Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/October 27

October 27


 * 1993 – Widerøe Flight 744, a De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, crashes in Overhalla, Norway on approach to Namsos Airport, killing both pilots and four passengers; the crash is also known as the Namsos Accident.


 * 1989 – Introduction: ATR 72


 * 1988 – First flight of the ATR 72


 * 1982 – The first CF 18 Hornet arrived to 410 Squadron OTU CFB Cold Lake.


 * 1979 – First flight of the Panavia Tornado ADV


 * 1976 – General Dynamics F-111E-CF, 67-0116, c/n A1-161 / E-2, of the 3246th Test Wing, Armament Development and Test Center, one of two assigned to the base, crashed at Eglin AFB, Florida, upon return from a test mission. Crew, pilot Capt. Douglas A. Joyce, and Capt. Richard Mullane, deployed crew escape module safely and were uninjured.


 * 1965 – A raid by Viet Cong sappers against the U. S. Marine Corps‘s Marble Mountain Air Facility in South Vietnam destroys 13 UH-1E and six UH-34 helicopters and damages four UH-1 Es and 26 UH-34 s.


 * 1962 – The plane of Enrico Mattei, Italian industry’s most relevant figure, crashes in mysterious circumstances.


 * 1962 – A USAF Boeing RB-47H-BW Stratojet, 53-6248, of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, experienced loss of thrust and crashed at Kindley AFB, Bermuda, killing all four crew, aircraft commander Maj. William A. Britton, copilot 1st Lt. Holt J. Rasmussen, navigator Capt. Robert A. Constable, and observer Capt. Robert C. Dennis. Cause was contaminated water-alcohol. This aircraft had spotted the Soviet freighter Grozny with missiles bound for Cuba on its deck on 26 September.


 * 1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson, a Greenville, South Carolina native and 1948 graduate from Clemson University's cadet corps and pilot with the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing is tasked with an overflight of Cuba on mission 3128, in a CIA Lockheed U-2F spy plane, remarked with USAF insignia, to take photos of the Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and SS-5 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBMs) build-ups. Anderson had first qualified on the U-2 type on 3 September 1957. This would be his sixth Cuban overflight. He departed McCoy AFB, Florida at 0909 hrs ET. Contrary to Moscow orders to not engage reconnaissance flights, a single Soviet-manned SA-2 missile battery at Banes fired at Anderson's high-flying U-2F, 56-6676, (Article 343), at 1021 hrs, Havana time (1121 hrs. ET). Although not a direct hit, several pieces of shrapnel punctured the canopy and the pilot's partial pressure suit and helmet, resulting in Anderson's immediate death. A censored Central Intelligence Agency document dated 28 October 1962, 0200 hours, states "The loss of the U-2 over Banes was probably caused by intercept by an SA-2 from the Banes site, or pilot hypoxia, with the former appearing more likely on the basis of present information." Actually, it was both.


 * 1961 – The first Saturn I heavy launch vehicle (SA-1) lifted off from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was a test of the first stage, only. The upper stages were dummies.


 * 1960 – Air Mali (1960–1985) is established


 * 1959 – First flight of the Myasishchev M-50


 * 1959 – Convair YB-58-1-CF Hustler, 55-0669, c/n 10, crashes 7 miles (11 km) W of Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Convair pilot Everett L. Wheeler, and Convair flight engineer Michael F. Keller survive; Convair flight engineer Harry N. Blosser killed. Accident cause was loss of control during normal flight.


 * 1957 – Pioneering Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Caproni dies.


 * 1952 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking T-64 crashed at Morón Air Base.


 * 1950 – A North American AJ-1 Savage, BuNo 124163, of VC-5, fails to climb out on launch from the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, and goes into the water directly off the bow, reportedly off of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Plane Commander was LCDR Dave Purdon, the B/N was LTJG Ed Decker, and the Third Crewman was Chief Edward R. Barrett. Only Decker escapes from the wreckage with minor injuries to be rescued by the plane guard helicopter. Cause was possibly accidental engagement of the flight control gust locks. Newsreel footage of this accident was released through Movietone News.


 * 1949 – Air France Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores. 48 die including French boxing star Marcel Cerdan and the young concert violinist, Ginette Neveu.


 * 1944 – First flight of the Bristol Buckmaster


 * 1943 – During U. S. landings in the Treasury Islands, 25 Japanese Aichi D3A (“Val”) dive bombers attack U. S. ships offshore, damaging a destroyer in exchange for the loss of 12 aircraft.


 * 1941 – Victor Talalikhin, the Soviet Union’s first major air hero of World War II, is killed in action during a dogfight with German aircraft.


 * 1940 – The first 37 AOS graduates passed and were awarded badges at Trenton.


 * 1931 – Entered Service: USS Akron (ZRS-4) with the United States Navy


 * 1931 – The Detroit Aircraft Corporation files for bankruptcy. Eventually, the Lockheed portion of the company is bought out of receivership.


 * 1926 – First flight of the Blériot 165


 * 1918 – Col. William Barker shoots down a German plane over the front lines, then is attacked by a large formation of enemy aircraft. He sends three more German aircraft to the ground, while suffering serious gunshot wounds to his legs and elbow; crash landing near the Allied lines. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.


 * 1917 – Arthur Rhys Davids, English WWI fighter pilot, dies (b. 1897). Davids was credited with having brought down Germany’s Werner Voss on 23 September 1917, in one of the most famous dogfights of World War I.


 * 1909 – Mrs. Ralph van Denman flies for four minutes with Wilbur Wright at College Park, Maryland, becoming the U. S.’s first female passenger.