Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/January 4

January 4


 * 2013 – A Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander carrying the head of the Missoni fashion house, Vittorio Missoni, and five other people on a domestic flight from Los Roques to Simón Bolívar International Airport outside Caracas, Venezuela, disappears over the Caribbean Sea 10 miles (16 km) south of Los Roques.


 * 2013 – Syrian Air Force aircraft strike various suburbs around Damascus, including Douma.


 * 2013 – Syrian rebel forces continue attacks on the Syrian government air base at Taftanaz and Aleppo International Airport in Aleppo as part of a campaign to reduce government air capabilities by capturing air bases. Syrian Air Force aircraft strike rebel forces at Taftanaz.


 * 2010 – Death of Tadeusz Góra, Polish glider and WWII pilot.


 * 2009 – A Caribair Cessna 550 Citation II (N815MA) is substantially damaged at Wilmington International Airport, United States when it makes a wheels-up landing after running out of fuel.


 * 2009 – A Sikorsky S-76 Spirit helicopter crashes into a marshy area near Bayou Penchant, Louisiana. The helicopter operated by Petroleum Helicopters, Inc was flying oil workers to a Shell Petroleum Oil Platform in the Gulf of Mexico from Gibson, Louisiana resulting in 8 fatalities and 1 passenger rescued by a United States Coast Guard helicopter.


 * 2008 – The 2008 Los Roques archipelago Transaven Let L-410 crash kills all 14 on board.


 * 2004 – Spirit Rover, MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A), US robotic rover, successfully lands on Mars.


 * 2001 – First flight of the HAL Tejas, an Indian lightweight multirole jet fighter technology demonstrator, TD-1.


 * 2000 – A numbered company, owned in part by Air Canada, scoops up 82% of Canadian Airline's shares. When the merger is complete, Air Canada will be the country's only national airline.


 * 1998 – A passenger dies after suffering a reaction to secondhand smoke on board Olympic Airways Flight 417, a Boeing 747, leading to regulations on smoking on aircraft.
 * 1996 – First flight of the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, an American advanced five-blade armed reconnaissance and attack helicopter prototype.
 * 1990 – Northwest Airlines Flight 5, a Boeing 727 with 145 on board, loses an engine over Madison, Florida, the aircraft makes an emergency landing at Tampa International Airport, all on board survive.


 * 1989 – A female U.S. Navy airman of VA-42, was struck and killed by a Grumman A-6 Intruder being towed from a hangar at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia. The airman, whose name was withheld pending notification of family, was walking beside a wing of the attack bomber as it was being towed by a small tractor from the hangar to the flight-line, a Navy spokesman said.


 * 1989 – French television journalists Alain Chaillou and Bruce Frankel are arrested for trying to plant fake bombs – each consisting of a package containing molding clay, an alarm clock, wires, and the message "Congratulations! You have found our phony bomb!" – aboard three airliners at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City bound for Paris, France, as a test of airport security, planning that their colleagues will film the arrival of the packages in Paris. The charges against Chaillou and Frankel ultimately will be dropped in 1994.


 * 1989 – Two United States Navy F-14 Tomcats of Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32) aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) shoot down two Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23s (NATO reporting name "Flogger") off the coast of Libya using AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. They are the third and fourth of five kills scored by F-14s during the Tomcat's career in U.S. Navy service.


 * 1986 – Death of Wilbur Rounding Franks, Canadian scientist, notable as the inventor of the anti-gravity suit or G-suit.


 * 1973 – Entered Service: Gates Learjet 26 N26GLd.


 * 1970 – Birth of Christopher John "Chris" Cassidy, American NASA astronaut.


 * 1967 – First flight of the Taylor Titch


 * 1964 – Pope Paul VI lands in Amman, Jordan, in a special Alitalia DC-8; it is the first time that a pope has used an airplane for an official visit.


 * 1964 – Martin NRB-57D Canberra, 53-3973, of the Wright Air Development Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, suffers structural failure of both wings at 50,000 feet (15240 m), comes down in schoolyard at Dayton, Ohio, crew bails out. The USAF subsequently grounds all W/RB-57D aircraft.


 * 1961 – During minimum interval takeoff (MITO) from Pease AFB, New Hampshire, Boeing B-47E-130-BW Stratojet, 53-4244, of the 100th Bomb Wing, number 2 in a three-ship cell, loses control, crashes into trees, burns. Killed are aircraft commander, Capt. Thomas C. Weller, co-pilot 1st Lt. Ronald Chapo, navigator 1st Lt. J. A. Wether, and crew chief S/Sgt. Stephen J. Merva.


 * 1960 – A United States Army (US Army) de Havilland Canada U-1A Otter, 55-2974, c/n 47, disappeared over the Gulf of Sirte. Aircraft was never found. 10 crew were presumed dead.


 * 1959 – Luna 1 (E-1 series) is the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the moon.


 * 1958 – Death of Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe, OBE FRAeS, pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer, founder of the Avro company.


 * 1958 – Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, fall out of orbit and back to terra firma.


 * 1957 – The Brooklyn Dodgers order a Convair CV-440 Metropolitan for $775,000, becoming the first major league baseball team to buy an airplane. Thanks to Dodger-owner Walter O'Malley's friendship with Eastern Air Lines president Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, the Dodgers are able to piggyback onto an Eastern order to get a plane directly from the Convair factory in San Diego. With the exception of having auto-pilot (which Eastern refused in those days) the Dodgers’ 44-seater is identical to the 20 planes Eastern purchased, even down to the Eastern duck hawk logo on the tail, but with Dodgers titles, of course. Sadly for Brooklyn fans, the plane would play a key role in O'Malley’s moving of the team to Los Angeles later that year.


 * 1956 – A license to operate a flying boat service between Southampton and Las Palmas, Canary Islands, is granted to Aquila Airways of London.


 * 1952 – Pan American World Airways inaugurates the first all-cargo service across the North Atlantic with its recently acquired Douglas DC-6A cargo carrier.


 * 1952 – First flight of the North American XA2J Super Savage


 * 1945 – First flight of the Chase YCG-14, a US assault glider.


 * 1945 – A single Japanese bomber destroys 11 U. S. Navy PV-1 Ventura patrol aircraft parked at Tacloban Airfield on Leyte.


 * 1945 – The Japanese make their last kamikaze attack on the U. S. invasion force off Mindoro, causing a cargo ship carrying ammunition to explode, killing all 71 merchant mariners on board.


 * 1945 – The escort aircraft carrier USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) is fatally damaged by a Japanese kamikaze in the Sulu Sea and scuttled later in the day.


 * 1944 – North American P-51 Mustangs score 18 victories. 1944 there were 17 P-51 fighter groups in England. Of these, the 357th Fighter Group had 609 aerial victories.


 * 1944 – Launch of Operation Carpetbagger, general term used for the aerial resupply of weapons and other matériel to resistance fighters in France, Italy and the Low Countries by the USAAF.


 * 1944 – A strike by American aircraft based at Tarawa Atoll lays mines the channel at Jaluit, forcing Japanese shipping to cease use of the atoll’s lagoon and the withdrawal of most Japanese seaplanes there.


 * 1943 – Death of Marina Mikhailovna Raskova, famous Russian navigator, when her Petlyakov Pe-2 crashed attempting to make a forced landing. She founded three female air regiments which would eventually fly over 30,000 sorties in WWII.


 * 1940 – First flight of the Fairey Fulmar production aircraft N1854 (British carrier-born fighter aircraft).


 * 1936 – First flight of the Vought SB2U Vindicator, an American carrier-based dive bomber.


 * 1931 – William G. Swan stayed, aloft for 30 min over Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, in a glider powered with 10 small rockets.


 * 1931 – Amy Johnson abandoned her de Havilland Gipsy Moth 'Jason III' in Poland due to an engine problem during her attempt to reach Peking.


 * 1927 – Death of Herbert Frank Stacey Drewitt MC, AFC, New Zealand WWI flying ace.


 * 1917 – Edward Rochfort Grange of No. 8 (Naval) Sq&shy;ron is credited with downing his fifth enemy aircraft (3 Albatros D.II on that day), becoming Canada’s first "ace. "


 * 1910 – Last flight of Alberto Santos-Dumont on his 'Demoiselle' which ended in an accident.


 * 1910 – Death of Ferdinand Léon Delagrange, pioneer French aviator, Croix d'Hins near Bordeaux after the wings on his Blériot XI collapse.


 * 1904 – Birth of Dino Arcangeli, Italian Raid aviator and WWII Pilot.


 * 1896 – Birth of Gabriel Joseph Thomas, French WWI flying ace and early airliner pilot.


 * 1895 – Birth of Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman, American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist. Co-founder of Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co. later to become Grumman Aerospace Corporation, now part of Northrop Grumman.


 * 1894 – Birth of Dietrich "Derk" Averes, German WWI fling ace.


 * 1872 – Birth of Edmund Rumpler, Austrian automobile and aircraft designer.