Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/June 26

June 26


 * 2009 – HK-4094, a Let L-410 Turbolet operated by Transporte Aéreo de Colombia overruns the runway at Capurganá Airport, Colombia, and is substantially damaged.


 * 2006 – U.S. Navy VFA-122 squadron pilot Brian R. Deforge, 25, dies when his McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet collides with another over Fort Hunter Liggett, north of San Luis Obispo, California. The other pilot successfully ejects and survives.


 * 2003 – The NASA Helios prototype breaks up and falls into the Pacific Ocean about ten miles (16 km) W of the Hawaiian Island Kauai during a remotely piloted systems checkout flight in preparation for an endurance test scheduled for the following month. Cause was flight through wind shear on a day when the conditions had been pronounced "marginal".


 * 1994 – Air Ivory Fokker’s-27 crashes at Abidjan (16 killed / 1 lives).


 * 1988 – Air France Flight 296, an Airbus A320, makes a low pass over Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport in landing configuration during an air show and crashes into trees at the end of the runway. Of 130 passengers aboard, 3 die.


 * 1981 – Dan-Air Flight 240, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, crashes near Nailstone, Leicestershire due to failure of the baggage door, causing rapid decompression and loss of control; all 3 crew on board die.


 * 1978 – Air Canada Flight 189, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9, crashes on takeoff in Toronto, Ontario, Canada because of tire failure; two die out of 107 passengers on board.


 * 1974 – First flight of the Eurocopter AS350


 * 1963 – A BAF Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar, CP45, c/n 246, en route to RAF Gütersloh, crashes near Detmold, Germany after being accidentally hit by a British mortar bomb over the Sennelager Range. 5 crewmen and 33 paratroopers died, while 9 paratroopers managed to jump to safety using their parachutes.


 * 1959 – TWA Flight 891, a Lockheed Starliner, crashes due to a lightning strike shortly after taking off from Milan Malpensa Airport. All 68 passengers and crew on board are killed.


 * 1950 – Australian National Airways Amana, a Douglas DC-4, crashes after takeoff from Perth Airport, killing all 29 people on board.


 * 1948 – The Berlin Airlift begins, with USAF, Royal Air Force, and British civil transport aircraft carrying supplies into West Berlin


 * 1946 – The U. S. Army Air Force and Navy adopt “knot” and “nautical mile” as standard aeronautical units for speed and distance. A nautical mile is about 6.080 ft. (1,853 m), and knot is the equuivalent of one nautical mile per hour.


 * 1946 – Air Cadets were renamed the Royal Canadian Air Cadets by permission of H. M. the King.


 * 1945 – 468 B-29 s drop 3,058 tons (2,774,199 kg) of bombs on Osaka and other cities in Japan.


 * 1943 – 331 Wing, composed of Nos. 420, 424 and 425 (Bomber) Squadrons and commanded by G/C CR Dunlap, commenced operations in Tunisia.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat


 * 1940 – The Royal Air Force disbands the Advanced Air Striking Force. Since the German offensive in the West began on May 10, the AASF has lost 229 aircraft.


 * 1936 – First flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, first fully controllable helicopter


 * 1934 – First flight of the Airspeed Envoy


 * 1914 – The prototype Bristol S.S.A. (for Single-Seat Armoured), c.n. 219, a Henri Coanda single-seat tractor biplane design intended for production France, crashes on landing at Filton when an undercarriage bracing wire fails. Pilot Harry Busteed slightly injured, but airframe is severely damaged. The French authorities however agree to accept delivery of the type at the Breguet factory, where it is rebuilt, and Bristol takes no further part in its development.


 * 1912 – 2nd Lt. Henry H. Arnold, holder of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pilot certificate No. 29 and Military Aviator Certificate No. 2, after accepting the Army's first tractor airplane, Burgess Model H, Signal Corps 9, crashes into Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts after takeoff, receiving the scar on his chin that he shows distinctively for the rest of his life.


 * 1911 – As spectators watch in amazement, Lincoln Beachey flies his Curtiss pusher biplane over Horseshoe Falls, the most spectacular of the Niagara Falls.


 * 1909 – The first commercial sale of an airplane in the United States is made as Glenn H. Curtiss sells one of his planes to the Aeronautic Society of New York for $7,500. This action spurs the Wright brothers to begin a patent suit to prevent him from selling airplanes without a license.


 * 1898 – Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer, was born.


 * 1869 – Largest hydrogen balloon ever to make a free (untethered) ascent, makes a short flight from the Champs de Mars in Paris, France. It has a capacity of 424,000 cubic feet (c. 130,000 cubic meters).