Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 28

March 28


 * 2013 – Two United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bombers make the first nonstop B-2 flight to and from the Korean Peninsula, departing Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, bombing a target range on a South Korean island, and returning in a 37½-hour flight. The flight, part of the annual Foal Eagle field training exercise, is intended to signal American support to South Korea in the face of belligerent North Korean rhetoric.


 * 2012 – A United States Air Force F-15E crashed in southwest Asia on a non-combat mission. The pilot was killed and a crewman got injured.


 * 2012 – An Angolan Air Force Aerospatiale SA316B helicopter crashed near Lunondo, Angola, killing two and injuring four.


 * 2011 – British jets bomb ammunition bunkers in southern Libya and destroy 22 tanks, other armoured vehicles, and artillery pieces in the vicinity of Ajdabiya and Misrata.


 * 2011 – (Overnight) Coalition aircraft fly 115 strike sorties against targets in Libya.


 * 2005 – Chicago Express Airlines, also known as ATA Connection, ceased operations.


 * 2003 – Two AH-64D Apaches, 97-5032 of A Company and 98-5068 of B Company, 2–101st Aviation Regiment crash in Iraq; one pilot injured.


 * 2003 – OH-58D Kiowa 95-0006 from A Troop, 2–17th Cavalry Regiment crashes in Iraq, pilots survive.


 * 1990 – The Boeing 737 becomes the world’s best-selling jetliner when United Airlines accepts delivery of the 1,832nd 737.


 * 1981 – Air France pilot Michel Breton flies the airline's last Sud Aviation Caravelle service, from Amsterdam to Paris.


 * 1981 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 206, a Douglas DC-9, is hijacked by Komando Jihad, the pilot is killed; all others survive.


 * 1980 – The 1,000th production Learjet is delivered.


 * 1980 – First flight of the British Aerospace Jetstream


 * 1970 – A United States Navy F-4 J Phantom II fighter of Fighter Squadron 142 (VF-142) shoots down a North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighter. It is the only American air-to-air kill in the Vietnam War between September 1968 and 1971.


 * 1961 – ČSA Flight 511, an Ilyushin Il-18, crashed in Gräfenberg, West Germany. All 52 passengers and crew on board were killed.


 * 1961 – The Royal Canadian Air Force took a delivery of the first CF-104 Starfighter. Capable of flying at over 1,400 miles per hour; it carried nuclear bombs, the CF-104 fulfilled Canada’s NATO commitment in Europe as a nuclear strike aircraft.


 * 1961 – Air Afrique is formed


 * 1957 – First flight of the Canadair CP-107 Argus.


 * 1956 – A Boeing B-47B-35-BW Stratojet, 51-2175, of the 3520th FTW, McConnell AFB, Kansas, suffers explosion in bomb bay fuel tank and sheds its wings over East Wichita, Kansas, crashing four miles (6 km) NE of the city, killing three crew. The office of information services at McConnell Air Force Base, said the explosion occurred after takeoff, probably at about 2,000 feet (610 m) altitude. Lt. Maurice Boyack, pilot of a Navy Lockheed P2V Neptune bomber, out of Naval Air Station Hutchinson, Kansas, said the explosion occurred in a climbing turn. He flew his bomber to a point where he could see the wings rip off the B-47. He said it appeared there was a fire in the midsection, followed by the explosion. Fire fighters battled the blaze at the crash scene for more than an hour. The plane crashed within 1,000 feet (300 m) of two large suburban houses. Officials at McConnell AFB identified the pilot and instructor as Capt. William C. Craggs of Wichita. He is survived by his widow and two sons. The students were Lt. Col. William H. Dames, 39, of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin whose wife and two sons are reported to be living in Milwaukee; and 1st Lt. John C. Leysath, 24, of North, South Carolina.


 * 1952 – Entered Service: Convair CV-340 with United Air Lines


 * 1948 – B-29 Superfortresses undergo aerial refueling tests, demonstrating the viability of this technique to extend the range of strategic bombers.


 * 1947 – First RCAF helicopter crash on take-off.


 * 1947 – A dual ceremony, the first two Douglas DC-6 commercial airliners are delivered to American Airlines and United Air Lines.


 * 1944 – Japanese torpedo bombers attack U. S. Navy Task Force 58 as it approaches the Palau Islands, doing no damage.


 * 1943 – 57 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft – 18 Aichi D3 A (Allied reporting name “Val”) dive bombers and 37 Mitsubishi A6 M Zeros – Attack Allied shipping in Oro Bay off New Guinea, sinking a United States Army transport and a Dutch merchant ship.


 * 1941 – During the Battle of Cape Matapan in the Mediterranean Sea, Swordfish and Albacore torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier HMS Formidable and land-based Fleet Air Arm Swordfish from Maleme, Crete, damage the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto and heavy cruiser Pola, slowing Pola. In the predawn darkness of the next morning, British battleships catch up to the damaged Pola and the four ships accompanying her – The heavy cruisers Zara and Fiume and two destroyers – And sink all five ships with gunfire.


 * 1936 – National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) commences operational use of the newly constructed 8-ft.-high speed tunnel (8-Foot HST) at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Langley, Virginia. Built as a companion to the full scale tunnel capable of simulated speeds of up to 118 mph, the new facility can test models and components to 577 mph (Mach 0.75).


 * 1933 – The City of Liverpool disaster was the fatal accident of an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy II aeroplane flown by British airline Imperial Airways named City of Liverpool on 28 March 1933 near Dixmude, northern Belgium after an onboard fire. All 15 onboard were killed. At the time it was the deadliest accident in the history of British civil aviation. It has been suggested that this was the first airliner ever lost to sabotage, and in the immediate aftermath suspicion centred on one passenger, Dr. Albert Voss, who seemingly jumped from the aircraft before it crashed.


 * 1931 – Boeing Air Transport, National Air Transport, Varney Airlines and Pacific Air Transport combine as United Air Lines, providing coast-to-coast passenger service and mail service. It takes 27 hours to fly the route, one way.


 * 1931 – First flight of the Mitsubishi 2MR8


 * 1920 – Croydon replaces Hounslow Heath Aerodrome as London’s airport.


 * 1918 – Sole prototype of the Breguet LE (Laboratoire Eiffel), a single-seat fighter monoplane, crashes on its second flight, out of Villacoublay, France, when it dives into the ground at full-throttle, killing pilot Jean Sauclière. Further development suspended.


 * 1913 – Lts. Thomas DeWitt Milling and William C. Sherman set a two-man duration and distance record of four hours and 22 min for 220 miles from Texas City, Texas to San Antonio.


 * 1910 – Henri Fabre makes the first flights in a seaplane at Matigues, France


 * 1908 – Leon Delagrange makes the first passenger flight, taking Farman aboard his Voisin biplane at Issy-les-Moulieaux.


 * 1843 – William Samuel Henson (1805-1888) receives the patent and publishes in London his design for an Aerial Steam Carriage. This is the first reasoned, formulated, and detailed design for a propeller-driven aircraft.