Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 22

April 22


 * 1999 – A Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24MR Fencer disappears from radar at 1140 hrs. while descending through cloud during a coastal surveillance flight. Wreckage found ~9 miles (15 km) from Novorossiysk and 25 miles (40 km) from Anapa. Both crew, Lt. Col. A. Kovalenko and Maj. A. Malkerov, did not eject and are KWF.


 * 1996 – The prototype Lockheed Martin RQ-3 DarkStar crashes shortly after take off on its second flight due to incorrect aerodynamic modeling of the vehicle's flight control laws.


 * 1992 – The YF-22 prototype is damaged beyond repair


 * 1985 – Pan Am reaches a deal with United Airlines, which buys Pan Am's Pacific Ocean routes for US$750 million.


 * 1982 – During the Falklands War, British SAS troops deployed from HMS Antrim, attempt to reconnoitre Fortuna Glacier on South Georgia island in preparation for recapture by UK forces but are hit by bad weather. One Westland Wessex HAS.3 and two Westland Wessex HU.5 helicopters (XT464 and XT473) of 845 Naval Air Squadron attempt a rescue in difficult conditions. After loading the troops, one Wessex 5 crashes on the glacier but all aboard survive. The personnel are then redistributed onto the other two helicopters, whereupon the second Wessex 5 also crashes on lift-off, leaving seventeen stranded on the glacier (thirteen SAS and four helicopter crew). The Wessex 3 navigator Lt. Chris Parry, returning to the glacier as nightfall comes on, loads 17 into a helicopter able to carry 5, returns to the Antrim, which is pitching in a rough sea, and pilot Lt. Cmdr. Ian Stanley crashes the Wessex onto the deck, concluding the rescue of the seventeen stranded men, who would likely have perished had they not been evacuated from the glacier. Pilot Stanley and two other airmen are awarded the DSO for the rescue operation, although the Ministry of Defense suppresses news of the loss of three helicopters.


 * 1974 – Pan Am Flight 812, a Boeing 707-321B, crashes into mountainous terrain 42.5 nmi northwest of Denpasar, Bali. All 107 passengers and crew on board are killed.


 * 1971 – Britain and France give the go-ahead for four more Concordes, bringing the total to ten.


 * 1971 – First flight of the Aero Boero AB-210


 * 1965 – First flight of the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk


 * 1958 – The prototype for the Boeing Vertol 107-II makes its first flight in Philadelphia. The Vertol 107 and its military cousin the CH-46 Sea Knight continue to serve around the globe.


 * 1946 – First flight of a tailless glider developed at National Research Council, Ottawa from a design by Prof GTR Hill. Flight was made from Namao, Alberta. The glider was piloted by S/L R. Kronfeld, RAF in a towed flight by an RCAF Douglas Dakota piloted for F/O Robertson.


 * 1944 – (22–23) Aircraft from eight U. S. Navy escort aircraft carriers support U. S. amphibious landings at Hollandia.


 * 1943 – The Air Cadet Corps was made a component of the RCAF by Order-in-Council.


 * 1942 – The USAAF forms China Ferry Command to support the Allied war effort in the China Burma India Theater.


 * 1942 – A B-24 Liberator of the Combat Crew Training School crashes near the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico while returning to Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, killing all nine people on board.


 * 1939 – Canadian pilot Marion Orr took her first flying lesson, to receive her private pilot’s license the following January. A couple of years later Marion began to operate a flying club. During World War II she got a job ferrying military aircraft for the RAF in England.


 * 1939 – First flight of the Aeronautica Umbra Trojani AUT.18.


 * 1939 – First flight of Lockheed Vega Starliner five/six-seat low-wing cabin monoplane with retractable landing gear and an unusual powerplant


 * 1920 – Three aircraft are wrecked at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C.


 * 1912 – Englishman Denys Corbett Wilson makes the first aeroplane crossing from Britain to Ireland.