Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 18

March 18


 * 2010 – Aviastar-TU Flight 1906, operated by Tupolev Tu-204 RA-64011 crashed on approach to Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow. The aircraft was written off, the first hull loss for Aviastar and the first of a Tu-204.


 * 2010 – Exin Flight 3589, operated by Antonov An-26 SP-FDO received an unsafe gear warning on approach to Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport, Tallinn, Estonia on a flight from Helsinki Airport, Helsinki, Finland. A go-around was initiated, during which an engine failed and a wheels-up landing was made on the frozen surface of Lake Ülemiste. Two of the six crew were injured.


 * 2008 – Delta Air Lines offers voluntary severance to 30,000 employees, which is half of their workforce.


 * 2002 – Entered Service: HAL Dhruv with the Indian Coast Guard


 * 1999 – An ALIANSA Columbia Douglas DC-3 (HK-337) disappears on a flight from Cucuta to El Yopal. After four days, the crash site is found on a hill, along with its 8 deceased passengers and crew.


 * 1999 – American Airlines announces their purchasing of the naming right of the American Airlines Center arena in Dallas, Texas for a mere $195 million.


 * 1998 – A Formosa Airlines Saab 340 (B-12255) crashes into the sea, killing all 13 aboard. The Captain decides to depart, despite the known failure of the right-hand main bus. This has a domino effect on several systems, including navigation and flight instruments. With that, the right engine anti-ice start bleed valve being in the open position lead to a 13% torque split between the two engines and a yaw-effect when not compensated for. Poor weather conditions and pilot fatigue (the Captain flew several flights throughout the day already) led to spatial disorientation. Add it all up and the result is a right bank after departure that the pilots do not notice until it is unrecoverable.


 * 1997 – Stavropolskaya Aktsionernaya Avia Flight 1023, an Antonov An-24, breaks up in flight and crashes near Cherkessk, Russia; all 50 on board die.


 * 1969 – 18-19 – The Royal Air Force airlifts 300 troops to Anguilla in response to the civil unrest that had broken out on the island.


 * 1969 – In Operation Breakfast, 48 U. S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses bomb the Fishhook in Cambodia in an attack on what the Americans believe to be the general Communist headquarters within Cambodia. It is the first event in Operation Menu, the secret 14-month-long American bombing of Cambodia targeting North Vietnamese Army sanctuaries there.


 * 1966 – First flight of the Wassmer WA-51


 * 1966 – United Arab Airlines Flight 749, an Antonov An-24, crashed while attempting to land at Cairo International Airport. All 30 passengers and crew on board were killed.


 * 1965 – Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 min, becomes the first person to walk in space.


 * 1963 – The Dassault Balzac makes its first transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and back


 * 1962 – Entered Service: Convair CV-990 with American Airlines


 * 1961 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-28


 * 1960 – A Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 377 Stratocruiser makes a 300-foot (91-meter) emergency dive to avoid colliding with two Air National Guard jets over Lansing, Michigan. Among the passengers is Morris Chalfen, producer of the Holiday on Ice skating shows, whose wife and three children had died the previous day on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710.


 * 1958 – Test pilot Leo J. "Pete" Colapietro bails out of Douglas F4D Skyray during routine test flight over the Pacific Ocean which goes out of control, ejects at ~650 mph (1,050 km/h), suffers right arm broken in two places, fractured pelvis, two cracked vertebrae, and a dislocated shoulder. Parachute deploys automatically, however, and pilot is rescued from the water after 45 minutes by a helicopter and a rescue launch. He remains in hospital for over six weeks.


 * 1957 – Christer Fuglesang, Swedish ESA astronaut, was born. Fuglesang was the first Swede and the first Nordic citizen in space aboard the STS-116 Shuttle mission on 10 December 2006.


 * 1957 – A Lloyd Aereo Boliviano Douglas DC-3 (CP-535) crashes in Sayari, Bolivia, killing all of its 19 passengers and crew.


 * 1954 – McDonnell F3H-1N Demon, BuNo 133490, suffers engine fire during test flight out of Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River, Maryland. Airframe tumbles, and crashes at sea. LCDR N. J. Smith III ejects at 14,000 ft, 480 kts.


 * 1953 – Brig Gen Richard E. Ellsworth, commander of the 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, is killed in the crash of Convair RB-36H-25-CF Peacemaker, 51-13721, he was co-piloting on a 25-hour journey as part of a simulated combat mission flying from Lajes, Azores back to Rapid City Air Force Base, South Dakota. As part of the exercise, the bomber was observing radio silence and had switched off their radar guidance, flying via celestial navigation. They had planned to fly low over the ocean, steadily increasing to higher altitudes before reaching the mountainous countryside of Newfoundland. Late into the night, the aircraft struck bad weather and went off course, reaching Newfoundland 90 minutes earlier than planned. At 0410 hrs. at a hill near Burgoyne's Cove, inland from Nut Cove, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, with sleet, fog, freezing drizzle, and visibility estimated at less than 1⁄8-mile (0.20 km), the plane struck an 896-foot (273 m) hill at 800 feet (240 m) with a ground speed of 202 knots (374 km/h). The aircraft's propellers severed the tops of pine trees while the plane's left wing hit the ground, tore off, and spilled fuel. The rest of the plane impacted some thousand feet further. The impact and subsequent fire from the plane's fuel tanks scorched an 8-foot-deep (2.4 m) trench in the countryside. Loggers on a nearby hill spotted the fireball and alerted rescuers, but all 23 on board were killed on impact. Much of the wreckage remains at the crash site. That same night, a Boeing SB-29-70-BW Superfortress, 44-69982, search and rescue plane of the 52d Air Rescue Squadron, 6th Air Rescue Group, based at Harmon Air Force Base, Newfoundland, was sent out to assist in search efforts. It disappeared shortly before landing, crashing into St. Georges Bay, a few miles from the runway, killing 11. Wreckage never found. In the aftermath of the B-36 crash, an accident investigation board recommended new procedures to scan more frequently for approaching high terrain and to climb to safer altitudes before approaching within 200 miles (320 km) of a water-land boundary. President Dwight Eisenhower personally went to the Rapid City base and renamed it Ellsworth Air Force Base, to honor the general


 * 1952 – Two USAF F-84 Thunderjets land in Neubiberg, Germany after the longest sustained jet flight; they flew 2,800 miles from the USA in 4 hours 48 min, without refueling.


 * 1945 – The Douglas XB2D-1, prototype of the AD Skyraider makes its first flight.


 * 1945 – Carrier aircraft of the U. S. Navy’s Task Force 58 strike Kyushu.


 * 1944 – U. S. Navy aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) strike Mili Atoll.


 * 1942 – The first German A-4 flight-test model, ("Launch Aggregate 1"), completed 25 February 1942, but which slips out of its "corset" after being fully tanked at Test Stand VII at Peenemünde due to contraction of the fuselage from the cold propellants, falling 2 meters, smashing three fins, and coming to rest on the rim of the engine nozzle; repaired and renamed Versuchsmuster 1 (V1: Experimental Type 1), at 2345 hrs., this date, the rocket fails during a test firing with flame bursting through the side just above the engine, wrecking the steam generator and many lines on board, with the engine shutting off automatically. Leaks in the fuel and oxidizer lines caused by vibration and stress are determined to have let an explosive mixture to have built up over the head of the motor and the rocket is junked for parts without any launch attempt. Albert Speer witnesses this test failure.


 * 1942 – No. 413 (Coastal) Squadron flew from the Shetland Isles to a new base on Ceylon.


 * 1939 – The Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner prototype crashes, killing all 10 people on board. The accident results in the formation of an expanded aerodynamic research group headed by Eddie Allen, with more emphasis on pre-flight testing.


 * 1938 – Only seven months after its first flight, the prototype Heinkel He 115 V1 begins a series of flights breaking eight seaplane speed records by carrying loads between 1,100 lb. and 4,400 lb. over distances of 1,000 km (621 miles) and 2,000 km (1,242 miles) at an average speed of 204 mph. The He 115 is the Luftwaffe’s most successful seaplane. The He 115 was developed as a torpedo-bomber, mine-laying and reconnaissance aircraft, during the mid-thirties by Ernst Heinkel A. G. The two-engined all-metal mid-wing twin-floatplane possessed exceptional water handling qualities, good stability and an outstanding performance.


 * 1937 – The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 km (0.62 miles) outside Milan.


 * 1918 – The first Norwegian airline, Det Norske Luftfartsrederi, is founded.


 * 1916 – German ace Ernst Udet scores his first kill


 * 1913 – Werner Mölders German WWII fighter pilot, was born (d. 1941). Mölders was a German Luftwaffe World War II fighter ace. He was credited with 101 victories in WWII as well as 14 victories in the Spanish civil war. He was flying as a passenger in a He-111 from the Crimea to Germany in November 1941 to attend the funeral of his superior and friend, Ernst Udet. Attempting to land at Breslau during a thunderstorm, the aircraft crashed. Mölders and the pilot were killed.


 * 1906 – Traian Vuia flies his "Vuia 1" in powered flight without headwind or catapult assisted takeoff. Not launched from a height.


 * 1898 – Jake Swirbul, American aircraft manufacturer, was born (d. 1960). Leon A. “Jake” “The Bullfrog” Swirbul was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.