Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 31

August 31


 * 2012 – Richard Bach, author of the best-selling 1970 novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull, is badly injured in the crash of his Easton Gilbert SeaRey Puff (N346PE) on San Juan Island west of Friday Harbor Airport in Friday Harbor, Washington. He is piloting the plane at the time.


 * 2012 – Syrian rebels target government air bases, claiming to be trying to reduce the threat of air attacks on their forces. They reportedly shoot down a government helicopter in Sarmin, Syria.


 * 2012 – The Free Syria Army warns airlines to suspend service to Damascus and Aleppo, Syria, saying rebel forces could begin attacking airports in the two cities as early as the following week.


 * 2009 – Slovak airline SkyEurope files for bankruptcy.


 * 2002 – First flight of the Learjet 40


 * 2000 – Virgin Australia begins airline operations as Virgin Blue.


 * 1999 – LAPA Flight 3142, a Boeing 737, overshoots the runway in Buenos Aires, Argentina and crashes into a golf course; of the 103 people on board, 63 are killed as well as two on the ground.


 * 1998 – North Korea launches its first satellite, Kwangmyongsong.


 * 1991 – A Tomahawk missile launched from a warship in the Gulf of Mexico to recover on a target on the test ranges at Eglin AFB, Florida, misses by ~100 miles, coming down eight miles E of Jackson, Alabama, ~60 miles N of Mobile. "Within minutes of the missile's falling near Jackson, a recovery team arrived by helicopter. Such teams are stationed along the missile's flight path during a test so they can get to a crash scene within 20 minutes no matter where the Tomahawk goes down." Cause was found to be two incorrect screws used to assemble a tailfin, said Denny Kline, a Pentagon spokesman for the Navy Cruise Missile Project, on 13 December 1991. A screw, rubbing against an actuator coil disabled one of the missile's two fins. "Somebody during assembly put two screws in, which were moderately too long. Well, in fact, in this case extremely too long because it physically made contact with a coil. It was fine for the first one hour and 21 minutes, but over time it wore away the protective coating and got down to the wound part of the coil and shorted it out," said Kline. As a result, one fin worked properly but the other did not when the missile was to make a pre-planned turn causing it to crash in Alabama. The wrong screws were put in by General Dynamics Corp., said Susan Boyd, Pentagon spokeswoman for the missile program. Four Tomahawks have landed in civilian areas since the Navy began the gulf tests in 1985. There have been no injuries.


 * 1988 – Delta Air Lines Flight 1141, a Boeing 727, crashes on takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as a result of pilot error; of 108 people on board, 12 passengers and two crew members are killed.


 * 1988 – CAAC Flight 301, a Hawker Siddeley Trident operating a Guangzhou Baiyun Airport to Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport flight, ran off the runway in Hong Kong. 7 of the 89 passengers and crew on board were killed.


 * 1987 – Thai Airways Flight 365, a Boeing 737, crashes into the ocean off the coast of Thailand as a result of pilot error. All 83 passengers and crew perish.


 * 1986 – Aeroméxico Flight 498, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with 64 people on board, and a privately owned Piper PA-28-181 Archer collide in mid-air over Cerritos, California. The collision decapitates all three people on the Archer and both aircraft crash, also killing everyine on board the DC-9 and 15 people on the ground, a total death toll of 82. Eight people on the ground suffer injuries.


 * 1986 – First flight of the Mitsubishi H-60


 * 1978 – Boeing begins production of the 757.


 * 1977 – A Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 sets the world altitude record for airbreathing aircraft of 123,524 ft. (37,650 m).


 * 1974 – William Pershing Benedict, American pilot, dies. Benedict is best known for having flown together with Lt. Col. Joseph O. Fletcher as his co-pilot1 a U. S. Air Force C-47 modified to have skis and wheels to the North Pole, where they became the first humans to land a plane on May 3, 1952 and (together with scientist Albert P. Crary) the first persons to set foot on the exact geographical North Pole.


 * 1969 – World champion boxer Rocky Marciano dies when his plane crashes.


 * 1968 – The Rolls-Royce RB.211 is successfully ground-tested


 * 1965 – First flight of the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy


 * 1961 – Chance Vought Incorporated and Ling-Temco Electronics merge to form Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc.


 * 1958 – First flight of the North American A-5 Vigilante


 * 1956 – Entered Service: Avro Vulcan with No. 83 Squadron RAF


 * 1956 – Fourteenth Lockheed U-2A, 56-6687, Article 354, delivered to the Central Intelligence Agency 27 July 1956. Crashed at Groom Lake, Nevada this date during a night training flight, killing pilot Frank G. Grace, Jr. Pilot became disoriented by lights near the end of the runway and flew into a telephone pole.


 * 1955 – The first Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker (serial no. 55-3118), the City of Renton, makes its first flight, and is taken over by the USAF on January 31, 1957.


 * 1955 – Lockheed Aircraft Corporation engineering test pilot Stanley Beltz is killed in a crash near Lancaster, California, while piloting an F-94 B Starfire modified to test the nose section of the BOMARC missile.


 * 1954 – Sole Cessna XL-19B Bird Dog, 52-1804, c/n 22780A, modified with Boeing XT-50-BO-1 210 shp turboprop engine, crashes 2 miles (3.2 km) W of Sedgwick, Kansas.


 * 1950 – TWA Flight 903, a Lockheed L-749 A Constellation, crashes because of an engine fire, in the desert about 65 miles (105 km) NNW of Cairo, Egypt; all 55 on board are killed in the worst ever accident involving the Lockheed L-749.


 * 1947 – First flight of the Antonov An-2


 * 1946 – Stranraer CF-BYL, operated by Spilsbury & Hepburn Ltd, Vancouver, predecessor of Queen Charlotte Airline, disappeared without a trace with seven on board on a flight from Prince Rupert to Stewart, British Columbia.


 * 1942 – Since June 1, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has dispatched 11,169 sorties and lost 531 aircraft, of which German night fighters have shot down 349, averaging 116 kills per month.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Martin-Baker MB 3


 * 1940 – The Lovettsville air disaster occurred on 1940 near Lovettsville, Virginia. Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 was a new Douglas DC-3 A that was flying through an intense thunderstorm at 6,000 feet (1,800 m). Numerous witnesses reported seeing a large flash of lightning shortly before it nosed over and plunged to earth in an alfalfa field. With limited accident investigation tools at the time, it was at first believed that the most likely cause was the plane flying into windshear, but the Civil Aeronautics Board report concluded that the probable cause was a lightning strike. U. S. Senator Ernest Lundeen from Minnesota was one of those killed.


 * 1940 – Polish 303 Squadron, the most efficient allied unit of the Battle of Britain, enters action.


 * 1940 – The Lovettsville air disaster: Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19, a Douglas DC-3 A, crashes at Lovettsville, Virginia, killing all 25 aboard in the worst US airplane accident to that date, beginning the era of formal investigations under the Civil Aeronautics Board.


 * 1927 – Princess Anne of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg was both the first woman to attempt and perish in a transatlantic airplane flight.


 * 1925 – U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-9, BuNo A-6878, '1', flying boat disappears on flight from San Francisco to Hawaii with reported loss of crew. The PN-9 was not actually lost, it was just overdue. After staying in the air for 25 hours and covering 1,841 of the 2,400 miles to Pearl Harbor, it landed safely at sea, the crew under command of Commander John Rodgers, Naval Aviator No. 2, rigged sails from fabric from the lower wing and sailed the final 450 miles, reaching Kauai on 10 September. This stood as a seaplane distance flight record for several years. Aircraft is repaired and shipped to San Diego, California.


 * 1924 – Six United States Army Air Service aviators flying Douglas World Cruisers arrive in Labrador, completing the transatlantic leg of their first aerial circumnavigation of the world.


 * 1921 – U.S. Navy airship D-6, A5972, with a C-type envelope built by Goodyear in 1920 and a special enclosed car built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, is destroyed along with two small dirigibles, the C-10 and the Goodyear airship H-1, A5973, the sole H-model, a powered two-seat observation balloon built along the lines of the commercial Goodyear "Pony Blimp", and the kite balloon A-P.


 * 1921 – The first production Vickers Vernon, the first troop carrier designed for the British RAF (Royal Air Force), was delivered by the British manufacturer.


 * 1915 – The first French ace Adolphe Pegoud is killed in combat. He scored 6 victories.