Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 22

September 22


 * 2012 – A Ukrainian Air Force Aero L-39 crashed after an engine fire on take-off from Chuguyiv airfield, pilot killed.


 * 2009 – An Iranian Air Force Ilyushin Il-76MD AWACS equipped aircraft collided with another Iranian Airforce Northrop F-5E Tiger II during a military parade near Varamin, Iran resulting in 7 fatalities.


 * 2006 – Introduction: Boeing EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack aircraft to the U. S. Navy test site at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.


 * 2006 – Retired: Grumman F-14 Tomcat


 * 2003 – David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon from New Brunswick, Canada to Ireland.


 * 1995 – A USAF Boeing E-3B Sentry, 77-0354, c/n 21554, of the 962d AACS, 552d ACW, crashes shortly after take off from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, when a flock of Canadian snow geese were ingested by its engines. All 24 crew members die, including 2 Canadian air crew members. This was the first loss of an E-3 since the type entered service in 1977.


 * 1994 – Two RAF SEPECAT Jaguars and a USAF A-10 attack and destroy a Serbian T-55 tank


 * 1993 – In the second of the three Transair Georgia airliner shootdowns, a Tupolev Tu-154, carrying soldiers from Tbilisi, is shot down on landing in the Sukhumi-Babusheri Airport; the plane crashes on the runway and catches fire, killing 108 of the 132 people on board.


 * 1987 – A U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A-70-GR Tomcat, BuNo 162707, of VF-74 out of NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, operating from the USS Saratoga, accidentally shoots down a USAF RF-4C-22-MC Phantom II, 69-0381, 'ZR' tailcode, of the 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, out of Zweibrücken Air Base, West Germany, at 1550 hrs. EDT over the Mediterranean during a NATO exercise, DISPLAY DETERMINATION. Both RF-4C crew eject, pilot Capt. Michael Ross of Portsmouth, Ohio, and WSO Lt. Randy Sprouse of Sumter, South Carolina, both of the 38th TRS, and are rescued by a helicopter from the Saratoga within 30 minutes, suffering numerous injuries. A Navy spokesman said that the F-14 downed the RF-4C with an air-to-air missile, but did not know whether it was a Phoenix, a Sparrow or a Sidewinder. This was likely due to insufficient information being relayed to the spokesman; recovery of the F-14 aboard Saratoga makes it obvious the missile was an AIM-9 Sidewinder. When told by the Saratoga's Admiral that they had been shot down, Sprouse remarks "I thought we were supposed to be on the same side?" to which the Admiral replies "We're sorry about this, but most of the time we are." The Tomcat pilot is duly disciplined and permanently removed from flying status.


 * 1980 – Iraq attacks Iran, various military bases and oil wells affected.


 * 1978 – A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3B-75-LO Orion, BuNo 152757, c/n 185-5199, of VP-8 on flight out of Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, at 1205 hrs. en route to Trenton, Ontario for display at an air show, explodes in the air eight-ten minutes later and comes down over Poland, Maine. Cause is thought to be failure of number one (port outer) engine nacelle due to "whirl-mode" in turbulence; engine separates along with 11 feet of outer port wing, strikes and shears off the port horizontal stabilizer. Aerodynamic forces then cause loss of other three engines, starboard wing fails at fuselage, which rolls inverted and impacts ground. Much of the debris comes down near the intersection of Route 11 and Megquier Hill Road, but pieces are scattered in a wide area around the site. No homes are hit, but the nearest residences to the wreckage are only a few hundred feet away. The blast blows out some of the windows in a nearby house. The eight crew are KWF: Lt. Commander Francis W. Dupont, Jr., Lt. j.g. Donald E. Merz, Aide-de-camp Larry R. Miller, Lt. j.g. George D. Nuttelman, Aviation ASW Operator 3rd Class Robert I. Phillips, Aviation ASW Operator 3rd Class James A. Piepkorn, Aviation ASW Operator Striker Paul.G. Schulz, and Lt. j.g. Ernest A. Smith.


 * 1976 – Two CF-5 s carried out reece of Soviet ice island NP-22 in Canadian Arctic territory.


 * 1974 – Introduction: Grumman F-14 Tomcat


 * 1972 – The 1,000th Boeing 727 is sold, a sales record for airliners


 * 1967 – North American Aviation and the Rockwell-Standard Corporation merge to form the North American Rockwell Corporation.


 * 1966 – The Surveyor 2 crashes on Moon due to a mid-course correction failure.


 * 1966 – Ansett-ANA Flight 149, a Vickers Viscount, crashes in Australia, killing all 24 people on board.


 * 1965 – Sikorsky HSS-1N Seabat, BuNo 147631, c/n 58-1145, coded '141', ex-'H-5', exx-'B-5', of the Koninklijke Marine, crashes into the ocean off of Scotland.


 * 1963 – MATS Douglas C-133A-15-DL Cargomaster, 56-2002, c/n 45167, of the 1607th Air Transport Wing, with ten personnel of the 1st Air Transport Squadron on board, is lost in the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Dover AFB, Delaware to the Azores when contact is lost some 57 minutes after a 0233 EDT take-off from Dover. Last reported position was ~30 miles off of Cape May, New Jersey.


 * 1954 – A USAF North American EF-86D-5-NA Sabre, 50-516, crashes and burns on take-off from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida killing the pilot. After briefly becoming airborne, it settled back onto the runway's end, continues off the overrun area and comes to rest in a marshy stream bed ~1,000 feet (300 m) to the north.


 * 1950 – Col David Schilling makes the first crossing of the Atlantic in a jet fighter, a F-84 Thunderjet.


 * 1949 – First flight of the Convair T-29.


 * 1947 – First (of four) Saab J 21R jet conversions from Saab J 21A-1, 21119, first flown 10 March 1947 after modification, is destroyed this date in a mid-air explosion.


 * 1945 – On first day of planned two-day exhibition of captured German aircraft at Freeman Field, Indiana, pilot Lt. William V. Haynes, 20, completes his flying routine in one of the eight remaining Focke Wulf Fw 190s at the base, (this being the same Fw 190D-9, Werke Nummer 211016, coded FE-119, that he had ferried from Newark, New Jersey to Freeman on 13 September), when, as he prepares to land, at ~300 feet AGL, the aircraft pitches up and rolls over, bellying into the ground nose up. Aircraft destroyed, pilot killed. Although investigation cites "pilot error" (it was thought he may have attempted a wing-over at too low an altitude for recovery), this may well have been another example of the faulty electrical horizontal trim switch problem that caused the loss of the Fw 190 at Hollidaysburg Airport, Pennsylvania on 12 September. Recent excavations at the former Freeman Field have uncovered various aircraft components that were apparently buried to dispose of them when the base was being shut down in 1947–1948.


 * 1943 – Allied forces land at Finschhafen, New Guinea. A raid by 41 Rabaul-based Japanese aircraft inflicts no damage on the Allied ships involved, demonstrating that Allied fears that their ships could not operate survivably in the Solomon Sea and Bismarck Sea are no longer warranted.


 * 1943 – 22-24 – Ernst Jachmann flies his single-seat glider 55 hrs and 51 min in a thermal.


 * 1940 – First flight of the Heinkel He 280


 * 1938 – First flight of the Curtiss-Wright CW-21.


 * 1938 – RAF de Havilland DH. 93 Don, L2391, of the A&AEE, crashes while landing at RAF Martlesham Heath. An overheating engine cuts out on approach and aircraft undershoots, demolishing airframe. L2391, which had first flown on 13 June 1938, suffers a collapsed undercarriage and detached engine, but no crew aboard is seriously injured. This is the only write off of the 50 built. The Don will not last long in service, being replaced by the versatile Avro Anson.


 * 1934 – Sir Alan Cobham sets out in an Airspeed Courier in a failed attempt to fly non-stop from England to India


 * 1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 flying boat piloted by Flight Sub-Lieutenant N. Magor sinks the German submarine UB-32 in the North Sea. It is only time an aircraft sinks a German submarine during World War I.


 * 1914 – In the first British air raid against Germany in history, Royal Naval Air Service BE.2 aircraft of No. 3 Squadron based at Antwerp, Belgium, attack German airship hangars at Cologne and Düsseldorf, Germany, but fail to inflict damage due to bad weather and the failure of bombs to explode.


 * 1902 – Stanley Spencer becomes the first Englishman to fly in a powered airship over England. The 75-foot-long dirigible is powered by a 3-hp water-cooled engine and makes a flight of 30 miles.