Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 31

July 31


 * 2012 – Belarus fires its chiefs of air defense and of the border guards because of the illegal 4 July flight into the country by a Jodel biplane.


 * 2012 – Due to confusion among air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, two USAirways commuter jets take off into the path of a third USAirways commuter jet flying in the opposite direction and cleared to land on the same runway. Realizing their error, controllers order the inbound aircraft to take evasive action 12 seconds before it would have collided with the leading outbound jet. There are no injuries among the 192 people on the three aircraft.


 * 2009 – An Indian Air Force HAL HPT-32 Deepak, a propeller-driven primary military trainer, crashes in the Medak district of the Andhra Pradesh state killing the 2 crew.


 * 2007 – An AH-64 Apache goes down after coming under fire in eastern Baghdad. The two crew members were safely extracted.


 * 1997 – First flight of the Boeing 737-800


 * 1997 – FedEx Express Flight 14, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes upon landing at Newark Liberty International Airport; the two crewmembers and three passengers escape uninjured.


 * 1992 – China General Aviation Flight 7552, a Yakovlev 42D, loses control just after takeoff from Nanjing Airport and crashes into a pond; 108 of 126 on board die.


 * 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-46 at 9:56:48 am EDT. Mission highlights: EURECA (European Retrievable Carrier) and the joint NASA/Italian Space Agency Tethered Satellite System (TSS).


 * 1992 – Thai Airways International Flight 311, an Airbus A310, crashes on approach into Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 14 crew and 99 passengers on board.


 * 1992 – A US Navy Grumman E-2C Hawkeye of VAW-126 on a training flight crashes in the Atlantic Ocean ~75 miles N of Puerto Rico while returning to the USS John F. Kennedy, killing all five crew. The Navy reported on 1 August that the aircraft radioed that it was in trouble before coming down ~4 miles from the carrier, the second plane loss of that air wing in less than a fortnight. The aviators killed Friday were identified as Lt. Cmdr. Alan M. McLachlen, 33, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Lt. Michael F. Horowitz, 27, of Atlanta, Georgia; Lt. Tristram E. Farmer, 26, of Trevett, Maine; Lt. j.g. Thomas D. Plautz, 28, of Norfolk, Virginia; and Lt. j.g. Richard Siter Jr., 24, of Latham, New York.


 * 1991 – Senate votes to allow women to fly combat aircraft.


 * 1984 – Venz commandos terminate hijacking of an aircraft, 2 killed.


 * 1981 – Panamanian Air Force FAP-205 crash: The leader of Panama, Omar Torrijos, is killed in the crash of a DeHavilland Twin Otter at Amador near Panama City, Panama.


 * 1981 – A Belgian Air Force Dassault Mirage VBR hits a radio mast at Dudelange, Luxembourg.


 * 1979 – Dan-Air Flight 0034, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 failed to become airborne at Sumburgh Airport, Scotland. Of the 47 on board, 15 passengers and two crew die.


 * 1974 – A USN Grumman E-2 Hawkeye based at NAS Norfolk, Virginia, crashed on take-off from CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina during a touch-and-go, striking a maintenance facility, triggering a fire in a fibreglass and upholstery shop. Instructor pilot, three civilians killed, student pilot, and 12–18 others injured.


 * 1973 – Delta Air Lines Flight 723, a Douglas DC-9, descends prematurely and crashes on final approach to Boston Logan International Airport, killing all 89 on board; probable cause is unstabilized final approach by the flight crew.


 * 1972 – After 41 years in operation, Northeast Airlines completes its final day of service before being merged into Delta Air Lines the following day.


 * 1972 – Delta Air Lines Flight 841 was an aircraft hijacking that took place beginning on Monday, on a flight originally from Detroit to Miami. Members of the Black Liberation Army took over the airplane in flight using weapons smuggled on board, including a bible cut out to hold a handgun. The DC-8 held 7 crew and 94 passengers, none of whom were killed during the hijacking. Five hijackers who had boarded with three children took over the plane. The plane flew to Miami where the 86 hostage-held passengers (i. e. 94 minus 8) were released in exchange for $1 million in ransom. The plane was then flown on to Boston where it refueled before flying to Algeria. Algerian authorities seized the plane and ransom which they returned to the U. S. but the hijackers were released after a few days.


 * 1964 – A. H. Parker sets a new sailplane distance record of 1,000 km (621 miles) in a Sisu-1 A


 * 1964 – Ranger 7 sends back the first ever close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.


 * 1964 – A/M CR Dunlap retired as Chief of the Air Staff and became Deputy Commander of NORAD.


 * 1964 – Country music star Jim Reeves and his manager die in the crash of a Beechcraft Debonair Reeves is piloting near Brentwood, Tennessee.


 * 1957 – The Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.


 * 1956 – In a high-speed flight, prototype Folland Gnat, G-39-2, suffers tailplane flutter which breaks away. Folland test pilot bails out and descends safely, becoming first person to use the Folland/Saab ejection seat in action.


 * 1952 – First flight of the SNCASE SE.3120 Alouette


 * 1948 – President Harry Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.


 * 1945 – Since beginning the strategic bombing campaign against Japan in June 1944, B-29 s of the U. S. Army’s Twentieth Air Force have destroyed 90 Japanese cities, leaving only four major cities – Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Sapporo – undamaged. During July 1945, the B-29 s have carried an average bombload of 7.4 tons (6,713 kg) per plane – An increase of 4.8 tons (4,355 kg) since November 1944 – dropped more than 75 percent of their bombs by radar, and suffered a loss rate of only 0.4 percent of aircraft raiding Japan (down from 5.7 percvent in January 1945).


 * 1944 – Noted aviation pioneer and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanishes without a trace while flying a Free French Forces Lockheed F-5B-1-LO, 42-68223, c/n 2734, of II/33 Squadron, out of Borgo-Porreta, Bastia, Corsica, a reconnaissance variant of the P-38 Lightning, over the Mediterranean; his fate remains a mystery until 2004 when the wreckage of his plane is discovered. While the cause of the crash is unknown, analysis of the wreckage and enemy wartime records suggests that the crash was an accident unrelated to enemy action. A former Luftwaffe pilot has published a volume in which he claims to have shot down a French-marked Lightning, but his claim is largely discounted.


 * 1943 – German aircraft attack U. S. Navy warships bombarding coastal artillery batteries near San Stéfano di Camastra, Sicily, but score no hits.


 * 1943 – The U. S. Army Forces’ Eleventh Air Force has carried out even more combat sorties against Japanese forces on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands in July than it had in June.


 * 1943 – The first prototype Focke-Wulf Ta 154 V1, TE+FE, powered by Jumo 211R engines, first flown 1 July 1943, tested at Rechlin, is written off in a landing accident this date when the undercarriage collapsed. This was a recurrent problem that accounted for the loss of several of the type.


 * 1942 – The vast, 800 km (500 mi) searchlight belt Germany has developed to guide night fighters to British bombers along their routes into and out of Germany is ordered disbanded so that the searchlights may be reallocated to the point defense of individual German cities. The searchlight belt is replaced by an even deeper belt of ground radars, allowing far more radar-controlled interception of enemy aircraft by German night fighters.


 * 1941 – A chartered Philippine Airlines Douglas DC-4 ferries 40 American servicemen to Oakland, California, from Nielson Airport in Makati City, Manila, in the Philippine Islands with stops at Guam, Wake Island, Johnston Atoll, and Honolulu in the Territory of Hawaii. The flight makes Philippine Airlines, Asia’s first airline, the first Asian airline to cross the Pacific Ocean. Philippine Airlines will begin a scheduled transpacific service in December 1941.


 * 1941 – First flight of the Lockheed Ventura


 * 1936 – (July 31-August 8) France becomes the first country to supply aircraft to the Republican faction in Spain, delivering 70 planes, including Bloch MB.200 s, Potez 54 s, and Dewoitine D.371 s.


 * 1936 – The Jersey Airways Saro A.19 Cloud amphibian airliner Cloud of Iona (tail number G-ABXW) disappears during a stormy evening on a flight from Guernsey to Jersey in the Channel Islands with the loss of all eight people on board. An investigation determines that the plane had lost engine power, landed on the sea, and been swamped by waves.


 * 1930 – First dirigible takeoff and landing on an oceangoing vessel.


 * 1923 – RAF Bristol F.2B, E2431, crashes at RAF (Cadet) College, Cranwell, when it stalls during landing. Aircraft was marked incorrectly 1342E.


 * 1918 – Lt Frank Linke-Crawford, Austrian 4th highest scoring ace, is shot down in combat. He had scored 27 victories.


 * 1918 – An aircraft takes off from platform installed on a towed lighter for the first time, when Royal Air Force Lieutenant Stewart Culley takes off in a Sopwith Camel from a lighter towed behind a British warship.


 * 1918 – A Royal Air Force bombing raid over Germany by 12 Airco DH.9 s suffers the loss of 10 aircraft shot down.


 * 1913 – Alys McKey Bryant becomes the first woman pilot to fly in Canada, over Vancouver, in a Curtiss-type pusher biplane.


 * 1912 – An attempt by the U.S. Navy to catapult launch the Navy's first seaplane, a Curtiss A-3 (AH-3) pusher, at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., fails when a crosswind catches the plane halfway along the catapult and tosses it into the Anacostia River. Pilot uninjured. A different source lists the location of the launch attempt as Annapolis, Maryland, the aircraft as the Curtiss A-1 (AH-1), and the pilot as Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, noting that the catapult was powered by compressed air, was fabricated by the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard from a design by Capt. Washington I. Chambers, and that the aircraft, not being secured to the catapult, reared up at mid-stroke where it was caught by the crosswind. This account, from an official U.S. Navy history, may be the more credible of the two versions. An accompanying photo (No. 650864) dated July 1912 showing the A-1 on the catapult at Annapolis supports the latter description. The first successful launch was accomplished on 12 November 1912 at the Washington Navy Yard by Ellyson in the A-3, according to this source, possibly accounting for the confusion.


 * 1901 – German meteorologists Berson and Süring climb to 10,800 m in a free balloon.


 * 1894 – Hiram Maxim launches an enormous biplane test rig (wingspan 32 m, 105 ft) propelled by two steam engines. It makes a short captive hop after running down a length of railway track. After that he stopped his experiments, which had already cost him around thirty thousands pounds.


 * 1879 – Richard Cowen and Charles Page flew the Canadian, the first balloon to be built in Canada.