Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/October 23

October 23
 * 2009 – Slovakian airline Seagle Air ceases operations.
 * 2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-27 Flogger D/J flying from the Hasimara Air Force Base, Eastern Air Command crashes near New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India. The aircraft on a routine training exercise suffers a technical fault and an on-board engine fire shortly after take-off. After a successful ejection the pilot parachutes into a nearby tea estate and the aircraft crashes into a nearby river bank injuring two children.
 * 2007 – Space Shuttle Discovery STS-120 launches at 15:38:19 UTC. Mission highlights (ISS assembly flight 10A): US Harmony module, crew rotation.
 * 2003 – Concorde makes its final commercial flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK as Speedbird Concorde 1. It was to return the next day as Speedbird Concorde 2 to land in sequence with two other Concordes on Heathrow's runway 27 right.
 * 2003 – AH-64D Apache 00-5219 (ex AH-64A 86-8972) from 1–101st Aviation Regiment crashes in Iraq while approaching to land at Kirkuk. The APU clutch failed and started a fire in flight. Aircraft landed safely but fuselage was almost completely burnt through.
 * 1987 – The last F-104 Starfighter is phased out of West German Luftwaffe service.
 * 1977 – (Oct. 26-31) A Pan American World Airways Boeing 747SP circumnavigates the world over the two poles.
 * 1972 – In Vietnam, Operation Linebacker concludes.
 * 1967 – American aircraft attack Phúc Yên airfield, North Vietnam’s largest airfield, for the first time.
 * 1967 – First flight of the Canadair CL-215
 * 1996 – Fuerza Aérea Argentina Boeing 707-372C, LV-LGP, c/n 20077/728, on approach to Ezeiza-Ministro Pistarini Airport, Buenos Aires, Argentina, makes high approach without proper attention to pre-landing procedures, develops nose-down attitude at 900–1,000 metres, does not have time to correct, strikes ground hard about 750 metres short of runway 11, breaks up, and burns. Two of eight on board are killed.
 * 1964 – U.S. Navy aircraft begin providing cover for Laotian government forces.
 * 1962 – The Air Defence Command alerted due to the Cuban missile crisis.
 * 1962 – In Operation Blue Moon, six U. S. Navy RF-8 Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft flying from Key West, Florida, conduct the first American low-level flights over Cuba, flying at 644 km/hr (400 mph) only a few hundred feet off the ground.
 * 1962 – A USAF Boeing C-135B-BN Stratolifter, 62-4136, c/n 18476/C42, of the Military Air Transport Service, delivering a load of ammunition from McGuire AFB, New Jersey, to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, as part of the military response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, stalls and crashes short of the runway, killing all seven crew. This was the first cargo C-135 hull loss.
 * 1957 – The British European Airways Vickers Viscount 802 G-AOJA crashes while landing in rain and low clouds at Nutts Corner Airport in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing all seven people on board.
 * 1952 – First flight of the Hughes XH-17
 * 1951 – Ten U.S. Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortresses attack an airfield in North Korea; three are shot down, four make emergency landings in South Korea, and three badly damaged aircraft return to Okinawa. It is one of the most deadly aerial combat engagements of the war and is referred to as Black Tuesday.
 * 1945 – The last of 10,174 military DC-3/C-47 transport aircraft built by Douglas is handed over to the U.S. Army Air Forces.
 * 1944 – First flight of the Nakajima G8N
 * 1943 – First flight of the Vickers Windsor
 * 1943 – 45 Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators raid Rabaul, escorted by 47 P-38 Lightnings.
 * 1942 – American Airlines Flight 28, a Douglas DC-3, crashes near Palm Springs, California, after being struck by a U.S. Army Air Corps Lockheed B-34 bomber; all 12 aboard the airliner die, while the bomber lands safely with minor damage.
 * 1939 – First flight of the Mitsubishi G4M
 * 1934 – Francesco Agello sets a new airspeed record in the Macchi MC.72, of 709 km/h (440 mph).
 * 1929 – The first North American transcontinental air service begins between New York City and Los Angeles, California.
 * 1923 – First flight of the Handley Page Hyderabad
 * 1911 – First use of aircraft in war as an Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines during the Turco-Italian War.
 * 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont wins the Archdeacon prize as he flies his 14-bis aircraft at Bagatelle, France a distance of 60 m (197 ft).