Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 13

August 13


 * 2012 – An Internet video is released showing the crash of what appears to be a Syrian Air Force MiG-23 (NATO reporting name "Flogger") aircraft flying over Muhasan, Syria. Syrian rebels claim to have shot it down.


 * 2010 – AIRES Flight 8250, operated by Boeing 737-73 V HK-4682, crashes short of the runway at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport, San Andrés, Colombia and breaks into three sections. One passenger dies from a heart attack following the accident. The other 124 passengers and six crew survive.


 * 2010 – Regional Spanish airline Andalus Lineas Aereas ceases operations.


 * 2004 – Air Tahoma Flight 185, a Convair 580, crashes near Covington, Kentucky while descending to land, killing the First Officer.


 * 2002 – Midway Airlines (1993–2003) files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.


 * 1989 – Alice Springs hot air balloon crash: Two hot air balloons collided near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, causing one to crash to the ground, killing thirteen people.


 * 1981 – The G-ASWI North Sea ditching of a Bristow Helicopters Westland Wessex due to engine failure kills all 13 on board.


 * 1976 – The Bell Model 222, the first twin-engined light commercial helicopter, developed in the United States, makes its first flight, powered by the 650 SHP Avco Lycoming LTS 101-650 C.


 * 1973 – Aviaco Flight 118, a Sud Caravelle, en route from Madrid to A Coruña crashes while approaching A Coruña Alvedro airport, in Montrove, 2 km from the airport; all 85 on board died, and 1 on the ground.


 * 1968 – Swedish Count Gustav von Rosen defies Nigerian air defences to fly in supplies to the Biafran rebels


 * 1962 – First flight of the British Aerospace 125


 * 1951 – A Boeing B-50D-110-BO Superfortress, 49-0268, on test flight out of Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington after modifications, suffers problems immediately after take off, fails to gain altitude, comes down two miles (3 km) N of field, clipping roof of a brewery with the starboard wing, cartwheels into wooden Lester Apartments, wreckage and structure burns for hours. Six on bomber (three Air Force crew, three Boeing employees) and five on ground die.


 * 1945 – Carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 strike the Tokyo area, claiming 272 Japanese aircraft destroyed and 149 damaged.


 * 1945 – (Overnight) Seven B-29 Superfortresses drop five million leaflets over Tokyo, providing the Japanese population for the first time with the news that Japan had accepted the Potsdam Declaration and was negotiating for peace.


 * 1944 – Focke-Wulf Fw 190C V30 prototype, Werke Nummer 0055, modified to Fw 190 V30/U1 as prototype for Ta 152H-0, rebuilt with Fw 190D 1,750 hp (1,300 kW) Jumo 213A-1 power egg, but without new wingtanks, crashes this date on flight out of Langenhagen after only one week of testing. First flown in new guise on 6 August


 * 1943 – The USAAF makes its first bombing raid on Austria


 * 1942 – Attacking the Pedestal convoy, Axis aircraft sink two more cargo ships and inflict additional damage on a tanker.


 * 1940 – A Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed Hudson crashes near Canberra, Australia, killing all 10 people on board. Among the dead are Geoffrey Street, Australian Minister of Defence and Repatriation; James Fairbairn, Australian Minister for Air and Civil Aviation; Sir Henry Gullett, Australian Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister in Charge of Scientific and Industrial Research; and General Sir Brudenell White, Australian Chief of the General Staff.


 * 1939 – First flight of the Vickers Warwick


 * 1937 – Entered Service: Sikorsky XPBS-1


 * 1936 – A Nationalist air raid off Málaga damages the Republican battleship Jaime I.


 * 1932 – First flight of the Gee Bee Model R


 * 1918 – Jarvis Jennes Offutt (1894–1918), becomes the first fatality among natives of Omaha, Nebraska in World War I, when his S.E.5 crashed during a training flight near Valheureux, France, and succumbs to his injuries. The Flying Field, Fort George Crook, Nebraska renamed Offutt Field, 6 May 1924.


 * 1914 – The first British airplane to reach French soil after mobilization is a BE2a, serial number 327, flown by Capt. F. F. Waldron and Air Mechanic Skerritt of No. 2 Sqdr. RFC commanded by Maj. C. J. Burke.


 * 1914 – A Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 becomes the first British aircraft to arrive in France for the war.


 * 1912 – During air-ground maneuvers held by the U.S. Army, at Stratford, Connecticut, Pvt. Beckwith Havens of the New York National Guard suffers engine failure in a Curtiss biplane at about 1000 ft (300 m) over a crowded parade ground, narrowly misses spectators and a cavalry troop as he swoops down, glides down the field and collides with a Burgess-Wright biplane that had just been flown by Lt. Benjamin Foulois, breaking off its tail. No injuries reported, and both aircraft are taken to hangars for repair.


 * 1909 – Baddeck No. 1, Canada's second aircraft, is wrecked at Petawawa, Ontario. The pilot, JAD McCurdy, survived.


 * 1824 – The first aerial ascent by a Native American as a passenger, Chief Waschisabe, in Dupuis-Delcourt's balloon “flotilla” takes place at Montjean, France.