Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 14

July 14


 * 2013 – Pakistan Air Force jets bomb at least seven Islamist militant hideouts in Pakistan, killing at least 17 insurgents and injuring at least 13.


 * 2009 – Airfast Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and Premiair are removed from the European Commission blacklist.


 * 2009 – American airline Pet Airways commences operations.
 * 2008 – First flight of the Boeing 777F


 * 2007 – An OH-58 Kiowa 95-0002 crashes into power lines in Mosul, killing the pilot and injuring the copilot.


 * 2004 – (14-20) The 14th FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Herning, Denmark. Individual winners: 1. Jiří Filip & Michal Filip (Czech), 2. František Cihlář & Milos Fiala (Czech), 3. Krzysztof Wieczorek & Krzysztof Skrętowicz (Poland); team winners: 1. Czech Republic, 2. Poland, 3. France.


 * 1996 – NATO Boeing E-3B Sentry AWACS, LX-N90457, c/n 22852, ex-79-0457, overruns runway into sea on take-off from Preveza AFB, Preveza, Greece. Fuselage breaks in two, but no casualties among crew of 16. Aircraft had rolled out at Boeing Renton, Washington plant on 21 April 1984, first flown 5 June 1984. Delivered to NATO on 19 December 1984 after AEW suite fitted out by Dornier.


 * 1993 – Introduction: Boeing C-17 Globemaster III


 * 1988 – First flight of the SOCATA TBM F-WTBM


 * 1998 – Death of Mark Lasarewitsch Gallai, sovietic WWII pilot, Testpilot and engineer.


 * 1982 – Death of Marcel Anatole Hugues, French WWI flying ace and WWII pilot.


 * 1982 – First flight of the Harbin Y-12, Chinese high wing twin-engine turboprop utility aircraft.


 * 1978 – After receiving orders from United Airlines, Boeing begins full-scale development of the Boeing 767.


 * 1974 – Death of Carl Andrew "Tooey" Spaatz, WWI pilot, American WWII general and First Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.


 * 1971 – First flight of the VFW-Fokker 614


 * 1965 – The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the First close-up photos of another planet.


 * 1960 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6720, Article 387, the 27th airframe of the first USAF production batch, delivered in October 1957 and assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, as a "ferret" aircraft, crashes this date in the early morning ~30 miles NE of Laughlin. Pilot Maj. Raleigh Myers experiences an oxygen fire in the cockpit after a pressure-reducing switch fails, ignited by the 24-volt power supply line to the switch. He bails out at 24,000 feet (7,300 m), escaping safely. The oxygen supply system is subsequently redesigned.


 * 1959 – Maj V Ilyushin sets a new altitude record of 28,852 m (94,659 ft) in the Sukhoi T-431


 * 1955 – Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129595, 'D 412', of VF-124, suffers ramp strike on landing aboard USS Hancock during carrier qualifications off of the California coast, disintegrating airframe spins off portside; pilot LCDR Jay Alkire, USNR, executive officer of VF-124, killed when airframe sinks, still strapped into ejection seat; also killed are two boatswain's mates, one photographers mate, in port catwalk by burning fuel. Dramatic footage shot from port catwalk exists showing burning fighter going over the side. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CT670dAzfo


 * 1954 – First prototype Handley Page Victor bomber, WB771, is lost when the tailplane detaches while making a low-level pass over the runway at Cranfield, causing the aircraft to crash with the loss of the crew. Attached to the fin using three bolts, the tailplane was subject to considerably more stress than had been anticipated and the three bolts failed due to metal fatigue.


 * 1954 – First flight of the McDonnell XV-1


 * 1951 – First flight of the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation.


 * 1949 – A Fairchild C-82A-15-FA Packet, 44-23014, c/n 10058, crashes into a parking lot in Area B of Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. While conducting routine drop testing in Area C of the base, the C-82 attempted an emergency landing in Area B. With its electrical system down and the right engine on fire, the plane landed ~three-quarters down the runway, running off the end of the runway across a grassy area, plowing through a steel fence, and ran over a number of cars in the main parking lot near Highway 4 before flipping onto its back. Firecrews were on the scene immediately. The only person killed was MSgt Lubitz, Flight Test Division, who jumped from the plane just before it hit the fence. The other four crew were only slightly injured and no one on the ground was hurt.


 * 1948 – Vampire F3 s of No. 54 Squadron RAF became the first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. The six aircraft, commanded by Wg Cdr D S Wilson-MacDonald, DSO, DFC, go via Stornoway, Iceland and Labrador to Montreal on the first leg of a goodwill tour of Canada and the US where they gave several formation aerobatic displays.


 * 1948 – First flight of The Supermarine Seagull ASR-1, British amphibious prototype, military flying boat and last to be built by the Supermarine company.


 * 1948 – Silver City Airways makes the first car-carrying flight between England and France.


 * 1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft fly 1,391 sorties against targets in northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan, without any Japanese air opposition. They destroy 25 Japanese aircraft, sink three destroyers, eight naval auxiliaries, and 20 merchant ships, and damage a destroyer, three escort craft, and 21 merchant ships.


 * 1944 – (14–15) Saipan-based U. S. Navy PB4Y-1 Liberators of Bomber Squadron 109 (VB-109) raid Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima, and Haha Jima.


 * 1944 – United States Army Air Forces Chief of Staff General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold recommends to joint planners that the United States capture the island of Iwo Jima to provide an emergency landing strip for B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers and a base for P-51 Mustang fighters for the strategic bombing campaign against Japan.


 * 1940 – In retaliation for the British attacks at Mers-el-Kébir and Dakar, French bombers again attack Gibraltar, but most of their bombs fall into the sea.


 * 1938 – Howard Hughes flies a Lockheed 14N around the world in 3 days 19 hours, to and from Floyd Bennett Field New York, more than halving the time that Wiley Post took to make the trip.


 * 1937 – Mikhail Gromov, A. B. Yumashev and S. A. Danilin established a new non-stop flight distance record of 10,148 km (6,306 mi) from Moscow to San Jacinto, California, U. S., via the North Pole in a Tupolev ANT-25.


 * 1936 – First flight of the Kawanishi H6K (Allied reporting name “Mavis”).


 * 1936 – Birth of Robert Franklyn Overmyer, USMC test pilot and NASA astronaut.


 * 1936 – The British Royal Air Force is re-organised on functional grounds and RAF Fighter Command, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Coastal Command, and RAF Training Command are established.


 * 1933 – July 14-22, Wiley Post, flying a Lockheed Vega, makes the first around the world solo flight. His flight begins and ends at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, with stops at Berlin, Moscow, Irkutsk and Alaska – A total distance of 25,099 km (15,596 miles).


 * 1922 – Birth of Robin Olds, American fighter pilot and general officer in the U. S. Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 16 victories in WWII and the Vietnam War.


 * 1919 – A Fiat BR makes the first direct flight from Rome to Paris.


 * 1919 – To protest against the fact that pilots have to parade on foot at the World War I victory parade on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, French pilot Charles Godefroy flies his Nieuport fighter under the arches of the Arc de Triomphe.


 * 1918 – Serving as a fighter pilot in the United States Army Air Service’s 95th Aero Squadron, Second Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of former U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt, is shot down and killed at Chamery, France, by a German fighter while flying a Nieuport 28.


 * 1917 – Death of Thomas (Tom) Wesley Benoist, American aviation pioneer who started the First scheduled aircraft service, founder of Benoist Aircraft Co.


 * 1916 – First flight of The Bristol M.1 Monoplane Scout, British WWI monoplane fighter.


 * 1915 – Death of Lawrence Hargrave, British engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer.


 * 1913 – First flight of the Cody Floatplane (also referred to as the Cody Hydro-biplane) was designed and built as an entrant in the 1913 Daily Mail Circuit of Britain race.


 * 1913 – Death of Léonce Bertin, French aircraft designer, killed with his son René in the crash of his Bertin Monoplane.


 * 1914 – Dr. Robert H. Goddard is granted a patent for his liquid fuel rocket engine.


 * 1905 – Orville Wright has a serious crash with Wright Flyer III, upon which the Wright Brothers radically alter the aircraft. The front rudder is mainly the culprit for the Flyer’s insistent pitching.


 * 1877 – Birth of Karl Illner, Austrian aviation pioneer.