Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 16

March 18


 * 2012 – A Turkish Army Aviation Sikorsky S-70A-28 crashed near Kabul, Afghanistan killing all 12 on board and four on the ground.


 * 2006 – The New Kitakyushu Airport opens in Japan.


 * 2005 – A Regional Airlines Antonov An-24 aircraft carrying oil workers to Varandey, Russia crashed five kilometers from the runway. A mixture of bad weather and pilot error caused the crash. Twenty-six of the 45 passengers died as well as two of the seven crew members.


 * 1997 – An McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornet makes hard landing on the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy at 1603 hrs. during work-ups in the Atlantic Ocean, off-center touch-down causing starboard undercarriage leg to collapse, aircraft arrested just before striking parked aircraft forward.


 * 1983 – A Boeing 767 lands at Boeing Field in Washington, after a record breaking non-stop flight from Lisbon, Portugal. The 5,499 miles (8,798 km) flown non-stop constitute a record for twin engined airliners.


 * 1978 – 1978 Balkan Bulgarian Tupolev Tu-134 crash near the village of Gabare, Bulgaria kills all 73 people on board.


 * 1969 – Viasa Flight 742, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30, crashes on takeoff from Maracaibo, Venezuela. All 84 passengers on board, plus 71 people on the ground were killed in the crash. At 155 people dead, it was the worst aviation disaster in history at that time.


 * 1962 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation chartered by the United States military, and carrying 96 American soldiers en route to South Vietnam, disappears over the western Pacific..


 * 1960 – KLM opens its first intercontinental jet service, by Douglas DC-8 from Amsterdam to New York.


 * 1954 – RAF de Havilland Mosquito TT.35, TH992, 'N-for-Norman', built at Hatfield as a B.35, and modified as a target-tug, of No. 2 APS at Sylt, on mission over the North Sea, loses starboard engine. While attempting to return to base the port engine overheats, pilot puts it down on the first available land, a beach on the island of Anrum, N of Heligoland, shearing off starboard engine and breaking fuselage into three pieces, but no post-crash fire. Pilot and Target Towing Operator (TTO) survive with minor injuries. Airframe believed to have been burnt where it came to rest.


 * 1947 – Saudi Arabian Airlines begins regular international services.


 * 1947 – First flight of the Convair CV-240


 * 1940 – The United Kingdom suffers its first civilian air-raid casualties of the war after a raid by KG 26 on Scapa Flow


 * 1938 – (16-18) Italian aircraft based on Majorca carry out a heavy, round-the-clock bombing of Barcelona, conducting seventeen air raids at three-hour intervals. Making no attempt to strike military targets specifically, they hit all parts of the city, killing about 1,300 people and injuring about 2,000.


 * 1932 – Walter Cunningham, American astronaut, was born. In 1968, Cunningham was the pilot for the lunar module in the Apollo 7 mission. he occupied the lunar module pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of Apollo 7.


 * 1927 – The Portuguese Military Aviation seaplane Argos, piloted by Sarmento de Beires, makes the first night aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, taking off from Portuguese Guinea and landing in Brazil.


 * 1926 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuelled rocket near Auburn, Massachusetts.


 * 1923 – Imperial Japanese Navy Lieutenant Shunichi Kira lands a Mitsubishi 1 MF fighter on the aircraft carrier Hōshō, becoming the first Japanese pilot to land on an aircraft carrier.


 * 1916 – US military aircraft fly their first mission over foreign soil when Curtiss JN3s of the 1st Aero Squadron carry out reconnaissance over Mexico.


 * 1911 – The first certificate of airworthiness awarded to an airplane in Britain is signed by Mervyn O’Gorman, superintendent of the Balloon Factory at Farnborough, covering the Farman III Type Militaire purchased by the British Army during the second half of 1910.


 * 1907 – Built for Leon Delagrange and pilot Charles Voisin, the Voisin-Delagrandge biplane makes its first flight from Bagatelle, France, achieving a height of 13ft. and a distance of 260ft.


 * 1905 – (16-20) Professional balloon-parachute jumper Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery and makes three successful flights at Aptos, California, the highest launch being at 3,000 feet with an 18 min descent to a predetermined landing location.