Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/October 3

October 3


 * 2013 – Associated Aviation Flight 361 was an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia on a domestic charter flight operated on 3 October 2013 by Associated Airlines Limited out of the domestic wing of Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, en route to Akure Airport, Ondo State. It crashed shortly after take off, killing 15 persons onboard. 5 survived.


 * 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Boliviano Aérospatiale Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama Helicopter (FAB-730) from the Escuadrón 511 crashes into a building wall on the Pampa near the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia leaving 4 crew dead, 1 crew member injured and 1 civilian on the ground injured.


 * 2008 – Deceased: Edsel Dunford, 73, American aerospace engineer, cancer.


 * 2006 – Hakan Ekinci hijacks Turkish Airlines Flight 1476, a Boeing 737-400, over Greece, demanding to be flown to Rome, Italy, to speak to Pope Benedict XVI. Greek and Italian F-16 Fighting Falcons escort the plane to a landing in Brindisi, Italy, where Ekinci is arrested. No one is injured in the incident.


 * 2002 – nited States Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 162594, coded AD 136, of VF-101, suffers dual compressor stalls, both engines shut down, during routine training flight, crashing in the Gulf of Mexico on mission out of NAS Key West, Florida. Pilot and instructor eject safely at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and are rescued with only minor injuries by a Sikorsky UH-3 Sea King helicopter. On 5 May 2006, one of this Tomcat's tailfins is discovered on isolated beach W of Cork, Ireland, having floated 4,900 miles (7,900 km.) across the Atlantic. This was the sixteenth and last Tomcat lost by VF-101 during 30 years of operation.


 * 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-51-J at 15:15:30 UTC. Mission highlights: Second classified DoD mission; DSCS satellite deployment; first flight of Atlantis.


 * 1967 – William J. Knight sets a new airspeed record in a North American X-15, of Mach 6.72 (4,543 mph, 7,297 km/h). This is the fastest flight that the X-15 will make.


 * 1965 – The final elements of the U. S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) to arrive in Vietnam reach its base at An Khe, South Vietnam, bringing the division to full strength there. The division will be the first to place the CH-47 Chinook helicopter in combat; the Chinook’s ability to carry artillery quickly across rough terrain will revolutionize ground warfare.


 * 1963 – The DH 106 Comet aircraft were retired from RCAF service.


 * 1962 – Project Mercury – Sigma 7 launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.


 * 1959 – Five ex-RCAF T-33 s were handed over to Athens in Greece.


 * 1953 – Flying a Douglas XF4D-1, U. S. Navy Lieutenant Commander James F. Verdin sets a world airpseed record over a 3 km (1.9 mi) course of 752.944 mph (1,211.487 km/hr). It is the first time that a carrier-capable combat aircraft in its normal configuration sets a world speed record.


 * 1951 – HS-1 is commissioned, the US Navy's first ASW helicopter squadron


 * 1950 – A U. S. Navy HO3 S-1 helicopter from the light cruiser USS Worcester (CL-144) is assigned to assist minesweepers clearing the harbor at Wonsan, Korea. It is one of the first efforts to use helicopters to assist in naval minesweeping.


 * 1949 – The first (of only two) prototypes of the Kellett XR-10 helicopter, 45-22793, crashes due to a control system failure, killing Kellett's chief test pilot, Dave Driskill. The project was abandoned shortly thereafter.


 * 1946 – A Berlin-bound 4 engine Douglas C-54 named 'Flagship New England' crashed into a mountainside outside of Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The flight, operated by American Overseas Airlines was mostly carrying wives and children of US Army personnel serving in post-war Germany. All 39 people on board died. At the time, it was the worst accident of its kind among US civilian airlines.


 * 1945 – Captured Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 V14, which on 6 September 1945 became the first helicopter to fly across the English Channel when it was moved from Cherbourg to RAF Beaulieu, crashes on third test flight at RAF Beaulieu, when a driveshaft failed. The accident was thought to be due to a failure to correctly tension the steel cables which secured the engine, despite warnings from Luftwaffe helicopter pilot Helmut Gerstenhauer.


 * 1942 – The first A4 rocket, later dubbed the V-2 flies from Peenemünde, covering 190 km (119 miles) in 296 seconds at five times the speed of sound, reaching an altitude of 84.5 km (53 miles).


 * 1941 – The first prototype Heinkel He 177A Greif, V1, CB+RP, is destroyed on landing.


 * 1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia from its colony in Eritrea, beginning the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The Italian expeditionary force has 150 aircraft – Including Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, Caproni Ca.113, and Caproni Ca.133 bombers, Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats, and IMAM R.37bis strategic reconnaissance planes – while the serviceable portion of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force consists only of three small, obsolete biplanes.


 * 1934 – Martin B-12A, 33-171, c/n 545, of the 11th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Group, crashed into Inyo National Forest, California, 3 killed, one bailed out. Surveyed at March Field, California, 7 January 1935. This accident resulted in the grounding of all B-12s. Fault traced to wing and aileron flutter and a backlash developed by the props when the engine was shut down.


 * 1931 – 3-5 – Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn make the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Samushiro Beach, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington in 41 hours in a Bellanca Skyrocket.


 * 1931 – Brazil reestablishes Brazilian Navy control over naval aviation, creating a naval aviation corps which takes over the control of naval aircraft from the general staff.


 * 1925 – (3 or 30) The Royal Navy cruiser Vindictive launches a Fairey IIID floatplane by catapult. It is the first catapult launch of a standard British naval aircraft from a ship at sea.


 * 1910 – The first mid-air collision takes place near Milan. Both pilots, Bertram Dickson and Rene Thomas, survive, but Bertram is badly injured.


 * 1908 – George P. Dicken of the New York Herald becomes the first newspaper reporter to fly in an airplane when he rides as a passenger with Wilbur Wright at Camp d’Auvours.


 * 1901 – Wilhelm Kress trials his Drachenflieger twin-hulled tandem triplane seaplane, the first powered marine aircraft, in Austria-Hungary. It begins to become airborne when Kress slows and tries to turn to avoid an obstruction, capsizing the aircraft.


 * 1900 – Probably on this date, Wilbur Wright makes the Wright brothers’ first glider flight at Kitty Hawk. During their tests, they will fly the 1900 glider both as a glider and as a kite under various wind conditions.


 * 1803 – 3-4 – Frenchman André-Jaques Garnerin covered a distance of 395 km from Paris to Clausen with his Montgolfière.


 * 1785 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard makes the first manned balloon ascent in Germany.