Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 23

May 23


 * 2013 – Solar Impulse aircraft HB-SIA completes the second and longest leg of its trip across the continental United States, arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas after a 957-mile (1,541-km) flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, at an average speed-over-ground of 52 mph (83.7 km/h), reaching an altitude of 27,000 feet (8,230 meters). The flight, which takes 18 hours 21 minutes, sets a new world distance record for a solar-powered flight, exceeding the previous record, also established by HB-SIA, in a flight from Switzerland to Spain on 25 May 2012.


 * 2012 – A Pakistan Army School of Aviation Schweizer 300C crashed into the Chenab river in Pakistan, two occupants killed.


 * 2011 – France and the United Kingdom announce that they will begin to use attack helicopters in Libya to increase the accuracy of NATO airstrikes and allow more precise strikes against urban targets.


 * 2006 – A Greek Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 52 Fighting Falcon, 514, of 343 Mira, and Turkish Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon, 93-0684, of 192 Filo, collide over the Aegean Sea as the Greek pilot attempts to intercept the Turkish, after an alleged airspace violation. The Greek pilot, Flight Lieutenant Konstantinos Iliakis, is presumed dead, but the Turkish pilot, 1st Lieutenant Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, is rescued.


 * 2004 – Frontier Airlines begins service to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Billings, Montana; and Spokane, Washington.


 * 1988 – Shamu One, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 painted like and named after a SeaWorld killer whale, begins flying for the airline.


 * 1982 – Argentina loses seven aircraft during raids against British warships in Falkland Sound and San Carlos Water.


 * 1969 – A drunken U.S. Air Force assistant crew chief, Sgt. Paul Adams Meyer, 23, of Poquoson, Virginia, suffering anxiety over marital problems, starts up a Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 63-7789, c/n 3856, of the 36th Tactical Airlift Squadron, 316th Tactical Airlift Wing, on hardstand 21 at RAF Mildenhall and takes off in it at 0655 hrs. CET, headed for Langley AFB, Virginia. At least two North American F-100 Super Sabres from RAF Lakenheath, a C-130 from Mildenhall, and two RAF English Electric Lightnings are sent aloft to try to make contact with the stolen aircraft. The Hercules crashes into the English Channel off Alderney (5000N, 0205W) ~90 minutes later. In the last transmission from Meyer, to his wife, in a link-up over the side-band radio, he stated "Leave me alone for about five minutes, I've got trouble." There is speculation whether the Hercules was shot down. Some wreckage was recovered but the pilot's body was never found. Meyer had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly earlier in the morning in the village of Freckenham and had been remanded to quarters, but sneaked out to steal the Hercules.


 * 1967 – First flight of Hawker Siddeley Nimrod


 * 1967 – President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s administration prohibits any American air attacks within a 10-mile (16-km) radius of Hanoi.


 * 1966 – Death of Ernest William Norton, Welsh WWI flying ace and RAF senior officer post WWI.


 * 1966 – (23-26) Round-the-world demonstration flight by a new Learjet 24 to exhibit its capabilities; flight time was 50 hours and 20 min.


 * 1960 – Death of Julius Buckler, German WWI fighter ace.


 * 1958 – Flying a Douglas F4D-1 Skyray, USMC Major Edward N. LeFaivre breaks 5 world climb-to-height records, including 15,000 m (49,221 feet) in 2 min 36 seconds.


 * 1958 – A Nike Ajax missile of Battery B, 526th AAA Missile Battalion, exploded accidentally at a battery at Site NY-53 near Leonardo, New Jersey at 1315 hrs. on this date, setting off six other missiles of A Section, killing 6 soldiers and 4 civilians. The nearest missile in B Section had its booster ignited by flying shrapnel and it flew into a nearby hill, but the warhead fortunately failed to explode. This was the first fatal Nike Ajax accident. A memorial can be found at Fort Hancock in the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area.


 * 1958 – First flight of The PZL-102 Kos, Polish two-seat touring and training monoplane.


 * 1958 – Birth of Thomas Arthur Reiter, European astronaut and Brigadier General in the Luftwaffe.


 * 1958 – Explorer 1 (first Earth satellite of the USA) stopped transmission of data when its batteries died. It remained in orbit for more than 12 years


 * 1958 – The Short SC.1 VTOL aircraft makes its first hovering flight on 26 May while tethered. The first free hover was 6 Apr 1960


 * 1956 – Retired: of the Douglas X-3 Stiletto


 * 1950 – AWhile flying Supermarine Attacker F.1, WA469, to test airbrakes, Supermarine pilot Leslie R. Colquhoun makes a high-speed run over South Marston airfield, experiences a sudden nose-down pitch as the starboard wingtip folds upwards. Using only the rudder - the ailerons had jammed - he makes a wide circuit and touches down at ~200 knots (370 km/h), coming to a stop just short of the end of the runway with a burst tyre. He receives the George Medal for saving the aircraft under daunting circumstances.


 * 1948 – In the early evening, ex-RAF Handley Page Halifax C.MK 8, registered G-AIZO, ex-PP293, and operated by Bond Air Services Ltd. carrying a cargo of apricots from Valencia, Spain, crashes at Studham, Bedfordshire while on a Standard Beam Approach (SBA) to RAF Bovingdon in bad weather. After a steep turn to port and losing height rapidly, the Halifax sideslips towards the ground until, seeming to recover and flying straight and level and with engines at full power, the aircraft strikes the ground flat and disintegrates, breaking into its component sections. Miraculously, the crew escape alive. After initial suspicions that the cargo may have shifted in flight, the subsequent AAIB report blames loss of control by the pilot while the aircraft was too close to the ground for recovery.


 * 1947 – First flight of the SNCAC NC.1070, French twin engine carrier born bomber prototype.


 * 1945 – (23-25) The seventh Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves 165 kamikazes. They sink a destroyer-transport and two smaller ships and damage a destroyer and a destroyer-transport on May 25.


 * 1944 – First flight of the British Martin-Baker MB 5 (actually second Martin-Baker MB 3), prototype fighter aircraft.


 * 1943 – An aircraft sinks an enemy submarine with air-to-surface rockets for the first time, as a Fairey Swordfish from the British escort carrier HMS Archer sinks the German submarine U-752 in the Atlantic.


 * 1941 – German aircraft attack British positions around Fallujah for the first time, with little effect.


 * 1941 – 24 German dive bombers attack the British destroyers HMS Kelly and HMS Kashmir as they attempt to retire after a patrol north of Crete the previous night, sinking both. Among the survivors is Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten.


 * 1940 – S/L FM Gobeil, an RCAF exchange officer and CO of No. 242 Squadron RAF, was the first RCAF officer to enter combat. He engaged a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Berck, France.


 * 1938 – First flight of the Fiat CR.42, Italian single-seat sesquiplane WWII fighter.


 * 1933 – Birth of Bruce A. Peterson, American engineer and NASA test pilot. He flew a wide variety of airplanes including the F5D-1, F-100, F-104, F-111 A, B-52, NT-33 A Variable Stability Trainer, the wingless lifting bodies and numerous general aviation aircraft as well as several types of helicopters and sailplanes.


 * 1930 – President Herbert Hoover presents the crew of the flying boat NC-4 with gold medals for completing the first transatlantic flight in 1919.


 * 1928 – Umberto Nobile commands the Italian airship Italia on an ill-fated flight over the North Pole. The airship crashes on its way back, and Roald Amundsen is killed trying to rescue survivors.


 * 1925 – Death of Rudolf Rienau, German WWI flying ace, Post War instructor, killed in a flying accident.


 * 1924 – The first scheduled air service in Canada began. Laurentide Air Service Ltd. (which still exists today) offered flights between Angliers, Lake Fortune and Rouyn, Quebec.


 * 1923 – Birth of Walter Wolfrum, German WWII fighter ace (127 credited), and later a successful aerobatics pilot, winning the German Championship in 1962 and taking second place in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1966.


 * 1923 – Belgian airline SABENA is formed, adding new European routes to SNETA's routes in Belgian Congo that it takes over.


 * 1918 – Death of George Edwin Thomson, Scottish WWI fighter ace, Killed in a flying accident on take off.


 * 1917 – First flight of the 5 F.1 Sopwith Dolphin, British WWI biplane fighter aircraft.


 * 1916 – Birth of Tiberiu Vinca, Romanian WWII flying ace


 * 1915 – Birth of James A. "Jim" Chamberlin, Canadian aerodynamicist who contributed to the design of the Canadian Avro Arrow; and NASA's Gemini spacecraft and the Apollo program.


 * 1915 – First flight of the Fokker Eindecker, German WWI monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft.


 * 1915 – Italy enters World War I, declaring war on Austria-Hungary.


 * 1914 – Death of Gustav Hamel, pioneer British aviator, over the English Channel while returning from Paris in a new 80hp Morane-Saulnier monoplane he had just collected


 * 1908 – Crash of the AEA White Wing (or Aerodrome #2), early US aircraft. Unusual for aircraft of its day, it featured a wheeled undercarriage. The wings were equipped with ailerons controlled by a harness worn around the pilot's body; leaning in one direction would cause the aircraft to bank to follow.


 * 1908 – First Airship disaster in the USA. A Morrell airship, 450 ft. long, collapsed 300 ft. above the earth, hurling its 16 occupants at Berkekey Ca.


 * 1908 – The first airplane flight in Italy is made by Léon Delagrange in Rome.


 * 1908 – Birth of Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix who set altitude and speed records, pupil of Michel Detroyat.


 * 1894 – Birth of Edward Robert "Ted" Pennell, British WWI flying ace who served during WWII.


 * 1893 – Birth of Jean Charles Romatet, French WWI flying ace and WWII high-ranking officer.


 * 1881 – Birth of Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, known simply as Sacadura Cabral, Portuguese aviation pioneer.


 * 1848 – Otto Lilienthal, key figure in the history of flying, is born in Anklam, Germany. He became the first man to fly (glide) with both regularity and control. The Wright brothers regarded his 1899 book as their bible.