Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February 27

February 27


 * 2009 – A Polish Army Mil Mi-24 Hind Helicopter crashes in bad weather into a forest near Toruń, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Province, Poland. The aircraft from the 49 Regiment combat helicopters Pruszcz Gdański was on a night training flight for service in Afghanistan resulting in 2 crew injured and 1 fatality.


 * 2007 – First flight of the Bell 429


 * 2006 – Death of Robert Lee Scott Jr., Brigadier General in the United States Air Force. Scott is best known for his autobiography 'God is My Co-Pilot' about his exploits in WWII with the Flying Tigers and the United States Army Air Forces in China and Burma.


 * 2003 – A Canadian Forces Air Command Sikorsky CH-124B Sea King helicopter, 12401, of 12 Wing, crashes on the deck of HMCS Iroquois in the Persian Gulf. No one was killed, but the ship's mission in the Gulf was postponed.


 * 2002 – Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire in London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair’s handling of the evacuation.


 * 1993 – The USAF begins supply drops into Bosnia


 * 1991 – An American OV-10D Bronco becomes the last Coalition aircraft lost in combat during the Gulf War.


 * 1987 – Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook HC.1 ZA721 crashed in the Falkland Islands, all seven on board killed.


 * 1980 – A China Air Lines Boeing 707 originating from Taipei crash landed in Manila, Philippines and was destroyed by fire. All 124 passengers and 11 crew members exited the plane and survived.


 * 1970 – Hawker Siddeley begins buying back surplus Hawker Hunters from the Royal Air Force to remanufacture for new customers.


 * 1969 – Beagle Aircraft Limited, British light aircraft manufacturer gets into voluntary liquidation.


 * 1965 – First flight of the Antonov An-22


 * 1963 – First flight of the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse


 * 1961 – Max Conrad takes off from Miami in a PA-23 Aztec named New Frontiers (registration N4445P) for an Around-the-world record.


 * 1958 – In the Winter Hill air disaster, a Silver City Airways Bristol 170 Freighter travelling from the Isle of Man to Manchester Ringway Airport crashes into Winter Hill, Lancashire, killing 35 people and injuring seven.


 * 1945 – First flight of the Curtiss XF15C, a US mixed-propulsion (propellor and turbojet engines) fighter prototype.


 * 1945 – Off Iwo Jima, the U. S. Navy tank landing ship USS LST-776, specially equipped with booms and cables for launching light aircraft, achieves the first successful launch of a Piper OY-1 Cub observation plane.


 * 1943 – USAAF bomber aircraft made their first raid on Germany.


 * 1942 – The aircraft tender USS Langley (AV-3), which once had been the U. S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier as USS Langley (CV-1), is sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Indian Ocean while trying to deliver Curtiss P-40 fighters from Australia to Java.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Blackburn Firebrand.


 * 1938 – 6 USAAC B-17 Flying Fortresses lands after a goodwill tour of Latin America, traveling 12,000 miles (19,312 km) to Lima, Buenos Aires, Santiago and back.


 * 1936 – During the Second Battle of Tembien, Italian aircraft drop 200 tons (181,439 kg) of high-explosive bombs on forming-up areas for Ethiopian troops and kill many Ethiopians fleeing the battlefield as they ford the Takkaze River.


 * 1935 – Latècoère’s giant seaplane Santos Dumont lands with a cargo of mail after a record flight of 53 hours 4 min from Natal, Brazil to Paris, with two stops en route.


 * 1928 – Commander Theodore Gordon Ellyson, the first Naval Aviator, Lieutenant Commander Hugo Schmidt and Lieutenant Rogers Ransehounsen, crash to their deaths in the sole Loening XOL-7 amphibian, A7335, (an OL-6 modified with an experimental thicker wing), in the lower Chesapeake Bay while on a night flight from Norfolk, Virginia, to Annapolis, Maryland. The Navy searches for the lost aircraft for a month without success. On 11 March the office of the Secretary of the Navy cables Helen Ellyson, "Very reluctantly yesterday the Secretary came to the conclusion that it was necessary for us to declare the officers who were lost in the plane with your husband officially dead. We had hoped against hope that something might be found of those officers living but it does not seem now that there is any hope left." On 11 April, Ellyson’s body washed ashore in the lower Chesapeake Bay.


 * 1924 – Death of Hans Georg Friedrich Groß, German balloonist and airship constructor.


 * 1921 – Birth of Theodore Van Kirk, American navigator of the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.


 * 1920 – Piloting a United States Army Air Service Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11 fighter equipped with one of the first turbochargers, Major Rudolf Schroeder sets a new world altitude record of 10,099 m (33,113 feet). His oxygen system fails and he passes out; he regains consciousness only very near the ground and lands safely, but is hospitalized.


 * 1918 – Birth of Harold Brownlow Morgan "Micky" Martin, Australian WWII bomber pilot (who flew with the 'Dambusters' 617 Squadron) and RAF post-war High-ranking officer.


 * 1917 – The first military flying in Canada took place when the RFC Canada began training with three Curtiss JN-4 aircraft at Long Beach Aerodrome near Toronto.


 * 1916 – Birth of Giuseppe Cenni, Italian Spanish war and WWII pilot


 * 1910 – Birth of Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson, American aircraft engineer and aeronautical innovator, member of the Lockheed Skunk Works. While at Lockheed, Johnson designed the P-38 Lightning fighter, made Fowler flaps work on the Model 14 Super Electra, and played a major role in converting the type into the Royal Air Force's Lockheed Hudson on short notice in 1938. He worked on the development of the Constellation for Howard Hughes' TWA airline.


 * 1906 – Death of Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation.


 * 1898 – Birth of Maryse Bastié, French aviatrix. Born Marie-Louise Bombec. Aerobatic, raid and record Pilot.


 * 1890 – Birth of Arthur Roy 'Art' Smith, early American aviator, aircraft designer who also perfected the art of night time sky writing, WWI Instructor, and Airmail pilot.


 * 1887 – Birth of Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov, Russian WWI pilot, aircraft technical designer and aerobatics pioneer.1


 * 1885 – Birth of Theodore Gordon 'Spuds' Ellyson, USN pilot, first United States Navy officer designated as an aviator ("Naval Aviator No. 1").