Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 25

March 25


 * 2013 – Boeing makes the first of two Boeing 787 Dreamliner test flights to show that modifications to the 787's lithium-ion battery system have solved the problem of battery overheating experienced by Dreamliners earlier in the year. The aircraft, bearing the livery of LOT Polish Airlines, departs from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, flies south down the coast of Washington and halfway down the coast of Oregon, and makes a low-altitude, low-speed circle over the Strait of Juan de Fuca before returning without incident.


 * 2011 – French and British jets strike Libyan government tanks and artillery in eastern Libya to help rebel forces to take Ajdabiya.


 * 2011 – The United Arab Emirates commits six F-16 Fighting Falcon and six Mirage fighters to help enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.


 * 2010 – Scottish airline Highland Airways ceases operations.


 * 2010 – A Chilean Army MD Helicopters 530F suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff after disembarking a passenger and crashed. The helicopter was on a mission in the region that was badly damaged by the last earthquake. All 4 crew member were taken to the hospital, three of them with serious injuries.


 * 2010 – A Royal Malaysian Air Force Pilatus PC-7 crashed during an airshow near local university campus. Pilot bailed at low altitude but was killed.


 * 2009 – Medair TC-HEK helicopter crash: A Bell 206L-4 Longranger helicopter of Medair crashes at Mount Keş, Turkey, killing all six people on board.


 * 2009 – The September 2007 approval by the U. S. Department of Transportation for American, Northwest, Continental, Delta, and US Airways to begin service between and Beijing, China, or Shanghai, China, goes into effect.


 * 2009 – An USAF Lockheed Martin F-22A Block 10 Raptor, 91-4008, Raptor 07, of the 411th Flight Test Squadron, 412th Test Wing, crashes in the marshy flat land 6 miles N of Harper Dry Lake near Edwards Air Force Base, California, during a weapons integration flight test mission. The single-seater goes down about 1000 hrs. (1300 hrs. ET) for unknown reasons, the officials said. The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles (56 km) NE of Edwards AFB, where it was stationed, the Air Force said in a news release. KWF was David Cooley, 49, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin Corp., the plane's principal contractor, in 2003. Cooley, of Palmdale, was pronounced dead at Victor Valley Community Hospital in Victorville, California. An Air Force investigation finds that the accident occurred after the pilot lost consciousness in a high-gravity maneuver. The reports stated that during the third test of the mission the pilot appeared to have been subjected to increased physiological stress and his lack of awareness delayed a recovery maneuver. At 7,486 ft MSL, the pilot initiated ejection outside of the seat design envelope and immediately sustained fatal injuries.


 * 2008 – Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 810, a Boeing 747-300 (TF-ARS) on wet-lease from Air Atlanta Icelandic catches fire on landing at Dhaka-Zia International Airport in Bangladesh. Though all 326 aboard escaped with their lives, the aircraft would be written off.


 * 2006 – A revolutionary scramjet jet engine Hyshot III designed to fly at seven times the speed of sound is successfully tested at Woomera, South Australia.


 * 2000 – A Uralex Antonov An-32 (D2-MAJ) crashes after experiencing a brake failure on takeoff after trying to avoid a hole on the runway. The aircraft loses control, hits another hole and breaks into two pieces. Of the 33 occupants, 3 are killed.


 * 1993 – The first woman Concorde pilot makes her first flight as First Officer of the daily supersonic London-New York route. British-born, Barbara Harmer, is one of only 17 co-pilots in the British Airways Concorde fleet.


 * 1993 – A US Navy Grumman E-2C Hawkeye, BuNo 161549, c/n A082, of VAW-124, crashes into the Ionian Sea off of southern Italy0] shortly after being waved off from the USS Theodore Roosevelt due to a fouled deck. The aircraft had been monitoring nightly drops of humanitarian aid to Muslims in eastern Bosnia, and was returning to the carrier when it was sent into the holding pattern. The radar plane then disappeared ~one mile from the ship without any radio call and no cause was determined for the loss. KWF were Lt. Cmdr. Jon A. Rystrom, Lt. William R. Dyer, Lt. Robert A. Forwalder, Lt. Patrick J. Ardaiz, and Lt. John A. Messier.


 * 1983 – As a consequence of the March 4 and 5 incidents, the American government bans use of American airspace by Cubana de Aviación for 14 days.


 * 1981 – Piedmont Airlines announces an order for eight more Boeing 737 s with options for 20 more, to begin delivery in 1982. Order will makes their 737 fleet the largest in the world.


 * 1979 – QANTAS retires its last Boeing 707 and becomes the world's first airline with a fleet of exclusively Boeing 747s


 * 1978 – A Burma Airways Fokker F-27 Friendship (XY-ADK) crashes into a paddy field immediately after takeoff from Okaraba, Burma, killing all 48 on board.


 * 1977 – The YC-141 B “stretched” cargo aircraft completed its first test flight.


 * 1971 – First flight of the Ilyushin Il-76 SSSR-86712


 * 1968 – Four F-111As flew the first F-111 combat mission from Takhli AB, Thailand, under radar control to target areas northwest of Doug Hoi, North Vietnam.


 * 1966 – Lt. Col. R. C. W. Blessley flew an F-111 A on the longest low-level penetration flight to date (1,201.8 miles). He flew 1,000 feet above terrain ranging from 500 feet to over 10,000 feet.


 * 1958 – The first Canadian-Built supersonic aircraft, the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow made its first test flight in Malton, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The long-range, all- weather, super-sonic interceptor was to be an eventual replacement for the CF 100. This Aircraft was considered decades ahead of its time and far superior to any aircraft in the interceptor role. Unfortunately, the economic situation in Canada resulted in the disbandment of the Arrow program. Many still consider the loss to be Canada’s most devastating blow to the Aircraft industry.


 * 1958 – A Braniff Airlines Douglas DC-7 (N5904) departs Miami, Florida, and tries to return to the airport after an fire on the #3 engine but did not make it. Of the 24 on board, 9 perish in a marsh.


 * 1956 – First prototype Martin XB-51, 46-0685, crashes in sand dunes near Biggs AFB, El Paso, Texas, killing both crew. Pilot was Maj. James O. Rudolph, 36, who was dragged from the crash site with severe burns and conveyed to Brook Army Hospital at San Antonio where he succumbed to his injuries 16 April 1956. The flight engineer was S/Sgt. Wilbur R. Savage, 28, of Rte. 3, Dawsonville, Georgia. The aircraft was staging to Eglin AFB, Florida at the time of its crash for filming of scenes for the motion picture Toward the Unknown. After stopping for refuelling, the bomber began its take-off run at 1030 hrs., but smashed through the fence at the end of the southwest runway and then began to disintegrate, spreading wreckage along a 250-yard trail. There was some initial confusion about the aircraft type as rescuers found the "Gilbert XF-120" name applied to the airframe for the film on the wreckage.


 * 1955 – During a test flight with afterburner, the Lockheed XF-104 achieves a speed of Mach 1.79 (1,324 mph, 2,130 km.hr).


 * 1955 – First flight of the Vought F-8 Crusader


 * 1954 – An Aeronaves de Mexico Douglas DC-3 (XA-GUN) crashes into Friar’s Peak while descending in Monterrey, Mexico, killing all 18 aboard.


 * 1950 – A Devlet Hava Yollari Douglas DC-3 (TC-BAL) catches fire while on approach to Ankara, Turkey. The crew became incapacitated and the aircraft fell short of the runway, resulting in the deaths of all 15 occupants.


 * 1950 – A Mandated Air Lines Lockheed 414-08 Hudson IVA crashes into a house while trying to make an emergency landing back at Law-Nadzab Airport in Papua New Guinea. After experiencing a failure of engine #1, and then had to execute a go-around because of traffic on the runway, and subsequently hit telephone wires. There was 1 survivor among the 3 aboard.


 * 1948 – 1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes: Two large tornadoes strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, damaging or destroying a large number of aircraft including at least two Douglas C-54 Skymasters, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, and many Boeing B-29 Superfortresses stored from World War II.


 * 1945 – Japanese aircraft make their last raid on Iwo Jima. U. S. Army Air Forces P-61 Black Widow night fighters based on the island shoot down several of the Japanese planes and drive off the rest.


 * 1945 – The Japanese high command issues an alert for Operation Ten-Go, a concentrated air attack against amphibious forces preparing to invade Okinawa.


 * 1944 – A British twin-engined aircraft lands on an aircraft carrier for the first time when Lieutenant Commander E. M. Brown lands a navalized de Havilland Mosquito VI on the British carrier HMS Indefatigable.


 * 1944 – 74 airforce POWs escaped from Stalag Luft 3 in Sagan. 50 later captured and executed including 6 Canadians.


 * 1942 – Test pilot Fritz Wendel takes Messerschmitt Me 262V1, PC+UA, on its first jet-powered flight but experimental BMW 003 gas turbine engines both fail and he has to limp the prototype airframe back to Augsburg on the nose-mounted Jumo 210 piston engine installed for initial airframe testing


 * 1940 – The US government grants permission to the country's aircraft manufacturers to sell advanced combat aircraft to nations fighting the Axis powers.


 * 1939 – Ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Nationalist and Republican officials which include a Nationalist demand that all Spanish Republican Air Force aircraft fly to Nationalist airfields to surrender on this day are broken off when Republican aircraft do not surrender. A major motivation for the Nationalist demand is to prevent Republican leaders from fleeing Spain by air; six Republican aircraft carry officials and refugees from central Spain to France on this day.


 * 1932 – Dobrolyot is expanded into a USSR-wide service and has its name changed to Aeroflot


 * 1931 – First flight of the Hawker Fury


 * 1928 – Jim Lovell, American astronaut was born. James “Jim” Arthur Lovell, Jr., is most famous as the commander of Apollo 13, which suffered an explosion en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission control.


 * 1926 – Willie Messerschmitt, a graduate of Munich Technical High School and already an experienced designer of light aircraft and sailplanes, forms the Messerschmitt Flugzeugbau G. m. b. H.


 * 1924 – Royal Air Force (flag pictured) officers McLaren, Plenderleith, and Andrews set off in an attempted round-the-world flight in a Vickers Vulture II. Their attempt will ultimately fail in Siberia in early August.


 * 1922 – One of the first small commercial transport aircraft built upon experience from passenger flying and the requirements of airline operators, makes its first flight from Edgware, near London. The 10-seat passenger D. H. 34, with a top speed of 128 mph and a cruising speed of 105 mph has a range of 365 miles. Daimler Hire used six D. H.34′s and Instone used four, while one was sold to Dobrolet, the Russian airline. When Imperial Airways was formed in 1924 it took over seven D. H.34 s and used them over the next two years before deciding to re-equip with larger aircraft.


 * 1918 – Ensign John McNamara makes the first US Navy attack on a submarine.


 * 1917 – One of the greatest fighter pilots of WWI, Canada-born Lt. Col. William Avery Bishop, scores his first combat victory over an Albatros single-seat fighter while flying a Nieuport.


 * 1910 – The first aeroplane flight over a Canadian city, New Westminster, BC, was part of a 26 mile trip made by C. K. Hamilton on a Curtiss pusher biplane from Minoru Park near Vancouver, BC.