On 27th August 1783, French scientist, professor Jacques Charles and engineers Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert, have launched the first ever hydrogen-filled balloon. Although the idea of ballooning was as old as ancient China (approximately […]
First flight of Yakovlev Yak-50, aerobatic trainer aircraft. Between 1946 and 1965, Yakovlev design bureau created, under common designation Yak-18, a series of quite different training and aerobatic aircraft. It included a variant designated Yak-18PM, […]
Kawanishi E11K, a Japanese experimental flying boat performed its first flight. The story of this aircraft began in 1936, when the Imperial Japanese Navy drew up a request for a new small flying boat, intended […]
25th May 2021 marked exactly 45 years since the first flight of Boeing E-3 Sentry. And that makes a perfect occasion to tell the story of this iconic ‘guardian of the skies’. Origins of the […]
On 21 May 1969, the Antonov An-26, a twin-engine, turboprop transport aircraft, performed its maiden flight. The Antonov An-26 is one of the most-known aircraft designed by the Antonov construction bureau and, at the same […]
PZL 104 ‘Wilga 35A’, STOL utility aircraft (SP-EBK c/n 61123), Aero Club of Włocławek, April 2014. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, the need for a modern, lightweight multipurpose aircraft to be used […]
Maiden flight of PZL.44 Wicher (English: Gale), a prototype of Polish two-engine airliner. The inter-war years were a period when aviation truly boomed all over the world. Especially in the 1930s, the popularity of air […]
First flight of Fiat G.50 Freccia (English: Arrow), an Italian fighter aircraft. The Fiat G.50 Freccia was created to meet the demand of Regia Aeronautica (the Italian Air Force) for a modern interceptor aircraft. In […]
Maiden flight of PZL TS-11 ´Iskra´, a Polish jet trainer aircraft. The idea of creating a jet-powered trainer for the Polish Air Force was born in the middle of 1950s, upon the introduction of jet […]
Maiden flight of Sukhoi PAK FA prototype, the aircraft also known as Sukhoi T-50 (company designation) and then as Su-57 (NATO reporting name: Felon, although unconfirmed). The roots of a Russian new generation fighter programme […]
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