Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 15

July 15


 * 2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes 16 minutes after takeoff near Qazvin, Iran, killing all 153 passengers and 15 crew.


 * 2009 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-127 at 22:03 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 2J/A: JEM Exposed Facility (EF) & JEM ELM ES.


 * 2009 – A Republic of China Air Force Northrop F-5F (5410) from the 7th Tactical Fighter Group based at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base crashes on a routine training flight of the coast of Penghu, Taiwan killing the 2 crew.


 * 2004 – First flight of the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master


 * 1997 – First flight of the Beriev Be-103


 * 1996 – The Herculesramp (Dutch for ‘Hercules disaster’) is an aviation accident that occurred at Eindhoven Airport. The disaster involving a Belgian C-130 Hercules aircraft took the lives of 34 passengers.


 * 1996 – At approximately 1803 hrs., a Belgian Lockheed C-130H Hercules, CH-06, c/n 4473, at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands after bird strikes stopped three engines. A total of 34 people lost their lives as a result of the accident, and seven people were seriously injured.


 * 1983 – Orly Airport attack was the 15 July 1983 bombing of a Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport in Paris, France, by the Armenian militant organization ASALA as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide. The explosion killed eight people and injured 55.


 * 1975 – The first international manned space flight occurs between the Soviet Soyuz 19 and an Apollo spacecraft.


 * 1970 – The Tupolev Tu-144 exceeds Mach 2 in level flight, the first commercial aircraft to do so in a flight on 26 May 1970.


 * 1968 – The first direct airline service between the Soviet Union and the U. S. is inaugurated, ten years after negotiations began.


 * 1964 – First flight of the Aermacchi SF.260.


 * 1964 – A Soviet Tupolev Tu-16R "Badger" crashes in the Sea of Japan. In April 1995, during working group sessions, the U.S. side passed over the deck logs of the USS Bennington from 1 July 1964 to 31 July 1964, the deck log of the USS Cunningham from 14 July 1964 to 16 July 1964 and the deck log of the USS Eversole from 14 July 1964 to 16 July 1964. These deck logs all pertain to the crash of the "Badger".


 * 1963 – Two North American F-100 Super Sabres of the 492d Tactical Fighter Squadron, 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, suffer mid-air collision during routine gunnery exercise on the Holbeach Range, both aircraft coming down in the sea five miles off King's Lynn. Pilot 1st Lt. L. C. Marshall parachuted from North American F-100D-45-NH, 55-2792, c/n 224-59, rescued from his dinghy by helicopter, but 1st Lt. D. F. Ware rode 55-2786 to his death.


 * 1960 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 372, a C-47 Skytrain, crashes into a mountain near Jimma, Ethiopia, killing the pilot.


 * 1958 – First full transition from vertical flight to horizontal flight of The Vertol VZ-2 (or Model 76), US research aircraft built to investigate the tiltwing approach to vertical take-off and landing. The aircraft had a fuselage of tubular framework (originally uncovered) and accommodation for its pilot in a helicopter-like bubble canopy. The T-tail incorporated small ducted fans to act as thrusters for greater control at low speeds.


 * 1954 – The Boeing 707 prototype, the model 367-80, made its maiden flight from Renton Field, south of Seattle on 20 Dec 1957.


 * 1953 – First of two Convair XP5Y-1s (and only one to fly), BuNo 121455, is lost on 42nd flight during high-speed testing by pilot Don Germeraad over the Pacific near San Diego, California. While operating at 115 percent of design limits under Navy contract, the elevator torque tube breaks, aircraft commences cycle of rollercoaster climbs and dives which continues for 25 minutes until control obviously being lost, all eleven on board go over the side and are rescued. Flying boat crashes into the ocean and sinks ~six miles off Point Loma, wreckage never recovered. A chase plane awaiting a Convair F2Y Sea Dart filmed the final minutes of the hair-raising flight, but it was classified secret and has probably never been released. Airframe had over 102 hours of flight time. When first flown on 18 April 1950, it was the first turboprop-powered flying boat to fly.


 * 1952 – A pair of USAF H-19 Chickasaws make the first transatlantic crossing by helicopter.


 * 1947 – Northwest Airlines flies the first commercial passenger flight from the U. S. to Japan, using The Manila, a Douglas DC-4 aircraft, by way of Anchorage. From Tokyo, the flight continued to Seoul, Shanghai, and Manila.


 * 1946 – First flight of the Canadair North Star. This was a 25 min flight.


 * 1945 – In a second day of air strikes on northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Task Force 38 aircraft completely disrupt the Aomori-Hakodate train ferry system and sink numerous colliers, reducing the Japanese coal-carrying capacity by 50 percent.


 * 1945 – The 2nd TAF was reformed as the British Air Force of Occupation, Germany.


 * 1944 – Death of Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, French aviator who set some altitude and speed records.


 * 1942 – The first supply flight from India to China over the ‘Hump’ is flown.


 * 1942 – During Operation Bolero, the ferrying of combat aircraft from the U.S. to England by air, a flight of two Boeing B-17E-BO Flying Fortress bombers, 41-9101, c/n 2573, "Big Stoop", and 41-9105, c/n 2577, "Do-Do", of the 97th Bomb Group and six P-38F Lightnings of the 94th Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, on the 845-mile (1,360 km) leg between Bluie West 8 airfield and Reykjavík, Iceland, run out of fuel after being held up by bad weather, and all force-land on the Greenland icecap. All safely belly in except for the first P-38 which attempts a wheels-down landing, flipping over as nosewheel catches a crevasse, but pilot Lt. Brad McManus unhurt. All crews rescued on 19 July, but aircraft are abandoned in place. One P-38F-1-LO, 41-7630, c/n 222-5757, now known as "Glacier Girl", recovered in 1992 from under 200 feet (61 m) of accumulated snow and ice and rebuilt to flying status, registered N17630. One Boeing B-17 ("Big Stoop") also found, but it is too badly crushed for recovery. Although the USAAF had expected to lose 10 percent of the 920 planes that made the North Atlantic transit during Bolero, losses were only 5.2 percent, the majority being involved in this single incident.


 * 1942 – The Republic of China Air Force’s American Volunteer Group – The “Flying Tigers” – Is transferred to the United States Army Air Forces, in which it becomes the 23rd Fighter Group. In its six months of Chinese service, the unit has shot down 286 Japanese aircraft in exchange for 12 of its own lost in air-to-air combat.


 * 1941 – Luftwaffe ace Werner Mölders shoots down two Soviet aircraft, raising his victory total to 101. He becomes the first pilot to claim 100 victories.


 * 1939 – Clara Adams (NYC) is first woman to complete round world flight.


 * 1938 – First flight of The production model Dornier Do 22/See, German three-seat, parasol wing monoplane, single-engined military floatplane.


 * 1938 – A German Arado Ar 79 training and touring aircraft sets an international solo speed record over a 1,000-km (621.4-statute mile) course for an aircraft of its class, averaging 229.04 km/hr (142.32 mph).


 * 1934 – Varney Speed Lines (later to be Continental Airlines) makes its first passenger-carrying flight.


 * 1933 – July 15-17, Lithuanians Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas were supposed to make a non-stop flight from New York City to Kaunas, Lithuania in Bellanca aeroplane, but fatally crashed in Germany after 37 hours, 11 min, covering distance of 6411 km, only 650 km short of their final destination.


 * 1933 – Wiley Post began First solo flight around world in a Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae.


 * 1932 – Sole prototype low-wing monoplane Vickers Type 171 Jockey, J9122, is lost during spinning trials at Martlesham Heath when it enters a flat spin, crashing at Woodbridge, Suffolk, pilot successfully bailing out at 5,000 feet.


 * 1930 – 1st Lt. Frank Benjamin Tyndall (1894–1930) is killed in a crash of a Curtiss P-1F Hawk, 28-61, out of Langley Field, Virginia, near Mooresville, North Carolina. Lieutenant Tyndall was a World War I pilot, Silver Star recipient, and commander of the 22d Aero Squadron. Lieutenant Tyndall shot down four enemy airplanes in combat over France during World War I. Tyndall Field, Florida, opened on 13 January 1941 as a gunnery range, is named for him. With the establishment of the United States Air Force in 1947, the facility was renamed Tyndall Air Force Base on 13 January 1948. Tyndall was the second Air Service pilot to survive by parachuting, when his MB-3A broke up on 11 November 1922 over the Boeing factory, Seattle, Washington.


 * 1929 – First airport hotel opens-Oakland Ca.


 * 1927 – First flight of The Bristol Bagshot, also known as the Type 95, heavily-armed British fighter prototype.


 * 1927 – Death of Paul Wilhelm Bäumer, German WWI fighter ace, killed in a crash near Copenhagen while test flying a Rohrbach Rofix fighter.


 * 1925 – Dr. A. Hamilton Rice’s expedition to the Amazon to explore the headwaters of the Amazon, the first exploration by airplane, returns safely.


 * 1923 – Dobrolet, the Soviet state airline, opens its first scheduled domestic service, between Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod.


 * 1919 – Royal Navy North Sea class airship N.S.11 burns over the North Sea off Norfolk, England, killing twelve. In the early hours of 15 July on what was officially supposed to be a mine-hunting patrol, she was seen to fly beneath a long "greasy black cloud" off Cley next the Sea on the Norfolk coast and a massive explosion was heard shortly after. A vivid glare lasted for a few minutes as the burning airship descended, and finally plunged into the sea after a second explosion. There were no survivors, and the findings of the official Court of Enquiry were inconclusive, but amongst other possibilities it was thought that a lightning strike may have caused the explosion.


 * 1916 – William Boeing founds the Pacific Aero Products Company. In 1917 it will be renamed Boeing Airplane Company.


 * 1891 – Birth of Frederick Libby, First American ace of WWI.


 * 1880 – Birth of Alessandro Guidoni, Italian Military aviation pioneer.


 * 1784 – First steerable balloon (also known as a dirigible, modern term “airship”). The Robert brothers (Les Frères Robert) flew for 45 min from Saint-Cloud to Meudon with M. Collin-Hullin and Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Chartres in their elongated balloon. The steerable craft designed by professor Jacques Charles followed Jean Baptiste Meusnier‘s proposals (1783–85) for a dirigible balloon, with a rudder, but the use of oars as a means of propulsion was not successful.