Boeing 377 Stratocruiser of the Pan Am Flight 6, made an emergency landing in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The Pan Am Flight 6 (sometimes erroneously referred as Flight 943) was the multi-stopover airline passenger flight around the world, performed all the way by several different aircraft. The flight began with Douglas DC-6B...
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Maiden flight of AgustaWestland AW101 medium-lift helicopter. The origins of this helicopter date back to late 1970s, when both the Royal Navy and Marina Militare were searching for a new, modern anti-submarine rotorcraft. Developed as a result of British – Italian cooperation (under a new company, EH Industries Ltd., owned by Westland and Agusta),...
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The very first mid-air collision was observed. An aviation meeting named ´Milano Circuito Aereo Internazionale´ was organized in Milan, Italy, between 24th September and 3rd October 1910. At the end of the event – on 2nd or 3rd October, according to the source – a French aviator René Thomas, flying Antoinette IV monoplane, collided...
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The Wright brothers arrived at Kitty Hawk, to perform the further flights with their 1902 Wright Glider. On 25 September 1903, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright came to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to carry out further trials with their 1902 Wright Glider. Between 28th September and 12th November, they made over 200 flights...
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The United States Air Force became the fully independent branch of the US armed forces. For the first time, an aviation unit within the United States Army was established on 1st August 1907, named the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps. This organization lasted until 18th July 1914, when the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps...
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Two famous Polish aviators Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura died in a tragic crash of their RWD-6 aircraft on the way to Czechoslovakia. 88 years ago, on 11th September 1932, Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura were on their way with the RWD-6 aeroplane to an aviation meeting in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, they hit the...
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Louise Thaden became the first woman pilot that won the Bendix Trophy Race. Thaden, together with her co-pilot Blanche Noyes, was flying a Beechcraft C17R ´Staggerwing´, a single engine biplane. Flying at an average speed of 266.11 kph (165.35 mph), they took the route from Floyd Bennet Field, Brooklyn, New York to Mines Field...
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Collision of two KC-135A-BN Stratotankers from the USAF 19th Bomb Wing, west of Bermuda, Atlantic Ocean. Two flying tankers, 61-0322 (c/n 18229) and 61-0319 (c/n 18226) were on return flight to Homestead air base (Florida) after a mission of refuelling two Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers, somewhere 1,100 kilometres out from the coast. Stratotanker 61-0322...
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The first flight of Hawker Siddeley Hawk, a jet-powered advanced training aircraft. Manufactured subsequently by Hawker, British Aerospace and then BAE Systems companies (with the licence production in India, by Hindustan Aeronautic Ltd.), Hawk is among the most successful and most recognized jet-powered trainers, with more than 1,000 aeroplanes made so far. Hawk is...
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Maiden flight of Panavia Tornado. The idea of creating a new Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA), to replace the European F-104 fleet, was born in the late 1960s. Initially, the aeroplane had to be developed in a multinational project supported by four countries – United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, but the latter...
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