Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 10

September 10


 * 2009 – A Spanish Air Force Dassault Mirage F1 crashes in the Cazorla Natural Park, near Jaén, Spain, while in a training flight. The pilot ejected and suffered minor injuries.


 * 2009 – An Armada de México Bell 406 Helicopter on a routine patrol crashes near the 27 kilometre post on the Perote-Los Humeros Highway, Veracruz State, Mexico, resulting in 2 crew injured and 3 fatalities.


 * 1993 – Boeing finishes production of their 1,000th 747 airplane, 26 years after the 747 program was launched.


 * 1989 – Flights began carrying about 8,000 East German refugess who were given permission to leave Hungary. Posing as tourists, they promptly announced they were going to remain in West Germany upon arrival.


 * 1981 – British Airways CEO Roy Watts announces a financial crisis for the airline. He states that the company is losing £UK 200 per minute.


 * 1976 – In the worst mid-air disaster to this point, 176 people die when a British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex Adria Douglas DC-9 collide over Zagreb.


 * 1976 – 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision between British Airways Flight 476, a Hawker Siddeley Trident, and Inex-Adria Flight 330, a Douglas DC-9, near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, kills all 176 people on board both aircraft.


 * 1975 – A U.S. Army Bell UH-1H Iroquois from Fort Rucker Army Base, Alabama, on a routine training flight crashes and burns three miles SE of Marianna Municipal Airport, Marianna, Florida, killing all three crew, an instructor pilot and two students, military officials said. The identities of the victims was being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Army officials were investigating the cause of the crash.


 * 1971 – First flight of the Bell 309 King Cobra N309 J


 * 1962 – A USAF Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 60-0352, c/n 18127/466, assigned at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, crashes into a fog-shrouded ravine on 5,271-foot tall Mount Kit Carson, ~20 miles NE of Spokane, Washington, at ~1105 hrs. while on approach to Fairchild AFB, Washington, killing four crew and 40 passengers. Thirty-nine were members of the 28th Bomb Wing, being sent TDY to Fairchild while runways were being repaired at Ellsworth. One civilian was on board. The aircraft mowed through a 25 X 200 yard swath of evergreens before striking the terrain and exploding. Visibility was near zero. Col. Floyd R. Cressman, of Fairchild AFB, said that it appeared that the pilot tried to pull up at the last moment. A spokesman at SAC headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, said that this was the worst accident involving the C-135 type to date.


 * 1960 – NORAD carries out Operation Skyshield, testing US and Canadian radar systems.


 * 1956 – During first flight of North American F-107A at Edwards AFB, California, prototype, 55-5118, experiences problem with engine gear box differential pressure during a dive, North American test pilot Bob Baker lands on dry lakebed at just under 200 knots (370 km/h), after rolling about a mile, aircraft hits a depression in the lakebed, nose gear collapses. Jet slides ~ three-tenths of a mile on its nose, but suffers limited damage, no fire. Total landing roll was 22,000 feet (6,700 m). Airframe repaired in under two weeks.


 * 1956 – Boeing B-50B Superfortress, 47-133, modified as RB-50G with additional radar and B-50D-type nose, of the 6091st Reconnaissance Squadron, out of Yokota Air Base, Japan, disappears over Sea of Japan. Probably went down in Typhoon Emma.


 * 1952 – During a dogfight between two piston-engined United States Marine Corps F4U Corsair fighter-bombers from the escort aircraft carrier USS Sicily (CVE-118) and several MiG-15 jet fighters, Corsair pilot Captain Jesse G. Folmar shoots down a MiG-15 before being shot down himself; he survives and is rescued. It is the only Corsair victory over a MiG-15 during the Korean War.


 * 1952 – A contractor-led team launches the first Boeing XF-99 Bomarc propulsion test vehicle from the Air Force Missile Test Center (AFMTC) at Patrick AFB, Florida, but the test fails.


 * 1950 – (10, 13, and 14) United Nations carrier aircraft soften up targets in the Inchon area in preparation for the landing there.


 * 1949 – First flight of the Nord Noratlas


 * 1945 – Five escort carriers of the British East Indies Fleet’s 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron anchor off Singapore to support Operation Zipper, the British reoccupation of Malaya.


 * 1944 – Nos. 133 and 135 Squadrons were disbanded.


 * 1944 – First flight of the Fairchild C-82 Packet


 * 1943 – (10-12) Allied forces detect only 158 German Luftwaffe sorties against the Salerno beachhead. Allied fighters break up most of the German attacks before they reach the beachhead.


 * 1942 – The United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command establishes the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), an organization of civilian women pilots who ferry military aircraft from factories to airfields to free male pilots for combat duty.


 * 1942 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command employs “Pink Pansy” – A target indicator that creates an instantaneous pink flash – For the first time during a raid by 479 bombers on Düsseldorf, Germany. It is the most successful Pathfinder-led raid yet, but 33 bombers (6.9 percent) are lost.


 * 1942 – No. 422 Squadron RCAF, temporarily operating Saro Lerwick flying boats cast off from RAF No. 4 OTU whilst awaiting arrival of Short Sunderlands, suffers loss of L7267 this date when Plt. Off. Hoare crashes on landing at Lough Erne in good weather, airframe breaks up, sinks, but crew escapes safely. This is the final Lerwick write-off as the type is withdrawn from operation, remaining airframes sent to Scottish Aviation in November 1942 for reduction to salvage. Type had been an utter failure, contributions to U-boat war were negligible. None now exist.


 * 1940 – The Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) forms the Corpo Aereo Italiano (Italian Air Corps) as an expeditionary force for bombing the United Kingdom alongside the German Luftwaffe from bases in Belgium.


 * 1939 – Canada declared war on Germany. RCAF strength at 4061 officers and airmen, eight Permament and twelve Auxiliary squadrons, 270 aircraft of 23 different types. Only the Hurricane was a front-line aircraft.


 * 1939 – First RCAF wartime patol was flown from Dartmouth N. S. by F/L DG Price in a No. 5 Squadron Stranraer flying boat.


 * 1938 – Germany prohibits all foreign air traffic in its airspace except along specific air corridors.


 * 1933 – First flight of the Mignet HM.14


 * 1928 – Charles Kingsford Smith and crew make the first successful trans-Tasman flight.


 * 1919 – The Schneider Trophy race is flown at Bournemouth, UK. An Italian Savoia S.13 is the only finisher, but is disqualified for missing a turning buoy. When judges ask pilot Guido Janello to complete another lap, he runs out of fuel.


 * 1912 – Lts. E. Hotchkiss and C. A. Bettington are killed when their Bristol-Coanda monoplane suffers a structural failure and crashes. This second accident involving a Royal Flying Corps monoplane in five days causes Col. Seely, Secretary of State for War, to issue a ban on monoplanes on 14 September.  The ban will be reversed five months later when technical studies show that monoplanes are no more dangerous than biplanes.


 * 1908 – At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world flight endurance record of 1 h 5 min and 52 seconds.


 * 1907 – First flight of the British Army Dirigible No 1 (christened Nulli Secundus ), the British Army‘s first airship.