Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 10

July 10


 * 2013 – A Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator lands aboard USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77) in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia. Taking off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, the X-47B flies about 140 miles (225 km), makes a landing approach, is deliberately waved off to test its go-around capability, then lands after its second approach, all without human in-flight input. It is both the first time that an unmanned aerial vehicle lands on an aircraft carrier autonomously and the first extended autonomous flight by a military unmanned aerial vehicle of any kind.


 * 2011 – Egypt ends its unrestricted immigration policy for Libyan nationals arriving in Egypt by air.


 * 2006 – PIA Flight 688, a Fokker F27, crashes into a wheat field near Multan, Pakistan ten minutes after taking off, killing all 41 passengers and 4 crew members on board.


 * 2004 – First flight of the Aerocomp Comp Air Jet


 * 2002 – Crossair Flight 850, a Saab 2000, strikes an earth bank after landing at Werneuchen Airfield after multiple diversions due to a storm system; all 20 on board survive; the aircraft is written off.


 * 2002 – A Sikorsky H-34 crashed and sank into the Brookville Reservoir in Brookville, Indiana. The pilot Steve Myler and co-pilot Joseph Rukazina, both made it out while the mechanic Michael Jarski lost his life.


 * 2000 – EADS is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, Dornier, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA).


 * 1991 – L'Express Airlines Flight 508, a Beechcraft Model 99, crashes while on approach Birmingham Municipal Airport in Birmingham, Alabama, due to severe thunderstorms. Two survive the crash out of 15 on board.


 * 1985 – Aeroflot Flight 7425, a Tupolev Tu-154B, stalls while cruising at 38,000 feet (11,600 m) and enters an unrecoverable spin, killing all 200 aboard.


 * 1978 – Airbus Industrie announces a decision to proceed with development of the A300 B10, a shortened version of the A300 with a capacity of 225 passengers, compared to 281 on the B2 and B4. The designation is later changed to the A310.


 * 1968 – First flight of The Mil V-12 (also referred to as the Mi-12, NATO reporting name "Homer"), largest helicopter ever built.


 * 1965 – First US Air Force aerial victories of the Vietnam War scored by F-4 Phantoms


 * 1965 – Skyways Coach-Air Avro 748 crashes on landing at Lympne Airport, Kent, United Kingdom due to a waterlogged runway; all 52 on board survive; this crash marks the first loss of the Avro 748/HS 748.


 * 1962 – Launch of Telstar 1, First satellite to relay television signals. It successfully relayed through space the First television pictures, telephone calls, fax images and provided the First live transatlantic television feed.


 * 1959 – First flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152 A, prototype single-seat fighter/interceptor, part of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-150 family.


 * 1956 – Sgt DE Stevenson twice entered an aviation fuel fire at Montmedy, France, and brought it under control. He was awarded the George Medal.


 * 1955 – Death of Étienne Oehmichen, French engineer and helicopter designer.


 * 1953 – New York Airways becomes the First scheduled helicopter carrier in the USA and the First passenger helicopter carrier in the world


 * 1952 – A Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21761, c/n 13655, converted to F-13A, crashes on the runway at Fairchild AFB, Washington, with ROTC cadets on board. There were no casualties, although the aircraft was a total loss and the hulk was later used by the fire department for practice fires.


 * 1947 – First flight of the Airspeed Ambassador


 * 1945 – Aircraft from the 20 aircraft carriers of U. S. Navy Task Force 38 strike Tokyo and vicinity. In addition, 536 B-29 s drop 3,872 tons (3,512,655 kg) of bombs on Sendai and other cities in Japan.


 * 1943 – Operation Husky, the British and American landings on Sicily, begins supporting naval forces include the British aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Formidable Axis aircraft attack Allied ships offshore, and a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber sinks the American destroyer USS Maddox (DD-622) with the loss of 212 lives. Floatplanes based on American light cruisers provide valuable spotting support for naval gunfire against targets ashore.


 * 1943 – Six U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators take off from Attu to fly the 1,300 miles (2,093 km) round-trip to attack the Japanese base at Paramushiro, in what would have been the first Allied air raid against the Kurile Islands; however, they are diverted en route to join B-25 Mitchells in attacking a convoy of Japanese transports, suffering one aircraft damaged before returning to Attu. On the same day a separate formation of eight B-25 s on its own initiative attempts to bomb Paramushiro; they bomb an unidentified land mass through overcast without knowing if it is Japan, the Kuriles, the Kamchatka Peninsula, or an unidentified North Pacific island.


 * 1942 – The Commander-in-Chief, United States Navy, Admiral Ernest J. King, orders U. S. Navy sea frontier commanders to establish a system by which commercial aviators can report submarine sightings. By November, the five major U. S. airlines, the Naval Air Transport Service, the U. S. Army’s Air Transport Command, and British flying boats on transatlantic routes all are involved.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Douglas A-26 Invader.


 * 1942 – Birth of Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk, Soviet cosmonaut and First Belarusian to perform space travel


 * 1940 – The fourth Messerschmitt Bf 109 F series prototype makes its first flight in Germany, powered by one of the new 1,350-hp Daimler Benz DB 601E.


 * 1940 – The Battle of Britain commences with the first German attacks on British convoys in the English Channel.


 * 1939 – The Willoughby Delta 8 (or delta F), British small twin-engined aerodynamic test bed for a proposed flying wing airliner, crashes killing pilot Hugh Olley and the Delta's designer, Percival Willoughby.


 * 1938 – “Yankee Clipper” completes First passenger flight over Atlantic.


 * 1938 – Howard Hughes, with crew members Harry Connor, Tom Thurlow, Richard Stoddart and Ed Lund, begin a record-breaking round-the-world flight in a specially modified Lockheed Super Electra. They cut in half the time set by Wiley Post 1933; their flying time is 71 hours, 11 min, 10 seconds.


 * 1935 – Bell Aircraft Corporation is founded in Buffalo, New York.


 * 1935 – Air Bleu starts daily mail operations in France.


 * 1929 – First flight of the Macchi M.67, Italian racing seaplane designed for the Schneider Trophy race.


 * 1924 – Japanese aircraft sink a ship for the first time, when Imperial Japanese Navy bombers use level bombing from an average height of 1,000 m (3,281 feet) over the course of four hours to sink the retired coast defense battleship Iwami off Yokosuka.


 * 1922 – The Aircraft Development Corporation is incorporated in Michigan in the United States. It later changes its name to Detroit Aircraft Corporation.


 * 1919 – Death of Jean Marie Dominique Navarre, French WWI fighter ace. While practicing for a flight through the Arc de Triomphe, Navarre crashed his plane and died at Villacoublay.


 * 1919 – British rigid airship, R-34, takes off from Long Island, New York, for a trip back to Pulham, Norfolk, for the First Atlantic double-crossing (return flight).


 * 1916 – First flight of The Savoia-Pomilio SP.2, Italian biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft, refined version of the SP.1, basic configuration from the Farman MF.11.


 * 1914 – July 10-11, German Reinhold Böhm flies his Albatros-biplane 24 hours and 12 min without refueling and nonstop. This one-man-flight record lasted until 1927.


 * 1910 – Walter Brookins attained an altitude of 6,175 feet in a Wright biplane on 9 Jul 1910, becoming the First to fly a mile high and wins a prize of $5,000 for his feat.


 * 1897 – Birth of Carlo Tosi, Italian WWI pilot.


 * 1897 – Birth of Stanley 'Stan' Stanger, Canadian WWI flying ace.


 * 1894 – Birth of Frank Granger Quigley DSO, MC & Bar, Canadian WWI fighter ace.


 * 1877 – Birth of Hélène Dutrieu, Belgian – French cycling world champion, stunt cyclist, stunt motorcyclist, automobile racer, stunt driver, pioneer aviator, wartime ambulance driver, and director of a military hospital.


 * 1845 – Birth of Joseph Eustache Crocé-Spinelli, French balloonist.