Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/January 6

January 6


 * 2009 – Ted, a brand of the American airline United Airlines for their economy flights, is discontinued. Economy flights are rebranded under the main United Airlines brand.


 * 2008 – A Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet has a mid air collision with a Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet over the North Persian Gulf during routine ops from the USS Harry S Truman. One pilot ejects and is recovered.


 * 2007 – BA Connect, easyJet, XL Airways UK, Thomsonfly, Thomas Cook Airlines, Balkan Bulgarian Airlines, First Choice Airways, Air Malta, KLM Cityhopper and SN Brussels Airlines cancel all their flights to and from Bristol International Airport in a row over runway safety.


 * 2006 – Hugh Thompson, Jr., decorated Vietnam War helicopter pilot, dies (b. 1943). He is chiefly known for his role in curtailing the My Lai massacre, during which he was flying a reconnaissance mission.


 * 1993 – Lufthansa CityLine Flight 5634, a Bombardier DHC-8, crashes short of the runway at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, killing 4 of 23 on board.


 * 1985 – Death of Vladimir Konstantinovich Kokkinaki, test pilot in the Soviet Union, who had twenty-two world records and served as president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.


 * 1984 – Hughes Helicopters merges with McDonnell Douglas Corp.


 * 1982 – First cargo flight with payload of the Myasishchev VM-T Atlant, variant of Myasishchev's M-4 'Molot' bomber (3 M) designed as a strategic airlift airplane. The VM-T was modified to carry rocket boosters and the Soviet space shuttles of the Buran program. It is also known as the 3 M-T.


 * 1979 – Death of Kenneth Russell Unger, American WWI flying ace, US Airmail pilot, and WWII transport pilot.


 * 1977 – First flight of the HAL HPT-32 Deepak, an Indian prop-driven primary trainer.


 * 1971 – The United States Marine Corps takes delivery of its first AV-8 Harriers


 * 1971 – Death of Antonio Chiri, Italian WWI fighter ace.


 * 1969 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 737, a Convair CV-580, crashes while on approach to Bradford Regional Airport. 11 of the 28 passengers and crew on board are killed.


 * 1968 – NASA'S Surveyor 7 lands on the moon, and is the last in its series.


 * 1968 – Patrick Henry Brady, US Army helicopter pilot, volunteered with H-1 H ambulance helicopters. Sites were in enemy held territory which were reported to be heavily defended and to be blanketed by fog. Using 3 helicopters in at least 6 missions he rescued a total of 51 seriously wounded men.


 * 1964 – A U.S. Navy pilot ejects from a Douglas A-4C Skyhawk shortly after departing NAS Oceana, Virginia when the fighter-bomber catches fire. Lt. J.G. J. R. Mossman, 24, of Springfield, Pennsylvania, is alerted by his wingman that the tail is on fire just after beginning a flight to NAS Pensacola, Florida, and ejects 10 miles SE of Virginia Beach, Virginia, parachuting into the Atlantic Ocean. Wingman Lt. Henri B. Chase orbits Mossman's position until a helicopter from NAS Norfolk arrives and picks him up. The pilot is unhurt. "By coincidence, Mossman is one of three pilots who last month practiced being rescued at sea by helicopter off Virginia Beach."


 * 1963 – Birth of Philippe Perrin, French Air Force pilot, test pilot and former CNES and European Space Agency astronaut.


 * 1962 – A South Vietnamese Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashes at Pleiku, South Vietnam, killing 33.


 * 1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511, a Douglas DC-6B bound from New York to Miami, crashes near Bolivia, North Carolina, when a bomb planted on board explodes in mid-air; all 34 people on board are killed.


 * 1959 – While on approach to Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Bristol, Tennessee, Southeast Airlines Flight 308, a Douglas DC-3 A, strays off course and crashes into Holston Mountain, killing all 10 people on board.


 * 1957 – Birth of Colin Michael Foale, CBE, PhD, British-American astrophysicist with dual citizenship and NASA astronaut, first Briton to perform a space walk.


 * 1954 – A Royal Air Force Vickers Valetta T3 carrying a rugby team crashes at Albury, Hertfordshire, England, in bad weather, killing 16 of the 17 people on board.


 * 1953 – German airline LuftAG (Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf / Air traffic on demand) is formed.


 * 1949 – First flight of the Nord Noroit, a French reconnaissance and air-sea rescue flying-boat, only one built.


 * 1948 – Birth of Guy Spence Gardner, USAF test pilot and NASA astronaut.


 * 1946 – Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-3, crashes in Birmingham, Alabama, killing three of the four crew members; the flight attendant and all 16 passengers survive.


 * 1945 – Death of Tokushige Yoshizawa, Japanese WWII flying ace, killed in action.


 * 1945 – Twentieth Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortresses raid the Ōmura aircraft factory on Kyushu.


 * 1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft attack Japanese forces and facilities on Luzon, claiming 14 Japanese aircraft destroyed in the air and 18 on the ground in exchange for the loss of 17 U. S. aircraft, but bad weather prevents them from employing the "Big Blue Blanket" tactic of maintaining continuous coverage over Japanese airfields to prevent Japanese aircraft from attacking the U. S. invasion force in Lingayen Gulf. In Lingayen Gulf, kamikazes damage the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40), killing 30 – Including British Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden – The battleship USS California (BB-44), the heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-28) – mortally wounding Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler – The heavy cruiser HMAS Australia (D84), the light cruiser USS Columbia (CL-56), three destroyers, a destroyer-minesweeper, and a destroyer-transport and sink a destroyer-minesweeper.


 * 1944 – The McDonnell XP-67 Bat twin-engine bomber destroyer makes its first flight.


 * 1944 – Death of Charles Learmonth, Australian WWII bomber pilot, killed in the crash of his Bristol Beaufort during an exercise off Rottnest Island. Before crashing, Learmonth was able to identify what was causing his aircraft to shake violently, solving a problem that had affected the entire Beaufort fleet.


 * 1943 – Firing at a Japanese Aichi D3A dive bomber (Allied reporting name “Val”) south of Guadalcanal, the U. S. Navy light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) claims the first hit on an enemy aircraft by antiaircraft ammunition employing the Mark 32 VT proximity fuse.


 * 1943 – Consolidated B-24D-20-CO Liberator, 41-24202, c/n 997, of the 504th Bomb Squadron, 346th Bomb Group, out of Salina Army Airfield, Kansas, suffers fire in flight, crashes 15 miles SW of Madill, Oklahoma, destroyed by fire. Pilot was R. G. Bishop.


 * 1942 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.


 * 1942 – Wirraways of No. 24 Squadron attempted to intercept Japanese seaplanes flying over New Britain; only one managed to engage an enemy aircraft, marking the first air-to-air combat between RAAF and Japanese forces


 * 1942 – Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft based at Truk begin attacks on the Australian air base at Rabaul.


 * 1940 – Finnish Air Force Lieutenant Jorma Sarvanto shoots down six Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bombers out of a formation of seven in four minutes.


 * 1938 – Spanish Republican Minister of Defense Indalecio Prieto y Tuero proposes to the Nationalists that both sides in the Spanish Civil War ban air attacks on cities and towns in rear areas. The Nationalists reply that they will continue to bomb Barcelona unless its industries are evacuated.


 * 1938 – U.S. Navy Consolidated PBY-1 Catalina patrol plane, BuNo 0159, of VP-7,crashes during routine flight off Point Loma, California, 2 officers and 5 enlisted men KWF.


 * 1936 – First flight of the Dewoitine D.513, a French monoplane fighter prototype.


 * 1933 – First flight of the Blériot SPAD S.510, the last French biplane fighter to be produced.


 * 1933 – Birth of Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, Soviet cosmonaut.


 * 1928 – 6-8 – Lt Christian Schilt makes ten flights in an O2U Corsair to evacuate wounded marines from the besieged village of Quilali, Nicaragua. He is awarded the Medal of Honor.


 * 1927 – Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.66 Hercules lands in Karachi on his way to New Delhi coming from Croydon on a survey flight to India.


 * 1926 – Deutsche Lufthansa is formed by the merger of Deutsche Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr


 * 1921 – After modifications, HMS Argus (I49) returns to service with the Royal Navy as the world's first aircraft carrier equipped with palisades. Installed on the port and starboard edges of the flight deck and capable of being raised and lowered, the palisades when raised serve as a windbreak and prevent aircraft on the flight deck from blowing or rolling overboard in heavy weather.


 * 1918 – Death of Walter von Bülow-Bothkamp, German WWI flying ace, near Ypres in his Albatros D.V.


 * 1916 – (6 or 15) The German submarine U-12 departs Zeebrugge with a Friedrichshafen FF.29 seaplane lashed to her deck in an attempt to use submarines to carry seaplanes within range of England. The seaplane is forced to take off early, reconnoiters the coast of Kent, and has to fly all the way back to Zeebrugge when bad weather makes returning to U-12 impossible. It is the only German attempt to operate an aircraft from a submarine.


 * 1913 – Birth of Pierre Le Gloan, French WWII flying ace.


 * 1911 – 750,000 Indians watch a flying display at Calcutta by French Henri Jullerot in his Military Biplane.


 * 1899 – Birth of John Lancashire Barlow, British WWI flying ace.


 * 1898 – Birth of James Fitzmaurice DFC, Irish aviation pioneer. He was a member of the crew of the Bremen, which made the first successful Trans-Atlantic aircraft flight from East to West


 * 1897 – Birth of Joseph Leonard Maries "John" White DFC, Canadian WWI flying ace.


 * 1897 – Birth of George Hatfield Dingley Gossip, Australian WWI flying ace.


 * 1895 – Birth of Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr,MC, American WWI flying ace.


 * 1894 – Birth of Cyril Marconi "Billy" Crowe, British WWI flying ace and WWII pilot.


 * 1890 – Birth of Franz Wognar, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace.


 * 1745 – Birth of Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, brother of Joseph-Michel, inventors of the montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique.