Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/January 28

January 28


 * 2013 – Italy's highest criminal court rules that "ample and congruent" evidence exists to make it "abundantly" clear that a missile shot down Itavia Flight 870 over the Mediterranean Sea in June 1980 and orders the Government of Italy to pay damages to the families of the victims.


 * 2013 – At the request of the United States, Niger agrees to allow the basing of American unmanned aerial vehicles on its territory, allowing the United States a greater surveillance capability over northern Mali and more broadly over the Sahara Desert.


 * 2008 – A Portuguese Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16B Block 20 MLU Fighting Falcon, 83-1171, crashes in Monte Real, Portugal while performing a test run after going through extensive maintenance. The pilot, Lt. Col. João 'Skipper' Pereira, safely ejects.


 * 2007 – AH-64D Apache from 4th Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division shot down by hostile fire during the Battle of Najaf, killing the two pilots.


 * 2005 – An OH-58 Kiowa 96-0019 from 1–7th Cavalry Regiment crashes in Baghdad after hitting electrical wires, killing the two crewmen.


 * 2002 – TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727, crashes into a volcano on approach to Tulcán, Ecuador in low-visibility conditions; all 94 on board are killed.


 * 1999 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15C-30-MC Eagle. 82-0020, c/n 834/C251, of the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron, 53rd Wing, piloted by Joe "Corn" Hruska, has mid-air collision at 35,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico with McDonnell Douglas F-15C-37-MC Eagle. 84-0011, c/n 0920/C314, of the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron, 53rd Wing, 80 miles S of Eglin over Eglin water range during a 2 versus 3 Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT). Both pilots eject, pilot of 82-0020 slightly injured. Pilots rescued after 45 minutes in the water by MH-53, call sign COWBOY 22, on instrument check-flight out of Hurlburt Field.[383]


 * 1998 – Andy Nelson and navigator Bertrand Piccard, lift off in the Breitling Orbiter II in an attempt of a round the world flight.


 * 1998 – A Eurocopter Super Puma helicopter operated by Bristow Helicopters lifts a record payload of 2 crew and 41 passengers, more than twice the normal number of passengers, during flood relief operations in Northern Australia.


 * 1993 – Death of James William Pearson, American WWI fighter ace, Believed to be the last American surviving ace of WWI.


 * 1992 – Azerbaijani Mil Mi-8 shoot-down: Azerbaijani transport helicopter Mil Mi-8 was shot down, killing all 44 people on board.


 * 1991 – (28-29) U. S. Navy A-6 Es conduct two days of attacks on Iraqi ships in Bubiyan Channel, at the Umm Qasr naval base, and in Kuwait Harbor.


 * 1991 – Iraqi antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U. S. Marine Corps AV-8 B Harrier II over Faylakah Island, and an U. S. Army attack helicopter is lost to non-combat causes.


 * 1986 – Launch: Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51-L at 5:58:51 am PST. Mission highlights: Planned TDRS deployment, Loss of vehicle and crew, Teacher in Space Flight.


 * 1983 – T-33 #133345 logged 10,000 h at Baden.


 * 1981 – Pan Am commences a weekly New York-Beijing service


 * 1971 – Commander Donald H. Lilienthal, USN flew a P-3 C Orion to a world speed record for heavyweight turboprops. Over 15–25 km, he reached 501 mph.


 * 1966 – Lufthansa Flight 005, a Convair 440, crashes at Bremen Airport; all 46 on board perish.


 * 1964 – An unarmed USAF North American CT-39A-1-NO Sabreliner, 62-4448, c/n 276-1, the first Air Force T-39, of the 7101st Air Base Wing, departed Wiesbaden, West Germany, at 14:10 on a routine three-hour training flight. Shot down over Erfurt, Germany by two Soviet MiG-19s after errantly entering Soviet airspace over East Germany. All three crewmembers were killed.


 * 1963 – Death of Jean Felix Piccard, also known as Jean Piccard, Swiss-born American chemist, engineer, professor and high-altitude balloonist.


 * 1963 – Death of René Paul Louis Dousinelle, French WWI flying ace.


 * 1962 – Death of Robert John Orton Compston DSC**, DFC, British WWI fighter ace.


 * 1953 – A point to point record between London and Mauripur in Karachi is set by Flight Lieutenant L. M. Whittington and Flight Lieutenant J. A. Brown in an English Electric Canberra covering 3,921 statute miles in 8 hours 52 min 28 seconds.


 * 1951 – Birth of Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk, Soviet test pilot and only NASA astronaut of independent Ukraine.


 * 1951 – World War II fighter ace and test pilot Don S. Gentile is KWF Lockheed T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star, 49-905, of the 1053d AMS, 1050th AMG, which crashes at Forestville, Maryland, near Andrews AFB. Second crew also killed. Gentile Air Force Station, Kettering, Ohio, was named in his honor.


 * 1950 – Birth of David Carl Hilmers, USMC officer and NASA astronaut.


 * 1948 – “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” is a protest song with lyrics by Woody Guthrie detailing the crash of a plane near Los Gatos Canyon, 20 miles west of Coalinga in Fresno County, California, United States. The crash occurred in Los Gatos Canyon and not in the town of Los Gatos itself, which is in Santa Clara County, approximately 150 miles away. Guthrie was inspired to write the song by what he considered the racist mistreatment of the passengers before and after the accident. The crash resulted in the deaths of 32 people, 4 Americans and 28 migrant farm workers who were being deported from California back to Mexico.


 * 1946 – First prototype Short Shetland I, DX166, the largest British-built flying boat, burns out at its mooring from fire in galley before flight testing can be completed.


 * 1944 – Col. Robin E. Epler, deputy commander (Technical) of the Air Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida, is killed this date in crash of Douglas A-20G-10-DO Havoc, 42-54016, one mile (1.6 km) NE of Crestview, Florida. Eglin Auxiliary Field No. 7 is named in his honor.


 * 1943 – A U. S. Army Air Forces P-40 Warhawk fighter squadron begins operations from Amchitka, the first Allied aircraft to do so. They intercept attacking Japanese aircraft for the first time the following day, shooting down both attacking “Rufes. ”


 * 1943 – The Japanese begin to use their new airfield on Betio.


 * 1942 – Piloting a PBO-1 Hudson patrol bomber over the North Atlantic, U. S. Navy Chief Aviation Machinist’s Mate Donald Francis Mason attacks a German submarine, which submerges and escapes. Thinking he had sunk it, he signals “SIGHTED SUB, SANK SAME. ” It becomes one of the most famous signals of World War II.


 * 1942 – The United States Army Air Forces activate the Eighth Air Force to serve in England as a strategic air force in Europe.


 * 1941 – Final air battle of the French-Thai War. Martins B-10 of the 50th Bomber Squadron set out on a raid on Sisophon, escorted by thirteen Hawk 75Ns of the 60th Fighter Squadron. Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.


 * 1939 – Birth of John McCreary Fabian, USAF pilot and NASA Astronaut.


 * 1938 – A 90-second air raid on Barcelona by nine Majorca-based Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers kills 150 people and injures 500.


 * 1937 – Fairchild C-24, 32-289 c/n 6709, of the 1st Air Base Squadron, Langley Field, Virginia, one of four Pilgrim Model 100-Bs acquired by the USAAC and used as an air ambulance into the late 1930s, crashes 5 miles SE of Front Royal, Virginia, killing pilot Joseph B. Zimmerman.


 * 1935 – Entered Service: Grumman F2 F with United States Navy Fighter Squadron 2 (VF-2 B) aboard USS Lexington (CV-2) and Fighter Squadron 3 (VF-3 B) aboard USS Ranger (CV-4).


 * 1935 – First flight of the Potez 62, a French twin-engine civil airliner.


 * 1931 – Death of Gunther Plüschow, German aviator, aerial explorer and author, Only German Prisoner of war (in either WW) to escape from Britain back to Germany. Killed in a crash near the Brazo Rico, part of Lake Argentino.


 * 1928 – Lieutenant John Moncrieff and Captain George Hood were two New Zealanders who vanished while attempting the first trans-Tasman flight from Australia to New Zealand. Radio signals were received from their aircraft for 12 hours after their departure from Sydney, but despite a number of purported sightings in New Zealand, and many land searches in the intervening years, no trace of the aviators or their aircraft has ever been found.


 * 1927 – Death of William Geoffrey Meggitt, British WWI flying ace, killed in an accident at Norbury while flying an Armstrong Whitworth Siskin.


 * 1924 – Raúl Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio flies an experimental helicopter in Paris. The machine flew 800 m (2,640 ft) in just over 10 min.


 * 1920 – Disbandment of Nos. 1 & 2 Squadrons Canadian Air Force and No. 1 Wing HQ. in U. K.


 * 1919 – Francis Gabreski, American fighter pilot, was born (d. 2002). Francis Stanley “Gabby” Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski) was the top American fighter ace in Europe during World War II, a jet fighter ace in Korea, and one of only seven U. S. pilots to become an ace in two wars.


 * 1918 – Dr. John McCrae died in Guelph Ontario; he was author of the World War I poem, In Flanders Fields.


 * 1917 – Royal Aircraft Factory test pilot Maj. Frank W. Goodden is killed in the second prototype S.E.5, A4562 at RAE Farnborough, when it breaks up in flight. At the time of his death, Goodden was one of Britain's most experienced pilots. Inspection found that the wings had suffered failure in downward torsion. Plywood webs were added to the compression ribs, curing the trouble and were standardized on all later S.E.5s and 5a's.


 * 1917 – First flight of the Junkers J.I (manufacturer's designation J 4 / Not to be confused with the J 1), a German armored sesquiplane low-level ground attack, observation aircraft, first all-metal aircraft to enter mass production.


 * 1911 – Theodore Gordon 'Spuds' Ellyson becomes the first Naval Aviator as he took off in a Curtiss “grass cutter” plane. . With a blocked throttle, this ground plane was not supposed to fly, and Ellyson was not proficient enough to fly. He slewed off left, cracking up the plane somewhat by making a wing-first landing.


 * 1899 – Birth of David Sinton Ingalls, DSC and DFC, only United States Navy Flying Ace of WWI, and first ace in U. S. Navy history.


 * 1894 – Birth of Bernard Henri Barny de Romanet, French WWI fighter ace and successful sporting pilot.


 * 1892 – Birth of David Mary Tidmarsh, Irish WWI flying ace who also served in WWII.


 * 1892 – Birth of Willi Rosenstein, German WWI flying ace.


 * 1891 – Birth of David Luther Burgess, Canadian WWI flying ace and politician.


 * 1884 – Birth of Jean Felix Piccard (twin brother of Auguste), also known as Jean Piccard, Swiss-born American chemist, engineer, professor and high-altitude balloonist.


 * 1884 – Birth of Auguste Antoine Piccard (twin brother of Jean), Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer.


 * 1871 – The last balloon to leave Paris during the Persian siege takes off with orders for the French fleet to bring food and supplies to replenish the French capital, an armistice having been signed. The flight of the General Cambronne ends a period of almost exactly 5 months during which the advantages of balloons were put to efficient use.