Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 21

July 21


 * 2009 – Aeroméxico Flight 665, a Boeing 737-752, registration XA-NAM, suffers a nosewheel collapse on pushback at San Francisco International Airport. The aircraft is substantially damaged.


 * 2009 – A United States Navy Sikorsky HH-60H 163790 crashed on a training flight at Fort Pickett, Blackstone, Virginia, United States; minor injuries only.


 * 2008 – A U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52H-155-BW Stratofortress, 60-0053, c/n 464-418, "Louisiana Fire", crashed into the Pacific Ocean approximately 25 nautical miles (46 km) northwest of Apra Harbor, Guam, after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base. The aircraft was about to participate in a flyover for the Liberation Day parade in Hagåtña when it crashed at 9:45 AM ChST (2345 UTC), 15 minutes before the parade was scheduled to start. There were no survivors.


 * 2006 – (21-26) The 17th FAI World Precision Flying Championship is held in Troyes, France. Individual winners are 1. Krzysztof Wieczorek (Poland) in a 3Xtrim, 2. Janusz Darocha (Poland) in a Cessna 152, 3. Krzysztof Skrętowicz (Poland) in a 3Xtrim. Team winners are 1. Poland, 2. Czech Republic, 3. France.


 * 2004 – Two United States Marine Corps McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornets of VMFA-134, 3rd Marine Air Wing, based at MCAS Miramar, California, suffer mid-air collision over the Columbia River, 120 miles (190 km) E of Portland, Oregon, shortly after 1430 hrs., killing Marine Reservists Maj. Gary R. Fullerton, 36, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Capt. Jeffrey L. Ross, 36, of Old Hickory, Tennessee in F/A-18B, BuNo 162870, 'MF-00', coming down in the river. Maj. Craig Barden, 38, ejects from F/A-18A, BuNo 163097, 'MF-04', landing nearby on a hillside W of Arlington, Oregon, and is taken to Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, suffering minor injuries. All three crew eject but only two parachutes open. The fighters were on their way to the Boardman Air Force Range, where the Oregon Air National Guard trains, when they collided, said one spokesman. Another spokesman told the Associated Press that the planes were on a low-altitude training exercise.


 * 2003 – A South African registered aircraft, carrying 12 passengers and two crew, crashed into Mount Kenya: there were no survivors.


 * 2001 – First flight of the XCOR EZ-Rocket


 * 1996 – John Kevin Moorhouse, test pilot, dies at 50.


 * 1986 – Eastern Airlines submits a reorganization plan to creditors.


 * 1980 – The F-16 is officially named the Fighting Falcon in a ceremony.


 * 1977 – The Libyan-Egyptian War begins. Egyptian Air Force planes shoot down two Libyan Air Force aircraft.


 * 1976 – Canadian government announced that the Lockheed Aurora CP-140 maritime patrol aircraft would replace the Argus long-range patrol aircraft.


 * 1974 – (21 – 28) Turkish Air Force strike aircraft mistakenly attack the Turkish Navy destroyers Kocatepe, Adatepe, and Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak off Paphos, Cyprus, with 750-lb (340-kg) bombs, sinking Kocatepe with the loss of 54 lives and damaging the other two ships.


 * 1974 – (July 21 – August 12) Turkish paratroopers parachute into Cyprus to ambush a convoy carrying the Greek Cypriot commander of the Cypriot Navy, Commander Papayiannis. They wound him in an ambush, but are wiped out by his security detail.


 * 1974 – In Operation Niki, the Hellenic Air Force attempts a covert airlift of a battalion of Greek commandos from Souda, Crete, to Cyprus using 15 Noratlas aircraft. Greek Cypriot antiaircraft artillery mistakenly fires on the planes at Nicosia International Airport, shooting down one with the loss of four crew members and 29 commandos, and damages two others, but some of the commandos arrive successfully to defend the airport.


 * 1961 – First manned spacecraft to sink at sea was Gus Grissom‘s Liberty Bell 7. Grissom was saved from drowning by Navy rescue personnel.


 * 1961 – Alaska Airlines Flight 779, a Douglas DC-6, crashes on landing at Shemya, Alaska, killing all 6 crew on board.


 * 1959 – To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Louis Blériot's flight across the English Channel, the Daily Mail announces a Paris–London, or London–Paris race, on 25 May 1959. On this date, an Armee de l'Air Sud Aviation Vautour, with noted French Resistance heroine Colette Duval aboard as a passenger, touches down not at RAF Biggin Hill, but at the disused Battle of Britain airfield at RAF Kenley seven miles (11 km) away. With only an 800-yard (730 m) runway, the twin-jet bomber overruns and is damaged although both occupants escape injury.


 * 1958 – 1st Lt. Charles "Bud" Rogers has to eject from his North American F-86L Sabre, 52-10134, after it catches on fire during an engineering test flight near Walsh, Illinois. He is uninjured.


 * 1951 – 1951 Canadian Pacific Air Lines Douglas DC-4 disappearance occurred on a flight from Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo, Japan; all 37 on board are presumed dead; the aircraft has never been found.


 * 1948 – 1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash: A United States Air Force Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, 45-21847, modified into an Boeing F-13 Superfortress reconnaissance platform, crashes into Lake Mead, Nevada, during a classified cosmic ray research mission out of Armitage Field, Naval Air Facility, NOTS, Inyokern, California. Five crew escape unharmed before bomber sinks


 * 1947 – First flight of the Aero Ae-45


 * 1946 – A McDonnell FH Phantom makes the first landing by a jet aboard a US aircraft carrier, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt


 * 1946 – Aircraft North Star named.


 * 1944 – US forces land on Guam.


 * 1944 – The last of 5,936 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers is completed.


 * 1944 – Three US Army Air Force Douglas C-47s (42-100712, 42-92115, and 43-30664) disappear while flying at 500 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. The three aircraft lost radio contact with the squadron leader and flew into a storm.


 * 1944 – Royal Navy Vought Corsair I out of Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lewiston, Maine, crashes in Mount Vernon woods (Cottle Hill area) following engine failure, killing Sub-Lt. Peter John Cann.


 * 1943 – First flight of the Curtiss XP-62


 * 1939 – First flight of the Short S.26


 * 1937 – Arbitrating the Royal Navy’s request that control of British naval aircraft be transferred to it from the Royal Air Force for the first time since the dissolution of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918, Sir Thomas Inskip recommends to the British Cabinet that the Royal Navy have full control of its aircraft. His decision, which becomes known as the “Inskip Award, ” will take nearly two years to implement.


 * 1936 – Northrop XFT-2, BuNo 9400, (XFT-1 modified with engine change and smaller fuel capacity), to NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C. in April 1936 for tests. Finding the design to be non-airworthy, the Navy orders that it be returned to Northrop. Ignoring instructions to ship it to Northrop's El Segundo factory, a test pilot attempts to fly the XFT-2 back to California, the aircraft entering a spin and crashing while crossing the Allegheny Mountains this date. Contract closed out in November 1936.


 * 1932 – Wolfgang von Gronau sets out to make a round-the-world trip in a Dornier Wal. One hundred and eleven days later, it will be the first such trip made in a flying boat.


 * 1930 – In the Meopham air disaster, a Walcot Air Line Junkers F.13 crashes following structural failure at Meopham, Kent, United Kingdom, killing all six on board.


 * 1921 – United States Army Air Service Martin NBS-1 bombers sink the decommissioned German battleship Ostfriesland in the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Capes after Billy Mitchell urges bombing trials to show the power of aircraft to sink major warships.


 * 1919 – The Wingfoot Air Express was a dirigible that crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago. The Type FD dirigible, owned by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was transporting people from Grant Park to the White City amusement park. One crew member, two passengers, and ten bank employees were killed in what was, up to that point, the worst dirigible disaster in United States history.


 * 1919 – Anthony Fokker founds the Dutch Aircraft Factory at Schiphol.


 * 1918 – Two United States Navy seaplanes from Naval Air Station Chatham, Chatham, Massachusetts, attack a surfaced German submarine that is firing at a tug and three barges off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. One bomb strikes the submarine, but is a dud.


 * 1911 – Pilot Denise Moore (aka Jane Wright) becomes the first woman to be killed in an airplane crash, at Étampes, France.


 * 1909 – The first international Zeppelin (airship) show is held in Frankfurt, Germany.