Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 21

April 21


 * 2011 – The Sukhoi Superjet 100, the first airliner developed from start to finish in post-Soviet Russia, makes its first commercial passenger flight, flying for the Armenian airline Armavia from Yerevan, Armenia, to Moscow, Russia.


 * 2010 – Pacific East Asia Cargo Airlines Flight 7815, operated by Antonov An-12 UR-AN216 crashed on approach to Clark International Airport (formerly Diosdado Macapagal International Airport), Philippines after a fire broke out in flight. Three of the six crew were killed.


 * 2010 – Two Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets of the Belarusian Air Force collided during a training flight. There were no casualties as one MiG-29 landed safely, while the pilot in the second plane ejected before it crashed.


 * 2007 – Blue Angels South Carolina crash occurred when the Number 6 US Navy Blue Angels jet crashed during the final minutes of an air show at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina. The sole fatality was confirmed and identified as the pilot, Lieutenant Commander Kevin 'Kojak' Davis, by the Blue Angels organization spokesman in a news conference on 22 April 2007. The body of the pilot and the black box were later recovered and moved to the local coroner's office. There were eight injuries reported on the ground.


 * 2007 – A United States Navy Blue Angels McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, BuNo 162437, crashes into a residential neighborhood while performing at an airshow in Beaufort, South Carolina, in the United States, killing the pilot. Military investigators blame pilot for his fatal crash. A report obtained by The Associated Press said that Lieutenant Commander Kevin Davis got disoriented and crashed after not properly tensing his abdominal muscles to counter the gravitational forces of a high-speed turn.


 * 2005 – A Bulgarian Mil Mi-8 is shot down north of Baghdad, killing the 11 civilians on board, including six American contractors, three Bulgarian pilots, one of them is executed shortly after the crash, and two Fijian guards.


 * 2002 – First flight of the Irkut A-002


 * 1997 – The Canadian Forces launched operation assistance in response to the flooding of the Red River in Manitoba. The CF would send 8,500 regular and militia troops to the region along with 135 military vehicles.


 * 1990 – Aeritalia joins the Airbus consortium as a partner


 * 1989 – Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7974, Article 2025, outbound on operational sortie from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, suffers engine explosion, total hydraulic failure. Pilot Maj. Dan E. House and RSO Capt. Blair L. Bozek both eject safely. This was the final Blackbird loss before the type was withdrawn from service.


 * 1982 – (21-25) Helicopters play a major role as British forces recapture South Georgia Island from Argentine forces.


 * 1975 – First flight of the Dominion Skytrader


 * 1972 – Apollo 16 landed on the moon. Apollo 16 was the fifth mission in which humans walked on the lunar surface and returned to Earth.


 * 1970 – Philippine Airlines Flight 215, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, explodes in mid-air and crashes 75 mi north of Manila; killing all 36 on board; a bomb is suspected.


 * 1967 – First flight of the Rollason Beta


 * 1967 – Fourth prototype Grumman F-111B, BuNo 151973, c/n A2-04, suffers flame-out of both engines at 200 feet after take-off, killing the project pilot Ralph Donnell and co-pilot Charles Wangeman.


 * 1964 – First flight of the Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa Jet


 * 1961 – USAF Major Robert White pilots the X-15 A research airplane from Edwards Air Force Base in California on its first flight at full throttle, reaching a speed of 3,074 mph at an altitude of 79,000 feet, before climbing to 105,100 feet.


 * 1958 – United Airlines Flight 736, a Douglas DC-7, collides near Las Vegas, Nevada with a US Air Force F-100 Super Sabre fighter on a training mission. All 47 aboard the airliner and both F-100 crew members are killed.


 * 1958 – A United States Air Force North American F-100F-5-NA Super Sabre, 56-3755, collided in mid-air with United Airlines Flight 736, a Douglas DC-7 registered N6328C, at 21,000 feet (6,400 m) near Arden, Nevada – two F-100 crew and all 47 on board the DC-7 died.


 * 1958 – Entered Service: Vertol Model 44 with New York Airways


 * 1956 – First flight of the Douglas F5D Skylancer


 * 1953 – T396 the last Handley Page Halifax in RAF service, a A Mk IX of No. 1 Parachute Training School, RAF Henlow written off in accident.


 * 1951 – Four Yak-9 fighters attack two U. S. Marine Corps F4U Corsairs of Marine Fighter Squadron 312 (VMF-312) near Chinnampo, Korea. Marine Captain Philip C. DeLong shoots down two of them, while his wingman, Lieutenant H. Deigh, destroys one and damages the fourth.


 * 1948 – British European Airways Flight S200P, a Vickers VC.1 Viking, crashes into Irish Law Mountain in Scotland due to pilot error; all on board survive.


 * 1946 – No. 168 (Heavy Transport) Squadron was disbanded at Rockcliffe. It had completed 636 trans-Atlantic flights between 15 Dec 1943 and 02 Mar 1946.


 * 1945 – Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200B-2, D-ASHH, "Hessen", hastily loaded with baggage of the Berlin Headquarters Staff, departs for Barcelona, Spain via Munich, piloted by Flugkapitän Künstle, with five crew and 16 passengers. Condor reaches Munich safely, but never appears in Spain. Extensive inquiries in Germany, Switzerland and Spain turn up no clues to fate. In 1954, evidence finally is discovered that the overloaded transport crashed and burned with no survivors near Piesenkofen Kreis Mühlberg, Bavarial


 * 1944 – Southeast door of blimp hangar at Naval Air Station Houma, Louisiana, goes inoperable, is chained open. A gust of wind carries three Goodyear ZNP-K airships, all of ZP-22, out into the night; K-56, BuNo 30178, travels 4.5 miles (7.2 km), crashes into trees, K-57, BuNo 30179, explodes and burns 4 miles (6.4 km) from the air station, K-62, BuNo 30184, fetches up against high-tension powerlines a quarter mile away, burns. K-56 is salvaged, sent to Goodyear at Akron, Ohio, repaired and returned to service.


 * 1944 – Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube (29 October 1890 – 21 April 1944), a German general who served in the German Army during the First and Second World Wars, and recipient of the Diamonds to the Knight's Cross, is killed when the Heinkel He 111 which was shuttling him to Berlin crashes shortly after takeoff in Salzburg at Ainring. Hube was nicknamed der Mensch ("The Man" or better "The human being") by his troops during the Second World War.


 * 1944 – (21–24) Task Force 58 aircraft strike Wakde, Sawar, Sarmi, and the Hollandia area, losing 21 aircraft. Since late March, U. S. air attacks against Hollandia have destroyed 340 Japanese aircraft on the ground in the area and shot down an estimated 50 more, with the Fifth Air Force strikes of late March and April certainly accounting for almost all of the Japanese losses.


 * 1943 – Since the second week of April, the U. S. Army Air Force‘s Eleventh Air Force has raided Kiska 83 times.


 * 1942 – Lieutenant Commander Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare becomes the first U. S. Navy aviator to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions on 20 February 1942.


 * 1941 – Operating unopposed, German aircraft sink 23 ships in Greek waters, including a Greek destroyer and two hospital ships.


 * 1933 – First flight of the USS Macon (ZRS-5)


 * 1929 – A U.S. Army Air Force Boeing PW-9D, 28-037, collided with a Ford Trimotor, NC9636, operated by Maddux Air Lines over San Diego, killing all 6 on board both aircraft.


 * 1928 – Australian explorer Hubert Wilkins and his American pilot Carl Ben Eielson arrive in Spitzbergen, Norway after making the first ever crossing of the Arctic by airplane. They left Point Barrow, Alaska, on April 15th in their Lockheed Vega.


 * 1923 – Capt. Walter Ralls Lawson, Sr. (b. 23 October 1893) is killed along with four other crew when his Martin MB-2 bomber, 64205, of the 20th Bombardment Squadron, 2d Bombardment Group, crashes into the Great Miami River in high winds shortly after take off from McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, the same aircraft he piloted with the 1st Provisional Air Brigade during bomb tests out of Langley Field that sank the former German battleship SMS Ostfriesland. The Army named the balloon landing facility at Fort Benning, in his home state of Georgia, Lawson Field in his honor in August 1931. After World War II the name of Second Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson was added to his, giving the parsimonious post war Army two memorials for the price of one. The second Lawson was author of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, a memoir of his experiences as a pilot on the historic World War II raid led by the first Lawson's fellow pilot in the 1st Provisional Air Brigade, Jimmy Doolittle. At the time of his death, the senior Lawson was commanding officer of the 20th Bombardment Squadron.


 * 1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, a living legend called the "Red Baron" and "ace of aces" is shot down and killed. By the time of his death, he had claimed 80 victories. Credit for his kill is given to Canadian Cpt Roy Brown, but this is disputed by others who claim that he was killed by ground fire from Australian troops.


 * 1914 – The first news movie shot from the air is filmed by cameraman B. C. Hucks, Warwick Bioscope Chronicle Film, England. He flies down to within 400 ft. of the royal yacht with King George aboard, crossing the English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France.