Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February 24

February 24


 * 2012 – A United States Navy F/A-18F on a training flight crashed into a dry lake bed 30 miles from Naval Air Station Fallon. The crew was recovered by helicopter.


 * 2011 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 at (21:53:24 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF5, PMM Leonardo (to be left permanently attached), ELC 4. Final flight of Discovery.


 * 2010 – The fourth Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner test plane (N7874) makes its first flight.


 * 2010 – A Philippine Air Force North American OV-10 Bronco crashed during training at 1455 hrs. Two Philippine Air Force pilots were killed.


 * 2010 – A Fuerza Aérea Mexicana Cessna 182S Skylane crashed during take off near San Diego de Alcalá, Chihuahua resulting in 3 injured and 2 fatalities.


 * 2003 – The 777-300ER completes its first flight.


 * 1999 – China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes while on approach to Wenzhou Airport, killing all 61 passengers and crew on board.


 * 1996 – Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down: A Cuban Air Force MiG-29UB fighter shoots down two Cessna Skymasters of the Cuban exile activist group Brothers to the Rescue off Havana, Cuba, killing four members of the group, including pilot Carlos Costa. A third Skymaster escapes.


 * 1991 – The U. S.-led Coalition's ground attack against Iraqi forces in Kuwait begins. In its first hours, 60 United States Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters carry the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) 75 miles (120 km) inside Iraq, where the brigade seizes a forward operating base. The brigade's sudden appearance unnerves Iraqi defenders so badly that they surrender quickly, with some surrendering to helicopters before American troops begin to land.


 * 1989 – United Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 747, suffers an explosive decompression shortly after takeoff from Honolulu, Hawaii, United States caused by a cargo door that burst open during flight. Of 355 people on board, nine passengers are sucked out of the plane, but the crew manages to land safely at Honolulu.


 * 1985 – Dornier Do 228 "Polar 3″: Polar 3 was a Dornier Do 228 airplane of the Alfred Wegener Institute that was shot down south of Dakhla by guerrillas of the Polisario Front over Western Sahara on 24 February 1985.


 * 1984 – First flight of the Boeing 737-300


 * 1983 – Cody Locke becomes the youngest pilot known to have made a solo flight in a powered, heavier-than-air, flying machine at age of 9 years 316 days. The flight takes place near Mexicali, Mexico and the aircraft the boy pilots is a Cessna 150. His record is broken in 1988 when Tony Aliengena of Oceanside, California, soloed at age 9 years 295 days in an Eipper Quicksilver GT ultralight.


 * 1973 – United States Marine Corps helicopters begin clearing mines from North Vietnamese harbors


 * 1970 – HMS Ark Royal is recommissioned after a £UK 30 million refit.


 * 1969 – Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 104, a Handley Page Dart Herald, suffers engine failure and crashes while on approach to Tainan Airport, Taiwan; all 36 on board die.


 * 1965 – U. S. Air Force aircraft fly a massive number of tactical air sorties to break up a Communist ambush of South Vietnamese ground forces in Vietnam's Central Highlands.


 * 1957 – Scandinavian Airline Services (SAS) opens the first regular scheduled service from Europe to the Far East over the North Pole, with departure from Copenhagen, Denmark and Tokyo, Japan; the DC-7 C aircraft will circle the pole en route.


 * 1956 – Entered Service: Gloster Javelin with No. 46 Squadron RAF


 * 1956 – USAF Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 53-021, en route from Goose Bay, Labrador to Upper Heyford in the United Kingdom, lost power in number one and four engines (port and starboard outer). Restricted data cargo was jettisoned over the North Atlantic, including nuclear weapon firing and maintenance sets from an altitude of 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,700 m). The Air Force assumed that the cargo packaging ruptured and sank after impact with the sea. Impact area searched, nothing recovered. On its return flight to the Warner-Robins AFB, Georgia, in the U.S. on 2 March, the aircraft crashed in the Atlantic ~225 nmi (417 km). SW of Keflavik, Iceland. The aircraft and 17 crew were lost in 3,000 feet (910 m) of water. "The plane ran into difficulty on the northbound trip when two motors failed and it was thought that the ship would have to be ditched. However, it was shepherded into a safe landing with the assistance of the air-sea rescue planes from Keflavik base in Iceland. The two motors were replaced and the ship thoroughly inspected before starting the return trip. Just after midnight of Friday the plane radioed three of its four engines were dead and it was losing altitude rapidly. Then the radio went dead. Later Saturday morning [3 March] search planes found only two bits of wreckage - a flame-scarred oxygen bottle and a shattered piece of plywood - picked up near the position from which the final message had been radioed." One of the victims was T/Sgt. Joseph Kaltner, 32, of Crestview, Florida, a 14-year veteran of the Air Force who had seen action as a gunner in WW II and in the Korean campaign. He was assigned at Warner-Robins AFB. He is survived by his widow, the former Roslyn Clary, of Crestview; one child, Keitha, 1; his mother, Mrs. Anna Kaltner, and two sisters, Mrs. Theresa Lampman and Mrs. Anna Sapp, all of Trenton, New Jersey, Sgt. Kaltner's home prior to his marriage.


 * 1955 – First flight of the BOMARC surface-to-air missile


 * 1943 – The second of three top German night fighter aces to die during the month, Paul Gildner, is killed in a crash after an electrical failure aboard his Messerschmitt Bf 110. Like Reinhold Knacke, who died earlier in the month, he has 44 night victories when he dies; his overall score is 48 kills.


 * 1941 – (Overnight) – The Avro Manchester bomber makes its combat debut in a Royal Air Force Bomber Command raid on Brest, France.


 * 1940 – The 2,000-hp prototype Hawker Typhoon prototype P5212 fighter makes its first flight in England.


 * 1935 – First flight of the Heinkel He 111


 * 1931 – John Lankester Parker makes the first flight of the prototype Short S.17 Kent flying boat, from the river Medway in Kent, England.


 * 1930 – Replacement second prototype Parnall Pipit, N233, also suffers failure of tail unit in flight, this time losing both fin and rudder, Martlesham test pilot Sqn. Ldr. Sydney Leo Gregory Pope (DFC, AFC) bails out at under 1,000 feet over the Parnall Yate airfield, successfully parachuting down. Flutter of rudder due to heavy tail lamp in its trailing edge which both counteracted the large horn balance as well as substantially increased the moment of inertia about an unsupported hinge tube is cause, exacerbated by a lack of rigidity in the rear fuselage. Air Ministry regards the Pipit as wholly unacceptable, and this will represent the Parnall firm's last attempt to produce an effective fighter design.


 * 1921 – First flight of the Douglas Cloudster. It is the first airplane to lift a useful load exceeding its own weight.


 * 1921 – Lieutenant William D. Coney completes a solo flight from Rockwell Field, San Diego to Jacksonville, in 22 hours and 27 min flying time.


 * 1898 – Kurt Tank, German aeronautical engineer and test pilot, was born (d. 1983). Kurt Waldemar Tank was a resourceful German aeronautical engineer and test pilot, heading the design department at Focke-Wulf from 1931-45. He designed several important aircraft of World War II, including the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft.