Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 11

April 11


 * 2012 – An MV-22B from USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) crashed near Agadir, Morocco, during a joint training exercise. Two Marines were killed and two others were seriously injured, and the aircraft was lost.


 * 2011 – NATO announces that its Operation Unified Protector airstrikes have destroyed 49 Libyan government tanks since 9 April, including 13 on 9 April, 25 on 10 April, and 11 on 11 April.


 * 2008 – In the 2008 Chişinău Antonov An-32 crash, a Sudanese airline Antonov An-32 crashes when returning shortly after taking off from Chişinău International Airport, Moldova for Turkey. All eight on board are killed.


 * 2004 – An AH-64D Apache 02-5301 from C Company, 1–227 Aviation Regiment, 4th BCT, 1st Cavalry Division shot down west of Baghdad, killing both pilots.


 * 1996 – Cessna 177B, N35207. Jessica Dubroff, a seven-year-old pilot trainee who was attempting to become the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States, died when her aircraft crashes after takeoff from Cheyenne Regional Airport in Cheyenne, Wyoming.


 * 1969 – Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7954, Article 2005, crashes on runway during take off from Edwards Air Force Base, California. Pilot Lt. Col. Bill Skliar and RSO Maj. Noel Warner escape without injury.


 * 1961 – A USAF McDonnell F-101 Voodoo of the 75th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, returning from an Air Defense Command patrol over the Atlantic Ocean, dropped too low in poor visibility on approach to Dow AFB, Maine, and struck Bald Mountain, near Ellsworth, Maine, killing pilot Capt. Vernal Johnson and Lt. Edward Masaltis. Wreckage remains in place and the Maine Aviation Historical Society has erected a plaque commemorating the crew and asking that the wreck remain undisturbed.


 * 1955 – North American Aviation is issued a preliminary contract to build prototypes of the XF-108 long-range interceptor aircraft for the USAF.


 * 1955 – An Air India Lockheed L-749 Constellation named Kashmir Princess explodes under suspicious circumstances; 16 people are killed and three survive.


 * 1954 – S/L RG Christie flew from Vancouver to Ottawa in 3 hrs, 46 mins flying time with stops at Calgary and Winnipeg. He was flying a Canadair-built North American Sabre.


 * 1952 – The Piasecki H/CH-21 Shawnee tandem-rotor helicopter makes its first flight.


 * 1952 – Pan Am Flight 526A, a Douglas DC-4, suffers engine failure and is forced to ditch in the Atlantic 11 mi (18 km) north of San Juan, Puerto Rico; 52 of 69 on board die.


 * 1950 – A USAF Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, 45-21854, of the 830th Bomb Squadron, 509th Bomb Group (M), on a ferry mission crashes into mountain on Manzano Base Nuclear Weapons Storage Area (WSA), three minutes after take-off from Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, killing 13 crew. One fully assembled bomb casing (a Mark IV atomic bomb) on board is completely shattered when detonators explode. A fuel capsule, carried separately, is recovered.


 * 1945 – Second of two Northrop XP-61E Black Widows, 42-39557, modified from P-61B with cut-down fuselage and bubble canopy, is written off when over-eager pilot tries P-38 Lightning trick of retracting landing gear on take-off while still on runway, but heavier Widow settles onto runway, hollow steel props shatter, airframe strikes tool shack on side of runway, airframe written-off, pilot survives. First XP-61E, 42-39549, is modified into sole XF-15 photo-reconnaissance prototype, 36 of which will be built as Northrop F-15A Reporter.


 * 1944 – Short Stirling B.Mk.III, EH947, of 75 Squadron, suffers engine failure during non-operational flight, force-landed at Icklingham, Suffolk.


 * 1943 – Frank Piasecki flies the P-V Engineering Forum PV-2 helicopter to become the second successful helicopter to fly in the United States.


 * 1940 – The first aerial torpedo attack of World War II and the first coordinated torpedo attack launched from an aircraft carrier in history takes place, as Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier HMS Furious attack two German destroyers in Trondheimsfjord, Norway. The torpedoes all ground in the shallows and no hits are achieved; three aircraft are lost.


 * 1939 – The North American NA-40B, NX14221, is destroyed in a crash during USAAC testing at Wright Field, Ohio, when it loses one engine and spins into the ground. Crew escapes. The type is revised into the Model NA-62 and is ordered into production as the B-25 Mitchell.


 * 1934 – Renato Donati sets a new altitude record of 14,433 m (47,352 ft) in a Caproni Ca 113.


 * 1933 – (11-20) Departing England on April 11 in the Avro Mark VIA Avian Southern Cross, William N. “Bill” Lancaster begins an attempt to set a speed record for a flight to South Africa. He crashes in the Sahara Desert on April 12 and dies on April 20 while awaiting rescue. His mummified body and wrecked aircraft will not be discovered until February 1962.


 * 1929 – The Boeing P-12 fighter makes its first flight. The Navy version, the F4 B-1, will make its first flight on May 6. The military will order 586 airplanes in the series.


 * 1929 – Edmond Thieffry (28 September 1892] – 11 April 1929) was a Belgian First World War air ace and aviation pioneer. He made, with Léopold Roger and Jef de Bruycker, the first successful flight between Belgium and Congo (then the Belgian Congo).


 * 1921 – The first Canadian Air Force flying fatality occurred at Camp Borden, Ontario when S/L K. Tailyour crashed in an Avro 504 K while performing aerobatics. 1917 – First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M. F.3


 * 1921 – First flight of the Short Cromarty flying boat.


 * 1911 – Imperial Japanese Army officer Yoshitoshi Tokugawa makes the first flight from Japan’s first permanent airfield at Tokorozawa, piloting a Farman III biplane.


 * 1911 – The U. S. Army sets up its first permanent flying school at College Park, Maryland.


 * 1908 – Delagrange flies 12,878 feet in six minutes, 30 seconds in his Voisin-Delagrange Nº 2 in Paris.