On 26th May 1941, Fairey Swordfish aircraft launched from HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier hit German battleship Bismarck with two torpedoes, damaging her stern and making the ship unmanoeuvrable. The story of pursuit of one […]
On 19th May 1891, Oswald Boelcke, pioneer aviator, World War I air ace and godfather of the German fighter aviation, was born in Giebichenstein, Saxony (now a district of Halle). Oswald Boelcke was the fourth […]
On 12th May 1940, Boulton Paul Defiant fighter performed its first operational sortie. On that day, six aircraft of that type, together with six Spitfires, executed a combat patrol over the English Channel and coastal […]
On 5th May 1953, Christopher Draper – commonly known as the Mad Major – performed an incredible stunt by flying under fifteen (out of eighteen planned) bridges on the river Thames, located within the greater […]
On 28th April 1910, at 5:32 a.m., Louis Paulhan landed his aircraft at Barcicroft Fields near Manchester, winning the Daily Mail contest and, at the same time, the first long-distance aviation race in England. At […]
On 21st April 1942, Edward Henry O´Hare received the Medal of Honor – the highest military decoration of the United States Armed Forces – for his actions on 20th February 1942. On that day, O´Hare […]
On 14th April 1958, the Sputnik 2 – the second spacecraft that was launched into the orbit – re-entered the Earth´s atmosphere after spending 162 days in space and encircling our planet 2570 times. The […]
On 7th April 1922, a Farman F.60 and a de Havilland DH.18A airliners collided in mid-air over Thieuloy-Saint-Antoine in France, killing all persons on board of both aircraft. That accident is considered the first mid-air […]
On 31st March 1990, prototype of R44 helicopter performed its maiden flight. The Robinson R44 was developed in the 1980s by Robinson Helicopter Company. It was based on the manufacturer´s previous successful rotorcraft design, Robinson […]
On 24th March 1918, John Lightfoot Trollope scored his ninth to fifteenth aerial victories, becoming the first British pilot to shot down seven enemy aircraft in just one day. John Lightfoot Trollope was born on […]
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