Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 1

March 1


 * 2011 – Australian Minister for Defence Stephen Smith says that international intervention in the Libyan Civil War to enforce a no-fly zone is probable, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague says that a no-fly zone could be imposed even without a United Nations Security Council resolution. Libyan rebel leaders debate whether to ask for Western airstrikes, and Abdul Fatah Younis, Libya's former minister of the interior who has defected to the rebels, says he would welcome targeted foreign airstrikes, though he offers the use of Libyan military airbases to foreign aircraft only in case of emergency.


 * 2010 – ACT Airlines Airbus A300B4-200 TC-ACB sustained substantial damage when the port undercarriage collapsed on landing at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. The port engine and wing were also damaged.


 * 2010 – Air Tanzania Flight 100, operated by Boeing 737–200 5H-MVZ sustained substantial damage when it departed the runway on landing at Mwanza Airport and the nosewheel collapsed. Damage was also caused to an engine.


 * 2007 – An OH-58D Kiowa makes a hard landing south of Kirkuk, injuring both crewmembers, and becomes entangled in overhanging wires before hitting the ground. Reports had varied whether the crash was due to a mechanical or electronic failure and whether it is shot down.


 * 2002 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-109 at 11:22:02 UTC. Mission highlights: Hubble Space Telescope servicing, last successful mission for Columbia before STS-107.


 * 1999 – (1-20) The hot-air balloon Breitling Orbiter 3, with pilots Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, begins the first non-stop, round-the-world balloon flight. They will complete the flight on March 19, setting a new distance record for any type of aircraft of 40,804 km (25,360 miles). Taking a total time of 19 days, 21 hours and 47 min.


 * 1989 – Canadian Space Agency (CSA) was formed, taking over the National Research Council as Canada’s primary space agency. In 1993, the CSA established its headquarters in St. Hubert, Quebec


 * 1985 - the Boy Scouts of America officially ended powered aircraft flight in its Aviation Exploring program, citing difficulties with maintaining insurance coverage in the event of an aircraft accident. 450 Explorer Posts and over 10,000 Explorer Scouts were affected.


 * 1976 – Lt. Col. Michael A. Love, 37, chief USAF test pilot on the Martin-Marietta X-24B program, is killed in the crash of an F-4C Phantom II on a dry lakebed at Edwards AFB, California, after take-off on a proficiency flight when his ejection seat malfunctions. Navigator Maj. E. B. Underwood, Jr. ejects before the crash and is hospitalized in stable condition. After serving in the lifting body program as chase pilot on various Northrop M2 and X-24A flights, Love made his first X-24B flight on 4 October 1973, and piloted the plane to its fastest speed—better than 1,860 kph—before terminating the program with a hard-surface runway landing at Edwards on 20 August 1975.


 * 1969 – The U. S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) begins Operation Massachusetts Striker, a helicopter-borne assault against North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam’s A Shau Valley. It will continue until May 8


 * 1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.


 * 1965 – The combat debut of the Republic F-105 Thunderchief takes place, as U. S. Air Force F-105D aircraft based at Da Nang, South Vietnam, begin bombing missions over North Vietnam.


 * 1962 – American Airlines Flight 1, a Boeing 707, crashes in Jamaica Bay, Queens, New York due to a rudder malfunction, killing all 95 passengers and crew on board.


 * 1962 – Los Angeles Airways sets up the world’s first commercial service using turbine-powered, multi-engine helicopters, the Sikorsky S-621L, which could accommodate up to 28 passengers.


 * 1962 – Fourth Lockheed U-2A, Article 344, 56-6677, delivered to the CIA on 20 November 1955, converted to U-2F by October 1961, crashes near Edwards Air Force Base, California, during aerial refueling training, killing SAC pilot Capt. John Campbell. Airframe entered jetwash behind the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, and broke up.


 * 1957 – SNCASE (or Sud-Est) and SNCASO (or Sud-Ouest) merge to form Sud Aviation.


 * 1956 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.


 * 1951 – No. 441 Squadron was reformed at St. Hubert, Quebec, and equipped with DH 1200 Vampire fighters.


 * 1949 – North American’s B-45 Tornado bomber sets an unofficial speed record of 675 miles per hour.


 * 1946 – Two Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortresses written off in taxi accident at Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico. Pilot of Boeing B-29-60-MO Superfortress, 44-86473, of the 509th Composite Group, assigned to Roswell AAF, New Mexico, attempts to taxi without energizing the hydraulic brake system, cannot stop bomber which collides with Boeing B-29-36-MO, 44-27296, "Some Punkins", also of the 509th. "Some Punkins" stricken in August 1946 and destroyed in fire-fighting training. 44-86473 dropped from inventory, April 1946, after salvage.


 * 1945 – First vertical take-off manned rocket flight test, launched from the Lager Heuberg military training area near Stetten am kalten Markt, of Bachem Ba 349 Natter, 'M23', a vertically launched bomber interceptor, fails when Oberleutnant Lothar Sieber, 22, a volunteer, is killed as rocket-powered aircraft reaches ~1,650 feet, cockpit canopy detaches, Ba 349 noses over onto back, then falls from ~4,800 feet, killing pilot. No cause for crash determined but it was thought that improperly latched canopy may have knocked Siebert unconscious. Three successful manned flights subsequently flown and a group of the fighters readied for intercept mission, but advancing U.S. 8th Army armoured units overrun launch site before Natters can be used


 * 1945 – Carrier aircraft of U. S. Navy Task Force 58 strike Okinawa and conduct photographic reconnaissance flights over Okinawa, Kerama Retto, Minami Daito, and Amami O Shima.


 * 1945 – Two Bell P-59A Airacomets of the 29th Fighter Squadron collide in mid-air over the Grey Butte Army Airfield during an anti-aircraft tracking exercise. 2nd Lt. Robert W. Murdock (pilot of #44-22620), and 2nd Lt. Howard L. Wilson (pilot of #44-22626) are killed in the collision.


 * 1943 – Since January 14, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has launched major raids on Wilhelmshaven four times, Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg three times each, and Bremen, Düsseldorf, and Nuremberg once each, as well as on Milan and Turin.


 * 1943 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command flies the last raid of its early 1943 campaign against German submarines and their bases in France. It has attacked Lorient nine times and Brest once since the start of the campaign on January 14, but found German submarine pens impervious to its bombs. The raids have caused much damage to the French cities and their residents.


 * 1942 – Formation of RCAF Accident Board.


 * 1942 – The U. S. Navy sinks a German submarine for the first time in World War II when a Patrol Squadron 82 (VP-82) PBO-1 Hudson piloted by Ensign William Tepuni USNR sinks U-656 off Cape Race, Newfoundland.


 * 1941 – To avoid confusion with RAF units, RCAF squadrons overseas were renumbered 400 series i. e. 110 became 400 Squadron, No. 1 Squadron became 401 Squadron, etc.


 * 1941 – New Zealand's first fighter squadron, No. 485 Squadron RNZAF is formed.


 * 1941 – No. 402 Squadron became operational at Digby, Lincolnshire, England.


 * 1941 – No. 403 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Bagington, England.


 * 1939 – Clarence Decatur C. D. Howe opened the first TransCanada Air Lines transcontinental passenger service from Montreal to Vancouver.


 * 1938 – Western Air Command with Headquarters at Vancouver, BC, was formed to control all RCAF units in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.


 * 1938 – The 1938 Yosemite TWA crash; a Douglas DC-2, disappears on a flight from San Francisco to Winslow, Arizona; the aircraft is found three months later on a mountain in Yosemite National Park; all 9 on board die.
 * 1933 – U. S. Air Commerce Regulations are amended to increase the flying time required for a pilot’s license from 10 hours to 50 hours.


 * 1932 – Entered Service: Berliner-Joyce P-16 with United States Army Air Corps


 * 1932 – The 20-months-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh has been kidnapped from the family’s home in Hopewell, New Jersey.


 * 1928 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Courgaeous enters service as the world’s first aircraft carrier with transverse arresting gear.


 * 1928 – An airmail route between France and Chile is opened with a fast sea link between Dakar, Senegal and Natal, Brazil.


 * 1926 – Four Royal Air Force Fairey IIIDs begin a long-distance flight, taking them from Cairo to Cape Town and then on to Lee-on-Solent, England, where they will arrive on June 2


 * 1925 – Ryan Airline Company begins regular services


 * 1924 – Deke Slayton, American astronaut, was born (d. 1993). was one of the original “Mercury Seven” NASA astronauts. Initially grounded by a heart condition, he would serve as NASA’s Director of Flight Crew Operations. Deke Slayton was responsible for all crew assignments at NASA from November 1963 until March 1972, when he was granted medical clearance to fly as docking module pilot of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. At the time of the flight, he became the oldest person to fly into space.


 * 1919 – German airline Deutsche Luft-Reederei (DLR) begins scheduled flights to Hamburg.


 * 1919 – An airmail service begins Folkestone and Cologne


 * 1912 – Capt. Albert Berry makes the first parachute descent from a powered airplane in America when he jumps from a Benoist aircraft that is being flown by the company pilot, Anthony Jannus. The aircraft is flying at a height of 1,500 ft. over Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, and Berry uses a static line parachute.


 * 1911 – The first four Royal Navy pilots, Lieutenants Charles R. Samson, R. Gregory, and Arthur M. Longmore of the Royal Navy and Lieutenant E. L. Gerrard of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, report for flight training at Eastchurch airfield, using borrowed Short S.27 aircraft.