Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/November 26

November 26


 * 2012 – The U.S. Navy begins testing of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75). By the time the testing period ends on 18 December, the X-47B will have made a number of successful test launches and recoveries.


 * 2011 – American aircraft participating in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-Afghan operation against insurgents in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan mistakenly attack a Pakistani border post, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.


 * 2008 – A US Army C-23 Sherpa from 2–641 Aviation Brigade made a wheels up landing at al-Kut, while operating with Task Force 34. None of the four man crew and seven passengers were injured.


 * 2006 – United Airlines Flight 814 returned to Denver Airport after suffering a Coyote strike on take off. The Boeing 737 returned safely.


 * 2004 – USMC Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165838, loses a 20 x 4 inch piece of a prop-rotor blade during test flight in Nova Scotia, Canada, but is able to make safe precautionary landing at CFB Shearwater despite severe airframe vibration. The blade failed after apparently being hit by ice which broke off from another part of the aircraft.


 * 2003 – Concorde G-BOAF MSN 216, makes the very last flight before retirement from London Heathrow to Bristol Filton, the place she was born on 20th April 1979. She went supersonic off the south west coast before returning and making low level flights over Bristol City and Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge, then onto her final landing at Bristol Filton. This was the final flight of Concorde.


 * 1993 – Auckland mid-air collision was an aircraft accident in New Zealand. It occurred when an Aérospatiale TwinStar helicopter and a Piper Archer airplane collided and crashed in central Auckland, killing all four occupants—both civilian pilots and two police officers aboard the helicopter.


 * 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-61-B at 4:26 am EST. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployment, EASE/ACCESS experiment. First Mexican in space, Rodolfo Neri Vela.


 * 1982 – An Indian Air Force Mil Mi-8 crashed in Mizoram province, nine killed.


 * 1979 – PIA Flight 740, a Boeing 707, crashes after a fire in the cabin in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; all 145 passengers and 11 crew die.


 * 1970 – The beginning of Exercise “Acid Test III” where all Canadian military aircraft were tested for their ability to operate in temperatures as low as -60 degrees.


 * 1968 – United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.


 * 1964 – Belgian paratroops are dropped into Congo by the US Air Force.


 * 1958 – A United States Air Force Boeing B-47 Stratojet on Alert Status at Chennault AFB, Louisiana, accidentally ignites RATO assisted take-off bottles, is pushed off runway into tow vehicle, catches fire, completely destroying single nuclear weapon on board. Contamination limited to area within aircraft wreckage.


 * 1957 – First flight of the Piaggio P.166 I-PJAG


 * 1951 – First flight of the Gloster Javelin prototype WD804


 * 1943 – (Overnight) – Japanese aircraft again strike American ships off the Gilbert Islands, scoring no hits. They encounter the first aircraft-carrier-based night combat air patrol in history, consisting of a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber and two F6 F Hellcat fighters. The Avenger shoots down one Japanese plane, but Lieutenant Commander Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare, the U. S. Navy’s second ace in history and first of World War II, is shot down and killed flying one of the Hellcats; he has seven victories at the time of his death.


 * 1941 – Some eight months before the discovery of the nearly intact Akutan Zero, Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2, c/n 3372, coded 'V-172', of the 22nd Air Flotilla Fighter Unit, forced-lands on a beach at Leichou Pantao, China, as lost flight of two runs low on fuel. Discovered mostly intact, dismantled and shipped to United States for testing, this was the first of the type to fall into Allied hands. Later test-flown at Eglin Field, then put on tour as war bond exhibit. Disposition unknown following end of hostilities.


 * 1938 – France lays the keel of its second aircraft carrier, Joffre, intended as the first non-experimental French carrier. Joffre’s construction will be abandoned in June 1940, and she will never be launched.


 * 1932 – One of two Nakajima Navy Experimental Kusho 6-shi Special Bomber prototypes, the first carrier-based dive bomber design in Japan, crashes in a rural area, killing Nakajima test pilot Tsuneo Fujimaki. Observers reported that the pilot made several attempted recoveries but each time the nose pitched down to vertical. Impact is said have driven the airframe two metres into the ground. Further evaluation of the type is suspended. For security purposes, the term "dive-bomber" was not used, the design being described as a "special bomber".


 * 1929 – First flight of the Vickers Type 143


 * 1929 – After taking off from Hal Far, Malta, a Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force Fairey Flycatcher lands aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous, achieving the first night carrier landing by a fleet fighter.


 * 1925 – First flight of the Tupolev TB-1.