the United States, the Air Mail Act of 1934 closely regulates the contracting of air mail services and prohibits aircraft manufacturers from owning airlines.

1934 – Black-McKeller Bill passes causes Bill Boeing Empire to break up into Boeing United Aircraft (Technologies) & United Air Lines.

1930 – First flight of the Handley Page Heyford

1928 – Emilio Carranza crashes in the New Jersey Pine Barrens while returning from New York City to Mexico City on a historic goodwill flight.

1918 – First airplane bombing raid by an American unit, France.

1909 – Louis Blériot flies his Blériot XII monoplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux with two passengers, Alberto Santos-Dumont and André Fournier. This is the first time a pilot has flown with two passengers.

1897 – Friedrich Hermann Wölfert and his mechanic are killed in an accident when their airship powered by petrol caught fire at a demonstration at the Tempelhof field.

References

^ Anonymous, "ATC Strike Echoes Throughout Europe," ARC: Airport Regions Conference, 13 June 2013.
^ "1994 USAF Serial Numbers". Retrieved 2010-02-17.
^ "Iraq: U.S. Central Command Says Apache Was Downed By Hostile Fire".
^ "F-16 Aircraft Database: F-16 Airframe Details for 88-0424". F-16.net. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
^ MacCready Gossamer Albatross
^ Andrew Mynarski

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June 13

2013 – The Canadian AeroVelo Atlas human-powered helicopter makes a 64-second flight that reaches an altitude of 3.3 meters (11 feet), winning the American Helicopter Society International's Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Competition by becoming the first such helicopter to fly for at least 60 seconds and achieve an altitude of at least 3 meters (10 meters).^[1]

2013 – The French air traffic controller strike ends, having forced the cancellation of over 2,000 flights, without resolution of the issues which prompted it. Industrial actions in other countries related to the French strike also end.^[2]

2012 – A Colombian Army Mil Mi-17-1V crashed following a post-maintenance flight test in north eastern Colombia, pilot killed and two passengers injured.

2012 – A United States Air Force Bell-Boeing CV-22 Osprey of the 8th Special Operations Squadron, 1st Special Operations Wing, crashed on the Eglin AFB reservation north of Navarre, Florida, during a routine training mission, injuring all five crew. Three of the airmen were flown to local hospitals and two were taken by ambulance.

2011 – The second test launch of the Boeing X-51 Waverider ends in failure off the Southern California coast when the vehicle fails to separate from its booster rocket after an air launch from an Edwards AFB, California-based B-52 Stratofortress. Following the drop, the X-51 fell for about four seconds before its booster successfully ignited. The vehicle fell into the Pacific Ocean after the booster did not separate as intended.

2008 – Two United States Navy jets collided over the NAS Fallon, Nevada high desert training range, killing a pilot of the McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornet, based at NAS Oceana, Virginia. Two crew aboard the F-5 Tiger ejected safely and were rescued.

2007 – A Mongolian military Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashes in Selenge Province, Mongolia while en route to a forest fire killing 15 of the 22 people on board.

1996 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 865, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, aborts takeoff due to an engine failure and crashes into a threshold at Fukuoka Airport, killing three of 275 on board.

1990 – Boeing 767 sets nonstop commercial flight record, Seattle to Narobi Kenya.

1983 – Pioneer 10 is first man-made object to leave the Solar System.

1980 – The last produced Concorde (number 16) is delivered to British Airways.

1971 – A USAF Boeing EC-135N, 61-0331, c/n 18238, of the 4950th Test Wing, Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, en route from Pago Pago, American Samoa to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, after monitoring the French Encelade atmospheric nuclear test, conducted 12 June 1971, disappears over the Pacific Ocean ~70 miles S of Hawaii near Palmyra Island. Twelve military personnel and twelve civilians are lost. Only small bits of wreckage found.

1965 – Maiden flight of the UK's Britten-Norman BN2 "Islander", registration G-ATCT.

1962 – Capt. Richard H. Coan, USAF, sets a new closed-circuit distance record for helicopters when he flies a Kaman H-43 B Huskie a distance of 656.258 mi. This beats the previous record of 625.464 mi. set by a Soviet Mil Mi-1.

1961 – A USN Grumman S-2 Tracker lost complete power in one engine and partial power in the other. Flying instructor Lt. J.G Loren Vern Page, 24, died 6 hours later at Iberia Parish Hospital, in New Iberia, Louisiana. He intentionally attempted ditching the aircraft in Spanish Lake, near the Naval Auxiliary Air Station New Iberia, after losing power. Students Lt. J.G. Donald L. Miller and a second unnamed student were both hospitalized with treatable injuries. Lt. J.G. Page was posthumously promoted to full Lieutenant status by the Secretary of the Navy, John B. Connally, for courage and valor. Also named for courage during the rescue of the pilot and the 2 students were LCDR Alvin E. Henke, who commanded the rescue mission, Dr. Lt. Donald E. Hines (MC), and hospital corpsman 3rd class Arthur J. Hoeny. Lt. J.G. Miller was also credited with assisting in the rescue. Lt. Page was survived by his wife Elsa and a daughter, Deborah Anne.

1958 – A USAF Lockheed T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star, 56-1604, from RAF Alconbury and a RAF English Electric Canberra T.4, WT477, letting down into RAF Wyton, Huntingdonshire, collide in mid-air and come down ~5 miles from Alconbury, killing all crew of both aircraft. The T-33 had just overshot at Alconbury when the collision occurred at ~1,400 feet. The Canberra impacted in a cornfield near the village of Bishop Norton, near Brigg, Lincolnshire. In a separate accident ~10 minutes later, an airmen 2nd class mechanic, Vernon L. Morgan, with no flight training, makes an unauthorized take-off from RAF Alconbury in a B-45A-5-NA Tornado bomber, 47-046, of the 86th Bomb Squadron, 47th Bomb Wing, crashes three minutes later, the wreckage blocking the British Railways Eastern Division Edinburgh - King's Cross mainline at Abbots Ripton.

1953 – An McDonnell F2H-2 Banshee, BuNo 123333, suffers an engine fire while parked on the deck of the USS Lake Champlain CVA-39 off the coast of Korea, but is doused quickly.

1952 – (13-16) Soviet Air Force MiG-15 s shoot down a Swedish Air Force C-47 Dakota on an intelligence gathering mission over the Baltic Sea, and the PBY Catalina that is sent to search for survivors.

1951 – RAF English Electric Canberra B.1, VN850, bailed to Rolls-Royce for Avon engine tests. Crashed on approach to Hucknall with engine fire, coming down just outside field perimeter, killing Rolls-Royce test pilot R.B. Leach. This was the first loss of a Canberra.

1950 – AFirst of two RAF Cierva W.11 Air Horse helicopters, VZ724, G-ALCV, (at the time, the largest helicopter type flown), breaks up in flight and crashes due to fatigue failure of a swashplate carrier driving link in the front rotor hub, killing all three crew: Ministry of Supply chief helicopter test pilot Squadron Leader F. J. "Jeep" Cable, Cierva's Chief Test Pilot Alan Marsh and flight test engineer Joseph K. Unsworth.

1943 – The Pointblank Directive modifies the priorities established by the February Casablanca directive, elevating attacks on German fighter strength to the highest priority for the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force

1946 – First transcontinental round-trip flight 1-day, California-Maryland.

1945 – A USAAF Consolidated B-24H Liberator bomber, 42-95095, of the 66th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, returning home to the USA from Prestwick Airfield crashed at Shieldaig, in the remote Fairy Lochs in Wester Ross, Scotland, killing its entire crew of nine from 66th Bombardment Squadron; also on board were six crewmen from Air Transport Command. Pilot was Jack B. Ketcham.

1945 – Although small and remote, the Fairy Lochs are notable as the crash site of an American World War II bomber. On 13 June 1945, a USAAF B-24 Liberator bomber (serial 42-95095, based at the Warton Aerodrome) was returning home to the USA from Prestwick Airfield at the end of World War II. The crew of nine was from 66th Bomber Squadron; also on board were six crewmen from Air Transport Command. Its route via Keflavík (Meeks Field) in Iceland should have taken it over Stornoway in the Western Isles, but for an unknown reason the aircraft instead flew over the Scottish mainland. Over Wester Ross the aircraft began to lose height, and struck the summit of Slioch, a 980 m mountain overlooking Loch Maree, losing parts of its bomb bay doors, before flying on towards Gairloch. An attempted crash-landing resulted in the B-24 colliding with rocks and crashing into the Fairy Lochs, scattering wreckage over a wide area. All 15 crew and passengers on board perished in the accident.

1944 – W/C CGW Chapman and crew in a Consolidated Canso of No. 162 Squadron sank the German submarine U-715 north of the Shetland Isles.

1944 – Germany began launching flying-bomb attacks against Britain during World War II.

1943 – Blohm & Voss BV 138C-1, WNr.0310158, K6+AK, of 2.Staffel KüstenFlieger Gruppe 406, capsizes upon landing at Drontheim See Ilsvika in Trondheim harbour, Norway. Crew has to swim underwater to escape. Oblt. Ludwig Schönherr, wounded; Ltn. Günther Behr, wounded; Uffz. Heinz Kitzmann, unhurt; Uffz. Reinhold Zwanzig, unhurt; Ofw. Ernst Neumann, drowned. His body is recovered from inside the flying boat when it is recovered the following day.

1942 – The U. S. Navy makes its first operational test with Loran (long-range navigation) equipment with a receiver mounted in a K-2 airship on a flight from the Lakehurst, N. J. Naval Air Station.

1940 – Fifteen Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skuas of No. 800 and No. 803 squadrons from HMS Ark Royal join Royal Air Force Bristol Beaufort torpedo bombers escorted by Bristol Blenheim fighters in attacking Scharnhorst and other German warships anchored in Trondheimsfjord, Norway. After the Beauforts attack earlier than planned, the Skuas encounter heavy antiaircraft fire during their attack, and eight are shot down.

1929 – The United States Coast Guard establishes an “air traffic flight-following” capability along the coast of the continental United States employing a network of Coast Guard radio stations.

1927 – Charles Lindbergh honored in New York City for his trans-Atlantic flight. 750,000 lbs of ticker-tape shower down.

1921 – The US Army and Navy begin trials in Chesapeake Bay to test the effectiveness of aircraft in attacking ships. The captured German destroyer German destroyer G-102, light cruiser Frankfurt and battleship Ostfriesland will all be successfully sunk by aerial bombing.

1917 – 14 Gotha bombers make the most destructive air-raid on London of the First World War. Attacking in daylight, 162 people are killed and 432 wounded.

1916 – The Zeppelin-Lindau Dornier Rs II hydroplane, piloted by Schröter and Schulte, succeeds in taking off from Lake Constance, Germany, and makes a four-minute flight.

1914 – W. M. Stark flew his float-equipped Curtiss pusher biplane from Burrard Inlet to English Bay, Vancouver, BC.

1912 – Capt Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from an airplane.

References

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June 15

2013 – First Flight of the Airbus A350 XWB (registration F-WXWB) at Toulouse–Blagnac Airport, Toulouse, France.
2013 – Solar Impulse aircraft HB-SIA begins the fourth leg of its flight across the continental United States, flying a 678-kilometer (421-mile) segment from Lambert–St. Louis International Airport outside St. Louis, Missouri, to Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, in 15 hours 14 minutes at an average speed of 44.5 km/h (27.6 mph) and reaching a maximum altitude of 3,048 meters (10,000 feet). The 11-hour stop at Cincinnati during the trip to Washington Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., is inserted into the itinerary because of strong cross- and headwinds forecast for the flight and a legal requirement that the aircraft's pilot not exceed 24 hours continuously in the air; it also affords the Solar Impulse ground crew an opportunity to practice supporting the aircraft during stops planned on short notice.^[1]^[2]
2011 – NATO aircraft strike Waddan, Libya.^[3]
2011 – In response to Libya firing rockets into its territory, Tunisia flies a helicopter and a Tunisian Air Force F-5 Freedom Fighter along its border with Libya.^[3]
2011 – (Overnight) NATO jets resume airstrikes on Tripoli after a lull in such raids, bombarding mainly its eastern neighborhoods.^[3]
2009 – Express Air Flight 9000, a Dornier 328, registration PK-TXN, veers off the runway on landing at Tanah Merah Airport, Indonesia. The aircraft is substantially damaged.
2009 – A Royal Air Force Grob Tutor collided with a glider near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, killing a reservist pilot and a cadet. The glider pilot parachuted to safety.
1988 – First flight of the Sikorsky S-333
1985 – TWA Flight 847, a Boeing 727, is hijacked by Lebanese militants. One passenger is murdered during the three-day ordeal.
1982 – Argentinan forces surrender to English forces on the Falkland Islands. During their war, the English had destroyed 109 Argentinian planes, compared to only 10 lost by the British.
1982 – First flight of the Beechcraft Lightning
1972 – Japan Airlines Flight 471, a Japan Airlines flight from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand to Palam International Airport (now Indira Gandhi International Airport) in New Delhi, India. The Douglas DC-8-53 used crashed outside of the New Delhi airport, killing 82 of 87 occupants; 10 of 11 crew members and 72 of 76 passengers died, and 3 people on the ground died. 16 of the dead were Americans. Brazilian actress Leila Diniz was also among the killed.
1967 – Mariner V launched from Cape Kennedy on a flight past Venus.
1957 – HMCS Magnificent was paid off and returned to the Royal Navy.
1950 – An Air France Douglas DC-4, F-BBDM, crashes in the Arabian Sea while on approach to Bahrain Airport, killing 40 of 53 on board. This aircraft was operating on the same flight route as F-BBDE.
1947 – A Boeing B-29A-70-BN Superfortress, 44-62228, of the 64th Bombardment Squadron, 43rd Bombardment Group, off-course in stormy weather, slammed into the granite face of Hawks Mountain a few hundred feet below its 2,300 foot crest, near Springfield, Vermont just before midnight, killing all eleven crew. The bomber, based at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona, had refueled at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was bound for Bedford, Massachusetts when it apparently became lost. Local residents reported hearing it circle over Springfield and nearby Perkinsville shortly before impact and seeing it blinking its lights at an altitude of 1,000 feet or less.
1945 – First flight of the Avro Tudor, the first British pressurized civilian aircraft
1944 – First B-29 raid against mainland Japan took place on the night of 15-16 Jun 1944 with 75 XX Bomber Command B-29s flying from China to attack the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata in northern Kyūshū.^[4]^{[better source needed]}
1944 – June 14-15 (overnight), flying a Mosquito of 605 Sqn, Flt Lt J G Musgrave became first pilot to shoot down a V1 flying bomb.
1944 – To disrupt attacks on the Normandy invasion force by small German naval craft, Royal Air Force Bomber Command strikes the harbor at Le Havre, France, just before midnight, sinking the German torpedo boats Falke, Jaguar, and Möwe, 10 S-boats, 15 R-boats, several patrol and harbor vessels, and 11 other small craft and badly damaging other vessels.
1944 – (14–15) Task Force 58 carrier aircraft strike the Volcano Islands, Guam, Saipan, and Tinian.
1943 – Boeing B-17C Flying Fortress, 40-2072, "Miss E.M.F." (Every Morning Fixing), of the 19th Bomb Group, heavily damaged on Davao mission 25 December 1941 and converted into transport. With 46th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, crashed Bakers Creek, Queensland, Australia, this date while ferrying troops to New Guinea. Six crew and 34 GIs killed. One survived. (see Bakers Creek air crash) A memorial to the victims of this crash was installed at the Selfridge Gate of Arlington National Cemetery on 11 June 2009, donated by the Bakers Creek Memorial Association. The gate is named for Lt. Thomas Selfridge, killed in a 1908 crash at Fort Myer, Virginia, the first victim of a powered air accident.
1943 – Accompanying a raid by 197 British Lancaster bombers against Oberhausen, Germany, five British Beaufighter night fighters make the first operational use of Serrate, a radar detector and homing device that allows them to home in on German night fighters employing the Lichtenstein airborne radar from up to 80 km (50 mi) away and intercept them. The Beaufighters do not intercept any German aircraft during the raid, however, and 17 British bombers are lost.
1942 – (14-16) German and Italian aircraft join Italian surface warships and submarines in opposing Operation Harpoon, an Allied Malta resupply convoy from Gibraltar escorted by the British aircraft carriers HMS Argus and HMS Furious, and Operation Vigorous, a simultaneous resupply convoy from Alexandria, Egypt; Royal Air Force and U. S. Army Air Forces aircraft from Malta and North Africa provide support to the convoys. Before the remnants of the Harpoon convoy arrive at Malta and the Vigorous convoy turns back to Alexandria, Axis aircraft sink three merchant cargo ships, fatally damage three destroyers, a cargo ship, and a tanker, and damage the British light cruisers HMS Birmingham and HMS Liverpool. Royal Air Force Beaufort torpedo bombers knock the Italian battleship Littorio out of action for two months, and disable the Italian heavy cruiser Trento, allowing a British subarine to sink her.
1941 – Ground broken for Boeing Plant II (ex-AFLC Plant 13) Wichita, KS.
1940 – In the Kaleva shootdown, an Aero Junkers Ju 52/3mge flying from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland is shot down by two Soviet bombers over the Gulf of Finland during peacetime; all nine aboard die.
1938 – First flight of the Hawker Hotspur
1937 – German aircraft of the Condor Legion strafe refugees from Bilbao as they flee along the road to Santander.
1934 – United States Navy Curtiss XSBC-1 Helldiver, BuNo 9225, crashed at Lancaster, New York. Rebuilt, it will crash again in September.
1929 – In efforts to encourage passenger traffic for their expanding international air routes, British Imperial Airways makes the first 30-minute “tea” flight over London, costing £2 2 s, reduced 1931 to £1 10 s.
1923 – New Zealand forms its first military aviation services, fore-runners of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
1919 – Cpt John Alcock and Lt Arthur Whitten Brown set out on the first successful non-stop Atlantic crossing, flying a Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Ireland in 16 hours. They win £10,000 from the Daily Mail and are both knighted.
1917 – Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H.12 Large America flying boat 8677 shoots down the German Zeppelin L.43.
1903 – Arthur William Raynes McDonald, radar pioneer/pilot, was born.

References

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June 15

2013 – Google reveals its previously secret Project Loon with the first public launch of a maneuverable unmanned balloon designed to operate in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 12 miles (19.3 km) and bring broadband wireless Internet access to remote regions and areas affected by natural disasters. Google has launched 30 such balloons during the week from a field near Lake Tekapo on New Zealand's South Island to test the system over the cities of Christchurch and Canterbury.^[1]^[2]^[3]

2013 – Escorted by Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, Egyptair Flight 985, a Boeing 777 with 326 people on board bound from Cairo, Egypt, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, makes an emergency landing at Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Prestwick, Scotland, after a passenger finds a note in one of its lavatories making a threat to set the aircraft on fire.^[4]^[5]

2011 – A NATO commander confirms that NATO warplanes have bombed an ammunition store at Waddan, Libya.^[6]

2007 – A US F-16, serial 89-2031, from the Ohio ANG crashed on takeoff at night. The pilot, Maj. Kevin Sonnenberg, was killed. The cause was not hostile fire and is believed to be pilot spatial disorientation.^[7]^[8]

1992 – Ghana Airways inaugurates flights to JFK Airport (NYC).

1992 – First Berlin Air Show in 60 years.

1985 – Amal Party gunmen hijack a TWA Flight 847 en route from Rome to Athens. The plane, which includes some Jewish passengers, is then re-routed and taken to Algiers, Beirut, and Algiers again before setting in Beirut. The 39 passengers and crew are freed on July 1 after Israel agrees to free 700 Shiite prisoners.

1984 – Entered Service: Saab 340 with Crossair.

1978 – The third prototype Mikoyan MiG-29, '03 Blue/903', utilized for powerplant testing, crashes on its ninth flight when one of the engines suffers an uncontained compressor failure and fragments sever the control runs. The fighter flicks into an irrecoverable spin. Test pilot Valeriy Menitskiy ejects safely.

1972 – A carry-on suitcase bomb explodes on Cathay Pacific Flight 700Z, a Convair 880, at 29,000 feet (8,800 m) over Vietnam; all 81 on board perish.

1971 – Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter, 56-0756, c/n 183-1044, assigned to Aerospace Research Pilot School, Edwards AFB, California, suffers second rocket explosion this date, blowing the whole rocket motor and part of rudder off in flight at 35.000 ft and Mach 1.15. Pilot Capt. Howard C. Thompson lands safely but as the NF-104 project is due to end soon aircraft is written off and portions of it used to create the composite "760" sitting on a pole at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB.

1970 – The Soviet MVD arrests a group of 12 Soviet “refuseniks” at Smolny Airport outside of Leningrad before they can board a 12-seater Aeroflot Antonov An-2 for a flight to Priozersk. Pretending to be a wedding party, they had purchased all 12 tickets available for the flight and intended to hijack the plane as a means of escaping to the West.

1965 – Two U. S. Army UH-1D Iroquois helicopters collide in mid-air over Fort Benning, Georgia, in the United States, killing 18 people.

1959 – A monument was unveiled at Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, N. S. commemorating the flight of the Silver Dart in 1909.

1953 – The Royal Navy aircraft carriers HMS Eagle, HMS Illustrious, HMS Implacable, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Indomitable, HMS Perseus, and HMS Theseus, the Royal Canadian Navy aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent, and the Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney and 37 squadrons of Fleet Air Arm and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve aircraft – Including Fireflies, Sea Furies, Seafires, Attackers, Vampires, Skyraiders, Sea Hornets, Meteors, Avengers, Gannets, Wyverns, Sea Venoms, Sea Hawks, and Dragonflies – Take part in the Coronation Review of the Fleet for Queen Elizabeth II. The ceremonies include a fly-past by 300 naval aircraft.

1949 – Sole prototype reconnaissance Gloster Meteor FR Mk. 5, VT347, breaks up in the air during its first flight, killing pilot Rodney Dryland on either 13 or 15 July 1949. This version is not proceeded with.

1946 – No. 437 Squadron was disbanded.

1946 – The Navy's new Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, gives its first public performance at Craig Field in Jacksonville, Florida.

1945 – First flight of the North American F-82 Twin Mustang was on 26 June 1945.

1944 – The United States Army Air Forces’ Twentieth Air Force begins the strategic bombing offensive against Japan, with China-based B-29 Superfortresses attacking Yawata (now Kitakyūshū) on Kyūshū. It is the second air raid against Japan proper in history, and the first since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942.

1944 – U. S. forces land on Saipan.

1944 – Carrier aircraft of U. S. Navy Task Groups 58.1 and 58.4 strike Chichi Jima, Haha Jima, and Iwo Jima, shooting down 10 Japanese aircraft, destroying seven on the ground and 21 seaplanes on the water, and setting fire to three small cargo ships and a hangar. Three U. S. aircraft are lost.

1944 – Japanese torpedo bombers attack Task Force 58, inflicting no damage and suffering heavy losses.

1944 – Royal Air Force Bomber Command strikes the harbor at Boulogne, France, at dusk, sinking 25 German R-boats and small craft and damaging 10 others, completing the destruction of the German naval surface forces threatening the Allied landings at Normandy.

1943 – First flight of the Arado Ar 234 but sources disagree, with dates as late as 30 July 1943.

1943 – No. 434 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.

1942 – No. 135 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Patricia Bay, BC.

1942 – No. 147 (BR) Squadron was formed at Sea Island, Vancouver, BC

1940 – (15-18) Royal Air Force fighter cover allows the evacuation by sea from France to the United Kingdom of 52,104 troops from Cherbourg and St. Malo, France, without loss.

1938 – Nationalist aircraft sink the Republican gunboat Laya at Valencia, Spain.

1936 – First flight of the Vickers Wellington

1936 – First flight of the Westland Lysander

1934 – First flight of the Short Singapore (III)

1931 – Canadian Airways pilot E. W. Stull in a Fokker F.14 A, flew the first radio beam from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

1928 – Mail is successfully transferred from an airplane in flight to a train as Lt. Karl S. Axtater flies directly over an Illinois Central train and transfers a mail bag to a railway clerk.

1928 – An Imperial Airways AW Argosy piloted by Gordon Olley races the London and North Eastern Railway’s Flying Scotsman train the 390 miles from London to Edinburgh; the Argosy takes 84 min to refuel twice en route and beats the train by only 15 min.

1927 – US businessman Van Lear Black charters a KLM Fokker F.VIIa for a flight from the Netherlands to Batavia, the first international charter flight.

1921 – The First U. S. Black female pilot, Bessie Coleman, received her license.

1919 – First flight across the Atlantic (Alcock and Brown).

1916 – First flight of the Boeing Model 1, William Boeing’s first aircraft.

1910 – The world’s youngest flyer, 15-year-old Frenchman Marcel Hanriot, gets his pilot’s brevet, no. 15.

1785 – Pilâtre de Rozier and Jules Romain become the first known aeronautical fatalities when their balloon crashes during an attempt to cross the English Channel.

References

^ Kang, Cecilia, "Google To Use Balloons To Provide Free Internet Access To Remote Or Poor Areas," washingtonpost.com, June 14, 2013.
^ Lawson, Helen, and Associated Press, "Project Loon Takes to the Skies: Now Google Launches BALLOONS in Bid to Bring Internet to the Remotest Places On Earth," dailymail.co.uk, 15 June 2013, 09:26 EST
^ Goldhill, Olivia, "Google's 'Internet Balloons' Offer Remote Areas Web Access," The Telegraph, 15 June 2013, 7:00 a.m. BST.
^ Osley, Richard, and Kevin Rawlinson, "'I’ll set this plane on fire': Note causes transatlantic Egyptair plane diversion to Glasgow Prestwick Airport," independent.co.uk, 15 June 2013.
^ Anonymous, "Prestwick airport incident: 100 passengers exit from Egyptair plane after aircraft is forced to land following discovery of note threatening to start a fire," dailyrecord.co.uk, 15 June 2013, 17:16.
^ Carey, Nick; Boudlal, Youssef (14 June 2011). "NATO Strikes Tripoli, Libyan Rebels Make Gains". Reuters. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
^ "DoD Identifies Air Force Casualty". U.S. Department of Defence. 2007-06-16. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
^ "Pilot killed in an F-16 fighter crash on takeoff in Iraq, Air Force says". International Herald Tribune. 2007-06-16. Retrieved 2007-06-17.

Edit today's anniversaries

June 16

2013 – Solar Impulse aircraft HB-SIA completes the fourth leg of its flight across the continental United States, completing the fourth leg's second segment, a 702-kilometer (436-mile) trip from Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio – from which it had departed on 15 June after an 11-hour stopover – to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia outside Washington, D.C. The flight takes 14 hours 4 minutes at an average speed of 50 km/h (31 mph) and reaches a maximum altitude of 3,048 meters (10,000 feet). During its stay, the aircraft is placed on temporary display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center adjacent to the airport.^[1]

2011 – The Russian Federation’s flag carrier Aeroflot puts its first Sukhoi Superjet 100 into service.

2010 – Trans States Airlines Flight 8050, operated by Embraer ERJ-145 N847HK overran the runway at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport and was substantially damaged when the nose gear collapsed.^[2]

2009 – Two Spanish Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornets collide in midair near the Canary Islands, Spain. Both pilots eject safely.

1984 – Frontier Airlines pilot Emily Warner and co-pilot Barbara Cook make history by directing the first all-female commercial airline crew, on a flight from Denver to Lexington, Kentucky.

1963 – Vostok 6 launched. The pilot is Valentina Tereshkova, first woman cosmonaut.

1963 – During the Paris Air Show, first prototype Hawker Siddeley P.1127, XP831, flown by A. W. "Bill" Bedford, is demonstrating low level hovering when a tiny fragment of debris fouls a nozzle actuating motor causing the aircraft to lose height rapidly and crash. Pilot unhurt and the airframe is repaired. Upon retirement, this historic airframe is preserved in the Sir Sydney Camm Memorial Hall at the RAF Museum, Hendon.

1961 – Royal Canadian Navy pilot SubLt. I.K. Rassow is killed when he flies his McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126434 of VF-870, into a rocky knoll during aerobatic practice near Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia.

1959 – A US Navy Martin P4M Mercator is attacked by North Korean Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s off the North Korean coast. The Mercator's crew returned the aircraft safely to Japan.

1956 – A USAF MATS Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-5183, inbound to Enewetak Atoll, Pacific Ocean, carrying nuclear test device components (possibly for the EGG device fired during the Operation Redwing Mohawk test) crashed 421 feet (128 m) short of, and eight feet below, the runway at Enewetak Island, shearing off its landing gear and coming to rest 2,000 feet (610 m) from the southeast end of the runway. Fire ensued, extinguished within three hours. No loss of life – most of the cargo, although damaged by water and foam, was recovered. The runway was cleared of wreckage and reopened to normal traffic before noon on 17 June:. Salvage of certain aircraft components was accomplished by a team from Hickam AFB, Hawaii.

1955 – As part of an attempted coup against President Juan Perón, Argentine Naval Aviation and Argentine Air Force aircraft bomb and strafe the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires and the adjacent Plaza de Mayo while a large crowd is gathered there to express support for Perón, killing 364 people and injuring over 800. The bombing of Plaza de Mayo is the largest aerial bombing ever to take place in mainland Argentina.

1954 – First flight of the Lockheed XFV (first official flight)

1952 – June 16-17 – Soviet Air Force MiG-15 s shoot down a Royal Swedish Air Force C-47 Dakota on an intelligence gathering mission over the Baltic Sea, and the PBY Catalina that is sent to search for survivors.

1950 – AThe McDonnell XF-88A Voodoo, 46-526, piloted by Gen. Frank K. Everest, is damaged in a belly landing after engine failure at Edwards AFB, California, this date. The XF-88A will eventually be sent to the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory to serve as a spares source in 1955 in support of flight testing of the XF-88B, 46-525, through 1956, after which both airframes are scrapped.

1949 – Air France commences hourly flights from Paris to London

1945 – The RCAF accepts its first Victory Aircraft built Lancaster X (FM101).

1944 – 54 carrier aircraft of Task Groups 58.1 and 58.4 strike Iwo Jima, claiming 63 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground for the loss of one U. S. aircraft. Aircraft of other Task Force 58 task groups strike Japanese airfields on Guam and Tinian in an effort to neutralize them, but are unsuccessful in the face of strong antiaircraft defenses.

1944 – The incomplete Italian aircraft carrier Aquila is damaged in an Allied air raid on Genoa.

1943 – A Boeing B-17E-BO, converted to Boeing XB-38-VE, 41-2401, with Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines. Wrecked near Tipton, California, on its ninth test flight when the number three (starboard inner) engine caught fire. Attempts to extinguish it were unsuccessful, and as the fire spread to the wing, the pilots bailed out after pointing the aircraft to an uninhabited area. Lockheed test pilot George MacDonald was killed when his parachute did not deploy, and Lockheed test pilot Bud Martin was seriously injured when his parachute did not deploy properly.

1943 – A raid by 94 Japanese aircraft – 24 Aichi D3 A (Allied reporting name “Val”) dive bombers and 70 Zero fighters – Attack U. S. shipping in Ironbottom Sound off Guadalcanal. They damage a cargo ship and a tank landing ship and shoot down six U. S. fighters, but almost all the Japanese aircraft are lost.

1941 – USAAF Douglas O-38F, 33-324, c/n 1177, first aircraft to land at Ladd Field, Alaska, in October 1940, this aircraft flew various missions until it crashed on 16 June 1941, at 1450 hrs., due to engine failure about 70 miles (110 km) SE of Fairbanks. Uninjured, the pilot, Lt. Milton H. Ashkins, and his mechanic, Sgt. Raymond A. Roberts, hiked to safety after supplies were dropped to them. The abandoned aircraft remained in the Alaskan wilderness until the National Museum of the United States Air Force arranged for its recovery by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from Fort Greeley on 10 June 1968. Despite being exposed to the Alaskan weather for 27 years, the aircraft remained in remarkable condition. Only the wings required extensive restoration.

1941 – The Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron No. 411(F) formed in England with Spitfire Mk 1 A aircraft.

1941 – National Airport (today Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) opens on land along the western shore of the Potomac River that technically belongs to Washington, D. C. In 1945, the United States Congress will redefine the land the airport occupies as being in Arlington, Virginia, to end confusion and disputes over local jurisdiction.

1939 – Air France commences hourly flights from Paris to London

1936 – The United States Coast Guard Cutter George W. Campbell (WPG-32) is the first Treasury-class cutter commissioned. The Treasury-class cutters are the first United States Coast Guard ships capable of carrying an airplane (a Grumman J2 F Duck, Curtiss SOC-4, or Waco J2 W-1 seaplane).

1936 – The Havørn Accident (Norwegian: Havøyn-ulykken) was a controlled flight into terrain of a Junkers Ju 52 aircraft into the mountain Lihesten in Hyllestad, Norway on 16 June 1936 at 07:00. The aircraft, operated by Norwegian Air Lines, was en route from Bergen to Tromsø. The pilots were unaware that they were flying a parallel to the planned course, 15 to 20 km (9.3 to 12 mi) further east. The crew of four and three passengers were all killed in what was the first fatal aviation accident in Norway. The aircraft landed on a shelf on the mountain face. A first expedition found four bodies, but attempts to reach the shelf with the main part of the aircraft and three more bodies failed. A second party was sent out two days later, coordinated by Bernt Balchen and led by Boye Schlytter and Henning Tønsberg, saw the successful salvage of the remaining bodies.

1932 – The Lockheed Aircraft Corp. finally closes down eight months after the receivers were called in to its parent company, Detroit Aircraft Corp. On June 21, investment broker Robert Ellsworth Gross leads a consortium that buys the assets and opens a new company under the same name.

1926 – Entered Service: Armstrong Whitworth Argosy with Imperial Airways

1924 – First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.51

1922 – 1922 – Henry Berliner demonstrates a primitive helicopter to the US Navy.

1921 – First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.46

1917 – Imperial German Navy Zeppelin L 40, LZ88, damaged beyond repair in a failed landing at Nordholz.

1909 – A two-day celebration in Dayton, Ohio marks the homecoming of the Wrights.

1909 – First US airplane sold commercially, by Glenn Curtiss for $5,000.

References

^ Dijakovic, Viktoria, "Across America 2013 Cincinnati to Washington: Humor Makes It Happen," solarimpulse.com, 16 June 2013.
^ Hradecky, Simon. "Accident: Trans States E145 at Ottawa on June 16th 2010, runway overrun". Aviation Herald. Retrieved 17 June 2010.

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June 17

2009 – A Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24MR Fencer crashes on landing at the Monchegorsk Airforce Base, Murmansk Oblast, Russia. The aircraft from the 98th Separate Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment suffered a heavy landing forcing the 2 crew to eject safely.

2002 – C-130 Hercules airtanker crashes: Two large airtankers – A C-130 Hercules and a PB4Y-2 Privateer – crashed about a month apart while performing aerial firefighting operations.

2000 – CityFlyer Express Flight 8106 was a BAe 146 aircraft hijacked on a flight from Zürich Airport to London Gatwick Airport. After the aircraft landed at Gatwick, the hijacker was arrested without any injuries to the occupants.

1998 – Kamov Ka-50, Hokum, crash at Army Aviation Combat Training Centre, Torzhok, kills Gen. Boris Vorobyov.

1991 – Alaska Airlines commences services to the Soviet Union

1989 – Stanley David Griggs, Astronaut (STS 51-D), dies plane crash at 59.

1986 – Last flight ever by a Boeing B-47 Stratojet when B-47E-25-DT, 52-0166, was restored to flight status for a one-time-only ferry move from Naval Weapons Center China Lake, California to Castle Air Force Base, California for museum display.

1986 – Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, 63-7983, c/n 18600, 305th Air Refuelling Wing, Det. 1, TDY, hits the runway at Howard AB, Panama, becomes airborne again and then crashes into a hill in the jungle.

1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-G at 11:33:00 UTC. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments. Flight of first member of royalty, Saudi, Muslim, and Arab in space, Sultan Salman Al Saud.

1983 – First flight of the Robin ATL

1981 – Two Indonesian Air Force BAe Hawk T.53s collide over Indonesia.

1979 – Air New England Flight 248, a De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, crashes near Camp Greenough, Massachusetts while on approach to Barnstable Municipal Airport, killing the pilot.

1970 – Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7970, Item 2021, collides with KC-135Q tanker 20 miles E of El Paso, Texas. Pilot Buddy Brown and RSO Mort Jarvis eject safely. Tanker limps back to Beale Air Force Base, California.

1969 – Black Panther Party member William Lee Brent hijacks Trans World Airlines Flight 154 and forces it to take him to Havana, Cuba. He will reside in Cuba until his death in 2006.

1967 – The Vietnam War‘s heaviest air attacks in nine months are American strikes targeting railroads near Hanoi.

1965 – US Navy fighters from VF-21 shoot down two North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s

1961 – First flight of the HAL HF-24 Marut

1959 – First flight of the Dassault Mirage IV. The first European supersonic jet bomber, is made in France. This high-performance combat aircraft flies at Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound).

1955 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-104

1955 – First flight of the Bensen B-7

1953 – An McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee of VC-4 Det. 6 (?), landing aboard the USS Coral Sea, CVA-43, during Mediterranean cruise, misses all arresting wires, then bounces completely over the nylon Davis safety barrier. Aircraft shears port undercarriage leg off on a starter tractor and then crashes into a pair of Douglas AD Skyraiders spotted on the forward flight deck before continuing over the bow. Pilot Lt. (jg) Robert E. Berger, of Denver, Colorado, killed in the accident, posthumously receives the Navy and Marine Corps Medal which is presented to his widow in a ceremony at the Naval training center of the Denver Federal Center.

1952 – Entered Service: Airship ZPN-1 with the US Navy

1948 – United Airlines Flight 624, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania after errors in attempting to extinguish what was believed to have been an onboard fire; all 43 on board die.

1947 – Pan Am begins a New York to San Francisco service flying west-to-east around almost the entire globe.

1947 – First round-the-world civil air service leaves New York City.

1945 – 457 B-29 Superfortresses drop 3,195 tons (2,898,485 kg) of bombs on Ōmuta and other cities in Japan.

1944 – Japanese aircraft attack American warships off Saipan, damaging the escort aircraft carrier USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE-70).

1944 – 35 carrier aircraft of Task Group 58.4 strike the Japanese airfield on Pagan Island, finding no aircraft but damaging several buildings.

1942 – U. S. Army Air Forces conduct a test at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, successfully picking up gliders from the ground by an airplane flying at more than 100 mph.

1941 – The RCAF formed the 409 (Night Fighter) Squadron with Defiant NFI aircraft.

1941 – The Royal Navy commissions its first escort aircraft carrier, HMS Empire Audacity. She later will be renamed HMS Audacity and become the world’s first escort carrier to deploy in combat.

1940 – A detachment of five Douglas B-18 Digby’s from No. 10 (BR) Squadron at Dartmouth, commenced operation from Gander Airport. This was the first RCAF Operation in Newfoundland.

1940 – German aircraft bomb the British ocean liner RMS Lancastria in Quiberon Bay after she has taken aboard 5,800 Allied troops for evacuation from France to the United Kingdom. She catches fire and sinks in 15 min, with the loss of 3,000 lives.

1929 – An Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 ditches in the English Channel due to engine failure, killing 7 of 13 on board.

1928 – Amelia Earhart becomes first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. During this flight, she accompanied pilot Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon, nominally as a passenger, but with the added duty of keeping the flight log.

1917 – In daylight, 21 German Gotha bombers make Germany‘s second heavier-than-air bombing attack on England. Seven bombers attack small towns in Kent and Essex and 14 attack London. The bombers kill 162 people and injure 432.

1916 – Royal Aircraft Factory R. E.8.

1916 – The first French ace, Jean Navarre, is shot down and wounded, ending his combat career with 12 confirmed kills.

1910 – Romanian engineer and inventor Aurel Vlaicu flies his first airplane, Vlaicu I

References

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June 18

2021 - First flight of the Boeing 737 MAX 10

2013 – A tornado passes between Runways 34R and 34L at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, passing 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) east of the airport's A gates, causing thousands of people to take cover in stairwells, restrooms, and other safe areas. The anemometer at the airport's weather station records a peak wind gust of 97 mph (156 km/h) before breaking. Nine flights are diverted to other airports during the 40-minute tornado warning.^[1]^[2]

2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-21 Bison from the Chabua Air Force Station, Assam, India crashes due to a technical fault while on a routine training flight, the pilot successfully ejecting from the aircraft.

2004 – Airblue flies its first flight, a private airline in Pakistan

1986 – Grand Canyon Airlines Flight 6, a De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, collides with a Bell 206 helicopter over the Tonto Plateau, killing all 25 on board both aircraft.

1983 – Launch: Space shuttle Challenger STS-7 at 11:33:00 UTC. Mission highlights: First US woman in space Sally Ride; Multiple comsat deployments; First deployment and retrieval of a satellite SPAS.

1981 – First flight of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk

1972 – British European Airways Flight 548, a Hawker Siddeley Trident, undergoes a series of stalls as a result of pilot error, followed by a deep stall, crashing near Staines, United Kingdom; all 118 on board are killed.

1972 – General Dynamics F-111A, 67-0082, c/n A1-127, crashes near Eglin AFB, Florida, shortly after takeoff. Lost control after an external fuel fire and explosion. Unsuccessful ejection, crew killed.

1971 – Southwest Airlines is founded

1965 – The first B-52 Stratofortress missions are flown against North Vietnam

1965 – Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter, 56-0756, c/n 183-1044, assigned to Air Force Systems Command Test Pilot School, Edwards AFB, California, suffers rocket oxidizer explosion this date, blowing off portion of the tail, pilot landed safely. Repaired and flown again.

1965 – On the very first Operation Arc Light mission flown by Boeing B-52 Stratofortress aircraft of SAC to hit a target in South Vietnam, a total of 30 B-52Fs depart Andersen AFB, Guam just after midnight, flying in ten cells of three aircraft, to hit a suspected Viet Cong stronghold in the Bến Cát District, 40 miles N of Saigon. Unexpected tailwinds from a typhoon cause the bombers to arrive seven minutes early at their refuelling point with KC-135 tankers over the South China Sea at a point between South Vietnam and the island of Luzon. The three planes of Green Cell, in the lead, begin a 360 degree turn to make their rendezvous, and in doing so cross the path of Blue Cell and directly towards oncoming Yellow Cell. In the darkness, Boeing B-52F-105-BO Stratofortress, 57-0047, and Boeing B-52F-70-BW Stratofortress, 57-0179, both of the 441st Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, attached to the 3960th Strategic Wing, collide, killing eight crew, with four survivors, plus one body recovered. The four are located and picked up by an HU-16A-GR Albatross amphibian, 51-5287 (?), but it is damaged on take-off by a heavy sea state and those on board have to transfer to a Norwegian freighter and a Navy vessel, the Albatross sinking thereafter. Another B-52 loses a hydraulic pump and radar, cannot rendezvous with the tankers and aborts to Okinawa. Twenty-seven Stratofortresses drop on a one-mile by two-mile target box from between 19,000 and 22,000 feet, a little more than 50 percent of the bombs falling within the target zone. The force returns to Andersen except for one bomber with electrical problems that recovers to Clark AFB, the mission having lasted 13 hours. Post-strike assessment by teams of South Vietnamese troops with American advisors find evidence that the VC had departed the area before the raid, and it is suspected that infiltration of the south's forces have tipped off the north because of the ARVN troops involved in the post-strike inspection.

1962 – To reduce the chances of Viet Cong forces slipping away from large South Vietnamese ground units by fleeing operations areas in small groups, U. S. Marine Corps helicopters operating in South Vietnam begin to use the “Eagle Flight” tactic, in which Marine transport helicopters circle contested areas and drop off South Vietnamese troops when and where they are needed to block escaping Viet Cong forces. It will become a proven tactic by the middle of July.

1953 – A United States Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-0137, c/n 43471, crashes at Kodaira, Japan after engine failure on take-off at Tachikawa Air Force Base, Tokyo, Japan. 129 die, making this the deadliest recorded disaster in aviation history at the time.

1951 – An infamous day in the history of RAF Biggin Hill when three Gloster Meteors and their pilots are killed in accidents, all three crashing in an area of about 100 yards. The first, a Mk.8 piloted by Flight Lieutenant Gordon McDonald of 41 Squadron, crashed shortly after take off, corkscrewing as pieces of structure fell from the aircraft. The aircraft hit a bungalow killing the pilot. The jet wash of his flight leader was named as a possible cause. Within seconds of this accident two Mk.4 Meteors of 600 Sqn, piloted by Sergeant Kenneth Clarkson and Squadron Leader Phillip Sandeman, both circling over the wreckage and preparing to land, collided at 2,000 feet (610 m) above the scene. Although Sandeman managed to bail out he was killed when his parachute failed to open. Clarkson was killed in his aircraft. A week after this incident, another Meteor overshot the runway, narrowly missing passing cars. After these incidents, several residents stated they would be "selling up" and there were calls for traffic lights to be sited on the Bromley road for use during take-offs and landings. Princess Elizabeth, soon to be Queen Elizabeth II, was visiting the base on this day.

1940 – The last deployed element of the RAF’s Advanced Air Striking Force – some Hurricane fighters – withdraws from France and the Channel Islands to the United Kingdom.

1939 – The first direct transatlantic seaplane service is begun by Pan American Airways. It flies from New York to Southampton, England, by way of Botwood, Newfoundland, and Foynes, Ireland.

1937 – First flight of the de Havilland Don

1937 – June 18-20, Valery Chkalov, G. F. Baidukov, A. V. Belyakov flew from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington, USA via the North Pole.

1935 – The Seversky SEV-2XP is heavily damaged (perhaps intentionally) while en route to Wright Field, Ohio, for the 1935 U.S. Army Air Corps competition for a new single-seat fighter. The two-seat design is reworked into a single-seater with retractable undercarriage when the Air Corps delays the competition until April 1936.

1932 – First flight of the Dewoitine D.500

1928 – A Latham 47 flying boat carrying Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen and five others on a flight to search for survivors of the Italian airship Italia disappears. Their bodies are never found.

1926 – First flight of the Blackburn Iris

1922 – The first soaring flight of one hour in slope lift (using hill currents) is made by Arthur Martens in a Vampyr sailplane designed by Wolfgang Klemmperer at the Wasserkuppe, Rhön, Germany.

1920 – The first aircraft were taken on strength by the Canadian Air Force. They were four Avro 504 ks, registered G-CYAA to G-CYAD.

1916 – First German ace Max Immelmann (17 victories) is killed at ~2215 hrs. when his Fokker E.III monoplane, 246-16, crashes after breaking up in the air when the interrupter gear malfunctions and he shoots away his own propeller. He had been engaging an F.E.2b piloted by 2nd Lt. G. R. Gubbin with Cpl. J. H. Waller as gunner. Gubbin and Waller were credited with the victory, but another theory posits that Immelmann may have taken hits from friendly AAA, as the propeller failure would not necessarily have caused the complete airframe disintegration that occurred.

1877 – Samuel Archer King makes a two-hour airmail flight of 26 miles between Nashville and Gallatin, Tennessee, in the balloon Buffalo.

1861 – Thaddeus S. C. Lowe transmits the first telegraphic message ever sent from a balloon during a test at the Columbia Armory, Washington, D. C.

References

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June 19

2011 – A NATO airstrike accidentally hits a civilian neighborhood in Tripoli, Libya. The Libyan government claims that at least five people died in the attack.^[1]^[2]

2010 – Aero Service CASA C-212 Aviocar TN-AFD crashed in the Republic of the Congo killing all eleven people on board, including Australian mining magnate Ken Talbot

2010 – 2010 Air Service Berlin Douglas C-47 crash was a Berlin Air Services Douglas DC-3 D-CXXX that crashed shortly after take-off from Berlin Schönefeld Airport on a local sightseeing flight. Eight people were injured and the aircraft was substantially damaged.

2009 – A Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24MR Fencer crashes near the village of Kostino-Bystrianská, Rostov-on-Don, Rostov Oblast, Russia. The aircraft from the 1st Composite Air Division, North Caucasus Military District suffered a mechanical fault forcing the 2 crew to eject safely after several aborted landings. The Russian Airforce fleet of Sukhoi Su-24 was grounded for technical inspection after 2 accidents in a week.

2003 – AH-64A Apache 87-0498 of R Troop, 4th Squadron, 3d ACR makes hard landing following inflight fire. Helicopter is written off.^[3]

2002 – (June 19 and July 3) First solo non-stop balloon flight around the Earth: Steve Fossett—from Northam, Western Australia to Queensland, Australia, on a 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom. Taking a total time of 13 days, 8 hours, 33 min.

1994 – Royal Air Force BAe 146 CC.2 ZE700, operated by No. 32 Squadron RAF and flown by HRH The Prince of Wales overran the runway at Islay Airport, Argyll and Bute. The aircraft had been landed downwind. There were no injuries amongst the eleven people on board although the aircraft suffered substantial damage when the nose gear collapsed. The aircraft was subsequently repaired and returned to service.

1992 – A U.S. Navy Sikorsky H-53 crashes into a river near Virginia Beach, Virginia, this date, apparently killing all seven aboard, authorities said. The helicopter crashed during a training flight, said Cmdr. Stephen Honda, a spokesman for the Navy's Atlantic Fleet air force. Meanwhile, two Army fliers were killed Friday when their Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopter crashed during a training exercise near Fort Irwin, California, an Army spokesman said.

1981 – Boeing commercial Chinook 2-rotor helicopter is certified.

1980 – Sikorsky delivers its last of the S-61 commercial helicopeters.

1976 – Maj Rudy Willhauk, 414 Squadron North Bay, reached 3000 hrs on a CF-100 Canuck aircraft.

1962 – Four West German Luftwaffe F-104 Starfighters collide and crash, killing all four pilots.

1962 – Starfish, the second planned test of Operation Fishbowl, under Operation Dominic, occurs with the launch of an SM-75 Thor IRBM missile with a nuclear warhead just before midnight from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. The vehicle flies a normal trajectory for 59 seconds; then the rocket engine suddenly stops, and the missile begins to break apart. The range safety officer orders the destruction of the missile and the warhead. The missile was between 30,000 and 35,000 feet (between 9.1 and 10.7 km) in altitude when it was destroyed. Some of the missile parts fall on Johnston Island, and a large amount of missile debris falls into the ocean in the vicinity of the island. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Underwater Demolition Team swimmers recover approximately 250 pieces of the missile assembly during the next two weeks. Some of the debris is contaminated with plutonium. Nonessential personnel had been evacuated from Johnston Island during the test. Although, by definition, this qualifies as a Broken Arrow incident, this test is rarely included in lists of such mishaps.

1962 – Two Republic F-105 Thunderchiefs out of Nellis AFB, Nevada, are lost in separate accidents near Indian Springs, Nevada, this date. F-105D-5-RE, 59-1740, is lost near Indian Springs due to control failure, pilot successfully ejecting. F-105D-6-RE, 60-0410, written off at Indian Springs due to engine fire, pilot ejected successfully. Following this pair of major accidents, all F-105B and D aircraft are grounded for correction of chafing and flight control deficiencies. The project, called Look Alike and started in July 1962, is expected to be completed quickly but due to continued operational problems will grow to an extensive two-year modification program costing U.S.$51 million.

1954 – The Swissair Convair CV-240 Ticino runs out of fuel and ditches in the English Channel off Folkestone, Kent, England. Three of the nine people on board die in the accident, and all six survivors are injured.

1952 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-25

1950 – First flight of the Hawker P.1081

1947 – Col Albert Boyd sets a new official world airspeed record of 623.62 mph (1,003 km/h) in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. (This is still marginally slower than unofficial German speed records in rocket-powered aircraft during World War II).

1945 – 481 B-29 s drop 3,335 tons (3,025,492 kg) of bombs on Toyohashi and other cities in Japan.

1945 – B-24 Liberators of the U. S. Army Air Forces’ 404th Bombardment Squadron make the longest bombing mission flown in the North Pacific Area during World War II, flying a 2,700-mile (4,348-km) round trip from Shemya to attack the Japanese base at Kruppu in the Kurile Islands. The B-24 s are in the air for 15½ hours.

1944 – (19–23) Kwajalein-based U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators fly daily high-altitude bombing raids against Truk Atoll.

1944 – The largest aircraft carrier battle in history and the first since October 1942, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, begins in the Philippine Sea west of Guam, pitting 15 American aircraft carriers of Task Force 58 with 891 aircraft and 65 battleship- and cruiser-based floatplanes against nine Japanese carriers with 430 aircraft and 43 battleship- and cruiser-based floatplanes, supported by Japanese land-based aircraft in the Mariana Islands and at more distant bases. During ineffective Japanese air strikes against the American carrier force during the day, in U. S. air attacks on Japanese bases in the Marianas, and in losses due to other causes, the Japanese lose about 315 aircraft in what American pilots name the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot; ” Japanese carrier aviation never recovers from the disaster. The Americans lose only 29 aircraft. Also during the day, the U. S. submarine USS Albacore (SS-218) sinks the Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō, and the submarine USS Cavalla (SS-244) sinks the carrier Sho-kaku.

1940 – British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish aircraft of No. 767 Squadron operating from a base in southern France raid Genoa, Italy, and Italian lines of communication. It is the first air raid on Italian soil of World War II.

1937 – First flight of the Airspeed Oxford

1935 – First flight of the Vickers Wellesley

1930 – The all-metal Polish fighter, the PZL P-1, is the star of the International competition for fighter airplanes in Bucharest, Romania, winning 8 of the 15 prizes. This is a triumph for the brilliant designer Zygmund Pulawski, whose aircraft consistently out-performed those of his rivals.

1920 – U.S. Navy D class blimp, A4450, is destroyed by fire at the Goodyear Wingfoot Lake Airship Base, Suffield Township, Portage County, Ohio.

1918 – Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, son and nephew of the co-founders of National Cash Register, is killed in the crash of his DH.4M, AS-32098, at Wilbur Wright Field during a flight test of a new mechanism for synchronizing machine gun and propeller, when a tie rod breaks during a dive from 15,000 feet (4,600 m), causing the wings to separate from the aircraft. Wishing to recognize the contributions of the Patterson family (owners of NCR) the area of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam (including Wilbur Wright Field, Fairfield Air Depot, and the Huffman Prairie) is renamed Patterson Field on 6 July 1931, in honor of Lt. Patterson.

1918 – Major W. A. Bishop, O/C 85 Squadron, was credited with five enemy aircraft destroyed on this date.

1918 – Italy's highest-scoring ace, Maggiore Francesco Baracca is killed by Austrian ground fire. He had claimed 34 victories.

1912 – Capt. Marcel Dubois and Lt. Albert Peignan of the French Army were killed near Douai when their planes collided in mid-air, the first fatal mid-air collision in history.

1912 – The RFC's Central Flying School opened at Upavon, Wiltshire.

1910 – First airship in service “Germany”.

1901 – American experimenter Samuel P. Langley tests a quarter-scale model of his Aerodrome, a gasoline-driven flying machine. It makes four disappointingly short flights.

1894 – Frederick W. Lanchester, British aeronautical and automobile pioneer, announces his theory of circulatory air-flow to the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society in England. This theory is later to become of pivotal importance in aerodynamics.

References

^ "Nato Raid Kills Five Civilians, Libyan Officials Say". BBC News. 19 June 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
^ "NATO Cites Errant Missile in Libya Civilian Deaths". MSNBC. Tripoli. 19 June 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
^ "1987 USAF Serial Numbers". Retrieved 17 February 2010.

Edit today's anniversaries

June 20

2012 – A Sudanese Air Force PT-6A crashed at Port Sudan city airport, two crew killed.

2011 – On final approach to Petrozavodsk Airport near Petrozavodsk, Russia, after a flight from Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport, RusAir Flight 243, the Tupolev Tu-134A-3 RA-65691, lands short of the runway due to poor visibility and weather, killing 47 passengers and crew members and leaving all five survivors injured. The aircraft is written off.

2010 – The 2010 Cameroon Aéro Service CASA C-212 Aviocar crash near Djoum, Cameroon, kills all 11 on board, including the entire board of Sundance Resources, an Australian mining conglomerate.

2009 – Deceased: American aviator Kenneth L. Reusser, 89.

2004 – Frontier Airlines begins service to Nashville, Tennessee.

1996 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-78 at 10:49:00.0075 a.m. EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

1983 – First flight of the Bombardier Dash 8

1980 – Test pilot and barnstormer Herman "Fish" Salmon dies in the crash of a Lockheed Constellation he is ferrying to Alaska.

1979 – Nikola Kavaja, a Serbian nationalist and anti-communist, hijacks American Airlines Flight 293, a Boeing 727, shortly before it lands in Chicago, Illinois, intending to gain control of an aircraft that he can crash into Yugoslav Communist Party headquarters in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He allows the passengers and most of the crew to debark, then orders the crew to fly the 727 to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. There he demands and receives a Boeing 707, which he orders to be flown to Shannon, Ireland, where he intends to take control of the 707 for the suicide flight to Belgrade, but the hijacking ends when he surrenders to authorities in Shannon.

1973 – Aeroméxico Flight 229, a Douglas DC-9, crashes into the side of Las Minas Mountain while on approach to Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport; all 27 on board die.

1972 – Airline pilots hold a worldwide strike, calling for tighter security

1966 – Sheila Scott completes a solo round-the-world flight

1964 – Civil Air Transport Flight B-908, a Curtiss C-46, crashes near Shenkang, Taiwan, killing all 57 on board.

1958 – First flight of the Westland Wessex

1956 – Linea Aeropostal Flight 253, a Lockheed L-749 Constellation, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey. All 74 passengers and crew on board are killed.

1956 – The US Navy commissions its first helicopter carrier, USS Thetis Bay

1955 – Exercise Carte Blanche. It was the largest NATO air defence exercise, involving all 12 RCAF Air Division squadrons. Some 300 aircraft took part, nearly 2500 RCAF sorties.

1951 – First flight of the Bell X-5, first aircraft with swing wings flies for 30 min at Edwards, California.

1951 – The first aircraft completely designed and built in Canada, the first example of the Orenda-powered Avro Canada CF-100 Mk 2 Canuck, flies for the first time at Malton, Ontario.

1950 First flight of the Blackburn Beverley

1944 – TWA Flight 277, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, crashes into Fort Mountain, Maine, in severe weather, killing all 7 passengers and crew on board.

1944 – On the second and final day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 216 Task Force 58 aircraft make the only raid of the battle against the Japanese fleet at extremely long range at sunset, sinking the aircraft carrier Hiyo and damaging the aircraft carriers Zuikaku and Chiyoda, battleship Haruna, and heavy cruiser Maya. In addition to 20 aircraft missing and presumed shot down, Task Force 58 loses 80 planes, which ditch due to fuel exhaustion or crash while attempting night landings on U. S. carriers. During the day, the Japanese lose another 65 carrier aircraft, leaving them with only 35; during the two days of battle, they have lost 476 carrier- and land-based aircraft and battleship- and cruiser-based floatplanes.

1944 – Los Negros-based U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Thirteenth Air Force bomb Woleai.

1944 – Allied aircraft begin concentrated attacks on Japanese forces on Noemfoor. By July 1, they will have dropped about 800 tons (725,755 kg) of bombs on the island.

1942 – In North Africa, Axis forces begin the final phase of the Battle of Gazala with a massive aerial bombardment of Tobruk by between 296 and 306 aircraft. Tobruk surrenders the next day.

1941 – The United States Department of War creates the United States Army Air Forces, with General Henry H. Arnold as its first commander. As part of the reorganization, General Headquarters Air Force is renamed Air Force Combat Command; the new Army Air Forces organization consists of Air Force Combat Command (its combat element) and the United States Army Air Corps (its logistics and training element).

1939 – Test flight of first rocket plane using liquid propellants.

1935 – Douglas Y1O-35, 32-319, c/n 1119, of the 88th Observation Squadron, suffers loss of power on right engine during takeoff from Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California, for a flight to Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, at ~1000 hrs. Pilot, Cadet Tracy R. Walsh, manages to hop over soldiers breaking camp alongside runway but does not have sufficient flying speed. Airplane crashes through a tent, a fence, and into an automobile, demolishing itself, the vehicle, and killing three civilians in the car. Three crew on plane unhurt. O-35 surveyed and dropped from records at March Field, 15 October 1935.

1926 – The United States Coast Guard opens the first permanent Coast Guard Air Stations.

1925 – Off New England, a United States Coast Guard Vought UO-1 becomes the first aircraft to pursue a rum-runner.

1917 – The British war cabinet decides to increase the size of the Royal Flying Corps from 108 to 200 squadrons, with most of increase coming in bomber squadrons.

1914 – While the Austro-Hungarian airship Militärluftschiff III (or M.III) hovers over Fischamend testing new camera equipment, an Austro-Hungarian Army pilot tries to loop M.III in a Farman biplane. The airplane strikes the top of the airship, tearing a hole and igniting the escaping hydrogen gas. Both aircraft are destroyed, and both men in the airplane and all seven men aboard M.III are killed. It is the end of the Austro-Hungarian airship program.

1913 – First fatality in U.S. Naval aviation occurs when flight instructor Ens. William Billingsley is thrown from pilot seat of the second Wright CH seaplane, B-2, at height of 1,600 feet in turbulent air over Annapolis, Maryland. The passenger, Lt. John Henry Towers, stays with airplane, sustaining injuries when it hits water. Design was modified conversion of Wright Model B with two pusher propellers driven through chains connected to a 60 hp (45 kW) Wright engine.

1897 – Percy Pilcher is towed about 750 feet in the Hawk, the fourth of his hang gliders

1540 – João Torto, in Viseu, Portugal, builds two pairs of cloth-covered wings, an upper and lower, which are connected by iron hoops. While preparing to jump from the town’s cathedral to the nearby St. Matthew’s fields, he is killed when the elaborated helmet slips over his eyes and he falls onto a roof.

References

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June 21

2012 – An Indonesian Air Force Fokker 27 on a training flight crashes into a housing complex while on approach to a landing at Jakarta, Indonesia. Six of the seven people on the plane die immediately, and the seventh dies later of his injuries. On the ground, four people die and 11 are injured.

2012 – Syrian Air Force MiG-21 (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") fighter pilot Colonel Hassan Hamada defects with his plane to Jordan. Jordan will later grant him political asylum.^[1]

2011 – Libyan government antiaircraft fire shoots down an unmanned NATO MQ-8 Fire Scout helicopter drone on a reconnaissance flight near Zliten, Libya.^[2]

2010 – Aero Service CASA C-212 Aviocar TN-AFD crashed in the Republic of the Congo killing all eleven people on board, including Australian mining magnate Ken Talbot

2007 – Free Airlines L-410 crash occurred near Kamina en route to Lubumbashi DRC an overloaded Let 410UVP operated by the supposedly defunct Karibu Airways crashes inverted into a swamp shortly after takeoff, killing Mbuyu Mibanga, a member of the DRC parliament. 24 others survive.

2004 – SpaceShipOne is the first non-government built spacecraft to transport a person into space and return safely to earth.

2004 – Grumman F-14A Tomcat of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, flown by Capt. Darioush Yavari and Col. Ali Abou Ataa, crashes on approach to Shahid Baba'ie Air Base when Yavari, an experienced Northrop F-5 pilot qualifying on the F-14, misjudges his sink rate during a no-flaps landing, undercarriage strikes runway with enough force to flip the Tomcat onto its back, killing both crew. Cause is found to be premature rush to put pilot in the cockpit without completing simulator course. Commanding officer of TFB.8, Gen. Ahmad Mieghani (himself a former F-5 pilot) resigns, but investigative commission reinstates him, recognizing the true source of the problem.

1993 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-57 at 9:07 am EDT. Mission highlights: SPACEHAB, EURECA.

1986 – Air France pilot Partick Fourticq and friend Henri Pescarolo once again enter the record books, completing an around-the-world flight aboard a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar in 88 hours 19 min.

1985 – Braathens SAFE Flight 139, a Boeing 737, is hijacked by Stein Arvid Huseby, who demands to make a political statement; all crew and passengers survive.

1982 – Air India Flight 403, a Boeing 707-420, crashes at Sahar International Airport in Bombay, India while landing during a heavy rainstorm; 15 of 99 passengers and 2 of 12 crew are killed.

1982 – A United States Marine Corps CH-46D crashed into the Atlantic killing one of the crew.

1977 – AUSN Lockheed EC-130Q Hercules TACAMO III BuNo 156176, c/n 4280, of VQ-3, crashed in the Pacific Ocean after night take-off from Wake Island.

1972 – Jean Boulet pilots an Aérospatiale Lama to a new record altitude for helicopters, 12,441 m (40,820 ft)

1961 – June 21-22 – A Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan makes the first non-stop flight from England to Australia

1961 – First flight of the Aviation Traders Carvair

1960 – Retired: Boeing B-29 Superfortress

1954 – No. 428 Squadron was reformed at Uplands, Ontario, and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters.

1954 – Three USAF B-47 Stratojets cross the Pacific Ocean in under 15 hours

1953 – Two crew of the 3200th Fighter Test Squadron, Air Proving Ground Command, Eglin AFB, Florida, are killed in a Lockheed F-94C-1-LO Starfire, 50-969, when it crashes at Fairfax Field, Kansas City, Kansas. Fighter had departed the airfield on a routine training mission for a flight to Scott AFB, Illinois, when the pilot attempted to return shortly after the 1330 hrs. CST take-off. Fighter struck a dike short of the runway, hitting ~10 feet (3.0 m) below the top, and caromed onto the runway. Radar operator was killed on impact and the pilot died later of injuries.

1951 – First flight of the Handley Page HP.88

1950 – RCAF’s 412 Squadron accepted Canadair C-5 VIP transport aircraft.

1945 – (21-22) The tenth and final Japanese Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves only 45 kamikazes. They sink a medium landing ship and the hulk of a decommissioned destroyer and damage two seaplane tenders and two smaller ships.

1944 – Lt. Donald A. Innis, U.S. Navy, out of the Naval Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern, California, flying over the Salton Sea in Southern California on a rocket firing flight, launches weapon but the rocket body explodes prematurely on his starboard wing. His F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo 40860, which was in a 15-degree dive at the time went into a slow spin and crashed into the sea.

1943 – The first airbase designed for use by B-29 Superfortress bombers in attacks on Japan, Shemya Army Airfield, opens on Shemya in the Aleutian Islands. However, B-29 s instead attack Japan from bases in China and the Mariana Islands, and only one B-29 – on a non-combat flight – visits Shemya during World War II.

1943 – (Overnight) 705 British bombers attack Krefeld, Germany, losing 44 of their number.

1942 – (21-22) In response to an erroneous report that a Japanese task force is threatening Nome in the Territory of Alaska, 55 U. S. Army Air Forces and commandeered civilian aircraft carry out the first mass airlift in U. S. military history, carrying 2,272 men, 20 antiaircraft guns, and tons of supplies in 179 trips from Anchorage to Nome over a 24-hour period. The airlift will continue until early July.

1941 – Lieutant Colonel Elmer D. Perrin, a native Texan, and the district supervisor, Eastern Air Corps Procurement District, since 1939, and Air Corps representative to the Glenn L. Martin Company, Baltimore, Maryland, is killed in a crash during an acceptance test of a Martin B-26 Marauder bomber near the aircraft plant north of Baltimore, coming down ~1/2 mile after take off and burning. The civilian company representative was also killed. In January 1942, Grayson Basic Flying School, Grayson County, Texas, is renamed Perrin Field in his honor, later Perrin Air Force Base.

1940 – Mitsubishi A6 M Zero (Allied reporting name “Zeke”) with the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 12th Combined Naval Air Corps

1940 – Six Fleet Air Arm Swordfish torpedo bombers of No. 821 and No. 823 squadrons based at Royal Naval Air Station Hatston attempt to attack Scharnhorst as she steams from Trondheimsfjord, Norway, to Kiel, Germany. They score no hits, and two Swordfish are shot down.

1936 – First flight of the Handley Page Hampden prototype K4240.

1935 – A Curtiss Y1O-40B Raven, 32-416, repaired after being wrecked at Floyd Bennett Field, New York City, on 25 February 1935, now flying out of Brooks Field, Texas, is written off in a take-off accident at Hatbox Field, Muskogee, Oklahoma this date. Pilot is Charles A. Pursley.

1933 – Entered Service: Grumman FF with the U. S. Navy

1933 – First flight of the Supermarine Walrus

1929 – First flight of the Vought XF2U

1921 – First flight of the Bristol Ten-seater

1913 – 18 year-old Gergia “Tiny” Broadwick is first woman to parachute from an airplane jumping from 1,000′ over Los Angeles CA.

1908 – The first flight of the Aerial Experiment Association’s (AEA) promising June Bug biplane, their third machine, takes place in New York State. It has a 40-hp air-cooled Curtiss engine.

1907 – Romanian Trajan Vuia makes a flight in Paris of almost 66 feet, at a height of 16 feet, in his second machine which has a 24-hp Antoinette engine running on carbonic acid and has its wheels fitted with shock absorbers.

References

^ Suleiman al-Khalidi (21 June 2012). "Syrian pilot defects, requests asylum in Jordan". Reuters. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
^ "Libya Conflict: Nato Loses Drone Helicopter". BBC News. 21 June 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.

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June 22

2012 – A Mexican Navy AS656MB Panther went missing, aircraft was found six days later with all on board dead.

2012 – A Mexican Air Force SF260EU crashed into a mountain in western Mexico, two crew killed.

2012 – Syrian antiaircraft fire shoots down a Turkish Air Force F-4 Phantom II fighter on a training mission over the Mediterranean Sea off Turkey's Hatay Province, killing its two-man crew. Syria claims the aircraft violated its airspace; Turkey admits a momentary violation but claims the F-4 was shot down 15 minutes later in international airspace 13 nautical miles (15 statute miles; 24 km) from Syria.^[1]^[2]

2010 – Launch of Ofek 9 (or Ofeq 9), Israel Aerospace Industries reconnaissance satellite.

2009 – A United States Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon, 89-2108, from the 421st Fighter Squadron, 388th Fighter Wing, based at Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah crashes on a night training flight on the Utah Test and Training Range. The pilot, Capt. George B. Houghton, dies in the crash which occurred 35 miles (56 km) S of Wendover, Utah.

2009 – A United States Army Bell TH-67 Creek crashed near Hartfield, Alabama on a training mission, one of the two occupants killed.

2007 – STS-117, Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis to the ISS, 250th orbital human spaceflight, is back on earth.

2000 – Wuhan Airlines Flight 343, a Xian Y-7, is struck by lightning and crashes in Hanyang District, Wuhan, killing all 42 on board and another 7 on the ground in the worst ever accident involving the Y-7.

1990 – Bombardier Inc purchases Learjet for $US 75 million

1984 – First flight of the Rutan Voyager, first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.

1984 – London: Richard Branson's airline, Virgin Atlantic, begins services to North America, using Boeing 747s.

1982 – Magyar Légierō, Hungarian Air Force Mil Mi-24D, 113, crashes, killing one crew.

1976 – Launch of Salyut 5 (OPS-3), 3rd and last Almaz reconnaissance space station to be launched for the Soviet military.

1975 – Svetlana Savitskaya sets a new women's airspeed record of 2,683 km/h (1,667 mph) in the Mikoyan Ye-133, a modified MiG-25PU two-seat trainer.

1973 – Skylab 2, First manned mission to Skylab, the First U. S. orbital space station, is back on earth.

1965 – John B. McKay flies the X-15 at 3,938 mph (6,338 km/h) at an altitude of 29.5 miles (47.5 km).

1962 – Air France Flight 117, an international scheduled multi-leg Boeing 707 crashes in a forest hill on the island of Guadeloupe, while approaching Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport; 113 die in that accident with no survivors; the worst accident in Guadeloupe; the cause of the crash is never determined.

1959 – French aviatrix Jacqueline Auriol sets a new speed record of 1 849 km/h with a Dassault Mirage III C.

1955 – US air patrol plane shot down above Bering sea.

1954 – First flight of the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, American carrier-capable ground-attack aircraft.

1951 – Pan Am Flight 151, a Lockheed L-049 Constellation en route from Accra, Ghana (then the Gold Coast Territory) to Monrovia, Liberia, crashes into a hill near Sanoye in Bong County, Liberia, 54 miles (86 km) from the airport; all 31 passengers and 6 crew members die.

1951 – Entered Service: Supermarine Attacker with 800 Naval Air Squadron, the Fleet Air Arm’s first jet.

1947 – Martin XB-48, 45-59585, makes first flight, a 37-minute, 73-mile hop from Martin's Baltimore, Maryland plant to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, but blows all four tires on its fore-and-aft mounted undercarriage on landing when pilot O. E. "Pat" Tibbs, Director of Flight for Martin, applies heavy pressure to specially designed, but very slow to respond, insensitive air-braking lever. Tibbs and co-pilot E. R. "Dutch" Gelvin are uninjured.

1946 – No. 436 Squadron was disbanded.

1946 – A USAF P-80 Shooting Star carries the first airmail flown by jet

1945 – First flight of the Vickers VC.1 Viking, British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber.

1945 – 412 B-29 s drop 2,290 tons (2,077,474 kg) of bombs on Kure, Wakayama, and other cities in Japan.

1944 – The escort carriers USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) and USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62) catapult U. S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolts of the 19th Fighter Squadron off for use at Isely Field on Saipan. The first Allied aircraft to be based ashore in the Mariana Islands, the P-47 s are in action a few hours later, making rocket strikes against targets on Tinian.

1944 – Los Negros-based U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Thirteenth Air Force again strike Woleai.

1944 – A Truk-based Japanese Mitsubishi G4 M (Allied reporting name “Betty”) damages the American battleship USS Maryland (BB-46) off Saipan with a torpedo.

1943 – In order to better defend Sicily from Allied air attack, Italy and Germany agree to withdraw all of their bombers from Sicily and all but a few from Sardinia, concentrating instead on fighter operations in Sicily and southern Sardinia.

1941 – Royal Air Force Boeing Fortress I, AN522, of 90 Squadron, RAF Great Massingham, flown by F/O J. C. Hawley, breaks up in mid-air over Yorkshire during a training flight. Single survivor, a medical officer from RAE Farnborough, reports that the bomber entered a cumulo-nimbus cloud at 33,000 feet (10,100 m), became heavily iced-up with hailstones entering through open gunports, after which control was lost, the port wing detached, and the fuselage broke in two at 25,000 feet (7,600 m). Survivor, who was in the aft fuselage, was able to bail out at 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

1941 – Within the first hour of the war, Soviet pilot Lieutenant I I. Ivanov of the 46th Fighter Air Regiment rams a Heinkel He 111, the first of 10 Soviet aerial rammings that day and more than 200 during the war; Ivanov is killed in the ramming.

1941 – Soviet Tupolev SB-2 and Ilyushin DB-3 bombers suffer heavy losses in attacks on German airfields near Warsaw; German fighters shoot down 20 out of 25 Soviet bombers on one raid.

1941 – Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). 1,489 Soviet aircraft are destroyed on the first day alone by the German Nazis.

1940 – Flight Lieutenant George Burge of the Royal Air Force, flying a Gloster Sea Gladiator nicknamed 'Faith', claims the First Italian bomber aircraft destroyed over Malta.

1940 – France surrenders to Germany.

1940 – General Albert Kesselring directs Hauptmann Wolfgang Falck to establish the Luftwaffe’s first true night fighter unit, Nachtjagdgeschwader 1. It is the birth of the German specialized night fighter force of World War II.

1939 – During the Khalkhin Gol Incident, a dogfight rages for 2½ hours between 120 Imperial Japanese Army aircraft and 95 Soviet Air Force fighters. The Soviets shoot down 31 Japanese aircraft in exchange for 11 of their own.

1937 – First flight of the de Havilland Moth Minor, British two-seat tourer/trainer aircraft.

1934 – First flight of the Fokker F.XXXVI, Dutch four-engined 32-passenger airliner, largest transport designed and built by Fokker.

1933 – The Tupolev ANT-25, Soviet long-range experimental aircraft which was also tried as a bomber. It was used by the Soviet Union for a number of record-breaking flights.

1930 – Birth of Yury Petrovich Artyukhin, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.

1927 – First flight of the Short S.6 Sturgeon, British prototype single-engined biplane naval reconnaissance aircraft, demonstrator of the corrosion resistance of duralumin aircraft structures.

1917 – First flight of the Port Victoria P.V.7 Grain Kitten, British Fighter aircraft prototype.

1910 – The German firm “Delag” inaugurates the first regular passenger-carrying airship service. Between 1910-1914, its five Zeppelin airships carry nearly 35,000 passengers without a fatality over inland German routes.

1909 – Wycoof, Church & Partridge, auto dealers in New York city, acquired the Curtiss line to become the first airplane sales agency.

1907 – A military balloon falls and explodes in Debrecen, Austria-Hungary. Its crew of two French army officers and one Austrian army officer, and ten peasant men on the ground are killed. With thirteen fatalities it was the worst air accident until the 1913 Helgoland Island Air Disaster

1906 – Birth of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, born Anne Spencer Morrow, pioneering American aviator, author, and the spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh.

1898 – Birth of John Rudkin, British WWI flying ace.

1897 – Birth of Theodor Quandt, German WWI fighter ace, and WWII fighter pilot.

1894 – Birth of Jean Alfred Fraissinet, French WWI flying ace, He served in WWII and later entered politic.

1892 – Birth of Robert Ritter von Greim, German WWI fighter ace who was asked to set up a Chinese air force, He helped to rebuild the Luftwaffe and was appointed to the command of the First Luftwaffefighter pilot school. He has been the last commander of the Luftwaffe in WWII.

1891 – Birth of Charles Findlay, Scottish WWI fighter ace who served in WWII

1880 – Birth of Eduard Martynovich Pulpe, Russian WWI flying ace.

References

^ Mawad, Dalal; Gladstone, Rick (June 22, 2012). "Syria Shoots Down Turkish Warplane, Fraying Ties Further". Syria;Turkey;Aleppo (Syria);Mediterranean Sea: The New York Times(Nytimes.com). Retrieved December 2, 2012.
^ "Anonymous, "Syria Shot Down Turkish Jet in International Airspace, Claims Foreign Minister". The Telegraph(Telegraph.co.uk). June 24, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2012.

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June 23

2012 – A Colombian Army Cessna 208B Caravan crashed during near to Tocaima, all four on board killed.

2012 – Three Syrian Army pilots defect, crossing the border into Jordan.^[1]

2006 – The RAF Retire the Canberra from service after 55 years.

1994 – First flight of the Antonov An-38

1985 – Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, is bombed by Sikh extremists. It crashes into the ocean near Ireland, killing all 329 people on board.

1980 – Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, dies when his private aerobatic biplane has an accident.

1967 – Mohawk Airlines Flight 40, a BAC One-Eleven, crashes in Blossburg, Pennsylvania, killing all 34 people on board.

1959 – Lockheed F-104A-5-LO Starfighter, 56-742, c/n 183-1030, to General Electric Flight Test, June: 1957, performed accelerated service tests on J79 engine. Crashes this date on landing approach at Edwards AFB, California, when split flap condition occurs. Pilot ejects too low and is killed.

1952 – June 23-24 – In the most intense use of airpower of the Korean War, US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft fly 1,200 sorties against North Korean power generation facilities.

1951 – The famous non-fatal Grumman F9F-2 Panther ramp strike accident occurs as Cdr. George Chamberlain Duncan attempts landing on USS Midway in BuNo 125228, during carrier suitability tests in the Atlantic Ocean. Forward fuselage breaks away and rolls down the deck, pilot suffering burns. Footage of this accident has been used in several films including Men of the Fighting Lady, Midway, and The Hunt For Red October.

1951 – Second Avro CF-100 Mk.1, 19102, 'FB-K', crashes on the day it is handed over to the RCAF.

1950 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501, a Douglas DC-4, crashes into Lake Michigan 18 miles (29 km) north-northwest of Benton Harbor, Michigan, after entering a squall line and turbulence, killing all 58 people on board. It is the deadliest commercial airliner accident in American history at the time.

1948 – First flight of the Arsenal VG 70

1944 – (23–27) Los Negros-based U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Thirteenth Air Force fly an average of 21 daily bombing sorties against Yap. Two are shot down and 21 damaged.

1944 – (Overnight) Japanese aircraft in small numbers conduct night raids against U. S. Navy forces off Saipan, damaging several amphibious warfare and auxiliary ships.

1942 – First flight of the Martin JRM Mars

1941 – During the second day of Operation Barbaross, the Soviets lose another 1,000 aircraft.

1935 – First flight of the Bristol Bombay

1931 – June 23-July 1, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty fly around the world in a Lockheed Vega, the Winnie Mae, covering 15,474 miles in 8 days 15 hours 51 min – A new record

1924 – The prototype Focke-Wulf A 16 monoplane made its first flight. Capable of carrying four passengers, it was the first product of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH.

1924 – Lt Russell Maughan makes the first one-day crossing of the United States, completing the flight from Long Island to San Francisco in a Curtiss PW-8 in 21 hours, 48 min.

1921 – First flight of the R38 class airship

1919 – Six Zeppelins (LZ 46, LZ 79, LZ 91, LZ103, LZ 110, and LZ 111) are destroyed at Nordholz by their own crews in order to prevent them from falling into Allied hands.

1916 – Victor Chapman of Lafayette Escadrille becomes the first US airman to be killed in action, shot down near Verdun.

1913 – The S-21 Sikorsky Russky Vityaz ("Russian Knight"), designed by Igor Sikorsky and built by the RBVZ, a redesigned variant of the Bolshoi Baltiski, as the first large aircraft intended exclusively as a bomber, first flies on this date, the world's first four-motored aircraft. It is lost in a freak accident during 1913 military trials when the Gnôme rotary on a Moller II pusher biplane (some sources cite a Morane design) tears loose and hits the giant bomber.

1905 – First flight of the Wright Flyer III

1784 – First US balloon flight (13 year old Edward Warren).

References

^ "Three Syrian Army Pilots Have Defected and Fled Across the Border to Jordan Last Night, Activists Said," Syria Live Blog, June 24, 2012, 11:32.

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June 24

2013 – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York discovers that $1.2 million in $100 bills is missing from a $93 million shipment of cash carried from Zurich, Switzerland, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City aboard Swissair Flight 17 on 22 June. The Federal Bureau of Investigation launches an investigation into where and how the money disappeared between the flight's point of origin in Zurich and the shipment's arrival at the bank.^[1]

2004 – AH-1W SuperCobra 163939 shot down in Fallujah; pilots safe.^[2]

1994 – 1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash: Czar 52, a USAF Boeing B-52H-170-BW Stratofortress, 61-0026, crashes during an airshow practice at Fairchild AFB. After having rehearsed the maneuvers profile that in itself was dangerous to fly in a B-52, the aircraft came into land. Due to a KC-135 Stratotanker still being on the runway, the aircraft was required to make a 'go around'. After beginning a 360-degree turn left, the aircraft exceeded 90 degrees angle of bank, stalled and crashed into the ground. All four aircrew members were killed in the crash.

1987 – RAF SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1A, XZ386, '05', of 226 OCU, suffers loss of control/controlled flight into terrain three miles (5 km.) SE of Builth Wells, Powys, Wales. Pilot KWF.

1986 – First flight of the Grob/E-Systems/AlliedSignal Egrett

1983 – Landed: Space shuttle Challenger STS-7 at 13:56:59 UTC Edwards Air Force Base. Mission highlights: First US woman in space Sally Ride; Multiple comsat deployments; First deployment and retrieval of a satellite SPAS.

1982 – British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747-200, flies through a cloud of volcanic ash south of Java; all engines fail in flight, forcing the plane to glide; the crew is able to restart the engines and make a safe landing.

1982 – First Frenchman launches into orbit, as part of Soviet mission.

1980 – First flight of the Microturbo Microjet 200

1975 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, a Boeing 727, encounters wind shear on final approach and strikes approach lights at John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing 112 of 124 people on board.

1972 – Prinair Flight 191, a De Havilland Heron, over-rotates because of pilot error and crashes in Ponce, Puerto Rico, killing 5 of 20 people on board.

1966 – Bombay-NY Air India flight crashes into Mont Blanc (Switz), 117 die.

1960 – First flight of the Hawker Siddeley HS 748

1956 – First flight of the Sukhoi Su-9

1956 – In the 1956 BOAC Argonaut accident, a Canadair C-4 Argonaut, G-ALHE, crashes shortly after taking off from Kano Airport, Nigeria into a thunderstorm, killing 32 of the 38 passengers and 3 of the seven crew.

1955 – Soviet MIG’s down a U. S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.

1952 – On the eighth test flight of the first Convair YB-60-1-CF, 49-2676, a flutter condition resulted in the trim tab disintegrating and the rudder suffering severe torsional wrinkles while flying at 263 mph (423 km/h) at 35,000 feet (11,000 m). Replaced by rudder built for second prototype which never received one and never flew. As the Boeing B-52 project was succeeding, the Convair B-60 program was canceled and the two airframes were salvaged in 1954 for parts.

1950 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501, a Douglas DC-4, with 58 people on board, disappears without a trace over Lake Michigan.

1949 – Cargo airlines first licensed by US Civil Aeronautics Board.

1948 – The Soviet Union begins the Berlin Blockade, America responds with the Berlin Airlift.

1944 – Attempting to strike Iwo Jima, F6 F Hellcats of U. S. Navy Task Group 58.1 are intercepted by Japanese aircraft, shooting down 29 of them in exchange for six Hellcats. Iwo Jima-based Japanese aircraft fly three ineffective raids against the task group during the day, losing another 37 planes

1944 – June 24-25 – The Luftwaffe makes its first operational use of "Mistel" composite aircraft, against Allied shipping in Seine Bay.

1943 – The RAF uses chaff, codenamed "Window", for the first time to foil German radar during the Operation Gomorrah raids on Hamburg.

1941 – No. 408 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.

1940 – The first four Elementary Flying Training Schools (EFTS) were officially opened: No. 1 at Malton, Ontario; No. 2 at Fort William, Ontario; No. 3 at London, Ontario; No. 4 at Windsor Mills, Quebec.

1939 – Pan Am’s first US to England flight.

1935 – One Ford Trimotor of Servicio Aéreo Colombiano (SACO) crashed with another Ford Trimotor of Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transporte Aéreo (SCADTA) in Medellín, Colombia. Fifteen people were killed including the world's most famous tango singer Carlos Gardel.

1934 – First flight of the Supermarine Stranraer

1930 – Dr. Albert Taylor and Leo Young of the Aircraft Research Laboratory, near Bolling Field, Washington, D. C., succeed in tracing the position of airplanes in flight using wireless detection equipment.

1925 – Off New England, a United States Coast Guard Vought UO-1 becomes the first aircraft to assist in the capture of a rum-runner.

1924 – In Macau, Portuguese Commander Brito Pais and Captain Sarmento de Beires give up on their eastbound attempt to circumnavigate the world in the de Havilland DH.9 A Patria II after covering 11,000 miles (17,713 km) from Lisbon.

1922 – Laid Down: USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)

1918 – The first scheduled Canadian airmail flight is made, between Montreal and Toronto.

1918 – The RAF deploys its new 1,650 lb (748 kg) bomb for the first time. One is dropped on Middelkerke, Belgium by a Handley Page O/400 of No. 216 Squadron RAF.

1910 – J. A. D. McCurdy crashed attempting a flight in the Canadian Aerodrome Company’s Baddeck No. 2 biplane at Lakeside, Que.

References

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June 25

2012 – Turkey accuses Syria of firing at a second Turkish Air Force plane while it is searching for crew of the F-4 Phantom II shot down on 22 June.^[1]

2009 – Zest Airways Flight 863, a Xian MA60, registration RP-C8892, overruns the runway at Godofredo P. Ramos Airport, Philippines. The aircraft is substantially damaged but is to be repaired.

2007 – PMTair Flight 241: Search-and-rescue teams combed the jungles of southern Cambodia after a passenger plane with 22 people on board crashed Monday while flying between two popular tourist destinations, officials said.

1997 – First flight of the Ka-52 Alligator combat helicopter.

1997 – Third Air Force Academy Slingsby T-3A Firefly crash in 28 months kills senior Cadet Pace Weber, 20, and his instructor, Captain Glen Comeaux, 31, when the engine sputters during a turn at ~500 feet altitude, aircraft enters spin and explodes on impact, two miles E of the Colorado Springs academy airfield. "Their plane had been written up by pilots 10 times for engine problems, including one during the flight immediately before the fatal trip. The Air Force said the engine was running at impact, although it was producing so little power that the propeller was barely turning."Although the Academy continues to fly the type, another incident in which the T-3 engine quits in-flight, forcing a dead-stick landing at the airfield, finally leads to USAF to ground the design on 25 July 1997, with the whole fleet eventually scrapped.

1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-50 at 12:12:23 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

1972 – First flight of Yakovlev Yak-50 (1975) aerobatic sports airplane, V. I. Loychikov test pilot.

1965 – A USAFUSAF Boeing C-135A-BN Stratolifter, 60-0373, c/n 18148, out of McGuire AFB, New Jersey, crashed after 0135 hrs. take off in fog and light drizzle from MCAS El Toro, California, USA. Pilot flew into Loma Ridge at 0146. 84 died. Aircraft was bound for Okinawa.

1955 – First flight of the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer

1950 – Israeli airline El Al begins service.

1950 – The Korean War breaks out as North Korea invades South Korea.

1950 – The United States Air Force begins evacuating American citizens from South Korea.

1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-50 Superfortress

1946 – First flight of the Northrop YB-35 Flying Wing.

1944 – First flight of the Composite jet and piston engine airplane. Ryan FR Fireball.

1942 – No. 425 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.

1942 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command flies its third “thousand-bomber raid, ” with 1,067 bombers targeting Bremen, badly damaging the city in exchange for the loss of 55 bombers; night fighters of II Gruppe of the Luftwaffe’s Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 alone shoot down 16 of them. The Avro Manchester bomber flies its last combat mission in this raid.

1938 – The official public opening of Manchester Airport at Ringway, England, is held with an extensive air display.

1936 – First flight of the Bristol Blenheim prototype K7033

1935 – United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Richard L. Burke sets a world seaplane speed record carrying a 500-kg (1,102-lb) load over a 100 km (62 mi) course at an average speed of 280.105 km per hour (174.049 mph) flying a Grumman JF-2 Duck.

1933 – Boeing Y1B-9A, 32-307, '190', of the 49th Bombardment Squadron, departs Logan Field, Baltimore, Maryland at 2020 hrs. on routine night training mission to Langley Field, Virginia, but experience difficulties at ~2200 hrs., attempts crash landing in the James River ~one mile from Rushmere Island. Bomber strikes water nose first, breaks in half, sinks, killing four crew including pilot 2nd Lt. Lewis Horvath and co-pilot H. W. Macklean.

1928 – First flight of the Boeing Model 83 biplane, the last from this company in which wood was used for the wing frame and the last biplane built by Boeing.

1928 – First flight of the Boeing P-12 with the United States Army Air Corps.

1924 – Westbound from Rangoon to Akyab, the United States Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruisers attempting the first aerial circumnavigation of the world unknowingly flies over the Vickers Vulture II amphibian of the Royal Air Force team of MacLaren, Plenderleith, and Andrews, which is sheltering in a coastal bay in Burma while eastbound from Akyab to Rangoon during its own attempt at a circumnavigation.

1923 – First flight in the USSR of K. K. Artseulov on a glider.

1919 – The world’s most modern airliner, the Junkers F-13, makes its first flight at Dessau, Germany. It is made entirely of metal, with a strong, corrugated outer skin and cantilever wing structure, without struts or bracing wires.

1914 – Tom Blakely flies the West Wind in Calgary, Canada. The Curtiss-type biplane was designed by Frank Ellis.

1910 – The Hubbard monoplane, also referred to as ‘Mike’, was entered in the Montreal Air Meet of 25 June-5 July, 1910.

1894 – Hermann (Julius) Oberth, German scientist who was one of three founders of space flight (with Tsiolkovsky and Goddard), is born.

1886 – Henry H. "Hap" Arnold is born at Gladwyne, PA. Arnold, who had received flying instructions from Orville Wright in 1911, was the Commanding General of the U. S. Army Air Force in WW II. Arnold retired in 1946 and died near Sonoma, CA on January 15, 1950.

References

^ "Turkey accuses Syria of firing at second plane while searching for downed jet". Al Arabiya. 25 June 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2012.

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June 26

2009 – HK-4094, a Let L-410 Turbolet operated by Transporte Aéreo de Colombia overruns the runway at Capurganá Airport, Colombia, and is substantially damaged.

2006 – U.S. Navy VFA-122 squadron pilot Brian R. Deforge, 25, dies when his McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet collides with another over Fort Hunter Liggett, north of San Luis Obispo, California. The other pilot successfully ejects and survives.

2003 – The NASA Helios prototype breaks up and falls into the Pacific Ocean about ten miles (16 km) W of the Hawaiian Island Kauai during a remotely piloted systems checkout flight in preparation for an endurance test scheduled for the following month. Cause was flight through wind shear on a day when the conditions had been pronounced "marginal".

1994 – Air Ivory Fokker’s-27 crashes at Abidjan (16 killed / 1 lives).

1988 – Air France Flight 296, an Airbus A320, makes a low pass over Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport in landing configuration during an air show and crashes into trees at the end of the runway. Of 130 passengers aboard, 3 die.

1981 – Dan-Air Flight 240, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, crashes near Nailstone, Leicestershire due to failure of the baggage door, causing rapid decompression and loss of control; all 3 crew on board die.

1978 – Air Canada Flight 189, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9, crashes on takeoff in Toronto, Ontario, Canada because of tire failure; two die out of 107 passengers on board.

1974 – First flight of the Eurocopter AS350

1963 – A BAF Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar, CP45, c/n 246, en route to RAF Gütersloh, crashes near Detmold, Germany after being accidentally hit by a British mortar bomb over the Sennelager Range. 5 crewmen and 33 paratroopers died, while 9 paratroopers managed to jump to safety using their parachutes.

1959 – TWA Flight 891, a Lockheed Starliner, crashes due to a lightning strike shortly after taking off from Milan Malpensa Airport. All 68 passengers and crew on board are killed.

1950 – Australian National Airways Amana, a Douglas DC-4, crashes after takeoff from Perth Airport, killing all 29 people on board.

1948 – The Berlin Airlift begins, with USAF, Royal Air Force, and British civil transport aircraft carrying supplies into West Berlin

1946 – The U. S. Army Air Force and Navy adopt “knot” and “nautical mile” as standard aeronautical units for speed and distance. A nautical mile is about 6.080 ft. (1,853 m), and knot is the equuivalent of one nautical mile per hour.

1946 – Air Cadets were renamed the Royal Canadian Air Cadets by permission of H. M. the King.

1945 – 468 B-29 s drop 3,058 tons (2,774,199 kg) of bombs on Osaka and other cities in Japan.

1943 – 331 Wing, composed of Nos. 420, 424 and 425 (Bomber) Squadrons and commanded by G/C CR Dunlap, commenced operations in Tunisia.

1942 – First flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat

1940 – The Royal Air Force disbands the Advanced Air Striking Force. Since the German offensive in the West began on May 10, the AASF has lost 229 aircraft.

1936 – First flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, first fully controllable helicopter

1934 – First flight of the Airspeed Envoy

1914 – The prototype Bristol S.S.A. (for Single-Seat Armoured), c.n. 219, a Henri Coanda single-seat tractor biplane design intended for production France, crashes on landing at Filton when an undercarriage bracing wire fails. Pilot Harry Busteed slightly injured, but airframe is severely damaged. The French authorities however agree to accept delivery of the type at the Breguet factory, where it is rebuilt, and Bristol takes no further part in its development.

1912 – 2nd Lt. Henry H. Arnold, holder of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pilot certificate No. 29 and Military Aviator Certificate No. 2, after accepting the Army's first tractor airplane, Burgess Model H, Signal Corps 9, crashes into Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts after takeoff, receiving the scar on his chin that he shows distinctively for the rest of his life.

1911 – As spectators watch in amazement, Lincoln Beachey flies his Curtiss pusher biplane over Horseshoe Falls, the most spectacular of the Niagara Falls.

1909 – The first commercial sale of an airplane in the United States is made as Glenn H. Curtiss sells one of his planes to the Aeronautic Society of New York for $7,500. This action spurs the Wright brothers to begin a patent suit to prevent him from selling airplanes without a license.

1898 – Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer, was born.

1869 – Largest hydrogen balloon ever to make a free (untethered) ascent, makes a short flight from the Champs de Mars in Paris, France. It has a capacity of 424,000 cubic feet (c. 130,000 cubic meters).

References

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June 27

2009 – Kingfisher Airlines Flight 3334, an Airbus A320, registration VT-ADR, collides with a building at Bagdogra Airport, India. The aircraft was substantially damaged.

2008 – A C-130 Hercules is damaged beyond repair in an emergency landing northeast of Baghdad International Airport. All 38 on board were transported to nearby Sather Air Base for medical evaluation. The aircraft was significantly damaged in the landing, and was deemed a write-off and destroyed.^[1]^[2]

2007 – The pilot of a twin engine, nine-seat Golden Wings Charter aircraft walked away from a low impact crash at the Airport Industrial Park. According to authorities whose emergency systems sprang into high gear once the alert was received.

2005 – An AH-64D Apache from 3–3rd Aviation Regiment is shot down by a shoulder-fired missile near Mishahda, killing the two pilots.^[3]^[4]

1996 – An Air National Guard General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon makes a dead-stick landing at Elizabeth City Air Station following an engine failure. Capt Chris H. Rose of 121st Fighter Squadron was returning from a training mission when his engine suffered a flameout at 13,000 feet, but he was able to jettison his fuel tanks and glide for 15 miles to a successful landing with the assistance of his three wingmen and air traffic controllers. For his outstanding airmanship he was awarded the Koren Kolligian Jr Trophy.

1995 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-71 at 19:32:19 UTC. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

1987 – Philippine Airlines Flight 206, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, crashes on the slopes of Mount Ugo, Benguet, as it begins its approach to Loakan Airport in Baguio City; all 50 passengers and crew are killed. Poor visibility is blamed for the crash.

1985 – An RAF Lockheed C-130K Hercules C.1P, XV206, of 1312 Flight, and a Royal Navy Westland Sea King HAS5, XZ919, helicopter of 826 Naval Air Squadron, collide in cloud north of the Falkland Islands, at around 300 ft. The Hercules lost the wing beyond its #1 (port outer) engine but still managed to land. The Sea King, based at RNAS Culdrose, was lost and all four on board killed.

1983 – Ballooning pioneer Maxie Anderson and his co-pilot Don Ida die in a balloon accident near Bad Brückenau, West Germany, during the 1983 Gordon Bennett Cup balloon race.

1982 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-4 at 15:00:00 UTC. Mission highlights: Last shuttle R&D flight, first DoD payload.

1980 – Itavia Flight 870, a Douglas DC-9, crashes into the sea near the island of Ustica, Italy, in unclear circumstances, killing all 81 people on board.

1979 – Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagles shoot down four Syrian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s

1977 – First flight of the CASA C-101

1976 – Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300, is hijacked from Athens by two Palestinians and two Germans who divert the flight to Libya and then to Uganda, where the plane is met by pro-Palestinian forces from Idi Amin's government; Israeli troops eventually storm the airport in Operation Entebbe, killing hijackers and Ugandan soldiers and freeing all but three of the hostages; Israeli colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, is also killed in the raid.

1970 – Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Cessna L-19 Bird Dog of No.4 Army Aviation Squadron, Dhamial Air Base, piloted by Major Tahir Mahmood Jilani, with Observer Captain Noor Mohammed, went missing, while on search and recovery mission to locate a drowned military officer Captain Bahadur's body, over the mighty river Indus near Kalabagh-Khushal Garh area. No debris or bodies were located, in the very extensive ground and aerial search that followed, however.

1969 – First flight of the Interceptor 400

1965 – The Vietnam War’s largest airmobile operation thus far takes place as 150 helicopters airlift the U. S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade and two South Vietnamese Army airborne battalions to attack a Viet Cong stronghold just north of Bien Hoa, South Vietnam.

1960 – A Boeing KC-97G-27-BO Stratotanker, 52-2728, of the 380th Air Refueling Squadron, Plattsburgh AFB, New York, suffers failure of lubrication on an engine impeller shaft, during an evening four-hour training mission to refuel a Boeing B-47 Stratojet. During rendezvous at 15,500 feet, bomber crew sees the tanker's number one (port outer) engine burst into flames, burning fuel threatening the wing integrity. As the bomber moves away from the burning tanker, the crew tries unsuccessfully to put out the blaze. The plane goes into a spin as the wing fails outboard of the engine and crashes on Jonathan Smith Mountain, a hill east of Puzzle Mountain in Newry, Maine. The flash of the fire is seen from as far away as Lewiston and Bridgton, and several people witness the crash, including hundreds of movie-goers at the Rumford Point Drive-In. All five crew are killed - two are found wearing unused parachutes. KWF are Lt. William Burgess, commander, of Indian Lake, New York; Technical Sgt. Robert Costello, boom operator, of Springfield, Illinois; Lt. Raymond Kisonas, navigator, of Waterbury, Connecticut; Lt. Lewis Turner, co-pilot, of Spokane, Washington; and Master Sgt. Harold Young, flight engineer, of Selma, Alabama. Wreckage covers five acres and is still there.

1958 – A USAF Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 56-3599, c/n 17348 Crashed on takeoff from Westover AFB, Chicopee, MA attempting to set a world speed record from New York-London. 7 crew and 8 passenger fatalities.

1950 – A USAF F-82 Twin Mustang shoots down a North Korean Air Force Yak-9, the first air-to-air kill of the Korean War.

1950 – USAF B-29 Superfortresses of the 19th Bombardment Group attack Seoul railway station and the bridge over the Han River in the first strategic bombing mission of the war.

1950 – First flight of the FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II

1950 – U. S. Air Force C-47 Skytrains and C-54 Skymasters evacuate U. S. nationals from Korea.

1950 – Japan-based PBM-5 Mariners of Patrol Squadron 47 (VP-47) begin the first U. S. Navy maritime air patrols of the Korean War.

1935 – United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Richard L. Burke sets a world seaplane altitude record of 5,449.050 m (17,877.46 ft) carrying a 500-kg (1,102-lb) load, flying a Grumman JF-2 Duck.

1930 – Canadian Airways Ltd., formerly Western Canada Airways, was incorporated.

1923 – Capt L H Smith and Lt J P Richter, made the first in-flight aerial refueling by the United States Army Air Service de Havilland DH-4 B over Rockwell Field, San Diego. They also set a distance record of 3,293 miles covered in the flight.

1916 – Fokker's chief designer and test pilot Martin Kreutzer takes a Fokker D.I for test flight, but when he kicks rudder hard over, it jams and he is severely injured in subsequent crash, dying in hospital the next day.

1914 – Lincoln Beachey completes the first loop-the-loop and inverted flying in Canada during an exhibition at Maisonneuve Park in Montreal.

1912 – Following successes using aircraft against the Turks in North Africa, Italy forms a specialised Air Battalion (Battagliore Aviatori).

1909 – Three New York Papers (the Sun, Times and Herald) carry the world's first advertisement of a practical airplane for sale to the general public.

References

^ "C-130 makes emergency landing in Baghdad field". Air Force Link. 2008-06-27. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed C-130H Hercules 86-0412 Baghdad International Airport (SDA)". ASN Aviation Safety Database. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
^ "ARMY AIR CREWS: Apache Crewmembers Line of Duty Deaths". Retrieved 2010-07-17.
^ "U.S. Helicopter Crash Kills 2 in Iraq". Fox News. 2005-06-27. Retrieved 2008-06-05. A U.S. Apache attack helicopter crashed Monday north of Baghdad, killing both pilots, after a witness said he saw the aircraft hit by a rocket that "destroyed it completely in the air." [...] The AH-64 crashed in Mishahda, 20 miles north of the capital, and witness Mohammed Naji told Associated Press Television News he saw two helicopters flying toward Mishahda when "a rocket hit one of them and destroyed it completely in the air." The two pilots were killed in the crash, which is under investigation, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division.

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June 28

2012 – A Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27UB crashed near Besovets during a weather-check flight, two pilots ejected safely but all Russian Su-27s were grounded pending investigation.

2012 – The U.S. military announces that wreckage revealed by a retreating glacier in Alaska and discovered during June 2012 is that of a U.S. Air Force C-124A Globemaster II which crashed into Mount Gannett on 22 November 1952, killing all 52 people on board. Originally identified on 28 November 1952, the wreckage had become buried in ice and snow and had been lost for nearly 60 years.^[1]^[2]^[3]

2007 – First flight of the Rans S-19 Venterra

2007 – TAAG Angola Airlines crash was a fatal accident in which a Boeing 737-2 M2 owned by TAAG Angola Airlines undershot the runway upon landing in M’banza-Kongo, causing the collapse of the right main landing gear. The plane collided with two cars and a building, resulting in the deaths of four passengers and one crew member.

2004 – First non-stop 10,000-mile-plus passenger airline flight. Singapore Airlines launched a non-stop 18 1/2 h, 10,335-mile flight on the long-range Airbus 340-500 between Singapore to Newark, New Jersey (June 28–29).

1988 – First flight of the Sukhoi Su-35

1984 – First flight of the Fuji T-5

1978 – Entered Service: Dassault Super Étendard with the Aéronavale

1976 – First woman was admitted to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Co.

1976 – ČSA flight 001 registration OK-NAB was an Ilyushin Il-18 B 4 engine turboprop, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Prague’s Ruzyně airport to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport, both in Czechoslovakia, which crashed into the Zlaté Piesky (Golden Sands) Lake while attempting to land in Bratislava. All 6 crew members and 70 out of 73 passengers died.

1968 – Retired: Avro Anson (RAF)

1958 – The 22-year operational career of the Avro Anson comes to an end with asix-plane formation fly-past over their base by the Southern Communications Squadron at Bovington, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom.

1957 – Entered Service: KC-135 Stratotanker with 93d Air Refueling Squadron

1957 – In two separate accidents, two newly delivered Lockheed U-2s of the SAC's 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS) based at Laughlin Air Force Base, Del Rio, Texas, are lost on the same day. At 08:55 Lt. Ford Lowcock is killed when his aircraft, U-2A 56-6699, Article 366, crashes while on the approach to Laughlin. Less than two hours later, Lt. Leo Smith is also killed when his aircraft, U-2C 56-6702, Article 369, crashes in the New Mexico desert. At this time U-2s are not equipped with ejection seats to save weight, but at around this point this policy is reversed. Three months later on 26 September, the squadron's Commanding Officer, Col. Jack Nole climbs out of his disabled U-2A, 56-6694, Article 361, the first airframe of the initial USAF order, (wing flaps deployed in flight) near Del Rio, Texas, making the highest ever parachute escape to date, from 53,000 feet.

1956 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking T-5 crashed at Resistencia, Argentina.

1955 – Jean Moire lands a Bell 47 helicopter on top of Mont Blanc, at an altitude of 4,807 m (15,772 ft)

1952 – American Airlines Flight 910, a Douglas DC-6 carrying 55 passengers and 5 crew collides with a Temco Swift private plane on final approach to Dallas Love Field, killing both occupants of the Swift; the DC-6 lands safely with no injuries to the passengers or crew.

1950 – USAF B-26 Invaders fly the first strike mission of the Korean War on a railroad marshaling yard in South Korea that had been captured by invading North Korean forces. The first strike into North Korea itself would be the following day when B-26s of the Third Bomb Group would strike the airfield at Pyongyang.

1948 – Sdn Ldr Basil Arkel sets a new helicopter speed record of 124 mph (200 km/h) in a Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne.

1945 – 485 B-29 s drop 3,519 tons (3,192,416 kg) of bombs on Okayama, Sasebo, and Moji, Japan.

1944 – A/C AD Ross, Sgt JR St Germain, Cpl M Marquet, LAC MM McKenzie, and LAC RR Wolfe made repeated attempts to rescue the crew of a burning bomber of No. 425 Squadron in spite of bomb explosions. All of the crew were saved. Ross, St Germain and Marquet were awarded the George Medal; McKenzie and Wolfe the British Empire Medal.

1943 – To increase the visibility of the national insignia on its military aircraft, the United States replaces the marking adopted in June 1942 with a new marking consisting of a white star centered in a blue circle flanked by white rectangles, with the entire insignia outlined in red. The new marking will cause confusion with Japanese markings and will remain in use only until September 1943.

1943 – (Overnight) 608 British bombers attack Cologne, Germany, losing 25 of their number. In Cologne, 4,377 people are killed – by far the highest number killed in any single Bomber Command raid so far – 10,000 injured and 230,000 rendered homeless. In the next two raids, Cologne will incur another 1,000 killed and 120,000 made homeless

1941 – At the end of the first week of Operation Barbarossa, the Luftwaffe has destroyed 4,017 Soviet aircraft in exchange for 150 of its own.

1941 – In the early morning hours, 35 British bombers attempting an attack on Bremen stray so far off course that they mistakenly bomb Hamburg – 110 km (68 mi) northeast of Bremen – Instead, losing five of their number to German night fighters over the city while killing seven people, injuring 39, and leaving 280 homeless.

1939 – Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force is formed.

1939 – The Pan Am Yankee Clipper, the largest airplane of the day, left Botwood on the first scheduled transatlantic passenger flight. The New York-to-Southampton route was made with stops at Shediac, Botwood and Foynes.

1927 – June 28-29 – A US Army Fokker C-2 makes the first non-stop flight from the continental US to Hawaii.

1923 – First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Awana

1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed. Among its many provisions is one which prohibits Germany from ever again possessing armed aircraft.

1918 – First flight between Hawaiian Islands.

1917 – An aircraft takes off successfully from a flying-off platform mounted on a warship’s gun turret for the first time when Royal Naval Air Service Flight Commander F. J. Rutland takes off from a platform aboard the British light cruiser HMS Yarmouth in a Sopwith Pup.

1911 – The first airplane charter flight is made by English aviator Thomas Sopwith who is hired by Wannamaker’s New York store to deliver repaired glasses to Philadelphia merchant W. A. Burpee.

1908 – Jacob Ellehammer makes the first piloted, powered aeroplane flight in Germany.

References

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June 29

2012 – A United States Navy MH-53 of HM-14 was destroyed fire after an emergency landing near Pohang, South Korea, all 12 on-board vacated the helicopter safely.

2012 – Six Uyghur men armed with aluminum crutches and explosives attempt to hijack Tianjin Airlines Flight 7554, an Embraer ERJ-190 on a flight from Hotan to Ürümqi, China, with 95 other people aboard. The crew and other passengers resist them and foil the hijacking attempt. Two hijackers are killed and 13 people (two hijackers, two security officers, two flight attendants, and seven passengers) are injured, and the plane returns safely to Hotan.

2011 – KLM becomes the first airline in the world to provide flights using biofuel.^[1]

2011 – The French military confirms that it had air-dropped weapons in early June to Libyan rebels fighting in the highlands south of Tripoli, which Russia and the African Union in particular argue was in violation of the arms embargo against Libya under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.^[2]

2009 – PK-BRO, a DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Aviastar Mandiri, crashes on approach to Wamena Airport, Indonesia, killing all three crew.

2007 – The plane of the Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast Guillaume Soro was attacked by unknown Friday morning with the airport of Bouaké (center), an act insulated which made at least four died, but saved Mr. Soro, and thrown a cold on the process of reconciliation in progress in the country. Ivory Coast Prime Minister Guillaume Soro survived a rocket attack on his plane after it landed at an airport in the central town of Bouake, said spokesman Issa Doumbia.

2007 – First flight of the Piasecki X-49

2004 – Northwest Airlines Flight 327 was a flight from the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan to the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. This event happened aboard N543US, a Boeing 757-200. The suspicious behaviour of a party of 13 Syrian musicians, on their way to an engagement in San Diego, alarmed flight attendants and passengers and raised concerns that they were observing a terrorist attack or a dry run test.

1995 – First flight of the Bell 407

1977 – Italian Professor Enrico Forlanini’s steam-powered helicopter is tested at Alexandria, Egypt.

1972 – In the 1972 Lake Winnebago mid-air collision, North Central Airlines Flight 290, a Convair CV-580, and Air Wisconsin Flight 671, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, collide over Lake Winnebago near Appleton, Wisconsin, killing all 13 people on board the two aircraft.

1972 – Forward air controller and OV-10 Bronco pilot Capt. Steven L. Bennett lost his life after a gun battle with Viet Cong gun positions, and was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.

1966 – For the first time, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration authorizes attacks on industrial targets in northeastern North Vietnam and on North Vietnam’s entire petroleum, oil, and lubricants system.

1966 – The U. S. Air Force bombs Hanoi for the first time

1963 – First flight of the Saab 105

1962 – First flight of the Vickers VC10, an Evolution of the long-range British airliner.

1960 – Entered Service: English Electric Lightning with the Royal Air Force’s No. 74 Squadron at RAF Coltishall

1955 – The first operational B-52 Stratofortress was delivered to the 93rd Bombardment Wing, Heavy, at Castle Air Force Base, Merced, California.

1948 – The Air Parcel Post Bill becomes U. S. law, establishing domestic air parcel post and raising first class postage rates for air mail from five cents to six cents.

1945 – Messerschmitt test pilot Ludwig "Willie" Hofman ("Hoffman" in American source) attempts to ferry captured Messerschmitt Me 262A1a/U4, Werke Nummer 170083, originally coded V-083, named Happy Hunter/Wilma Jeanne II, from Lagerlechfeld, near Augsburg, Germany, to Airfield A-55 near Cherbourg, France on behalf of the USAAF Air Technical Intelligence ("Watson's Whizzers") for loading aboard the HMS Reaper, suffers catastrophic failure of starboard engine at ~9,000 feet altitude and is forced to bail out over Normandy, suffering massive bruising as he deploys parachute at high speed. Aircraft was one of two conversions carrying Rheinmetall BK-5 50 mm anti-tank gun in nose for bomber attack, although it was never used operationally. American sergeant admits a year later that he had failed to inspect this aircraft's engines before the flight.

1944 – Republic P-47D-1-RA Thunderbolt, 42-22331, c/n 82, accepted March 30, 1943, of C Flight, 1st AF / 1st FG / E Section / 124th Base Unit (Fighter), "A-362", from Bluethenthal AAF, piloted by 2nd Lt. Robert B Boyd, Jr., makes gear-up crash landing on Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Abandoned in place, the hulk of the wings and lower fuselage is uncovered by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Now stored at the Carolinas Aviation Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina.

1941 – Curtiss XSO2C-1 Seagull, BuNo 0950, crashed at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C.. To mechanics school at NAS Jacksonville, Florida.

1939 – During another Khalkhin Gol Incident dogfight between Soviet and Japanese aircraft, the Soviets claim to have shot down 25 Japanese planes in exchange for the loss of two Soviet aircraft.

1939 – Dixie Clipper completes First commercial plane flight to Europe.

1934 – June 29-30 – Benjamin and Joseph Adamowicz brothers, amateur pilots, flew across the Atlantic

1927 – June 29 – July 1 – Richard Evelyn Byrd with crew flies Fokker F.VIIa/3 m "America" from New York City to France.

1927 – First flight from West Coast arrives in Hawaii.

1927 – Flight Lieutenant G. E. Brooks, flying in an Avro 504 K conducts the first flight test of Wallace Turnbull’s variable-pitch propeller, a major Canadian innovation in aviation technology.

1914 – Glenn Curtiss takes up nine passengers in New York in his seaplane America, built for Rodman Wanamaker, to make an attempt on the £10,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail for the first transatlantic crossing in a heavier-than-air machine.

1909 – In opening demonstration flights before the U. S. Army at Fort Myer, Virginia, Orville Wright makes the first flight with the new Wright A built to replace the one destroyed in September 1908.

1900 – Antoine de Saint-Exupery, aviator and writer was born.

References

^ Paur, Jason (1 July 2011). "KLM Completes First Scheduled Service Flight Using Biofuel". Wired.
^ "Libya Conflict: France Air-Dropped Arms to Rebels". BBC News. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2011.

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{{#ifexpr:30>29

 |June 1

2011 – Introduction: 747-8 (747-8I) with Lufthansa

2009 – Swedish airline Air Express Sweden is taken over by MCA Airlines

2009 – Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200 flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France, crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 occupants, including 12 crew; bodies and aircraft debris are not recovered until several days later; the aircraft itself is not found until 2011. The crash is the first fatal accident of the A330 and the worst-ever disaster involving the A330.

2008 –A U.S. helicopter crashes south of Baghdad, injuring two soldiers. The type of helicopter has not been revealed.^[1]^[2]

2007 – A Tanzania People’s Defence Forces passenger plane (reg JW9036) developed dual engine failure as the pilot manoeuvred to land at Dodoma airport, the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel S. M. Mayenga, said, and crash landed in the Kizota area of Dodoma. All thirteen people aboard survived.

2004 – America West Airlines starts service between Phoenix and Anchorage.

1999 – American Airlines Flight 1420, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, skids off the runway on landing at Little Rock, Arkansas during strong winds; eleven of 145 on board die.

1998 – MetroJet, operated by US Airways, began operations.

1992 – The United States Air Force‘s Strategic Air Command is disestablished.

1983 – Singapore Airlines announces it has bought six Boeing 747s and four Boeing 757s, making it the first Asian airline to buy the 757.

1981 – First flight of the Short 360

1976 – Aeroflot Flight 418, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain side on the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea; all 45 on board die.

1975 – A Kenyan Air Force Hawker Hunter crashes at Nairobi, Kenya, during celebrations marking the anniversary of self-rule in the former British colony, the airframe impacting only a few hundred yards from where President Jomo Kenyatta is addressing a public rally. The two crew of the fighter are killed instantly, with the jet narrowly missing a crowded bus as it skids across a four-lane highway. Passengers panic as the bus brakes to a halt and fills with smoke from the burning wreckage. A second Hunter jet makes an emergency landing at Nairobi International Airport, where, according to one witness, it narrowly misses a loaded Pan American jet "by a matter of feet." The airport closes briefly after the incident.

1964 – The Kenyan Air Force is established

1961 – United Air Lines absorbs Capital Airlines to become the largest airline in the West, with a fleet of 267 aircraft.

1960 – Trans-Canada Air Lines begins transatlantic services, flying between Montreal and London

1953 – No. 423 Squadron was reformed at St. Hubert, Quebec and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters.

1953 – The United States Air Force Thunderbirds are activated as the 3600th Air Demonstration Team at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona on 25 May 1953, flying Republic F-84 Thunderjets.^[3]^{[better source needed]}

1951 – British European Airways commences helicopter services between London and Birmingham

1950 – British European Airways commences the first regular passenger service to be flown by helicopter, between Liverpool and Cardiff.

1949 – A survey conducted by a firm of New York aviation consultants shows that for the first time in history air travel volume are greater than first class rail travel. Revenue passengers-miles for domestic airlines totals 603 million compared to 582 million for Pullman trains.

1948 – British European Airways commences the first helicopter airmail service in the UK

1948 – Entered Service: Convair CV-240 Convairliner with American Airlines

1948 – British European Airways (British European Airways) commences the first helicopter air mail service in the United Kingdom.

1948 – First flight of Cessna 170. The Cessna 170 is a general aviation aircraft produced by the Cessna Aircraft Company between 1948 and 1956. Over 5,000 were built, and over 2,000 are still accounted for today. The Cessna 170 landing gear is a taildragger configuration. It was replaced by the Cessna 172 which became the most popular light plane in history.

1944 – North West Air Command was formed at Edmonton under the command of A/V/M T. A. Lawrence.

1943 – Allied aircraft begin a final period of heavy bombing of Pantelleria during the ten days prior to the scheduled invasion of the island, during which they will fly 3,647 sorties.

1943 – In response to the Nazi dictatorship, the RCAF Second Tactical Air Force (2nd T. A. F.) was formed.

1943 – BOAC Flight 777, a Douglas DC-3, is shot down by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft over the Bay of Biscay, killing 17 passengers and crew, including actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that the flight was attacked because German intelligence believed that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was aboard.

1942 – Because of the similarity of the red disc in the center of the national insignia for U. S. military aircraft USAAC to Japanese markings, the United States adopts a new national insignia without the red disc, consisting simply of a white star centered in a blue circle USAAC roundel.The new marking will remain in use until July 1943.

1942 – (Overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command mounts what is nominally its second “thousand-bomber raid” – 956 bombers actually participate – Targeting Essen, Germany. Industrial haze spoils the attack; the British bombers kill only 15 people in Essen and destroy only 11 homes there, while widely scattered bombs strike Oberhausen, Duisburg, and at least eleven other cities and towns, which suffer more damage than Essen itself.

1941 – Germany completes the conquest of Crete. German airborne forces have suffered such heavy losses – probably 6,000 to 7,000 casualties and 284 aircraft lost – In the eleven days of fighting that Germany never again attempts a large airborne operation.

1941 – German Junkers Ju 88 bombers sink the British light cruiser HMS Calcutta 100 nautical miles (185 km) north of Alexandria, Egypt, as she retires after evacuating troops from Crete.

1940 – U. S. Army Air Corps announces plans for the construction of the world’s most powerful wind tunnel at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio.

1939 – First flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190

1939 – The Douglas DC-4 makes its first passenger flight from Chicago to New York.

1927 – Western Canada Airways inaugurated weekly air service from Winnipeg to Long Lake, Manitoba via Lac du Bonnet.

1925 – A car dealer covers himself in stamps worth $718 in a bid to be sent airmail from San Francisco to New York; the U. S. Post Office refuses to accept him.

1919 – A permanent flight of aircraft is stationed in San Diego to serve as a forest fire patrol. The machines are war-surplus Curtiss JN-4s.

1915 – The United States Department of the Navy awards its first contract for an airship – The DN-1-Class Blimp – To the Connecticut Aircraft Company.

1915 – Germany conducts the first zeppelin air raid over England.

1912 – The first military aeroplane flight in Norway is made by Lt Hans Dons in HNoMS Start an Etrich Taube(pictured).

References

^ Ross Colvin (2008-06-01). "Two US soldiers injured in Iraq helicopter crash". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
^ "US helicopter crashes in Iraq; 2 soldiers injured". The Associated Press. 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
^ United States Air Force Thunderbirds

Edit today's anniversaries

[1] Ross Colvin (2008-06-01). "Two US soldiers injured in Iraq helicopter crash". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-06-01.

[2] "US helicopter crashes in Iraq; 2 soldiers injured". The Associated Press. 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2008-06-01.

[3] United States Air Force Thunderbirds

[4] "Gaddafi To Send Representative to OPEC". Al Jazeera. 2 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

[Miller,_Greg_2012-5] Miller, Greg, "U.S. Set to Keep Kill Lists For Years,' The Washington Post, October 24, 2012, p. A8.

[6] "Libya: UK Apache Helicopters Used in NATO Attacks". BBC News. 4 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

[7] Boyle, Alan, "Solar Impulse Airplane Records Another First In Storm-Hit St. Louis," NBC News, June 4, 2013, 8:37 a.m. EDT.

[8] Solar Impulse Across America: St. Louis

[9] "30 arrested after Libyan airport standoff". CNN News. 5 June 2012.

[10] Miller, Greg, "U.S. Set to Keep Kill Lists For Years,' The Washington Post, October 24, 2012, p. A8.

[11] Sengupta, Kim (5 June 2011). "NATO Strike Force in Libya Enjoys Quick Success with Apache Gunships". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

[12] Graff, Peter (4 June 2011). "NATO Helicopters Ratchet Up Pressure on Gaddafi". Reuters. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

[solarimpulse.com-13] Solar Impulse: What Happened in 2012?

[14] Abdennebi, Zakia, "Solar Plane Completes Maiden Intercontinental Trip," Reuters, 5 June 2012, 7:22 p.m. EDT.

[15] "Libyan Live Blog: June 6, 2011 – 21:45". Al Jazeera. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

[16] Anonymous, "U.S. Drone Strike in Pakistan Said To Kill 7 Militants," UPI.com, June 8, 2013, 11:17 a.m. EDT

[17] Craig, Tim, "Seven Killed in Suspected U.S. Drone Strike in Pakistan," washingtonpost.com, June 7, 2013.

[18] Berhane, Daniel (June 9, 2012). "Kenyan Air Force Shells the Port Town Kismayo, Southern Somalia". Danielberhane.wordpress.com. Retrieved December 2, 2012.

[19] Solomon, Jay, and Nour Malad, "U.S. Bolsters Ties to Fighters in Syria," The Wall Street Journal, 13 June 2012 9:10 p.m. EDT.

[blogs.aljazeera.net-20] "Libya Live Blog: Monday, August 1, 2011 – 16:56". Al Jazeera. 1 August 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.

[21] Anonymous, "Europe Risks Air Traffic Chaos Over Strike", Al Jazeera, 12 June 2013 09:22.

[22] "UN Observers Confirm Syria Aerial Attacks", Al Jazeera, 12 June 2012.

[23] V22 Osprey Crash – via YouTube.

[24] S. A. Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897

[25] Anonymous, "ATC Strike Echoes Throughout Europe," ARC: Airport Regions Conference, 13 June 2013.

[jbaugher1994-26] "1994 USAF Serial Numbers". Retrieved 2010-02-17.

[27] "Iraq: U.S. Central Command Says Apache Was Downed By Hostile Fire".

[28] "F-16 Aircraft Database: F-16 Airframe Details for 88-0424". F-16.net. Retrieved 2008-05-16.

[29] MacCready Gossamer Albatross

[30] Andrew Mynarski

[31] AHS International Human-Powered Helicopter 12 July 2013

[32] Beardsley, Eleanor, "Strike By French Air Traffic Controllers Ends," NPR, June 13, 2013, 4:00 a.m.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 __NOTOC__
+{{AviationMonths}}
-====June 1==== [[2004 in aviation|2004]]- [[America West Airlines]] starts service between [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] and [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]].
+[[ar:بوابة:طيران/أحداث تاريخية/يوليو في الطيران]]
-[[1983 in aviation|1983]] - [[Singapore Airlines]] announces it has bought six [[Boeing 747]]s and four [[Boeing 757]]s, making it the first Asian airline to buy the 757.
-====June 2==== [[1983 in aviation|1983]] - An [[Air Canada]] [[McDonnell Douglas DC-9]]-32 jet burned shortly after making an emergency landing at [[Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport|Cincinnati Airport]], killing 23 of the 46 people on board.
-[[1973 in aviation|1973]] - The first production [[Tupolev Tu-144]] [[supersonic]] [[airliner]] broke-up during a demonstration flight at the [[Paris Air Show]], killing 14.
-====June 5==== [[Timeline of aviation - 18th century|1783]] unmanned flight of the [[Montgolfier brothers]] hot-air-balloon (Montgolfière) in Vivarais, France. The Montgolfiers demonstrate a hot air balloon in public, at [[Annonay]].
-[[1967 in aviation|1967]] - [[Boeing]] delivers its 1,000th jet airliner, a [[Boeing 707]]-120B for [[American Airlines]]
-- [[June 5]]-[[June 10|10]] - the [[Six Day War]] is fought between [[Israel]] and her Arab neighbours. In a pre-emptive strike, the [[Israeli Air Force]] destroys half of the [[Egyptian Air Force]] on the first night. By the end of the six days, 452 Arab aircraft had been destroyed for a loss of 46 Israeli aircraft.
-----
-<br>
-{{:June in aviation/June 6}}
-{{:June in aviation/June 7}}
-{{:June in aviation/June 8}}
-{{Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Aviation/Historical anniversaries/June in aviation/June 9}}
-{{Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Aviation/Historical anniversaries/June in aviation/June 11}}
-{{Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Aviation/Historical anniversaries/June in aviation/June 12}}
-====June 12==== [[1979 in aviation|1979]] - [[Bryan Allen]] flies the ''[[Gossamer Albatross]]'' across the [[English Channel]] using pedal power.
-[[Timeline of aviation - 19th century|1897]], Friedrich Hermann Wölfert and his mechanic are killed in an accident when their airship powered by petrol caught fire at a demonstration at the Tempelhof field.
-====June 13==== [[1980 in aviation|1980]] - the last produced [[Concorde]] (number 16) is delivered to [[British Airways]].
-====June 14==== [[1982 in aviation|1982]] - [[Argentina]]n forces surrender to [[England|English]] forces on the Falkland Islands. During their war, the English had destroyed 109 Argentinian planes, compared to only 10 lost by the British.
-====June 15==== [[1985 in aviation|1985]] - [[Amal guerrilla]] gunmen hijack a [[TWA]] [[Boeing 727]] en route from [[Rome]] to [[Athens]]. The plane, which includes some [[Jew]]ish passengers, is then re-routed and taken to [[Algiers]], [[Beirut, Lebanon|Beirut]], and Algiers again before setting in Beirut. The 39 passengers and crew are freed on [[July 1]] after [[Israel]] agrees to free 700 [[Shiite]] prisoners.
-[[Timeline of aviation - 18th century|1785]], Pilâtre de Rozier and [[Jules Romain]] become the first known aeronautical fatalities when their balloon crashes during an attempt to cross the English Channel.
-====June 16==== [[1984 in aviation|1984]] - [[Frontier Airlines]] pilot [[Emily Warner]] and co-pilot [[Barbara Cook]] make history by directing the first all-female commercial airline crew, on a flight from [[Denver]] to [[Lexington, Kentucky]].
-====June 17==== [[1991 in aviation|1991]] - [[Alaska Airlines]] commences services to the [[Soviet Union]]
-====June 18==== [[1971 in aviation|1971]] - [[Southwest Airlines]] founded
-====June 19==== [[1980 in aviation|1980]] - [[Sikorsky]] delivers its last of the [[Sikorsky S-61|S-61]] commercial helicopeters.
-====June 20==== [[2004 in aviation|2004]] - [[Frontier Airlines]] begins service to [[Nashville, Tennessee]].
-[[1972 in aviation|1972]] - Airline pilots hold a world-wide strike, calling for tighter security
-====June 21==== [[2004 in aviation|2004]] - [[SpaceShipOne]] is the first non-government built [[spacecraft]] to transport a person into space and return safely to earth.
-[[1987 in aviation|1987]] -  [[Air France]] pilot [[Partick Fourticq]] and friend [[Henri Pescarolo]] once again walk into the record books, completing an around the world flight aboard a [[Lockheed 18]], in 88 hours and 19 minutes.
-[[1972 in aviation|1972]] - [[Jean Boulet]] pilots a [[Aérospatiale Lama]] to a new record altitude for helicopters, 12,441 m (40,820 ft)
-====June 22==== [[1990 in aviation|1990]] - [[Bombardier]] purchases [[Learjet]] for $US 75 million
-[[1984 in aviation|1984]] -  [[London]]: [[Richard Branson]]'s airline, [[Virgin Atlantic]], begins services to North America, using [[Boeing 747]]s.
-[[1975 in aviation|1975]] - [[Svetlana Savitskaya]] sets a new women's airspeed record of 2,683 km/h (1,667 mph) in the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25|Mikoyan Ye-133]], a modified MiG-25PU two-seat [[trainer]]
-====June 23==== [[1985 in aviation|1985]] - an [[Air India]] [[Boeing 747]] explodes off the [[Ireland|Irish]] coast, killing all passengers. A terrorist bomb is suspected, but never confirmed.
-[[1980 in aviation|1980]] - [[Sanjay Gandhi]], son of [[Indira Gandhi]], dies when his private aerobatic biplane has an accident.
-====June 26==== [[1988 in aviation|1988]] - An [[Air France]] [[Airbus A320]] on a demonstration flight at an airshow at [[Mulhouse-Habsheim]] crashes and kills four people, including the pilot and co-pilot.
-====June 27==== [[1979 in aviation|1979]] - [[Israeli Air Force]] [[F-15 Eagle]]s shoot down four [[Syrian Air Force]] [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21]]s
-====June 30==== [[1977 in aviation|1977]] - US president [[Jimmy Carter]] cancels the [[B-1 Lancer]] program
-====Unknown dates====
-* [[European Helicopter Industries]] is formed.
-* [[Timeline of aviation - 19th century|1896]], Octave Chanute organises a flyer camp at [[Lake Michigan]]. Tested was a [[Otto Lilienthal|Lilienthal]]-glider (reconstruction) and a biplane built by Chanute, which was the basis for the further development of flight technique

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An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Aviation Portal 2024 day arrangement