Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 6

December 6


 * 2022 - The last Boeing 747 left the company's widebody factory in Washington on December 6, 2022, ahead of its delivery to Atlas Air in early 2023.


 * 2012 – A Brazilian Air Force AMX has collided with power lines in the state of Santa Catarina.The pilot died.


 * 2007 – a French Air Force twin-seat Dassault Rafale aircraft with a single occupant, on a training flight from the Saint-Dizier base, crashes in an uninhabited part of the Neuvic parish in the Corrèze area, with the loss of its pilot.


 * 2005 – An Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 5-8519, c/n 4399, crashes into an apartment building in Tehran, Iran. Ninety-four people on board were killed as well as 14 in the building.


 * 1997 – A Russian Antonov An-124 transport cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, and killing 67.


 * 1993 – First flight of the Bombardier 415.


 * 1991 – First flight of the Dornier 328.


 * 1990 – An Italian Air Force Aermacchi MB-326 jet, of 603 SC, crashes into a high school in Casalecchio di Reno, Italy. Twelve students are killed, 84 more are severely injured. The pilot ejected after losing control of the plane.


 * 1989 – The prototype of the Boeing MH-47E Chinook special operations helicopter rolls out.


 * 1988 – A USAF Boeing B-52H-150-BW Stratofortress, 60-0040, crashed on the runway at 0115 hrs. EST at K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan, while doing touch-and-goes after a seven-hour training flight. No weapons were aboard the bomber, which broke into three parts. All crew survived, crawling or being helped from the nose section, without sustaining burns.


 * 1984 – PBA Flight 1039, an Embraer 110 Bandeirante with 13 passengers and crew on board, crashes on takeoff at Jacksonville, Florida, killing all aboard.


 * 1982 – A Hungarian Air Force Antonov An-26 "Curl" crashes at Szentkirályszabadja, one of six on strength.


 * 1975 – The first airmail flight by a supersonic aircraft is made by the Tupolev Tu-144, carrying mail between Moscow and Alma Ata, within the U. S. S. R.


 * 1966 – The West German Luftwaffe grounds its fleet of F-104 s to investigate continuing accidents with the type.


 * 1966 – First flight of the Shenyang BA-5


 * 1960 – Brazil commissions its first aircraft carrier, Minas Gerais. She is the second Latin American aircraft carrier to enter service.


 * 1959 – Flying a McDonnell F4 H-1 Phantom II, by Navy Commander Lawrence E. Flint sets a new world altitude record of 98556 ft in Operation Top Flight.


 * 1957 – First flight of the Lockheed L-188 Electra


 * 1955 – First flight of the Bensen B-8


 * 1952 – 1952 Bermuda air crash: A Cubana de Aviación Douglas DC-4 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Bermuda after failing to gain altitude after takeoff, killing 37 of 41 on board.


 * 1950 – C-47 Dakotas of 13 Flight Royal Hellenic Air Force evacuate US casualties from the Chonjin Reservoir.


 * 1944 – First flight of the Heinkel He 162. First prototype Heinkel He 162 V1 Spatz (sparrow, Hainkel factory name for design), or "Volksjager" ("Peoples' Fighter"), loses wheel-well doors on first flight due to improper bonding. Nonetheless, flight testing is not delayed for a thorough inspection, and on another flight in front of German high brass on 10 December, V1 starboard wing comes apart in high-speed, low-level pass, killing pilot, Flugkapitän Gotthard Peter. Starboard aileron breaks away, taking part of wingtip with it, followed by failure of wing's leading edge. Aircraft corkscrews down and crashes on the perimeter of the airfield. Cause was defective wing bonding. Adhesive used, Dynamit, was substitute for Tego film glue used previously, but factory producing it was destroyed in RAF attack on Wuppertal. Substitute glue problem causing structural failure also affected Focke-Wulf Ta 154 and other late-war German aviation projects depending on bonded wooden components.


 * 1944 – Lockheed XF-14 Shooting Star, 44-83024, c/n 080-1003, originally YP-80A No 2, redesignated during production, of the 4144th Base Unit, destroyed in mid-air collision with B-25J-20-NC, 44-29120, of the 421st Base Unit, near Muroc Army Air Base, California. All crew on both planes killed, coming down 7 miles SSW of Randsburg, California. XF-14 pilot was Perry B. Claypool, while Henry M. Phillips flew the B-25


 * 1944 – During the evening, the Japanese mount a paratrooper attack on U. S. airfields on Leyte, employing 39 or 40 aircraft to drop 15 to 20 paratroopers each. The aircraft targeting Tacloban airfield are shot down or driven off by U. S. antiaircraft fire, while the troops targeting Dulag Airfield are killed in crash landings, but troops dropped from 35 aircraft at Burauen airfield resist for two days and three nights until killed by U. S. Army Air Forces ground personnel.


 * 1943 – USAAF Douglas A-20G-20-DO Havoc, 42-86782, of the 649th Bomb Squadron, 411th Bomb Group (Light), out of Florence Army Airfield, South Carolina, crashed near Woodruff, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, three miles E of Switzer. Pilot 2nd Lt. Hampton P. Worrell, 26, (b. 27 September 1917 in South Carolina), gunners Sgt. Harry G. Barnes, 19, (b. 22 September 1924 in New York) and Sgt. John D. Hickman, 21, (b. 31 December 1923 in California), all killed.


 * 1936 – Nationalist aircraft bomb Barcelona, Spain.


 * 1928 – North American Aviation Inc. is founded.


 * 1917 – Chikuhei Nakajima and Seibi Kawanishi found the Japan Aeroplane Manufacturing Work Company Ltd. It is the first aircraft manufacturing company in Japan.


 * 1907 – First flight of the AEA Cygnet, a tethered glider (also referred to as a kite) designed by Alexander Graham Bell. The flight is also the first flight for Thomas Selfridge, later killed in the crash of a powered aircraft.