Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 6

August 6


 * 2009 – A Swedish Air Force Saab JAS 39 Gripen C from F 17 Kallinge Blekinge Air Force Wing suffered a heavy landing at Ronneby Airport, Sweden caused by the failure of the under-carriage to operate after a fire alarm was trigged and the pilot was uninjured in the incident.


 * 2005 – Tuninter Flight 1153, an ATR 72, ditches into the sea near Palermo, Sicily with 35 passengers and 4 crew members on board; 14 passengers and 2 crew members die.


 * 1997 – Korean Air Flight 801, a Boeing 747, crashes while attempting to land in heavy rain in Hagåtña, Guam. Of the 254 people on board, 228 die.


 * 1996 – First flight of the Kawasaki OH-1


 * 1990 – The United States issues its first orders deploying military forces in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, sending two squadrons of United States Air Force F-15 Eagle fighters to the Persian Gulf region and several U. S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers from the continental United States to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.


 * 1986 – First flight of the British Aerospace ATP


 * 1974 – Turkish Air Force aircraft support a Turkish offensive at Karavas, Cyprus.


 * 1969 – The biggest helicopter ever built, the Soviet Mil V-12 secures an unbeaten world lifting record for rotary-winged aircraft by carrying 40,205.5 kg (88,636 lb.) to a height of 2,255 m (7,400 ft.).


 * 1969 – A sonic boom from an air show smashes windows in eight blocks of downtown Kelowna.


 * 1966 – All 42 on board are killed when Braniff Flight 250, a BAC One-Eleven, flies into an active squall line and breaks apart in mid-air near Falls City, Nebraska.


 * 1964 – The first North Vietnamese Air Force jet fighter unit, Fighter Regiment No. 921 (the “Red Star Squadron”), arrives in North Vietnam after training in the People’s Republic of China, bringing 36 MiG-17 and MiG-19 fighters to Phúc Yên airfield near Hanoi.


 * 1958 – A Lockheed U-2A, 56-6697, Article 364, the fourth airframe of the initial USAF order, delivered January 1957 to USAF at Groom Lake, then to 4080th SRW, Laughlin AFB, Texas, in June: 1957, crashes this date killing trainee Lt. Paul Haughland. Despite Cessna L-27 chase plane to radio instructions, Haughland's U-2 rolled rapidly to starboard at 200 feet during landing approach and struck ground in a near-vertical attitude. Accident report notes that the flight manual did not sufficiently highlight the unusual stall characteristics.


 * 1956 – First flight of the Beechcraft Travel Air


 * 1956 – Spanish Air Force North American F-86F Sabre, C.5-4 crashes.


 * 1957 – F/L WJ Marsh was awarded the George Medal when he rescued the pilot of a crashed North American Sabre at Chatham, NB. Four assisting airmen Cpl Onarheim, LAC Henderson, LAC Gommer and LAC Meier, were awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct.


 * 1953 – Ted Williams returns to the Red Sox after serving a tour of duty as a Marine airman in the Korean War.


 * 1953 – The first attempted launch of a Northrop B-62 Snark at Cape Canaveral, Florida, fails when, after 15 seconds of flight, the drag chute deploys prematurely and the missile crashes.


 * 1953 – Israeli Air Force de Havilland Mosquito FB.6 2113, disappeared in flight over the Mediterranean, Two crew missing.


 * 1952 – First flight of the Boulton Paul P.120


 * 1952 – A fire breaks out on the hangar deck of the USS Boxer at ~0530 hrs. when a fuel tank of an aircraft catches fire while the ship is conducting combat operations in the Sea of Japan. The blaze is extinguished after a four to five hour fight. The final total of casualties was determined to be: 8 dead, 1 missing, 1 critically injured, 1 seriously burned and some 70 overcome by smoke. Of the 63 who had gone over the side, all were rescued and returned to the ship. Eighteen aircraft, mostly Grumman F9F-2 Panthers, were damaged (by fire and saltwater) or destroyed.


 * 1950 – Entered Service: Handley Page Hermes with BOAC


 * 1945 – Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, “Little Boy”, is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 90,000 people were killed instantly.


 * 1945 – B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drops "Little Boy" the first nuclear weapon used in warfare over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.


 * 1945 – All-time highest-scoring American flying ace (40 credited kills) Richard Bong is killed trying to bail out of a Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star jet fighter, 44-85048, after a fuel pump failure during a test flight at Burbank Airport, Burbank, California, USA. News of Bong's death is overshadowed by the dropping of the first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima the same day. The never completed Richard I. Bong Air Force Base in Wisconsin was named for him.


 * 1943 – A third German air raid on Palermo is driven off by Allied night fighters with only a few bombs dropped on the harbor.


 * 1941 – Two squadrons of United States Navy flying boats are based at Reykjavík, Iceland, to conduct flights as part of the Neutrality Patrol.


 * 1941 – After running out of ammunition, Soviet National Air Defense Forces pilot Viktor Talalikhin rams a German Heinkel He 111 bomber over Moscow with his Polikarpov I-16 fighter, destroying both aircraft. Talalikhin parachutes to safety. It is the first aerial night ramming in history.


 * 1937 – In response to a request by Spanish Nationalist leader Francisco Franco for the Italian armed forces to attack ships in the Mediterranean Sea bringing aid to the Republicans, Italian aircraft based on Majorca bomb a British, a French, and an Italian merchant ship near Algiers.


 * 1936 – German Junkers Ju 52 transports begin a schedule of airlifting 500 Nationalist troops a day from Spanish Morocco to Spain. Nationalist leader Francisco Franco himself makes the flight on August 6.


 * 1920 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator, first flight in independent Poland dies (b. 1890).


 * 1919 – Captain Harry Butler makes the first flight over Australia’s St. Vincent Gulf, carrying mail between Adelaide and Minlaton.


 * 1916 – French ace Capitaine René Fonck gains his first confirmed victory. He will become the highest-scoring Allied and second-highest-scoring ace overall of World War I.


 * 1910 – An International aviation meeting opens at Lanark, Scotland, drawing a wide range of flyers and airplanes. In all, 22 competitors participate.