Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 25

July 25


 * 2011 – NATO aircraft strike various targets in Ziltan, Libya. The Libyan government claims that they struck a health clinic, a food-storage complex, and a military base and killed at least 11 civilians. NATO later rejects the claims, saying its planes hit a command-and-control node and a vehicle storage facility.


 * 2008 – Qantas Flight 30, a Boeing 747-438 en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne, performs an emergency descent and lands in Manila after a hull penetration results in rapid decompression. All aboard survive.


 * 2000 – Air France Flight 4590 Concorde crashes during takeoff from Paris, France after its fuel tank catches fire, killing 9 crew and 100 passengers as well as four on the ground; the entire Concorde fleet is grounded for one year.


 * 1984 – Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk, floating around the Salyut 7 space station for over 3 1/2 hours.


 * 1973 – The Soviet Union launches Mars 5, the fifth of seven of probes sent to the red planet in the 1960s and 70 s. Mars 5 would reach Mars in February of 1974, where it would transmit about 60 photos back to Earth before losing pressurization.


 * 1962 – The US Army forms its first armed helicopter company, using UH-1 Hueys


 * 1962 – The third launch attempt of a nuclear warhead in Operation Fishbowl, as part of Operation Dominic, aboard an Douglas SM-75 Thor IRBM, 58-2291, vehicle number 180, from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, named Bluegill Prime, after the 2 June 1962 failure of the first attempt, Bluegill, also fails when, due to a sticking valve, the Thor missile malfunctions after ignition of the rocket engine, but before leaving the launch pad. The range safety officer destroys the nuclear warhead by radio command with the missile still on the launch pad. The vehicle then explodes, causing extensive damage in the area of the launch pad. Although there was no danger of an accidental nuclear explosion, the destruction of the nuclear warhead on the pad causes extensive contamination of the area by alpha-emitting radioactive materials. Burning rocket fuel, flowing through the cable trenches, causes extensive chemical contamination of the trenches and the equipment associated with the cabling in the trenches. The radiation contamination on Johnston Island is determined to be a major problem, and it is necessary to decontaminate the entire area before the badly damaged launch pad can be rebuilt. Further launch operations will not resume until 15 October 1962. Although, by definition, this qualifies as a Broken Arrow incident, this test is rarely included in lists of such mishaps.


 * 1952 – French Leduc 0.22-01 ramjet-powered prototype interceptor, repaired following 27 November 1951 landing accident, strikes its SNCASE Languedoc launch aircraft, F-BCUT, on release and is forced to make a belly-landing. Limited range of design causes project to be dropped and second prototype not completed.


 * 1950 – Middle East Airlines “Dakota” aircraft was on its way from Jerusalem to Beirut when an Israeli military aircraft opened fire at the Lebanese-Israeli border. The radio operator “Antoine Wazir” was hit by a deadly bullet while sitting in his chair near the pilot.


 * 1949 – Second Lieutenant Bob Kipp of the Canadian Blue Devils aerobatic team is killed in a training accident.


 * 1949 – RCAF World War II ace, Squadron Leader Robert Allen "Bob" Kipp, DSO, DFC, (12 October 1919 - 25 July 1949), commanding officer of No. 410 Squadron, is killed while practicing aerobatics in a de Havilland Vampire F.3 of the Blue Devils demonstration team.


 * 1948 – A Douglas C-47B-15-DK Skytrain, 43-49534, c/n 15350/26795, participating in the Berlin Airlift, departs Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany, strikes apartment building on approach to Berlin and crashes in the street, killing both crew, 1st Lt. Charles H. King, and 1st Lt. Robert W. Stuber.


 * 1947 – First (of two) North American XP-82 Twin Mustangs, 44-83886, c/n 120-43742, of the 611 AAF Base Unit, crash lands at Eglin Field, Florida.


 * 1947 – US Air Force, Navy & War Dept form US Dept of Defense.


 * 1945 – No. 7 Squadron was disbanded.


 * 1944 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious strike Sabang, Sumatra.


 * 1943 – 100 U. S. Army Eighth Air Force bombers attack Hamburg.


 * 1943 – (Overnight) – 705 British bombers attack Essen, Germany, causing considerable damage to the Krupp works. Twenty-six British aircraft do not return.


 * 1943 – U. S. Army Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchell bombers destroy two Japanese destroyers aground on a reef near Cape Gloucester, New Britain.


 * 1940 – (Overnight) 166 British bombers strike German airfields in the Netherlands and targets in the Ruhr.


 * 1939 – First flight of the Avro Manchester


 * 1938 – The Battle of the Ebro begins in Spain with a Republican offensive. Although Nationalist bombers attack bridges over the Ebro, Nationalist fighters are still deployed in Valencia and Spanish Republican fighter pilots trained in the Soviet Union gain local air superiority flying improved versions of the Polikarpov I-15 and I-16.


 * 1937 – The Battle of Brunete ends. During the 20-day-long battle, the Republicans have lost about 100 aircraft, while the Nationalists have lost 23. The appearance of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and Heinkel He 111 bomber and the Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bomber in numbers during the battle signals the end of Republican air superiority in the Spanish Civil War.


 * 1923 – The first Canadian built amphibian, the Vickers Viking IV, was flown from the St. Lawrence at Montreal.


 * 1915 – Captain Lanoe Hawker of the RFC wins first Victoria Cross for aerial combat, over France.


 * 1909 – Van den Schkrouff makes the first flight in Russia in a Voisin biplane at Odessa.


 * 1909 – Louis Blériot claims a £1,000 prize from the British Daily Mail newspaper for being the first pilot to cross the English Channel. He makes the crossing in his Blériot Type XI from Les Barraques (near Calais) to Northfall Meadow (near Dover Castle) in 37 min. Blériot also received an additional £3,000 from the French government.