Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 10

August 10


 * 2010 – Alaska Turbo Otter crash: A de Havilland Canada DHC-3 T Turbo Otter crashes near Aleknagik, United States killing former Senator Ted Stevens. Former NASA Administrator and current EADS North America CEO Sean O’Keefe is amongst the survivors.


 * 2007 – A US Navy HH-60 "Rescue Hawk" make a forced landing in Yusufiyah. The two crew members sustained non-life threatening injuries.


 * 2006 – British authorities announce that a plot to simultaneously denonate bombs smuggled in hand luggage aboard ten airliners bound for the United States over the Atlantic Ocean has been foiled. Tightened security measures in the United Kingdom and United States and flight cancellations which happen afterwards cause severe chaos at several London airports.


 * 2005 – Copterline Flight 103, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter crashes off Tallinn, Estonia, killing all 14 on board.


 * 2002 – US Airways files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.


 * 2001 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-105 at 21:10:14 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS supply, crew rotation.
 * 1999 – A Pakistan Navy Breguet Atlantic, believed to be serialled '91', c/n 33, of 29 Squadron, is shot down by two Indian Air Force MiG-21 jets, citing airspace violation. Dubbed the Atlantique incident, it raises tensions between India and Pakistan.


 * 1993 – An McDonnell-Douglas AV-8B-8 Harrier II, BuNo 162955, c/n 512083/77, of VMA-231, crashed on the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina as the pilot was doing "touch and go" landings. The plane's flaps jammed when moisture got into the flap controller causing it to short out. The pilot, Captain William P. Delaney ejected before the plane hit the runway however his parachute descended into the fireball killing him.


 * 1990 – Prime Minister Mulroney announced that Navy ships, HMCS Athabaskan, HMCS Terra Nova, and HMCS Protecteur accompanied by five Sea King helicopters from 423 Squadron, would deploy to the Persian Gulf.


 * 1965 – A fire in a Martin LGM-25C Titan II missile silo at Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 men, all of them civilians, in the worst accident in "U.S. space age defense" when a diesel generator catches fire, smothering the victims. The missile, fully loaded with liquid fuel, did not burn. Its nuclear warhead had been removed while the civilian workmen updated the physical plant of the complex. Two civilians were able to flee the fire area through an underground tunnel to the access rooms and launch center. "The fire probably burned less than an hour", said Capt. Douglas Wood, Public Information Officer for Little Rock Air Force Base, which commands the 18 Titan II silos ringing Central Arkansas, "but up to 12 hours later smoke was still billowing in the silo."


 * 1965 – A Virginia Air Guard Cessna L-19 Bird Dog crashes at Camp Pickett, Virginia, while flying a support mission for forces in summer field training, killing the crew. Pilot Capt. Laurence A. White and S/Sgt. Melvin D. Mangum, both of the Richmond Howitzers, are KWF when the liaison aircraft comes down near the Nottoway River reservoir.


 * 1962 – First flight of the Bell 533


 * 1959 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair F-86 Sabre of the Golden Hawks aerobatic team overshot when landing at McCall Airfield, Alberta, with the rest of the team and collided with a Piper Pacer about 2 miles (3.2 km) W of the field. Pilot of the Sabre and two occupants of the Pacer were killed.


 * 1955 – Two United States Air Force Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar transports of the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, collide over Edelweiler, Germany, near Stuttgart, shortly after takeoff for training mission from Stuttgart Army Airfield near Echterdingen. C-119G, 53-3222, c/n 11238, piloted by Robert T. Asher, and C-119G, 53-7841, c/n 11258, piloted by Eugene L. Pesci, both crash. In all, 66 died, 44 on one Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, and 22 on the other. Troops aboard were of the Army's 499th Engineering Battalion.


 * 1949 – First flight of the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner


 * 1947 – A new world airspeed record of 640 mph (1,031 km/h) is set in the Douglas Skystreak during a flight on 20 August 1947.


 * 1947 – British European Airways began the world's first regular cargo-only airline service.


 * 1945 – Task Force 38 aircraft again strike northern Honshu heavily, striking two previously undetected Japanese airfields.


 * 1945 – After suffering heavy damage during the airstrikes of July 24, 28, and 29, the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaiyo is abandoned in Beppu Bay when she lists far enough for the port side of her flight deck to be underwater. She later will be scrapped in place.


 * 1944 – Saipan-based U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Seventh Air Force conduct the first bombing raid against Iwo Jima, the first of 10 air raids on Iwo Jima during August.


 * 1944 – U. S. Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortresses carry out raids against Palembang on Sumatra and Nagasaki, Japan. The Palembang raid is the longest carried out by the 20th Air Force during World War II, requiring a round trip of 4,030 miles (6,490 km) between a staging base on Ceylon and the target. The Nagasaki raid employs the heaviest B-29 bomb loads to date—6,000 lbs (2,722 kg) per bomber—and results in the 20th Air Force’s first air-to-air kill, a Japanese fighter shot down by B-29 gunner Technical Sergeant H. C. Edwards.


 * 1943 – Reinforced by 250 Imperial Japanese Army aircraft from Rabaul, Japanese air forces in New Guinea are ordered to conduct an air offensive against Allied airfields on New Guinea and Allied convoys along the Papuan coast.


 * 1938 – 10-11 – A Lufthansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 makes a non-stop flight from Berlin to New York, via Hamburg, Glasgow, Newfoundland, and Halifax, taking 24 hours 36 min for the trip.


 * 1936 – A Nationalist ground column under Colonel Juan Yagüe y Blanco captures Mérida, Spain, after advancing 200 miles (322 km) in less than a week. Nine German Junkers Ju 52 s and eight Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 s have given the column local air superiority, while a civilian aeroclub from Seville has provided aerial reconnaissance and in one instance forced Republican militiamen to abandon their positions by dropping melons on them.


 * 1922 – The Schneider Trophy race is flown at Naples, Italy. It is won by the only non-Italian competitor, H. C. Biard in a British Supermarine Sea Lion II, with a winning speed of 234.5 km/h (145.7 mph).


 * 1921 – The United States Department of the Navy establishes the Bureau of Aeronautics to oversee all matters relating to naval aircraft, personnel, and operations. United States Marine Corps aviation remains under a separate command, the Director of Aviation at Headquarters Marine Corps.


 * 1918 – Lt. Erich Loewenhardt, third-highest-scoring German ace of the Great War, is KWF when the wheels of a Fokker D.VII flown by Lt. Alfred Wentz of Jasta 11 (also spelt Wenz in some sources) collide with the wing of his own Fokker D.VII, causing it to crash. He bails out but his chute fails to open. Lowenhardt, posted to JG.1, and flying with Jasta 10 from July 1917, scored 53 victories before his death. Wentz successfully bails out of his stricken fighter.


 * 1912 – Englishman Francis K. McClean becomes the first pilot to fly under bridges spanning the Thames River when he takes off from Harty Ferry, Eastchurch in his Short biplane S. 33.


 * 1910 – Claude Grahame-White attempts to fly the first airmail in the world to be carried on a powered airplane when he takes off from Squires Gate near Blackpool, England heading for Southport. The attempt in his little Blériot monoplane fails and he is forced to land.


 * 1840 – American Louis Lauriat, whose balloon flies at 21 mph in New Brunswick, makes the first manned balloon flight in Canada.