Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 21

March 21


 * 2013 – Two helicopters – a Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma and a Eurocopter EC 155 – of the German Federal Police participating in a large-scale training exercise collide in snowy weather in front of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin and crash, with one helicopter apparently landing on top of the other and debris striking bystanders. One pilot dies and several other people are injured.


 * 2012 – A United States Air Force F-16CG crashed near Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. The pilot ejected but was injured.


 * 2011 – The 2011 Pointe-Noire Trans Air Congo An-12 crash: an Antonov An-12 crashes on approach to Pointe Noire Airport, Republic of the Congo, killing all 4 crew on board and another 19 on the ground.


 * 1996 – Tupolev and NASA begin joint research into civil supersonic transports using a refurbished Tupolev Tu-144.


 * 1991 – Two US Navy Lockheed P-3C Orion anti-submarine patrol planes are lost during a training mission off the San Diego coast. The crash occurs in a storm 60 miles SW of San Diego at 0230 hrs., as one plane flies to relieve the other, which had been airborne for seven hours. Search-and-rescue workers discover wreckage from the downed planes but all 27 crewmen are lost. The two aircraft were assigned to Patrol Squadron 50, based at Naval Air Station Moffett Field in Mountain View.


 * 1987 – Dean Martin's son Dean Paul Martin (formerly Dino of the 60s "teeny-bopper" rock group Dino, Desi & Billy) dies when his McDonnell Douglas F-4C-25-MC Phantom II fighter, 64-0923, of the 196th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 184th Tactical Fighter Wing, crashes into San Gorgonio Mountain in the San Bernardino Mountains after take off from March Air Force Base, during a snow storm while flying with the California Air National Guard. His Weapon Systems Officer (WSO), Ramon Ortiz is also KWF. Wreckage found four days later just below summit.


 * 1983 – First all female USN aircrew to conduct an operation mission. The flight was conducted in a Grumman C-1 Trader from VRC-30 and ended with an arrested carrier landing on USS Ranger. Lt Elizabeth Toedt, Ltjg Cheryl A Martin, AD3 Gina Greterman, ADAN Robin Banks were the crew members.


 * 1981 – First flight of the Dornier 228.


 * 1975 – In a tragic error by an air traffic controller, the wrong landing instructions are conveyed to Lockheed C-141A-20-LM Starlifter, 64-0641, of the 62d Military Airlift Wing on approach to McChord AFB, Washington, from Japan, to descend below safe minimums and it impacts on the 5,900-foot level of Warrior Peak in the Mount Constance range in the Olympia National Forest, Washington, killing 16 passengers and crew. The Federal Aviation Administration said that a preliminary investigation showed that a controller gave descent instructions intended for a U.S. Navy Grumman A-6 Intruder en route from Pendleton, Oregon, to NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, to the Military Airlift Command C-141. The two aircraft were both at 10,000 feet, about 60 miles apart. A review of recorded conversations between ATC and pilots showed that the controller - instead of calling "Navy 8323" - radioed "MAC 0641" to descend to 5,000 feet. Sadly, word of the controller's error was received at McChord as memorial services were being conducted for the 10 crew members of the Starlifter. The Navy said that services for the six sailors who were passengers on the flight would be held aboard the ships or stations where they were assigned. The casualties were: USAF - 1st Lt. Earl R. Evans, 28, Houston, Texas; Capt. Frank E. Eve, 27, Dallas, Texas; 2d Lt. Harold D. Arensmen, 25, Irving, Texas, 1st Lt. Stanley Y. Lee, 25, Oakland, California; Lt. Col. Richard B. Thornton, 40, Sherman, Texas; M. Sgt. Robert J. McGarry, 37, Shrewsbury, Missouri; T. Sgt. James R. Campton, 45, Aberdeen, South Dakota; S. Sgt. Peter J. Arnold, 25, Rochester, New York; A1C Robert D. Gaskin, 21, Fremont, Nebraska; Lt. Col. Ralph W. Burns, Jr., 42, Aiken, South Carolina; U.S. Navy - PO1C William Michael Raymond, Coupeville, Washington; Lt. Edwin Wayne Uptegrove, San Diego, California; PO3C Terry W. Howard, Sylmar, California; PO3C John Eves, Ridgewood, New Jersey; CWO Samuel E. Flemming, Alameda, California; and Seaman Donald R. Dickson, Tempe, Arizona.


 * 1971 – First flight of the Westland Lynx helicopter.


 * 1965 – Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142A VTOL transports, 62-5922, crashes at the Vought facility at NAS Dallas, Texas, while flying at 24 mph at an altitude of 10 to 20 feet, striking the ground first with the port wingtip, then with the starboard wingtip, before making a hard landing. The wing at the time was at an angle of 45 degrees with the flaps deflected at 60 degrees. Wingtips, ailerons and outboard engine tailpipes are damaged, but crew is uninjured. Recirculated propwash airflow caused by combination of wing tilt and flap deflection produced large erratic aerodynamic disturbances and loss of directional stability. Aircraft is repaired.


 * 1958 – A Boeing B-47E-25-LM Stratojet, 52-244, c/n 52, of the 306th Bombardment Wing, MacDill AFB, Florida, breaks up over the Avon Park, Florida bombing range.


 * 1958 – Canada’s era of supersonic flight began when pilot Jan Zurakowski took off from Malton Airport near Toronto in an Avro CF-105 Arrow for a 35-minute maiden flight. Less than a month later, Zurakowski flew the Arrow at Mach 1.5 at an altitude of 50000 ft. In spite of the aircraft’s early promise, the Canadian government scrapped the project before the Arrow could be put into production.


 * 1955 – Announcement that Dew Line radar defensive system to be built in Northern Canada and Alaska.


 * 1952 – A USAF North American B-45 Tornado crashes shortly after departure from Reese AFB, Texas, on the return leg of a cross-country training flight to its home base at Langley AFB, Virginia, from Mather AFB, California, killing all four crew. The bomber came down 22 miles (35 km) NW of Paducah, Texas in Cottle County, in a severe dust storm. The wife of a railroad worker, Mrs. I. R. Hull, saw the plane plunge to earth near the small community of Narcisso and notified a funeral home at Paducah. It was several hours before searching parties reached the scene. KWF were pilot 1st Lt. Billy M. Reynolds, 26, Cleveland, Mississippi; Lt. Winfred R. Weller, Denver, Colorado; Cpl. Henry G. Geiger, 19, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Pfc. Thomas F. Penninger, 21, gunner, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harlon M. Penninger, Lubbock, Texas.


 * 1952 – 10 Navy airmen are killed when a four-engine Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol bomber dives into Corpus Christi Bay less than a mile from Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. All aboard the plane are killed. KWF are: four officers, Lt. William Ervin Dozier, Ltjg Bertram Magna Roeder, Delangton Ernest Ruttledge, and Rodney Gwynn Williams; two Naval Air Cadets, Richard Wilfred Augrain, and Robert Benedict Nye; and four enlisted crew, Aviation Machinists Mate Airman Richard Charles Chase, Aviation Machinists Mate Third Class John Leonard Daffenberg, Airman Donald Jarrell Givens, and Airman Apprentice Robert Herman Steinbaugh.


 * 1951 – Flying a U. S. Navy F9 F Panther of Fighter Squadron 191 (VF-191) from the aircraft carrier USS Princeton (CV-37), Ensign Floryan “Frank” Sobieski is blinded by enemy ground fire over Korea. Guided and encouraged by his wingman, Lieutenant junior grade Pat Murphy, and assisted by Princeton’s landing signal officer, Sobieski lands safely aboard Princeton without being able to see. He later recovers full vision.


 * 1946 – A major reorganization of the United States Army Air Forces creates the Strategic Air Command, the Air Defense Command, and the Tactical Air Command.


 * 1946 – Nos. 441, 412, 416, 443 Squadrons (Spitfires) disbanded at Utersen, Germany.


 * 1945 – The Ohka dedicated kamikaze weapon is used operationally for the first time but with no success.


 * 1945 – The Imperial Japanese Navy uses its Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka (“Cherry Blossom”) rocket-powered human-guided anti-shipping kamikaze attack plane operationally for the first time, but without success.


 * 1942 – HMS Eagle makes the second delivery of Spitfires to Malta, flying off nine.


 * 1933 – Fairey’s TSR.1 torpedo spotter-reconnaissance airplane makes its first flight at Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England.


 * 1933 – James L. Kinney makes the first cross-country test of blind flying and landing from College Park, Maryland to Newark, New Jersey.


 * 1931 – Australian National Airways Southern Cloud, an Avro 618 Ten, crashes in the Snowy Mountains while flying from Sydney to Melbourne, killing all eight on board, in Australia's first significant airline disaster; the crash


 * 1930 – The Chilean army and navy combine their air arms into a separate, independent command.


 * 1928 – Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.


 * 1927 – U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-9, BuNo A-6878, flying boat which executed record trip from San Francisco to Hawaii in August–September 1925, repaired and shipped to San Diego, California, crashes and sinks in the ocean this date with total flight time of 190:28 hours.


 * 1927 – John Rodgers Airport (the future Honolulu International Airport) is dedicated in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.


 * 1924 – Martin GMB (Glenn Martin Bomber), USAAS 64308, ex-Post Office (possibly 202), ends cross-country flight to Parris Island, South Carolina, noses over when it hits unmarked ditch on the airfield. Pilot 1st Lt. (later Lieutenant General) Harold L. George reported later that "I also remember being told that it (Parris Island) was an exceptional landing field. It was except that the information had failed to inform me that the Marines had dug a trench across the field. This was not indicated by markers, or in any other way. I didn't know the trench was there until we stopped quickly." Airframe had only logged 99 hours when it was written off.


 * 1919 – First flight of the Thomas-Morse MB-3, first effective U. S.-built fighter.


 * 1918 – First flight of the Curtiss HA Fighter


 * 1918 – Germany launches Operation Michael, marking the beginning of the Kaiserschlacht. In the initial attack against the British front west of St Quentin, the German Army Air Service has 1,680 aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps' 579.


 * 1916 – Captain-Commandant of the United States Coast Guard Ellsworth P. Bertholf orders Coast Guard experimentation with the use of aircraft and directs Third Lieutenant Elmer F. Stone to begin flight training. It is the birth of U. S. Coast Guard aviation. The unit, made up of American volunteer pilots is later renamed the Lafayett Escadrille.


 * 1913 – Heinz “Pritzl” Bär, German fighter pilot, was born (d. 1957). Bar was a WWII fighter pilot and had a total of 221 victories, fighting in all the major German theaters of war, including the Western Front, Mediterranean and Eastern front. He was shot down 18 times during the course of flying about 1000 combat missions.


 * 1910 – Harry Houdini achieves one of the first powered flights in Australia.


 * 1908 – Henri Farman covers 6275 ft in 3 min 47 seconds in his Voisin-Farman No.1 bis at Issy-les-Moulineaux. Henri Farman was a key figure in the early days of European aviation and established several aviation “firsts. ” Born of English parents in Paris in 1874, he first raced bicycles and automobiles. He was involved in a serious auto accident and turned to aviation instead. In 1907, he ordered his first biplane from Gabriel Voisin, a French planebuilder.


 * 1877 – Maurice Farman (1877-1964), aviation pioneer and manufacturer, is born in Paris, France. 1908, he made the first circular flight of more than 1 mi with his brother, Henri.