Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/June 22

June 22


 * 2012 – A Mexican Navy AS656MB Panther went missing, aircraft was found six days later with all on board dead.


 * 2012 – A Mexican Air Force SF260EU crashed into a mountain in western Mexico, two crew killed.


 * 2012 – Syrian antiaircraft fire shoots down a Turkish Air Force F-4 Phantom II fighter on a training mission over the Mediterranean Sea off Turkey's Hatay Province, killing its two-man crew. Syria claims the aircraft violated its airspace; Turkey admits a momentary violation but claims the F-4 was shot down 15 minutes later in international airspace 13 nautical miles (15 statute miles; 24 km) from Syria.


 * 2010 – Launch of Ofek 9 (or Ofeq 9), Israel Aerospace Industries reconnaissance satellite.


 * 2009 – A United States Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon, 89-2108, from the 421st Fighter Squadron, 388th Fighter Wing, based at Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah crashes on a night training flight on the Utah Test and Training Range. The pilot, Capt. George B. Houghton, dies in the crash which occurred 35 miles (56 km) S of Wendover, Utah.


 * 2009 – A United States Army Bell TH-67 Creek crashed near Hartfield, Alabama on a training mission, one of the two occupants killed.


 * 2007 – STS-117, Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis to the ISS, 250th orbital human spaceflight, is back on earth.


 * 2000 – Wuhan Airlines Flight 343, a Xian Y-7, is struck by lightning and crashes in Hanyang District, Wuhan, killing all 42 on board and another 7 on the ground in the worst ever accident involving the Y-7.


 * 1990 – Bombardier Inc purchases Learjet for $US 75 million


 * 1984 – First flight of the Rutan Voyager, first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.


 * 1984 – London: Richard Branson's airline, Virgin Atlantic, begins services to North America, using Boeing 747s.


 * 1982 – Magyar Légierō, Hungarian Air Force Mil Mi-24D, 113, crashes, killing one crew.


 * 1976 – Launch of Salyut 5 (OPS-3), 3rd and last Almaz reconnaissance space station to be launched for the Soviet military.


 * 1975 – Svetlana Savitskaya sets a new women's airspeed record of 2,683 km/h (1,667 mph) in the Mikoyan Ye-133, a modified MiG-25PU two-seat trainer.


 * 1973 – Skylab 2, First manned mission to Skylab, the First U. S. orbital space station, is back on earth.


 * 1965 – John B. McKay flies the X-15 at 3,938 mph (6,338 km/h) at an altitude of 29.5 miles (47.5 km).


 * 1962 – Air France Flight 117, an international scheduled multi-leg Boeing 707 crashes in a forest hill on the island of Guadeloupe, while approaching Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport; 113 die in that accident with no survivors; the worst accident in Guadeloupe; the cause of the crash is never determined.


 * 1959 – French aviatrix Jacqueline Auriol sets a new speed record of 1 849 km/h with a Dassault Mirage III C.


 * 1955 – US air patrol plane shot down above Bering sea.


 * 1954 – First flight of the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, American carrier-capable ground-attack aircraft.


 * 1951 – Pan Am Flight 151, a Lockheed L-049 Constellation en route from Accra, Ghana (then the Gold Coast Territory) to Monrovia, Liberia, crashes into a hill near Sanoye in Bong County, Liberia, 54 miles (86 km) from the airport; all 31 passengers and 6 crew members die.


 * 1951 – Entered Service: Supermarine Attacker with 800 Naval Air Squadron, the Fleet Air Arm’s first jet.


 * 1947 – Martin XB-48, 45-59585, makes first flight, a 37-minute, 73-mile hop from Martin's Baltimore, Maryland plant to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, but blows all four tires on its fore-and-aft mounted undercarriage on landing when pilot O. E. "Pat" Tibbs, Director of Flight for Martin, applies heavy pressure to specially designed, but very slow to respond, insensitive air-braking lever. Tibbs and co-pilot E. R. "Dutch" Gelvin are uninjured.


 * 1946 – No. 436 Squadron was disbanded.


 * 1946 – A USAF P-80 Shooting Star carries the first airmail flown by jet


 * 1945 – First flight of the Vickers VC.1 Viking, British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber.


 * 1945 – 412 B-29 s drop 2,290 tons (2,077,474 kg) of bombs on Kure, Wakayama, and other cities in Japan.


 * 1944 – The escort carriers USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) and USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62) catapult U. S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolts of the 19th Fighter Squadron off for use at Isely Field on Saipan. The first Allied aircraft to be based ashore in the Mariana Islands, the P-47 s are in action a few hours later, making rocket strikes against targets on Tinian.


 * 1944 – Los Negros-based U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Thirteenth Air Force again strike Woleai.


 * 1944 – A Truk-based Japanese Mitsubishi G4 M (Allied reporting name “Betty”) damages the American battleship USS Maryland (BB-46) off Saipan with a torpedo.


 * 1943 – In order to better defend Sicily from Allied air attack, Italy and Germany agree to withdraw all of their bombers from Sicily and all but a few from Sardinia, concentrating instead on fighter operations in Sicily and southern Sardinia.


 * 1941 – Royal Air Force Boeing Fortress I, AN522, of 90 Squadron, RAF Great Massingham, flown by F/O J. C. Hawley, breaks up in mid-air over Yorkshire during a training flight. Single survivor, a medical officer from RAE Farnborough, reports that the bomber entered a cumulo-nimbus cloud at 33,000 feet (10,100 m), became heavily iced-up with hailstones entering through open gunports, after which control was lost, the port wing detached, and the fuselage broke in two at 25,000 feet (7,600 m). Survivor, who was in the aft fuselage, was able to bail out at 12,000 feet (3,700 m).


 * 1941 – Within the first hour of the war, Soviet pilot Lieutenant I I. Ivanov of the 46th Fighter Air Regiment rams a Heinkel He 111, the first of 10 Soviet aerial rammings that day and more than 200 during the war; Ivanov is killed in the ramming.


 * 1941 – Soviet Tupolev SB-2 and Ilyushin DB-3 bombers suffer heavy losses in attacks on German airfields near Warsaw; German fighters shoot down 20 out of 25 Soviet bombers on one raid.


 * 1941 – Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). 1,489 Soviet aircraft are destroyed on the first day alone by the German Nazis.


 * 1940 – Flight Lieutenant George Burge of the Royal Air Force, flying a Gloster Sea Gladiator nicknamed 'Faith', claims the First Italian bomber aircraft destroyed over Malta.


 * 1940 – France surrenders to Germany.


 * 1940 – General Albert Kesselring directs Hauptmann Wolfgang Falck to establish the Luftwaffe’s first true night fighter unit, Nachtjagdgeschwader 1. It is the birth of the German specialized night fighter force of World War II.


 * 1939 – During the Khalkhin Gol Incident, a dogfight rages for 2½ hours between 120 Imperial Japanese Army aircraft and 95 Soviet Air Force fighters. The Soviets shoot down 31 Japanese aircraft in exchange for 11 of their own.


 * 1937 – First flight of the de Havilland Moth Minor, British two-seat tourer/trainer aircraft.


 * 1934 – First flight of the Fokker F.XXXVI, Dutch four-engined 32-passenger airliner, largest transport designed and built by Fokker.


 * 1933 – The Tupolev ANT-25, Soviet long-range experimental aircraft which was also tried as a bomber. It was used by the Soviet Union for a number of record-breaking flights.


 * 1930 – Birth of Yury Petrovich Artyukhin, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.


 * 1927 – First flight of the Short S.6 Sturgeon, British prototype single-engined biplane naval reconnaissance aircraft, demonstrator of the corrosion resistance of duralumin aircraft structures.


 * 1917 – First flight of the Port Victoria P.V.7 Grain Kitten, British Fighter aircraft prototype.


 * 1910 – The German firm “Delag” inaugurates the first regular passenger-carrying airship service. Between 1910-1914, its five Zeppelin airships carry nearly 35,000 passengers without a fatality over inland German routes.


 * 1909 – Wycoof, Church & Partridge, auto dealers in New York city, acquired the Curtiss line to become the first airplane sales agency.


 * 1907 – A military balloon falls and explodes in Debrecen, Austria-Hungary. Its crew of two French army officers and one Austrian army officer, and ten peasant men on the ground are killed.  With thirteen fatalities it was the worst air accident until the 1913 Helgoland Island Air Disaster


 * 1906 – Birth of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, born Anne Spencer Morrow, pioneering American aviator, author, and the spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh.


 * 1898 – Birth of John Rudkin, British WWI flying ace.


 * 1897 – Birth of Theodor Quandt, German WWI fighter ace, and WWII fighter pilot.


 * 1894 – Birth of Jean Alfred Fraissinet, French WWI flying ace, He served in WWII and later entered politic.


 * 1892 – Birth of Robert Ritter von Greim, German WWI fighter ace who was asked to set up a Chinese air force, He helped to rebuild the Luftwaffe and was appointed to the command of the First Luftwaffefighter pilot school. He has been the last commander of the Luftwaffe in WWII.


 * 1891 – Birth of Charles Findlay, Scottish WWI fighter ace who served in WWII


 * 1880 – Birth of Eduard Martynovich Pulpe, Russian WWI flying ace.