Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 30

July 30


 * 2011 – Caribbean Airlines Flight 523, a Boeing 737-800, overruns the runway after landing at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Georgetown, Guyana and breaks in two; several are injured but all 163 passengers and crew survive.


 * 2011 – NATO aircraft bomb three satellite dishes in Tripoli in an attempt to put Libyan state television – the Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation – off the air, but the channel continues to broadcast.


 * 2011 – The International Organization for Migration concludes an operation that it claims airlifted 1,398 stranded migrants, mostly Chadians, out of Libya.


 * 2010 – A Hellenic Army Boeing AH-64DHA Longbow on a test flight crashed at Megara Air Force Base, Greece, killing two.


 * 2008 – First flight of the Piper PA-47 PiperJet


 * 2008 – A U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-15D Eagle, 85-0131, crashed on the Nevada Test and Training Range ~50 miles (80 km) E of Goldfield, Nevada, at ~1130 hrs. The F-15D, of the 65th Aggressor Squadron, 57th Aggressor Training Group, Nellis Air Force Base, was participating in a combat training mission as part of Exercise Red Flag 08-03. Air Force officials identified the pilot who died as Lt. Col. Thomas A. Bouley, commander of the 65th AS at Nellis. A United Kingdom Royal Air Force Tornado F.3 pilot assigned to the USAF's 64th AGRS was with him and was taken to Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital at Nellis. The pilot arrived ~1330 hrs. Wednesday, the Air Force said. The pilot was in stable condition and under observation. The Royal Air Force pilot's name was withheld while the investigation into the crash continues.


 * 2007 – FA-18C from VFA-195 crashed after the pilot inadvertently ejected while on emergency night approach to USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). The aircraft continued to fly for nearly 20 minutes before crashing into the sea 400 miles SE of Guam. The pilot was safely recovered.


 * 2005 – John Garang de Mabior, serving as both the first President of Southern Sudan and the First Vice President of Sudan, dies in the crash of the Ugandan presidential Mil Mi-172 helicopter in a mountain range in southern Sudan.


 * 1992 – TWA Flight 843 aborts takeoff at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Lockheed L-1011 turns off the runway onto grass in order to avoid striking a concrete barrier. The plane is destroyed by fire shortly after all 292 passengers and crew evacuate with no loss of life.


 * 1983 – Official speed record for a piston-driven aircraft, 832 kph, California.


 * 1971 – Apollo 15 Mission – David Scott and James Irwin on Lunar module, Falcon, land with first Lunar Rover on the moon.


 * 1971 – Pan Am Flight 845, a Boeing 747-100, attempts to take off from San Francisco at the wrong speed, over-running the runway and colliding with approach lighting structures; the aircraft sustains damage to flight control and other systems, but becomes airborne, circles over the ocean to dump fuel, and lands back in San Francisco; of the 218 on board, 29 are injured, 10 seriously.


 * 1971 – All Nippon Airways Flight 58, a Boeing 727-200, collides with a JSDF F-86 fighter jet at Shizukuishi near Morioka, Japan, killing all 162 passengers and crew; the JSDF pilot parachutes to safety, and is later arrested by local police on suspicion of colliding with a civilian aircraft.


 * 1971 – At ~1400 hrs., a Japanese Air Self Defense Force North American F-86F Sabre, 92-7932, collides in mid-air at FL280 with All Nippon Airways Flight 58, a Boeing 727-281, JA8329, on regional flight between Sapporo and Tokyo-Haneda. Student pilot was not watching out for other traffic in the training area, and when the instructor warns him to break away from approaching jetliner, it is too late, the Sabre's right wing striking the 727's left horizontal stabilizer, all seven crew and 155 passengers on the Boeing are killed, wreckage coming down near Shizukuishi. F-86F crew ejects. All Japanese military aircraft are immediately grounded while investigation takes place.


 * 1970 – USMC Lockheed KC-130F Hercules, BuNo 150685, c/n 3728, of VMGR-152, crashed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Lake Forest, California during misjudged maximum effort landing – wings broke, fuselage ended up overturned, burned.


 * 1966 – Lockheed A-12, 60-6941, Article 135, modified as an M-21, D-21 drone carrier for Project Tagboard, is lost during the fourth test over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California when the D-21 drone, 504, suffers asymmetrical unstart as it passes through bow wake of the mothership during launch at Mach 3.25, strikes the Blackbird, destroying right rudder, engine nacelle and most of the outer wing during separation. Lockheed employees, pilot Bill Park and launch control officer Ray Torick, both successfully eject, but Torick tragically drowns in a feet-wet landing. Skunk Works head Clarence "Kelly" Johnson subsequently scrubs M-21 launch program, saying "I will not risk any more test pilots or Blackbirds. I don't have either to spare." D-21s are modified to D-21B standard for air launch from underwing pylons of a pair of mission-adapted Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bombers.


 * 1959 – First flight of the Northrop F-5A


 * 1958 – First flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou


 * 1954 – First flight of the Grumman F-11 Tiger


 * 1943 – (Overnight) 273 British bombers attack Remscheid, Germany, losing 15 of their number.


 * 1942 – The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 V13, Werke Nummer 0036, unarmed prototype for the Fw 190C-1, with a 1,750 hp (1,300 kW) Daimler-Benz DB 603A engine, crashes shortly after beginning testing.


 * 1941 – 24 aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Furious strike ‘Petsamo, Finland, sinking a small steamer for the loss of three aircraft, while 29 aircraft from the carrier HMS Victorious attack Kirkenes, Norway, sinking a small ship and setting fire to another and claiming three German fighters shot down in exchange for the loss of 11 British aircraft.


 * 1935 – First “Blind” carrier landing. USN Lt Frank Akers flew a Berliner-Joyce OJ-2 from NAS San Diego to USS Langley at sea and landed on instruments (under a hood), for which feat he was awarded a DFC.


 * 1935 – The prototype Northrop 3A, intended for the 1935 U.S. Army Air Corps competition for a new single-seat fighter, is lost over Santa Monica Bay, California, out of Jack Northrop Field, Hawthorne, California, during spin stall trials. Pilot killed.


 * 1934 – The Government announced precautionary measures to protect the population and safeguard essential services against bombing.


 * 1924 – Two Japanese airmen, Yukichi Goto and his flight engineer Minezo Yonezawo, return to Osaka after completing the first flight around Japan. The flight covers 2,727 miles and takes over 33 hours.


 * 1923 – First flight of the de Havilland DH.50


 * 1921 – Swiss pilot, Francois Durafour, achieves a daring first by landing his airplane on the slopes of Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain in the Alps.


 * 1914 – Trygve Gran makes the first crossing of the North Sea by aeroplane.


 * 1910 – First flight of the Bristol Boxkite.


 * 1909 – The Imperial Japanese Army, the Imperial Japanese Navy, and Tokyo Imperial University form the Provisional Military Balloon Research Society to investigate flying machines for Japanese use.


 * 1909 – Orville Wright flies with passenger Lt. Benjamin Foulois at an average 42.58 miles per hour (68.53 km/h) mph over a measured round-trip course, successfully completing flight tests in the Wright Military Flyer for the U. S. Army at Fort Myer, Virginia. The Army buys the airplane for $30,000.


 * 1909 – The Rinji Gunyo Kikyu Kenkyu Kai (Provisional Committee for Military Balloon Research) is formed in Japan.