Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 2

December 2


 * 2012 – Syrian Air Force jets pound rebel-held suburbs around Damascus, killing and wounding dozens in an offensive to push rebels away from the Damascus International Airport and stop them from closing in on the capital.


 * 2012 – Syria announces that Damascus International Airport has reopened and is running scheduled flights after being closed for three days due to fighting between government and rebel forces in the area.


 * 2010 – US Navy F/A-18C Hornet, BuNo 165184, 'AD-351', suffers port undercarriage collapse on landing at NAF El Centro, California, at 1615 hrs., and departs runway. The pilot ejects safely.


 * 2009 – Merpati Nusantara Airlines Fokker 100 PK-MJD makes an emergency landing at El Tari Airport, Kupang when the left main gear fails to extend. There are no injuries among the passengers and crew.


 * 2004 – The pilot of a Blue Angels McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18, BuNo 161956, ejects approximately one mile off Perdido Key, Florida, after reporting mechanical problems and loss of power. Lt. Ted Steelman suffered minor injuries and fully recovered.


 * 1996 – A U.S. Navy Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor crashes at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, killing the instructor and his student navigator from Italy. The pair, flying out of NAS Pensacola, Florida, were practicing maneuvers.


 * 1993 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-61 at 10:53 am EDT. Mission highlights: Hubble Space Telescope servicing.


 * 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-53 at 13:24:00 UTC. Mission highlights: Partially classified 10th and final DoD mission. Likely deployment of SDS2 satellite.


 * 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-35 at 1:49:01 am EST. Mission highlights: Use of ASTRO-1 observatory.


 * 1988 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-27 at 09:30:34 EST. Mission highlights: Third classified DoD mission; Lacrosse 1 deployment.


 * 1986 – Pacific Western Airlines merged with Canadian Pacific Airlines to form Canadian Airlines.


 * 1986 – An Air France Concorde returns to Paris after an 18-day around the world trip with 94 passengers.


 * 1977 – In the 1977 Benghazi Libyan Arab Airlines Tu-154 crash, a Tupolev Tu-154 leased from Balkan Bulgarian Airlines crashes near Benghazi, Libya due to fuel starvation, killing 59 of 165 on board.


 * 1976 – The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, an ex-American Airlines 747 which has been adapted to carry the US reusable space shuttle, makes its flight.


 * 1968 – Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55, a Fairchild F-27B, crashes into Pedro Bay, Alaska. All 39 passengers and crew on board are killed.


 * 1965 – USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered warship to see combat, launching air strikes at the Viet Cong near Bien Hoa.


 * 1964 – SAC Boeing B-47E-125-BW Stratojet, 53-2398, of the 380th Bomb Wing, suffers collapse of forward main gear unit, skids off right side of runway at Plattsburgh AFB, New York, crew escapes safely. Airframe struck off charge 13 January 1965.


 * 1959 – A USAF Douglas VC-47D Skytrain, 43-49024, c/n 14840/26285, built as C-47B-10-DK, crashes and burns in woods 10 miles (16 km) N of Oslo, Norway, killing all four on board. There was fog in the area at the time of the accident.


 * 1950 – (2–25) Four hundred aircraft from seven United Nations aircraft carriers support U. N. ground forces with air strikes while U. S. Air Force aircraft drop supplies to them as they break out of their encirclement in northern Korea and are evacuated successfully by sea from Hungnam in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.


 * 1948 – First flight of the Beechcraft T-34 Mentor


 * 1945 – First flight of the Bristol 170


 * 1945 – First flight of the Handley Page Hermes


 * 1943 – First Canadian-built Mosquito aircraft saw action over Berlin with RAF 139 Squadron.


 * 1943 – A night raid by 105 German Junkers Ju 88 bombers surprise the brilliantly lit Italian port of Bari while it is crowded with about 30 Allied ships, meeting little opposition. A sheet of flame from a burning tanker spreads over the harbor; 16 ships carrying 38,000 tons (34,473,374 kg) of cargo are destroyed, eight are damaged, and a quantity of mustard gas is released from the cargo of one stricken ship; at least 125 American personnel alone are killed; and the port does not return to full operations for three weeks. It is the most destructive single air raid against shipping since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.


 * 1941 – Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe’s Fliegerkorps II to redeploy from the Soviet Union to Sicily and North Africa and together with Fliegerkorps X to form Luftflotte 2 under the command of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, and orders Kesselring to achieve air superiority over southern Italy and North Africa, suppress Allied forces on Malta, ensure safe passage of Axis convoys to North Africa, paralyze Allied sea traffic in the Mediterranean, and prevent Allied supplies from arriving at Tobruk and Malta. The redeployment will reverse the balance of power at sea in the Mediterranean in favor of the Axis.


 * 1939 – New York’s La Guardia Airport opened for service!


 * 1937 – First flight of the Brewster F2A Buffalo


 * 1919 – First flight of the Handley Page Type W.