Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 6

March 6


 * 2012 – Turkish Airlines begins twice-a-week service from Istanbul, Turkey, via Khartoum, Sudan, to Mogadishu, Somalia, becoming the first major airline from outside East Africa to offer passenger service to Mogadishu in over 20 years. Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Bekir Bozdağ is aboard the first flight.


 * 2009 – VT-XRM, an NAL Saras prototype operated by the National Aerospace Laboratory, crashes 31 km (19 mi) from Bengaluru International Airport, India, killing all three crew members.


 * 2007 – ANA announces orders for 4 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.


 * 2005 – Air Transat Flight 961, an Airbus A310, suffers rudder failure after takeoff from Varadero, Cuba; the aircraft returns to Cuba with no casulties.


 * 2003 – First flight of the AgustaWestland AW609, a civilian tilt-rotor aircraft prototype.


 * 2003 – Air Algérie Flight 6289, a Boeing 737-200, veers off the runway on takeoff in Tamanrasset, Algeria; 96 of the 97 passengers and all 6 crew members perish.


 * 2003 – Hooters Air begins service, operated by Pace Airlines. The business would last less than three years.


 * 2003 – Continental launches nonstop service from its Newark Liberty International Airport hub to Geneva, Switzerland.


 * 1998 – First flight of the Bell Eagle Eye scaled prototype tilt rotor UAV.


 * 1990 – The last flight of the SR-71 Blackbird takes place, when Lieutenant Colonels Ed Yielding (pilot) and Joseph Vida (reconnaissance systems officer) fly U. S. Air Force SR-71 A serial number 61-17972 from Palmdale, California, to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, setting a Los Angeles, California-to-Washington, D. C. world record time of 1 h 4 min 20 seconds at an average speed of 2,124 mph (3,420 kph). The aircraft is delivered to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum to be put on display


 * 1986 – Japan Air Lines embarks the world’s heaviest man, an 880-lb Austrian flying from Frankfurt, Germany, as a passenger; 16 seats are removed from the cabin to make room for him.


 * 1984 – First B-52 captive test of cruise missile over Primrose Lake bombing range, near Cold Lake, Alberta.


 * 1970 – British European Airways opens its charter service, British European Airways Airtours


 * 1968 – First single Huey turned over to 403 Squadron in Uplands ceremony.


 * 1968 – Air France Flight 212 crashed into the northwestern slope of La Soufrière Mountain, in Guadeloupe with the loss of all 63 lives on board.


 * 1965 – A Sikorsky SH-3 A Sea King makes the first non-stop helicopter flight across North America. The distance traveled is 2,116 miles (3,405 km) and a new distance record for helicopters


 * 1961 – The B-52 H made its first flight. The H model is still in service today.


 * 1951 – The Martin aircraft company gains production rights to the English Electric Canberra as the B-57


 * 1944 – The Lancasters and Halifax’s of Bomber Command began an offensive against the German transport network in occupied Europe, attacking railway yards in France.


 * 1940 – France informs the Finnish government that it will dispatch an expeditionary force including 72 bombers to Finland on March 13, but the Winter War ends before the French force can begin its journey.


 * 1936 – Entered Service: Avro Anson with No. 48 Squadron, Royal Air Force


 * 1935 – ANF Les Mureaux 115R.2


 * 1935 – U. S secretary of commerce signs a special air traffic regulation that prohibits air flights over parts of Washington, D. C.


 * 1927 – Gordon Cooper, astronaut, was born (d. 2004). Gordon “Gordo” Cooper was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned-space effort by the United States. Cooper was launched into space on 15 May 1963 aboard the Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7) spacecraft, the last Mercury mission. He orbited the earth 22 times and logged more time in space than all five previous Mercury astronauts combined – 34 hours, 19 min and 49 seconds, traveling 546,167 miles (878,971 km) at 17,547 mph (28,239 km/h), pulling a maximum of 7.6 g (74.48 m/s²). Cooper achieved an altitude of 165.9 statute miles (267 km) at apogee. He was the first American astronaut to sleep not only in orbit but on the launch pad during a countdown.


 * 1918 – The Finnish Air Force is founded.


 * 1918 – The first successful flight of a powered unmanned heavier-than-air craft, the Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb takes place. It is the precursor to modern unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).


 * 1915 – First fatal accident involving Japanese Naval aviators occurs when Yokosho Navy Type Mo Large Seaplane (Maurice Farman 1914 Seaplane), serial number 15, crashed at sea with Sub-Lieuts. Tozaburo Adachi and Takao Takerube, and W/O 3/c Hisanojo Yanase on board, all KWF.


 * 1913 – The formation of the First Saskatchewan Aviation Co Ltd to teach aviation was announced at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.