On 8th April 1950, four Lavochkin La-11 fighters intercepted a US Navy aircraft, performing signal intelligence (SIGNIT) mission off the Soviet coast of the Baltic Sea. That aircraft, a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, was shot down […]
On the 1st April 1954, a Spitfire Mk. XIX of the No. 81 Squadron RAF performed the last operational sortie of that type of aircraft within the RAF. That final flight was a reconnaissance mission […]
On 25th March 2006, the second successful test flight of HyShot III, a revolutionary supersonic combustion ramjet engine was performed at Woomera, South Australia. In 1947, Charles Yeager, flying the Bell X-1 rocket aircraft, broke […]
On 18th March 1916, Ernst Udet achieved his first of 62 air victories in the Great War, shooting down a French Farman F.40 aircraft. Ernst Udet, born on 26th April 1896 in Frankfurt am Main, […]
On 11th March 1993, Airbus A321, being one of the most successful airliners made by the company, performed a maiden flight. The A321 is a member of a popular A320 family of passenger aircraft, produced […]
On 4th March 1954, Tony LeVier, official test pilot of the Lockheed company, took-off for the first time in a prototype of a new fighter – XF-104, later developed into a well-known F-104 Starfighter. The […]
On 18th February 1930, a cow named Elm Farm Ollie travelled over 70 miles in a Ford Trimotor aeroplane and officially became the first cow ever to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft. In addition, Elm […]
On 11th February 1941, flying in a poor weather conditions, Capitano Mario Visintini crashed his Fiat CR.42 fighter into Mount Bizen, Eritrea. Mario Visintini was born on 26th April 1913, in Parenzo d´Istria, now known […]
On 4th February 1943, prototype of a twin-engine medium bomber, the Bristol Type 163 ´Buckingham´, performed its maiden flight. An idea to create a medium bomber based on Beaufighter originally came from its manufacturer, the […]
On 28th January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger (NASA STS-51-L mission) broke apart, killing all crew aboard. STS-51-L was the 25th mission within the US Space Shuttle programme and, at the same time, had to […]
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