Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 29

May 29


 * 2013 – A missile fired by an American unmanned aerial vehicle strikes a house in Chamsa, outside Miranshah in North Waziristan, Pakistan, killing six people, including Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan deputy leader Wali-ur-Rehman.


 * 2012 – A Pakistan Air Force F-7PG of the 31 Fighter Wing was destroyed by fire during maintenance at Quetta airbase.


 * 2007 – OH-58D(R) Kiowa 93-0978 from B Troop, 2–6 Cavalry Regiment is shot down between Baquba and Muqdadiyah with small arms, killing the chopper's two pilots.


 * 2004 – First flight of the NAL Saras


 * 2003 – First flight of the Van's Aircraft RV-10


 * 2003 – A man attempts to hijack Qantas Flight 1737, a Boeing 717, in Melbourne, Australia, intending to crash the plane in Tasmania. He is overpowered by the flight crew and passengers, but injures three people.


 * 2002 – First flight of the Aceair AERIKS 200


 * 2001 – A US Navy McDonnell-Douglas FA-18C Hornet from VFA-106 crashed near Fort Pierce, Florida, during a ferry flight from NAS Oceana, Virginia, to NAS Key West, Florida. Pilot was killed.


 * 2001 – Three crew are killed when a Republic of Korea Army Boeing Vertol CH-47D Chinook, of the 301st Aviation Regiment, Icheon, crashes in Seoul, South Korea while installing a torch-shaped sculpture on the Han River Olympic Bridge, built to commemorate the 1988 Olympic Games. The Chinook had just lowered the flame-shaped statuary onto the bridge central tower when its rotors hit the sculpture and then the tower. The front rotor clipped the top of the sculpture and separated from the helicopter which then fell onto the span, breaking in two, with the rear bursting into flame on the bridge and the forward half falling into the river. No other casualties were reported. The bridge had been closed during the installation work. The dead were identified as pilot Chun Hong-yop, co-pilot Nam In-ho and Sgt. 1st Class Kim Woo-soo. Army scuba divers were working to recover the wreckage. Footage of this crash is widely available on the web.


 * 1986 – (29-June 1) The 5th FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Castellón de la Plana, Spain.


 * 1981 – The Bell X-14B, NASA N704NA, originally USAF 56-0422, upgraded from the A-configuration with an onboard computer and digital fly-by-wire control system installed to enable emulation of landing characteristics of other VTOL aircraft, and used in this test role, is damaged beyond repair in a landing accident this date. Airframe was saved from being scrapped and is now under restoration at the Ropkey Armor Museum, Crawfordsville, Indiana.


 * 1980 – Canadian Armed Forces accepted the first CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft at CFB Greenwood, NS.


 * 1977 – The keel of the first aircraft carrier to be built in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is laid at Ferrol.


 * 1975 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6700, Article 367, seventh airframe of first USAF contract, delivered to USAF at Groom Lake in February 1957, but apparently transferred to the Central Intelligence Agency by June 1957, then to Strategic Air Command in fall 1960, converted to U-2C by October 1966. Flyable storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, 1969. Converted for Advanced Location and Strike System (ALSS) project, 1972. Crashed in a heavily wooded area of West Germany ~100 miles NE of Bonn this date, Capt. Robert "Terry" Rendleman, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, escaping unhurt after experiencing flight control problems, aircraft entering Mach tuck at high altitude, forcing pilot to eject. He was taken to hospital in Wiesbaden in good condition, an Air Force spokesman said. Aircraft was on Constant Treat deployment of the ALSS system.


 * 1969 – A USAF General Dynamics F-111 on a training flight out of Nellis AFB, Nevada, crashes from low altitude when deficient wind-shield bulged down from the top of the canopy bow and instantly crazed. Tactical Air Command replaces 50 F-111 windshields in 1969 and 93 in 1970.


 * 1953 – The first of two 40 passenger de Havilland Comets arrived in Ottawa. With the arrival of this Aircraft, the RCAF became the first air force in the world to operate jet transports and the first operator to make scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings.


 * 1952 – aerial refueling is used on a combat mission for the first time, with twelve F-84 Thunderjets of the 159th Fighter Bomber Squadron being refueled by a KB-29 Superfortress on their way to Sariwon


 * 1951 – Cpt C. Blair makes the first solo flight over the North Pole, in a P-51 Mustang


 * 1947 – United Airlines Flight 521, a Douglas DC-4, was a scheduled flight departing from LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland, Ohio. While attempting to take off from runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only six of those survived. It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. This record stood for less than 24 hours when an Eastern Airlines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland killing all 54 aboard.


 * 1947 – Twelve members of the Colombian army air force are injured in the crash landing of their transport at Bogotá, Colombia, after it collided in mid-air with a buzzard.


 * 1947 – A Boeing F-13A Superfortress, 45-21848, c/n 13742, of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, crashes shortly after take off from Ladd Field, Alaska, coming down 3 miles E of Fairbanks, Alaska. Three crew were reported missing while nine others were injured.


 * 1947 – An Army Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster courier plane, 42-72553, c/n 10658, of the 6th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, 5th Air Force, with 33 passengers and eight crew on board crashes into a mountain SW of Tokyo, Japan. An Army announcement said that it had not been determined whether or not there were any survivors. A revised count reported that there were 40 aboard the C-54, 28 enlisted, eight officers, and four civilians, all killed in the crash. They were reported to be burned beyond recognition. The flight, inbound from Korea, had apparently exploded as it approached Tachikawa Airfield for a landing.


 * 1947 – A captured, modified V-2 rocket, launched from White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, at 2030 hrs. CST, fails to reach its maximum altitude, and comes down ~three minutes later, impacting in Tepeyac cemetery, ~six miles S of Juarez, Mexico. Unburnt fuel explodes, with the blast being felt in both Juarez and El Paso, Texas. Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner, commander at White Sands, confirmed by telephone the launch of the rocket, but refused any further comment.


 * 1944 – Luftwaffe fighter ace Friedrich-Karl "Tutti" Müller (140 victories in 600 combat sorties) is killed in a landing accident at Salzwedel, when his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, Werknummer 410827, stalls on landing approach at low altitude. He is posthumously promoted to Oberstleutnant.


 * 1944 – Aircraft carrier USS Block Island is torpedoed and sunk near the Azores. She is the only US Navy carrier lost in the Atlantic.


 * 1941 – The USAAC forms USAAC Ferrying Command|Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic to Britain.


 * 1943 – A merchant aircraft carrier, or “MAC-ship,” puts to sea with a convoy for the first time as MV Empire MacAlpine sets out from the United Kingdom with Convoy ONS 59 bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She carries four Swordfish aircraft of No. 836 Squadron.


 * 1943 – Japanese resistance on Attu ends.


 * 1941 – The United States Army Air Corps forms Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom.


 * 1941 – Geran dive bombers attack a British naval task force as it retires from Crete with evacuated British troops aboard. They fatally damage the destroyer HMS Imperial, sink the destroyer HMS Hereward, and damage the light cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Dido, and HMS Orion. A single bomb that strikes Orion kills 260 and wounds 280.


 * 1941 – Surviving elements of Fliegerführer Irak depart Iraq.


 * 1940 – First flight of the Vought F4U Corsair


 * 1935 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 on 28 May 1935.


 * 1934 – Highland Airways commences the first regular airmail service within the United Kingdom, between Inverness and Kirkwall


 * 1934 – The Collier trophy for the year’s outstanding aviation achievement is awarded in Washington, D.C. to Hamilton Standard Propeller Company for the development of the controllable-pitch propeller.


 * 1929 – Boeing Aircraft of Canada was incorporated by William Edward Boeing of Seattle, Henry Stonestreet Hoffar and Charles George Beeching of Vancouver, to design and build aircraft and to take over, as a going concern, the Hoffar-Beeching Shipyards at Vancouver.


 * 1925 – Alan Cobham lands the prototype de Havilland D.H.60 Moth after flying 1,000 miles to Zurich, Switzerland and back to Croydon, England in a single day.


 * 1923 – Reuben Fleet founds Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.


 * 1910 – Glenn Curtiss flies from Albany NY to New York City, a then-epic flight of about 150 miles. This could loosely be credited as the first air mail flight, for he unofficially carried a letter from Albany’s mayor to the mayor of NYC.


 * 1908 – The first passenger flight in Europe occurs as Henri Farman takes up Ernest Archdeacon for a brief flight at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.