Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/January 7

January 7


 * 2012 – A hot air balloon on a scenic flight disintegrates and crashes just north of Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board. It is the second-deadliest balloon accident in history, the deadliest aviation accident in mainland New Zealand since July 1963, and the deadliest accident involving a New Zealand aircraft since November 1979.


 * 2012 – In the Syrian Civil War, Colonel Afeef Mahmoud Suleima of the Syrian Army's aviation logistics division defects along with at least 50 of his men, ordering his men to protect protesters in the Syrian city of Hama from government forces.


 * 2009 – A French Army Eurocopter AS 532 Cougar Helicopter crashes into the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of Gabon. The helicopter on a routine exercise was flying from the amphibious assault ship the FS Foudre and the accident occurred shortly after take-off resulting in 2 injured and 8 fatalities from the 13e Régiment de Dragons Parachutistes and the Aviation Légère de l'Armée de Terre.


 * 2008 – Two F/A-18 fighter jets operation from USS Harry S. Truman crashed during an Iraq-related mission in the Gulf. All three pilots were rescued.


 * 2006 – UH-60L Black Hawk 91-26346 from B Company, 1–207th Aviation Regiment crashes near Tal Afar in bad weather, killing 12 people on board. Reports suggest it was not shot down.


 * 2004 – Boeing launches the 747 – 400 Special Freighter program with an agreement with Cathay Pacific Airways to convert at least six 747 – 400 passenger airplanes into freighters.


 * 2004 – Death of Oswald Garrison "Mike" Villard Jr., American engineer, pioneer in radio and radar, Father of the 'over-the-horizon radar'.


 * 1998 – Launch of The Lunar Prospector mission, part of the Discovery Program, designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon.


 * 1992 – Produte (Croazia) incident. 2 Yugoslavian Mig-21 (Pilots Danijel Borovic and Emir Šišic) shot down a Bell UH-1 Iroquois of the European Union Monitoring Mission. Killing Italian Enzo Venturini pilot, Marco Matta co-pilot, observers Fiorenzo Ramacci, Silvano Natale and French Lieutenant de vaisseau Jean-Loup Eychenne. For this, Emir Šišic served prison time.


 * 1987 – French Air Force jets attack the Libyan Air Force base in Ouadi Doum to avenge a raid by Libya against the French military 3 days before.


 * 1983 – Introduction: McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet


 * 1981 – A Boeing 747 of CAAC lands at JFK International Airport, marking the first time since 1949 that a flight from mainland China to the United States is performed.


 * 1980 – In San Francisco, a single-engined Mooney 231 sets a nonstop coast-to coast record in 8 hours 4 minutes using only 105 gallons of fuel.


 * 1973 – Cameron Balloons Ltd. of Bristol, England, flies for the first time the world’s only hot-air airship (G-BAMK) from Wantage, Berkshire.


 * 1972 – Iberia Airlines Flight 602, a Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle, crashes into a mountain while on approach to Ibiza Airport in Spain killing all 104 passengers and crew on board.


 * 1971 – An unarmed USAF Boeing B-52C-45-BO Stratofortress, 54-2666, of the 99th Bombardment Wing (Heavy), Westover AFB, Massachusetts, crashed into Lake Michigan near Charlevoix, Michigan during a practice bomb run, exploding on impact. Only a small amount of wreckage, two life vests, and some spilled fuel was found in Little Traverse Bay. Bomber went down six nautical miles from the Bay Shore Air Force Radar Site. Nine crew KWF.


 * 1968 – Launch of Surveyor 7, seventh and last lunar lander of the American uncrewed Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.


 * 1967 – Entered Service: SR-71 Blackbird with the US Air Force.


 * 1967 – U.S. Navy Lockheed P-2 Neptune on training mission with nine Naval Reservists on board, on out-and-back flight from the Naval Air Facility, Andrews AFB, Maryland, crashes in light rainstorm near Upper Marlboro, Maryland, killing all crew. Neptune disappeared from radar at 1107 hrs., impacting in wooded area, digging crater 10 feet deep, 30 feet wide, 100 feet long. Airframe completely disintegrates, said Lt. Cmdr. Don Maunder.


 * 1964 – Birth of Marco Matta, Italian Air Force Pilot.


 * 1963 – Aeroflot commences direct services between Moscow and Havana


 * 1960 – Launch: Polaris missile, US two-stage solid-fuel nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).


 * 1954 – Death of Emil Uzelac, Croatian soldier and military commander who was a leading figure in the air forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Independent State of Croatia.


 * 1952 – First flight of the Manzolini Libellula (Dragonfly), an Italian co-axial twin-rotor helicopter.


 * 1951 – Birth of Talgat Amangeldyuly Musabayev, Kazakh test pilot and cosmonaut


 * 1949 – A USAF Douglas C-54G-5-DO Skymaster, 45-0543, c/n 35996, of the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron, 61st Troop Carrier Group, en route to RAF Burtonwood from Rhein-Main Air Base for a 200-hour inspection, crashes at ~1645 hrs. in bad weather at Stake House Fell, Lancashire, England, killing all six on board. KWF are pilot 1st Lt. Richard M. Wurgel, co-pilot 1st Lt. Lowell A. Wheaton Jr., engineer Sgt. Bernard J. Watkins, radio operator Cpl. Norbert H. Theis, and passengers Capt. W. A. Rathgeber and Pvt. Ronald E. Stone. Investigation showed that a commercial radio signal N of Burtonwood interfered with aircraft's radio compass, giving a false reading.


 * 1949 – No. 208 Squadron RAF loses four Supermarine Spitfires and a Hawker Tempest to Israeli Air Force fighters


 * 1948 – The first flight of the RCAF’s Vampire III in Canada.


 * 1948 – Death of Captain Thomas Francis Mantell Jr., WWII pilot, in the crash of his P-51 Mustang while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.


 * 1947 – Death of Helen Richey, American pioneering female aviator and first woman to be hired as a pilot by a commercial airline in the USA.


 * 1946 – Birth of Giovanni Carta (John Carta), Italo-American aviator and Extreme Skydiver.


 * 1945 – Death of Thomas Buchanan McGuire Jr., second highest scoring American ace during WWII, Killed in the crash of his P-38 which stalled while chasing a Ki-43 Hayabusa 'Oscar'.


 * 1945 – In clearer weather, Task Force 38 aircraft employ the “Big Blue Blanket” tactic over Luzon, flying 757 sorties, shooting down all four Japanese aircraft that they meet in the air and claiming another 75 destroyed on the ground. Task Force 38 loses 10 planes in combat and 18 due to non-combat causes. Eleven U. S. escort aircraft carriers in Lingayen Gulf contribute another 143 sorties, and U. S. Army Air Forces planes also participate. In Lingayen Gulf, kamikazes sink a destroyer and a destroyer-minesweeper.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Supermarine Seafire


 * 1941 – Adolf Hitler orders Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft to begin supporting German U-boat operations in the Atlantic Ocean.


 * 1941 – Birth of Frederick Drew Gregory, USAF test pilot and NASA astronaut


 * 1941 – Saro Lerwick flying boat, L7262, of No. 209 Squadron RAF is lost when pilot Flt. Lt. Spotswood is unable to take off near Stranraer, Scotland. After a long take off run, the hull strikes a floating obstacle and rapidly takes on water, sinks. Two crew are trapped and drown.


 * 1935 – First flight of the Avro 652


 * 1935 – First flight of the Tachikawa Ki-9


 * 1935 – Birth of Valeri Nikolayevich Kubasov, Soviet cosmonaut.


 * 1934 – First flight of the Curtiss XF13C (Model 70), a U.S. prototype carrier-based HighWing monoplane fighter aircraft with a manually retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit. The aircraft was designed to facilitate conversions from biplane to monoplane and vice versa.


 * 1933 – Death of Herbert John Louis Hinkler AFC DSM, better known as Bert Hinkler, pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "Australian Lone Eagle"), Inventor, WWI pilot and aircraft designer. His plane crashed in the Tuscan Mountains in Italy in an attempt to break the flying record from England to Australia.


 * 1931 – Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.


 * 1929 – Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, and Elwood Quesada sets an endurance record of 151 hours aloft in the Question Mark, a modified Atlantic-Fokker C-2A airplane. While in the air, it Refueled 37 times and resupplied six others, with 12 of the 43 replenishments taking place at night.


 * 1927 – Imperial Airways commences a regular service from Basra to Cairo via Baghdad, the first of its Empire "trunk routes"


 * 1925 – Death of Emil Schäpe, German WWI flying ace.


 * 1920 – The Boeing BB-1 seaplane, another new commercial aircraft, makes its first flight. It is bought by a Canadian and becomes the company’s second international sale. 1919 – Death of Lorenzo Gaslini, Goal keeper and WWI Italian Pilot.


 * 1917 – Thomas Mottershead VC, DCM, British WWI pilot, is severely injured during a dogfight with two Albatros D.III, He managed to take his burning FE-2d back to the Allied lines and made a successful forced landing saving his observer's life.


 * 1917 – Death of Paul Joannes Sauvage, French WWI youngest flying ace, killed by anti-aircraft fire.


 * 1911 – Lieutenant Myron Sydney Crissy of the United States Army, drops the first live bomb from an aeroplane when he conducts a test drop on a target in San Francisco from a Wright biplane piloted by Philip O. Parmelee.


 * 1910 – Frenchman Hubert Latham is the first pilot to climb to 1000 metres.


 * 1906 – Birth of Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout, American early aviator, first Woman to set the first non-refueling endurance record for women.


 * 1898 – Birth of Wallace Alexander Smart, Welsh WWI flying ace.


 * 1896 – Birth of Geoffrey Hornblower Cock, British WWI fighter ace, highest scoring ace to fly the Sopwith 1½ Strutter.


 * 1895 – Birth of Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh KBE, DFC, Australian aviator and businessman, founder of the Australian airline company Qantas.


 * 1891 – Birth of Fernand Eugene Guyou, French WWI flying ace, Airliner pilot and WWII Pilot.


 * 1785 – The English Channel is crossed for the first time by air as Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries fly their hydrogen balloon from Dover, England to a forest near Calais, France.