Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February 7

February 7


 * 2013 – The Japan Air Self-Defense Force scrambles four jet fighters to intercept two Russian Naval Aviation jets of the Red Banner Pacific Ocean Fleet which Japan claims violated Japanese airspace off the northwest tip of Hokkaido. The Russian Navy denies that the aircraft, which were participating in a military exercise, violated Japanese airspace.


 * 2013 – Syrian Air Force jets attack the Damascus ring road with air-to-ground rockets to halt a rebel offensive.


 * 2009 – In the 2009 Manaus Aerotáxi crash, a Manaus Aerotáxi Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante crashes near Santo António, Brazil, killing 24 of the 28 aboard.


 * 2008 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-122 at 19:45 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 1E: European Laboratory Columbus, crew rotation.


 * 2007 – CH-46E Sea Knight from HMM-364 is shot down, by a shoulder-fired missile, in al-Karma, outside Fallujah, killing all 7 on board. (see picture above)


 * 2001 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-98 at 18:13 pm EST. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 5A: Destiny lab.


 * 2001 – Death of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, born Anne Spencer Morrow, pioneering American aviator, author, and spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh.


 * 1999 – Launch of Stardust, NASA robotic space probe to study the asteroid 5535 Annefrank and collect samples from the coma of comet Wild 2.It is the first sample return mission to collect cosmic dust and return the sample to Earth and the first to acquire images of a previously visited comet.


 * 1995 – Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of multiple airliner bombing-plots and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.


 * 1994 – Death of Richard M. Bissell, Jr., Jr.,American CIA officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane.


 * 1994 – First launch of a Milstar Satellite (Military Strategic and Tactical Relay) operated by the USAF.


 * 1990 – A USAF Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes in the Black Mountains of Wales, ~eight miles S of Hay-on-Wye on the English border, less than 18 hrs. after an General Dynamics F-111 was lost in the North Sea. The unidentified A-10 pilot was killed. Gen. Marcus Anderson, commander of the Third Air Force, grounds all British-based tactical fighters for a one-day safety review, although an Air Force press spokesman said the two accidents were unrelated, calling it "a terrible coincidence" that they occurred so close together.


 * 1984 – Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-41-B Mission, become the first to use the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) in space during the first untethered space walk. Mission Specialist Bruce McCandless II makes the most distant space walk from a spacecraft at 320 feet.


 * 1981 – A Tupolev Tu-104 airliner belonging to the Soviet Pacific Fleet and carrying its top brass on the return from a staff maneuvers in Leningrad crashes on take-off at a military airfield in Pushkin, Leningrad oblast. Out of 52 aboard, including 16 generals and admirals and 20 captains, 51 are pronounced dead at the scene, and the co-pilot later dies in hospital from his injuries. Admiral Emil Spiridonov, Fleet's CO, was among the killed. The reason was later determined to be the improper loading of the plane, with a part of the cargo, two huge rolls of book paper, unsecured and shifting during the take-off, causing a wingstrike.


 * 1980 – Death of Secondo Campini, Italian engineer and one of the pioneers of the jet engine.


 * 1980 – Death of Richard Williams (RAAF officer), Australian WWI Pilot, WWII high-ranking officer, Australian director of Civil aviation postwar, first military pilot trained in Australia, widely regarded as the “father” of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).


 * 1978 – Death of Johannes Jensen (aviator), German WWI flying ace.


 * 1977 – Launch of Soyuz 24, Soviet mission to the Salyut 5 space station, 3rd and final mission to the station, last purely military crew for the Soviets and the final mission to a military Salyut.


 * 1973 – A US Navy LTV A-7E-8-CV Corsair II, BuNo 157539, c/n E-195, of VA-195 piloted by Lt. Robert Lee Ward, 28, one of two on a routine training flight to Sacramento, California from NAS Lemoore near Fresno, California, crashes at 2013 hrs. in Alameda, after breaking formation at 28,000 feet for unexplained reasons. Fighter strikes four-story Tahoe Apartments building at 1814 Central Avenue in the city center with fire spreading to other structures, killing pilot and ten civilians, 26 injured. Navy inquiry found evidence of a cockpit fire involving the pilot's oxygen hose, and that the in-flight blaze was "very near" Ward's oxygen mask. Speculation that smoking could have caused it, but no proof. Lawsuits for more than $700,000 were filed in connection with the disaster, including a $500,000 damage action filed in Alameda County Superior Court by owner of the demolished 36-unit Tahoe Apartments.


 * 1971 – Death of Alfred Atkey, Canadian WWI fighter ace.


 * 1964 – The Canadian Golden Hawks aerobatic team is disbanded.


 * 1963 – Birth of Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, American Naval officer and a former NASA astronaut.


 * 1956 – Death of Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, British officer who was instrumental in establishing the RAF, described as the Father of the Royal Air Force.


 * 1938 – Squadron Leader J. W. Gillan of N° 111 Squadron, makes headline news when he flies his Hawker Hurricane from Edinburgh in Scotland to Northolt in Middlesex at an average speed of 657kph (408 mph). The night flight benefited from a strong tail wind.


 * 1937 – The prototype Blackburn B-24 Skua two-seat fighter/dive-bomber makes its maiden flight, piloted by “Dasher” Blake at Brough, Yorkshire. It is Britain’s first dive-bomber.


 * 1934 – The first airmail flight between Australia and New Zealand is made by Charles Ulm in an Avro Ten, taking 14 hours 10 min.


 * 1932 – Birth of Alfred Worden, American test pilot and astronaut who was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 Moon Mission, one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon.


 * 1931 – Sole Boeing XP-15, (Boeing Model 202), NX270V, c/n 1151, accepted by the U.S.Army for testing at Wright Field but never actually purchased, so no USAAC serial, suffers propeller blade failure during a high-speed dash, unbalanced engine tears from mounts.


 * 1928 – Bert Hinkler leaves Croydon in an Avro Avian, attempting the first solo flight from England to Australia. He will arrive in Darwin on February 22.


 * 1927 – Georgetown University medical school in Washington, D. C., offers the first aviation medicine course in the United States.


 * 1926 – Birth of Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, Soviet cosmonaut and eminent space engineer.


 * 1920 – French aviator Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, piloting a Nieuport-Delage 29 V, becomes the first pilot to set a new Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) world speed record after World War I. He reaches a measured speed of 171.141 mph along the 3,280-foot course.


 * 1918 – During U.S. Navy tests of a converted Curtiss N-9 biplane as an unpiloted flying bomb, equipped with a Sperry automatic control, Lawrence Sperry takes it up to prove airworthiness of the design, crashes, but pilot unhurt.


 * 1917 – Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ82 L 36, damaged during landing in fog at Rehben-an-der-Aller and decommissioned.


 * 1906 – Birth of Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer, founder of Antonov ASTC, world-famous aircraft company.


 * 1903 – Death of James Glaisher FRS, English meteorologist and aeronaut.


 * 1897 – Birth of James Green (aviator), British WWI flying ace.


 * 1894 – Birth of Arthur Coadou, French WWI flying ace, who also served in WWII.


 * 1889 – Birth of Otto Hartmann, German WWI flying ace.