Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 7

July 7


 * 2013 – A Rediske Air de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter air taxi crashes onto the runway immediately after takeoff from Soldotna Airport in Soldotna, Alaska, and bursts into flames, killing all 10 people on board.


 * 2012 – A video is released showing Syrian rebels claiming to have shot down a Syrian government surveillance aircraft and showing pieces of the aircraft. It is the first time that Syrian rebels have claimed to have shot down a government aircraft.


 * 2010 – The Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes its first international appearance at the Farnborough Airshow, UK.


 * 2010 – (7–8) The Solar Impulse I HB-SIA makes a circumnavigation of the planet, the first by a solar powered aircraft. The flight also set records for length of flight and altitude for solar powered aircraft.


 * 2010 – A United States Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-60 Jayhawk crashed off of La Push, Washington apparently after clipping power lines.


 * 2009 – A Serbian Air Force MiG-29 crashes while performing aerobatic maneouvres in preparation for an upcoming airshow, killing the pilot Lt. Col. Rade Randjelovic and a soldier on the ground while injuring another.


 * 2006 – Antonov An-12 B operated as Mango Airlines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had engine failure after departure from Goma for Kisangani, and crashed into a hill and burned 10 km NW of Sake, DRC on return to Goma, killing all 6 aboard. (Reg RA-11338 was sold to Angola as D2-FRC in May 2000, then 9U-BHN and later 9Q-CVT).


 * 2003 – Launch of Opportunity, MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B), American robotic rover towards the planet Mars


 * 2002 – (7-14) The 15th FAI World Precision Flying Championship takes place in Zagreb, Croatia. The individual winners are 1. Lubos Hajek (Czech Republic, in a Cessna 152), 2. Janusz Darocha (Poland, in a Cessna 152), 3. Predrag Crnko (Croatia, in a Cessna 150). Team winners are 1. the Czech Republic, 2. Poland, 3. Croatia.


 * 1988 – Launch of Phobos 1, Soviet unmanned space mission to study Mars.


 * 1981 – First solar-powered aircraft flight across the English Channel. MacCready Solar Challenger flew 163 miles from Pontoise – Cormeilles Aerodrome, north of Paris, France to Manston Royal Air Force Base in Manston, United Kingdom, staying aloft 5 hours and 23 min, with pilot Stephen Ptacek at the controls, powered by at least 16,128 solar cells on the upper surfaces of the wing and tailplane.


 * 1983 – A standard production Learjet 55 sets six time-to-climb records.


 * 1965 – McDonnell Aircraft completes its 1,000th F-4 Phantom II.


 * 1963 – Death of Frank Purdy Lahm, American aviation pioneer, US first military aviator", and a general officer in the US Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces.


 * 1963 – Marine Corps Reserve pilot Capt. John W. Butler, 30, of Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, suffers electrical failure in North American F-1E Fury BuNo 143609 during ground control intercept mission in a flight with three other aircraft, losing directional instruments, radio contact, at 36,000 feet. Ejects at low altitude after trying everything he can to regain control. Fury strikes ballfield at Green Hill Day Camp, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, skids 500 yards through some trees, a high hedge, and strikes a bathhouse in which ~30 persons have taken shelter from a severe thunderstorm. Seven on ground are killed, 15 injured.


 * 1962 – First flight (conventional) of The Lockheed XV-4 Hummingbird (originally designated VZ-10), US Army project to produce a V/STOL vertical take off/landing jet prototype.


 * 1962 – Alitalia Flight 771, a Douglas DC-8, hits high terrain while descending due to navigation error near Junnar, Maharashtra, India; all 94 die.


 * 1962 – Colonel Georgi Mossolov sets a new world absolute speed record for airplanes, flying the Soviet Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152 (fictitiously registered with FAI as Ye-166) at 2,681 km/h (1,666 mph).


 * 1961 – First flight of the Mil Mi-8 'Hip', soviet medium twin-turbine transport helicopter that can also act as a gunship. The Mi-8 is the world's most-produced helicopter,


 * 1960 – USSR shoots down a US aircraft over Barents sea.


 * 1960 – Birth of Kevin Anthony Ford, USAF pilot and NASA Astronaut.


 * 1960 – A Royal Air Force (RAF) Vickers Varsity T.1 WJ914 collided at 1500 ft near RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom with a RAF de Havilland Vampire T11 XD549, all six occupants of the Varsity and two in the Vampire died.


 * 1950 – First Farnborough airshow held.


 * 1950 – Third prototype of three Vought XF7U-1 Cutlass twin-tailed fighters, BuNo 122474, suffers engine explosion during flight exhibition at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. Vought test pilot Paul Thayer ejects, parachutes into two feet of water, airframe impacts on island in the Patuxent River. Pilot is returned safely to the admiral's reviewing stand, show announcer inquires "What will you do for an encore Mr. Thayer?" He learns that he suffered fracture to small bone at base of spine – later tells Vought management that he was the only manager who actually "broke his ass for the Company."


 * 1948 – Silver City Airways, with a Bristol Freighter, operated the world's first cross-Channel air ferry service between Lympne near Folkestone in Kent and Le Touquet, France


 * 1946 – Eccentric, iconoclastic millionaire and aviator Howard Hughes is gravely injured when he mishandles a propeller pitch control failure and crashes his controversial Hughes XF-11 reconnaissance plane, 44-70155, during its maiden flight. Aircraft impacts homes in the Beverly Hills neighborhood near the Los Angeles Country Club golf course where Hughes was attempting an emergency landing.


 * 1945 – On the first flight of the prototype Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui, Japanese derivative of the Me 163B, aircraft reaches 1,300 feet in a steep climb, then the rocket motor cut out, airframe crashing at Yokosuka Naval Aeronautical Engineering Arsenal. Cause believed either hydrogen peroxide shifting to rear of partially empty tank, or air leak in fuel line causing blockage. Pilot Lt. Cdr. Toyohiko Inuzuka dies in hospital the next day. A redesign of the fuel system follows, but no additional flights made before Japanese capitulation in August.


 * 1945 – First flight of the Arsenal VB-10, French fighter prototype. It added a second engine behind the cockpit which drove a second propeller, coaxial with and counter-rotating to the propeller driven by the engine in the nose.


 * 1945 – 568 B-29 s drop 4,227 tons (3,834,709 kg) of bombs on Chiba and other cities in Japan.


 * 1942 – The U. S. Army Air Forces activate the China Air Task Force.


 * 1937 – The Marco Polo Bridge Incident begins the Second Sino-Japanese War.


 * 1937 – Curtiss receives the largest order placed with an airplane manufacturing company since 1918 when the United States Army Air Corps orders 210 P-36 Hawks


 * 1929 – First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.10


 * 1929 – Pilot D. S. Zimmerley in a Barling NB-3 bomber set a long-distance record, flying from Brownsville, Texas to Winnipeg, 16 hrs.


 * 1929 – Transcontinental Air Transport commences a regular service transporting passengers right across the United States in 48 hours, using a combination of trains and aircraft for different legs of the journey.


 * 1927 – T. B Tull & J. V. Medcalf were the first Canadians to attempt a transatlantic flight. They departed Harbour Grace Nfld. and were lost at sea.


 * 1921 – US Navy Airship C-3 burns at Naval Air Station Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Virginia


 * 1921 – First flight of the Fairey Pintail.


 * 1919 – Death of Oskar Bider, Swiss aviation pioneer, Killed while demonstrating his Nieuport 21 fighter.


 * 1918 – Death of Merrill Samuel Taylor, Canadian WWI fighter ace, killed in his Sopwith Camel over Hamel.


 * 1917 – In daylight, German Gotha bombers make a third attack on England, killing 65 people and injuring 245.


 * 1914 – American physics professor, Robert H. Goddard receives a patent for his two-stage solid fuel rocket.


 * 1914 – Birth of Francesco Aurelio Di Bella, Italian WWII Pilot.


 * 1911 – Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold sets an altiture record of 3,260 feet (990 m).


 * 1895 – Birth of William Otto Brash Winkler, Scottish WWI fighter ace.


 * 1894 – Birth of Fritz John Jacobsen, German WWI flying ace.


 * 1893 – Birth of James Butler White, DFC, RNAS, British RNAS WWI flying ace.