Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 29

August 29


 * 2012 – A United States Marine Corps Bell UH-1Y of HMLA-469 crashed in Helamand province, Afghanistan killing two soldiers from the 2nd Australian Commando Regiment.


 * 2012 – Syrian rebels claim to have attacked a Syrian government military air base in Taftanaz, Syria, damaging several government helicopters.


 * 2009 – A United States Air Force Boeing E-3 Sentry catches fire on landing at Nellis Air Force Base, United States. All 32 people on board are safely evacuated.


 * 2007 – Airmen at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota load six nuclear-tipped AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles onto a B-52H bomber for transport to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana without ensuring that the nuclear warheads had been replaced with training warheads. The nukes shoot the breeze without proper handling or security precautions in place for a full 36 hours before anyone notices. The Pentagon would classify it as a “Bent Spear” event, four USAF commanders would lose their jobs and many other airmen would be disciplined.


 * 2005 – Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) is impacted by Hurricane Katrina, but suffering no flooding. The airport would reopen to supply and rescue flights by the following day, with commercial cargo flights resuming September 10th and passenger flights restarting on September 13th.


 * 2005 – An OH-58D(I) Kiowa 90-0037 from 4th Squadron, 3d ACR crashes in Iraq.


 * 2001 – Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261, a CASA CN-235, suffers port engine failure and crashes onto the N-340 road while attempting to make an emergency landing at Ruiz Picasso International Airport, killing 4 of 43 on board, the pilot initially survives, but dies several hours later.


 * 1998 – A Cubana de Aviación Tupolev Tu-154 crashed during takeoff into buildings in Quito, Ecuador. Seventy-five of the 90 people on board died as well as 10 on the ground.


 * 1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on Spitsbergen, an island in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, killing all 141 on board.


 * 1984 – Second prototype Rockwell B-1A Lancer, 74-0159, of the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, crashes 22 miles NE of the base, in the desert E of Boron, California, when control is lost during an aft centre of gravity test. The flight commander, Rockwell test pilot Doug A. Benefield, is killed when escape pod parachutes fail to fully deploy, module impacting in a right nose low attitude. The Co-pilot and flight test engineer are badly injured.


 * 1978 – First flight of the Hawker 400


 * 1970 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10


 * 1969 – In the TWA Flight 840 hijacking, two operatives from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine force a Boeing 707 to land at Damascus, Syria; all passengers were released except for two passengers who were released two months later; there are no casualties to the 127 on board, but the aircraft's nose section is blown up.


 * 1964 – First flight of the Piaggio PD.808


 * 1961 – A French military aircraft clips a cable of the aerial tramway connecting Pointe Helbronner and the Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps. Three cars of the tramway fall, killing five people. The pilot lands his plane safely.


 * 1959 – Chris Hadfield, first Canadian to walk in space, was born.


 * 1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.


 * 1956 – RCAF Sabre-5 flew 2740 miles in 5 hours and 30 seconds (Vancouver-Gimli-Halifax) with F/Lt Ralph Annis and F/O Chick Childerhose.


 * 1955 – An English Electric Canberra sets a new altitude record of 65,876 ft (20,079 m)


 * 1952 – Boulton Paul P.120, VT951, first flown 6 August 1952, crashes this date on Salisbury Plain, Wilts, Great Britain after control failure, tail flutter. Pilot A.E. "Ben" Gunn ejects safely. Airframe had accumulated only ~eleven hours flying time. This is the first recorded loss of a delta-wing-design airframe.


 * 1948 – Northwest Airlines Flight 421, a Martin 2-0-2, crashes near Winona, Minnesota due to structural failure of a wing, killing all 37 on board in the worst ever accident involving the Martin 2-0-2. This crash is also the first loss of a 2-0-2.


 * 1947 – The world’s first ramjet helicopter, the McDonnell XH-20 Little Henry, makes its first flight. The ramjet-driven rotor eliminates the need for a torque-compensating tail rotor.


 * 1945 – Airborne medical teams and supplies were dropped to prisoners of war in Burma and Siam (now Thailand).


 * 1944 – The final airstrike of Operation Goodwood, Goodwood IV, is unsuccessful because a German smoke screen over Tirpitz makes her impossible to hit.


 * 1931 – The Graf Zeppelin pioneers the air route between Germany and Brazil.


 * 1929 – The Graf Zeppelin completes its global circumnavigation at Lakehurst, New Jersey.


 * 1925 – First flight of the Gloster III


 * 1911 – Hilda Hewlett becomes the first British woman to receive a pilot’s licence.


 * 1909 – At the end of a two-day flight from Lake Constance during which Count von Zeppelin travels a total distance of more than 400 miles, he makes a spectacular flight in his dirigible LZ5 over the city of Berlin, Germany.


 * 1879 – In Ontario, Nellie Thurston becomes the first Canadian woman to fly in a balloon.