Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 28

December 28


 * 2012 – Press observers begin to observe daily Myanmar Air Force strikes against rebel Kachin Independence Army forces in northern Myanmar. The strikes reportedly will continue into early January 2013.


 * 2012 – Syrian rebels increase pressure against a government helicopter base and fight with government soldiers near Aleppo International Airport as they continue their offensive against government airbases. They claim to have surrounded four airports and airbases in the Aleppo Governorate, halting all activity at one and firing antiaircraft artillery at all approaching aircraft at another.


 * 2012 – The Syrian Air Force strikes al-Safira, killing 14 people.


 * 2012 – An airstike kills two suspected al-Qaeda members in Hadramawt province in southwestern Yemen. Local residents and Yemeni officials claim an American unmanned aerial vehicle conducted the strike.


 * 2010 – Antonov An-22 RA-09343 of the Russian Air Force crashed at Krasny Oktaybr, Russia killing all twelve crew. The aircraft was on a positioning flight from Voronezh Airport to Tver-Migalovo Airport.


 * 2001 – USA3000 Airlines began operations.


 * 1997 – United Airlines Flight 826, a Boeing 747, encounters severe turbulence two hours into the flight; the aircraft safely lands back in Tokyo; all survive the accident, but a passenger dies later; despite having no damage, the aircraft is written off.


 * 1989 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15C-41-MC Eagle. 86-0153, c/n 1000/C381, of the 59th TFS, 33rd TFW, based at Eglin AFB, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico, 40 mi SE of Apalachicola, Florida, pilot killed. The pilot was identified as Capt. Bartle M. Jackson, 31, Towson, Maryland. At the time of the crash, Jackson and three other pilots—a second F-15 pilot from Eglin and two Lockheed Martin F-16 pilots from Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, were taking part in a training mission the Air Force calls a 2v2, which pits two F-15s against two F-16s in a mock dogfight. It was not known whether the pilot had been able to bail out over the Gulf of Mexico. Other pilots in the area had not seen a parachute.


 * 1988 – First flight of the Let L-610


 * 1988 – McDonnell Douglas F-15E dual-role fighters go into operational service at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N. C.


 * 1988 – An analysis of the wreckage of the Pan Am Boeing 747, which crashed at Lockerbie, Scotland a week ago, reveals that a bomb had been planted in the jet’s luggage hold.


 * 1985 – First flight of the Fokker 50


 * 1978 – United Airlines Flight 173, a Douglas DC-8, runs out of fuel while circling near Portland, Oregon, United States, as the crew investigates a light indicating a problem with the landing gear; the plane crashes in a wooded area, killing 10 and injuring 24 of the 181 on board.


 * 1975 – The Soviet Union commissions the “heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser” Kiev, the first Soviet or Russian ship capable of operating fixed-wing aircraft. A hybrid ship combining a partial angled flight deck with the heavy antiship missile armament of a Soviet guided-missile cruiser, she operates only vertical or short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) jets and helicopters.


 * 1968 – Israeli commandos mount a surprise raid on Beirut Airport, destroying 13 aircraft and jeopardising the Lebanese aviation industry.


 * 1965 – CIA pilot Mele Vojvodich, Jr. takes Lockheed A-12, 60-6929, Article 126, for a functional check flight (FCF) after a period of deep maintenance, but seconds after take-off from Groom Dry Lake, Nevada, the aircraft yaws uncontrollably, pilot ejecting at 100 ft after six seconds of flight, escaping serious injury. Investigation finds that the pitch stability augmentation system (SAS) had been connected to the yaw SAS actuators, and vice versa. SAS connectors are changed to make such wiring mistake impossible. Said Kelly Johnson in a history of the Oxcart program, "It was perfectly evident from movies taken of the takeoff, and from the pilot's description, that there were some miswired gyros in the aircraft. This turned out to be exactly what happened. In spite of color coding and every other normal precaution, the pitch and yaw gyro connections were interchanged in rigging."


 * 1961 – First RCAF Bomarc missile unit, No. 446 (SAM) Squadron, was formed at North Bay, Ontario.


 * 1948 – Minister of National Defense, Brooke Claxton, outlined an expanded defense program which included an increase in personnel, reconditioning of air stations and development and production of jet fighters.


 * 1948 – In the 1948 Airborne Transport DC-3 (DST) disappearance, NC16002 disappears without a trace off the coast of Florida with 32 on board.


 * 1945 – First flight of the Edo XOSE-1, prototype of the Edo OSE


 * 1943 – American aircraft based at Tarawa strike Nauru.


 * 1938 – First flight of the Blackburn Botha


 * 1936 – Deutsche Werke lays the keel of Germany’s first aircraft carrier, designated Carrier A, at Kiel. Later renamed Graf Zeppelin, she will never be completed.


 * 1934 – During the Chaco War, a Macchi M.18 flying boat of the Paraguayan Navy’s aviation arm carries out the first night bombing raid in South America, attacking Bolivian positions at Vitriones and Mbutum.


 * 1929 – First flight of the Mitsubishi B2M


 * 1926 – Imperial Airways begins England-India mail and passenger service.


 * 1921 – Second Lieutenant Samuel Howard Davis (1896–1921) is killed in the crash of Curtiss JN-6HG-1 (possibly USAAS serial 44796, seen wrecked at Carlstrom AAF, date unknown).


 * 1916 – Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ69 L 24, crashed into a wall while being "stabled", broke its back, and burned out together with L 17, LZ53.


 * 1910 – French aviator Alexandre Laffont and Spanish passenger Mario Pola are killed at Issy-Les-Molineaux shortly after taking off in an attempt to fly to Belgium with two passengers. Their Antoinette monoplane collapses in midair.