Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/January 3

January 3


 * 2013 – Press observers report that the Myanmar Air Force has conducted daily strikes against rebel Kachin Independence Army forces in northern Myanmar since 28 December 2012.


 * 2013 – An American unmanned aerial vehicle strike in Rada'a, Yemen, kills three al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula members, one of them a local commander.


 * 2013 – In the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian Air Force conducts two airstrikes on the rebel stronghold of Douma, Syria, killing 12 people. Syrian rebels claim to have killed the commander of the Syrian government air base at Taftanaz.


 * 2010 – Air Berlin Flight 2450, operated by Boeing 737–800 D-ABKF overran the end of the runway after an aborted take-off at high speed due to an airspeed discrepancy on the two pilots' instruments. The incident happened at Dortmund Airport. There were no injuries among the 171 people on board.


 * 2006 – A United States Army Sikorsky Aircraft UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashes near Tal Afar, Ninawa Governorate, Iraq. The aircraft, part of a two-Black Hawk helicopter team, was traveling between military bases when the accident occurred, resulting in 12 fatalities.
 * 2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604, a Boeing 737-300, crashes into the Red Sea, killing all 135 passengers and 13 crew members in the worst ever accident involving the 737-300.


 * 1999 – Launch of Mars Polar Lander, also referred to as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, NASA 290-kilogram robotic spacecraft lander, to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars.


 * 1994 – Baikal Airlines Flight 130, a Tupolev Tu-154M, crashes on take off at Irkutsk, killing 125 on board plus 1 on ground. A fuel-fed fire had erupted in the area of the no. 2 engine, causing damage to hydraulic lines and control surfaces. Control was lost and the aircraft crashed amongst farm buildings.


 * 1989 – Oregon Air National Guard McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom II, 63-7626 (?), of 123rd FIS/Oregon ANG from Portland, Oregon, crashes on a training mission ~30 mi off Tillamook Bay, injuring both crew, who were plucked from the Pacific Ocean, authorities said.


 * 1987 – Varig Flight 797, a Boeing 707, crashes near Abidjan because of engine failure. Out of the 52 passengers and crew on board, there was only 1 survivor.


 * 1986 – An Iranian C-130 Army transport crashes into a mountain while attempting to land at Zahedan Airport (ZAH) in southeastern Iran, killing all 103 on board.


 * 1981 – Pan Am makes its final Boeing 707 flight.


 * 1966 – Third (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5923, suffers major landing gear and fuselage damage during landing on 14th Cat II flight at Edwards AFB, California, having logged only 14:12 hrs. Cat II flight time. Air Force decides to use wing from this airframe to repair XC-142A No. 2, 62-5922, which suffers major damage on 19 October 1965, other useful items are salvaged from airframe no. 3, and the cannibalized fuselage is scrapped in the summer of 1966.


 * 1965 – Death of Semyon Ariyevich Kosberg, Jewish Soviet engineer, expert in the field of aircraft and rocket engines.


 * 1964 – A United States Air Force B-52D Stratofortress carrying two Mark 53 nuclear bombs loses its vertical stabilizer in turbulence during a winter storm and crashes on Savage Mountain near Barton, Maryland -- this is known as the 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash. Only two of the five crewmen survive. The bombs are recovered two days later.


 * 1963 – First flight of the Ilyushin Il-62


 * 1962 – RCAF Piasecki H-21 helicopter 9611, from 121 (CU) Comox rescue 22 seamen from SS Glafkos.


 * 1961 – Aero Flight 311, a Douglas DC-3, crashes into woods near Koivulahti, Finland, killing all 25 on board.


 * 1959 – Birth of Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin, Russian cosmonaut and RSC Energia test-pilot.


 * 1957 – Death of Ottorino Pomilio, early Italian aeronautic engineer and WWI scout aircraft designer.


 * 1953 – First flight of the Cessna 310, American six-seat, a low-wing, twin-engined monoplane and first twin-engined aircraft that Cessna put into production after WWII.


 * 1952 – First flight of the Bristol Type 173 G-ALBN – A prototype twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter.


 * 1950 – A Pan Am Boeing 377 Stratocruiser makes the first commercial nonstop flight from Tokyo, Japan, to Honolulu, Hawaii.


 * 1947 – The Kings Flight of the Royal Air Force was re-established at RAF Benson. The first equipment consisted of three Vickers Vikings and an Avro York named Endeavour.


 * 1945 – (3-4) U. S. Navy Task Force 38 begins its support of the U. S. invasion of Lingayen Gulf with carrier air strikes against Japanese forces and facilities on Formosa, the Pescadores, the Sakishima Gunto, and Okinawa, with the loss of 22 U. S. aircraft. Bad weather curtails the strikes and makes bomb damage assessment impossible, although the task force believes it has destroyed about 100 Japanese aircraft.


 * 1944 – Japan launches first Fu-Go bombs, aka fire balloons or balloon bombs. Released from Japan, the balloons were meant to be pushed across the Pacific by the jetstream and then crash into the U. S. mainland and explode. A fascinating idea, but not a very effective weapon: Of the 9,000 balloons launched, only six Americans were killed. 300 of the balloons were ever found in North America, and it is estimated around 600 others likely landed in uninhabited deserts, forests and mountains.


 * 1944 – Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down over Rabaul in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero. He is picked up by the Japanese.


 * 1943 – Boeing B-17F-27-BO Flying Fortress, 41-24620, "snap! crackle! pop!", of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, on daylight raid over Saint-Nazaire, France, loses wing due to flak, goes into spiral. Ball turret gunner Alan Magee (13 January 1919-20 December 2003), though suffering 27 shrapnel wounds, bails out (or is thrown from wreckage) without his chute at ~20,000 feet (6,100 m), loses consciousness due to altitude, freefall plunges through glass roof of the Gare de Saint-Nazaire and is found alive but with serious injuries on floor of depot:saved by German medical care, spends rest of war in prison camp.


 * 1925 – First flight of the Fairey Fox, British light bomber and fighter biplane.


 * 1923 – French Lieutenant Thoret makes the first soaring flight of 7 hours in a Hanriot HD-14 biplane as he flies with his engine stopped in a slope lift (using hill-side air currents) in Biskra, Algeria.


 * 1922 – First flight of the Aero A.10


 * 1917 – First flight of the Zeppelin LZ88 (L 40), German dirigible.


 * 1916 – A Bristol Scout C takes off from HMS Vindex, marking the first time a wheeled aircraft had taken off from a British ship. SEE: November 14, 1910, Eugene Ely was the first to take-off from a ship (off a temporary platform aboard) the light cruiser USS Birmingham in a Curtiss Model D pusher. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_firsts_in_aviation


 * 1909 – The first airspeed indicator is patented by Alec Ogilvie.


 * 1902 – Birth of Tommaso (Tomaso) Dal Molin, Italian Military pilot of the Schneider Trophy.


 * 1897 – Birth of John Elmer "Jack" Drummond, Canadian WWI flying ace.


 * 1889 – Birth of Edward Willits 'Eddie' Hubbard, Early American aviator.


 * 1889 – Birth of Charles Philip Oldfield Bartlett, British WWI flying ace.


 * 1889 – Birth of Ross Morrison MacDonald, Canadian WWI flying ace.


 * 1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.