Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February 28

February 28


 * 2013 – The United States Department of Defense announces that its F-35 Lightning II fleet, grounded since 22 February, will resume flying after an investigation determines that a cracked engine blade found in a U.S. Air Force F-35A was due to unique circumstances and is not a fleetwide problem.


 * 2012 – A Russian Sukhoi Su-30Mk2 crashed in the far east of Russia on a test flight prior to delivery to Vietnamese People's Air Force. Both pilots ejected.


 * 2012 – A United States Coast Guard HH-65C crashed during a training flight in Alabama. All four crew were killed.


 * 2012 – A Guatemala Air Force Bell UH-1H crashed in bad weather near Chacalte killing all ten on board.


 * 2011 – Libyan rebels reportedly shoot down a Libyan Air Force warplane during the Battle of Misrata.


 * 2009 – Carpatair Flight 128, a Saab 2000, registration YR-SBI, lands at Traian Vuia International Airport, Romania, with the nosewheel stuck in the raised position. An emergency landing is successfully made on a partially foamed runway. The nose area of the aircraft is damaged.


 * 2009 – Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 5563, a Canadair CRJ-200ER, registration N830AS, suffers a fire on the ground at Tallahassee Regional Airport, United States. The crew evacuate, and the fire is extinguished after burning through the cockpit wall, the flight deck being significantly damaged.


 * 2008 – Boston-Maine Airways, operating as Pan Am Clipper Connection, ceased operations.


 * 2005 – February 28-March 3 – Steve Fossett completes the first solo, nonstop, non-refueled aerial circumnavigation of the globe by airplane in a jet-propelled airplane specially designed for this event.


 * 1998 – First flight of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U. S. civilian airspace.


 * 1991 – The US calls a ceasefire in Iraq, with airpower having neutralized practically all of the country's ability to make war.


 * 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-36 at 2:50:22 EST. Mission highlights: Sixth classified DoD mission; Misty reconnaissance satellite deployment.


 * 1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H is broadcast in the US, becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106–125 million viewers in the U. S. (estimate varies by source).


 * 1983 – W. O. John Croker became the first service man in the Canadian Forces to exceed 10,000 hours on a C 130 Hercules.


 * 1980 – An military Ka-27 helicopter on a ferry flight from the manufacturer runs out of fuel and crash lands on a busy intersection in the city of Kazan, damaging a tram. In the Post-Soviet states the crash is known as The Collapse of the Kamov-27 in Kazan. While no one was killed in the crash, rumors circulated in the Soviet Union that supposedly numerous people in the tram had been killed by the rotor blades and that the Soviet government would want to hide the alleged disaster.


 * 1979 – Since, Tanzania has shot down 19 Ugandan aircraft during the Uganda-Tanzania War. The losses drive the Ugandan Air Force out of the war.


 * 1979 – First flight of the PAC Cresco.


 * 1966 – NASA astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett, original Gemini 9 crew, are killed when their Northrop T-38A-50-NO Talon, 63-8181, N901NA, crashes into a building while attempting to land in fog at Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri.


 * 1964 – The Toronto International Airport terminal building opened.


 * 1961 – Model Was KC-97 .. Mount Clemens, Mich. (AP) -- A loaded Air Force tanker plane smashed in a flaming smear across a busy highway late Tuesday, destroying two buildings and narrowly missing a tavern and a tulip farm house. The pilot had just veered his stricken ship, loaded with 9,500 gallons of fuel, away from a crowded housing project. The pilot, LT. JOHN C. BIBBLE, 24, Urbana, Ill., and the four other airmen aboard lost their lives. A housewife, RUTH KING, 32, said the four-engine, prop-driven KC97 from nearby Selfridge Air Force base struck "in a great big billow of flame and smoke." The big pot-bellied ship, crashing moments after takeoff, left a wake of burning wreckage. Pieces hung from overhead power lines and clogged U.S. 25, the highway leading from nearby Detroit. An Air Force spokesman said the ship was on a routine refueling mission when it apparently suffered a power failure on target. The ship veered away from a Selfridge Base housing project of 380.


 * 1959 – First flight of the Aérospatiale Alouette III


 * 1949 – First flight of the Dassault Ouragan


 * 1948 – Two Army Air Force crew are killed in the crash of an North American T-6C-NT Texan, 41-32589, near Cowan, Tennessee when their aircraft impacts in mountainous terrain while flying from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Murphy, North Carolina. A search was begun when they were reported overdue on Sunday, 29 February. Rescuers labored for several hours to reach the wreckage which had been spotted earlier by a search plane. Capt. R. M. Howard of the Air Forces rescue service identified the victims as Frank Dreher, of West Columbia, South Carolina, a February 1948 Pre-med graduate of Clemson College; and Hubert Wells, of Murphy, North Carolina


 * 1946 – First flight of the Republic F-84 Thunderjet


 * 1947 – U. S. Army Air Forces Captain Robert E. Thacker (pilot) and Lieutenant John M. Ard (co-pilot) in the North American P-82 B Twin Mustang fighter Betty Jo on a single flight make both the longest nonstop flight without aerial refueling by a fighter aircraft, about 4,968 statute miles (7,994 km) from Hickam Field in Hawaii to La Guardia Field in New York City, and the fastest flight between Hawaii and New York City up to that time, 14 hours 31 min 50 seconds at an average speed of 342 mph (550 km/hr). It remains both the longest non-stop flight by a piston-engined fighter and the fastest Hawaii-to-New York City flight by a piston-engined aircraft in history.


 * 1943 – Aircraft of the U. S. Army Air Forces’ Eleventh Air Force have dropped 150 tons (136,079 kg) of bombs on Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands during the month, although half of their sorties have suffered from icy and corroded bomb racks that fail to release bombs.


 * 1942 – Since February 1, the Luftwaffe's Fliegerkorps II has flown 2,497 sorties against Malta, including 222 attacks against airfields alone.


 * 1940 – Germany begins the scrapping of the second Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier, Flugzeugträger B, while she still is incomplete on the building ways. Scrapping is completed four months later.


 * 1937 – First flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-30 (Allied reporting name “Ann”)


 * 1929 – An amendment to the Air Commerce Act, effective in June, provides for the federal licensing of flying schools.


 * 1927 – First flight of the Curtiss F7C Seahawk


 * 1921 – Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot, was born (d. 2006). Colstermann was a French flying ace, author, engineer and politician.


 * 1919 – The first international air passenger by heavier than air machine arrived in Canada. W. E. Boeing was flown to Vancouver, BC from Seattle Washington, in a Boeing C-700 seaplane by Edward Hubbard.


 * 1918 – Regulation of the airways begins as US President Woodrow Wilson issues an order requiring licenses for civilian pilots and owners. Over 800 licenses are issued.


 * 1907 – Cabinet-maker Charles Voisin begins tests of the airplane made by his company for Lèon Delagrange. He takes off for a hop of several feet, but the fuselage breaks up.