On 14th January 1942 (or 13th January, according to some sources), a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky and designated Vought-Sikorsky VS-316 (aka XR-4, under its USAAF designation) performed its maiden flight, piloted by Les […]
On 7th January 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries performed the very first successful balloon flight across the English Channel (La Manche), covering the route from Dover Castle to Guînes (Guisines), Pas-de-Calais. Since the childhood, […]
On 24th December 1937, the first prototype of Macchi C.200 Saetta (also known as Macchi-Castoldi M.C.200), successfully performed its maiden flight, flown by chief test pilot Giuseppe Burei. The aircraft was designed by Mario Castoldi, […]
On 10th December 1919, a modified Vickers Vimy heavy bomber with a crew of Keith Macpherson Smith, Ross Macpherson Smith, W.H. Shiers and J.M. Bennet, successfully landed at Darwin, completing the 17,911 kilometres journey from […]
On 12th November 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont performed a series of public flights, in one of them covering a distance of 200 metres. That was the very first flight officially observed by the FAI and, in […]
On 22nd October 1909, Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman ever to pilot a heavier-than-air, powered aircraft and also the first female pilot that performed a solo flight. Élisa Léontine Deroche, as that was […]
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 […]
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