Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 16

August 16


 * 2011 – The Government of Canada announces that the name of the Canadian Armed Forces Air Command will revert to "Royal Canadian Air Force," the name it had held as an independent armed service until 1968.


 * 2010 – AIRES Flight 8250, a Boeing 737-700 splits in three after a hard landing due to pilot error at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Airport, San Andrés, Colombia. Out of the 125 passengers and 6 crew members on board, two passengers died and 113 were injured.


 * 2010 – The Government of Canada announces that the name of the Canadian Armed Forces Air Command will revert to “Royal Canadian Air Force, ” the name it held as an independent armed service until 1968.


 * 2009 – YV-212 T, a Britten-Norman Islander, ditches into the sea short of Simón Bolívar International Airport, Venezuela. The aircraft is written off but all nine people on board are rescued.


 * 2009 – First flight of the AVCEN Jetpod, it crashed shortly after take-off from Taiping Airport, Malaysia, killing the pilot.


 * 2009 – Two Russian Knights air display Sukhoi Su-27 jets collided whilst training, killing one pilot, Igor Tkachenko, and injuring several civilians on the ground. The accident occurred near Zhukovsky Airfield, outside of Moscow.


 * 2009 – An Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Bell 214ST crashed on a training flight near Karaj, Iran, four killed.


 * 2006 – Colonel Herschel H. Green, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) American pilot and World War II Ace, died. Green was the leading ace of the Fifteenth Air Force downing 18 enemy aircraft and destroying 10 more on the ground. (b. 1920)


 * 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in western Venezuela. All on board, 152 passengers and 8 crew members, die.


 * 2002 – The 2002 Khankala Mi-26 crash occurred when Chechen rebels with a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile brought down a Mil Mi-26 helicopter in a minefield and resulted in the death of 127 Russian troops and air crew. This is the greatest loss of life in the history of helicopter aviation and one of the deadliest disasters in Russian military history.


 * 1995 – Concorde sets a new speed record for a round-the-world flight. It returns to JFK International Airport in New York after a journey lasting 31 hours 27 min, passing through Toulouse, Dubai, Bangkok, Guam, Honolulu and Acapulco.


 * 1991 – Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737, hits high ground during descent about 30 km from the Imphal airport. All six crew members and 63 passengers were killed.


 * 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, an McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes on takeoff from Detroit as a result of pilot error. Of 155 on board, 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan is the only survivor.


 * 1986 – Using a Strela 2 (SAM-7 GRAIL) surface-to-air missile, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army shoots down a Sudan Airways Fokker F-27 Friendship 400 M taking off from Malakai, Sudan, killing all 60 people on board.


 * 1984 – First flight of the ATR 42


 * 1980 – First flight of the Embraer EMB 312 Tucano


 * 1972 – A Burma Airways Douglas C-47 crashes into the sea off Thandwe, Burma, killing 25 of 28 on board.


 * 1969 – Darryl Greenamayer sets a new piston-engine airspeed record in a heavily modified Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat named Conquest I. His record speed of 776.45 km/h (482.46 mph) topples a record that had stood for 30 years. (FAI Record File Number 10366)


 * 1965 – United Airlines Flight 389, a Boeing 727, crashes into Lake Michigan at night, after the pilots apparently misread their altimeters; all 24 passengers and six crew perish in the first fatal crash of the Boeing 727.


 * 1960 – Captain (later Colonel) Joseph Kittinger (USAF) sets a world record for highest parachute jump (102,800 ft or 31,333 m) and longest parachute freefall (85,300 ft or 25,999 m) while testing high altitude parachute escape systems in Project Excelsior.


 * 1952 – First flight of the Bristol Britannia from Filton, Bristol, England.


 * 1948 – First flight of the Northrop F-89 Scorpion


 * 1947 – The first flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. The first production aircraft was delivered to the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, a design partner, in April 1948.


 * 1944 – The Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor is used against enemy bombers for the first time no earlier than 17 Aug 1944. Their base was bombed on 16 Aug forcing them to flush.


 * 1943 – Royal Navy Grumman Avenger I, out of Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lewiston, Maine, ditches in Sebago Lake near Raymond, Maine and sinks. Crew uninjured. Plane listed as missing, so it’s still out there.


 * 1942 – U.S. Navy airship L-8, a former Goodyear advertising blimp, of ZP-32, departed Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, with crew of two officer-pilots. Five hours later the partially deflated L-8 is sighted drifting over Daly City, California where it touches down sans crew. Nothing is ever found of Lt. Ernest D. Cody and Ensign Charles E. Adams. It is assumed that they were lost over water but were never found. The control car from this blimp is now in the National Museum of Naval Aviation, NAS Pensacola, Florida.


 * 1942 – The 82nd Airborne (All American) paratroop division is formed.


 * 1936 – Seaplanes from Barcelona support a Republican landing on Majorca. In reaction, three Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers, three Italian Fiat CR.32 fighters, and various Spanish Nationalist aircraft are sent to be based on the island. The presence of the CR.32 s precludes any further Republican air attacks on Majorca.


 * 1933 – Stuart Roosa, American astronaut and command pilot of Apollo 14, was born. (d. 1994)


 * 1918 – Royal Navy Air Service airship, R27, destroyed in a hangar fire at RNAS Howden along with a makeshift SSZ class blimp and two SSZ class blimps, SSZ.38 and SSZ.54. One airman dies.