Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 18

April 18


 * 2009 – Royal Air Maroc Boeing 747-2 B6 B CN-RME is substantially damaged when it lurches forward during an engine ground run and subsequently goes through a fence at Mohammed V International Airport, Morocco.


 * 2006 – First flight of the Diamond D-Jet.


 * 2005 – A United States Air Force F-16D crashed next to the Ashley River near Charleston, South Carolina. The two crew members ejected safely. Both the main power and backup power failed moments before the crash, the pilot said.


 * 2002 – A Rockwell Commander A112 crashed into the Pirelli Tower in Milan, Italy.


 * 1999 – Royal Australian Air Force General Dynamics F-111G, A8-291, c/n B1-63, of 6 Sqn., crashes about 2230 hrs. while on exercises in Malaysia. Believed to have hit one of two peaks on small island Pulua Aur, off the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, and then crashed into the South China Sea. The two crew, Sqn. Ldr. Steve Hobbs and Flt. Lt. Anthony Short, are killed.


 * 1993 – Japan Air System Flight 451, a Douglas DC-9, is hit by windshear and skids off the runway at Hanamaki Airport; no fatalities are reported


 * 1993 – USAF aircraft attack and destroy an Iraqi radar station


 * 1991 – Eastern Air Lines is dissolved after 64 years of operation. Many of its remaining assets are parceled out to American and Continental.


 * 1988 – The U. S. Navy conducts Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian forces and facilities in the Persian Gulf. A-6E Intruders from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) sink a speedboat, assist surface ships in sinking the frigate Sahand, and cripple the frigate Sabalan. Two Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force F-4 Phantom fighters approach the guided-missile cruiser USS Wainwright (CG-28), which damages one of them with a surface-to-air missile.


 * 1986 – Marcel Dassault (real name, Marcel Bloch) dies at 94.


 * 1982 – Death of Josef Mai, German WWI fighter ace and WWII instructor.


 * 1981 – Bell Helicopters delivered its 25.000th helicopter, a Model 222, to Omniflight Helicopters.


 * 1980 – Air Zimbabwe is formed.


 * 1979 – Death of Giovanni Ballestra, Italian Air Force pilot, not bailing out of his F-104 Starfighter on fire in order to avoid victims in a high denisity population zone.


 * 1978 – The Vickers Viscount becomes the first turboprop airliner to see 25 years in service


 * 1977 – Philippine Airlines DC-8-53 RP-C803 was operating Philippine Airlines Flight 421 when during takeoff at Haneda, Japan it lifted off prematurely, banked, touched down, and ran off the runway tearing off the undercarriage and all 4 engines. There were no fatalities; however the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.


 * 1974 – Court Line Flight 95, a BAC One-Eleven, collides with a Piper Aztec on the runway at London Luton Airport, killing the pilot of the Aztec; there are no casualties on board the One-Eleven, but the aircraft is substantially damaged; the Aztec is written off.


 * 1973 – Results of the USAF A-X fly-off announced, with the Fairchild YA-10 selected over the Northrop YA-9.


 * 1969 – Soyuz 5 reenters earth.


 * 1967 – Aeroflot and Japan Air Lines jointly inaugurate a Moscow-Tokyo service


 * 1965 – Death of Charles Marie Joseph Leon Nuville, French WWI fighter ace and WWII officer.


 * 1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20 Vickers 745D Viscount crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard.


 * 1958 – The Avro CF-105 Arrow prototype exceeded M 1.5 at 50,000 ft during a test flight at Malton, Ontario, piloted by J. Zurakowski.


 * 1958 – US Navy Lieutenant-Commander George Watkins flies from Edwards Air Base in California to a world record absolute altitude within the atmosphere of 76,932 feet in a Grumman F11 F-1 Tiger.


 * 1957 – End of Operation Power Flite, 3 B-52 B aircraft of the 93rd Bombardment Wing of the 15th Air Force lands at March Air Force Base near Riverside, California after flying for a total of 45 hours and 19 min, first jet aircraft to circle the world nonstop.


 * 1955 – Second prototype Lockheed XF-104A Starfighter, 53-7787, c/n 083-0002, is lost when airframe sheds the bottom ejection seat hatch fairing during 20 mm gun firing causing an explosive decompression. Test pilot Herman R. "Fish" Salmon ejected as aircraft broke up, injured landing in rough country. Joe Baugher cites date of 14 April for this accident.


 * 1952 - The Convair YB-60 makes a successful first flight at Carswell Air Force Base at Fort Worth, Texas.


 * 1945 – Luftwaffe ace (six victories) Oberst Johannes Steinhoff, of the jet experten Jagdverband 44, suffers tire blow-out on take-off from Flughafen München Riem when his Messerschmitt Me 262 hits a bomb crater. He lifts off, but without sufficient flying speed, he crashes, suffering severe burns, spending two years in hospital.


 * 1944 – Death of Eugene Jules Emile Camplan, French WWI flying ace.


 * 1944 – Air Solomons (AirSols) begins a very successful series of photographic reconnaissance flights over the Mariana Islands. The missions continue into June.


 * 1943 – P-38 Lightnings intercepted Japanese aircraft and take down two Mitsubishi bombers over Bougainville, killing Admiral Yamamoto, Japan’s leading military strategist.


 * 1942 – Col James Doolittle leads the first US attack on the Japanese mainland, leading a force of sixteen B-25 Mitchells flying from the USS Hornet against Tokyo in what comes to be known as the "Doolittle Raid".


 * 1942 – First jet engine test in the United States: General Electric 1-A engine successfully tested in Lynn, Massachusetts.


 * 1930 – Death of Tommaso (Tomaso) Dal Molin, Italian pilot in the crash of his seaplane racer Savoia-Marchetti S.65 on Lake Garda.


 * 1929 – First flight of the Bourgois-Sénemaud AT 40, French two-seat, single-engine parasol wing monoplane tourer prototype


 * 1920 – Death of Albert René Chabrier, French WWI flying ace.


 * 1919 – CMA (Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes) commences a mail and freight service between Paris and Lille, using ex-military Breguet 14s.


 * 1918 – Birth of Frederick C. Bock, WWII pilot who took part in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945, flying the B-29 bomber 'The Great Artist'


 * 1917 – William E. Boeing’s Pacific Aero Products Company is renamed the “Boeing Airplane Company. ”


 * 1916 – Birth of Giorgio Savoja (Savoia), Italian WWII fighter pilot.


 * 1916 – The first all-American air squadron in Europe is formed at the French spa town of Luxevil-les-Bains. Nieuport Squadron Nº 124, unofficially known as the “Escadrille Américaine” (American Squadron), is composed of volunteers who will be under the command of a French captain, Georges Thénault.


 * 1915 – Roland Garros is shot down and taken captive.


 * 1913 – Birth of Wing Commander George Cecil Unwin DSO, DFM & Bar, British WWII fighter ace.


 * 1911 – Eugene B. Ely makes the first landing by an aircraft on a ship when he flies his Curtiss Model D pusher biplane from Selfridge Field near San Francisco to a specially prepared wooden deck on the stern of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania.


 * 1893 – Birth of Douglas Evan Cameron, British WWI flying ace.


 * 1893 – Birth of Dr. Wolfgang Benjamin Klemperer, German prominent aviation and aerospace scientist and engineer, who ranks among the pioneers of early aviation.


 * 1891 – Birth of Herbert Wilhelm Franz Knappe, German WWI flying ace


 * 1888 – Birth of Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, CBE, Hon FRAeS, English aviation pioneer, founder of the Sopwith Aviation Company and yachtman.


 * 1882 – Birth of Gaston Caudron, French aviation pioneer and aircraft designer along with his brother René.