FEB02

1872 - French navy-engineer Dupuy de Lome achieves 9 to 11 km/h with his muscle powered airship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/February_in_aviation/February_2 - http://www.blimp-n2a.com/histoire.htm

1887 - Birth of Jeffery Batters Home-Hay, Scottish-born Canadian WWI flying ace, commercial pilot Pre and post WWII during which he also served the RCAF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Batters_Home-Hay - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/home-hay.php

1896 - Birth of Ramón Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo de Andrade, Galician pioneer of aviation, a political figure and brother of later dictator Francisco Franco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Franco

1897 - Birth of Lucien Marcel Gasser, French WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Gasser - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/gasser.php

1897 - Birth of Leigh Wade, American Aviator, Raid and test pilot, WWII high ranking officer an retired USAF Major General.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wleigh.htm

1898 - Birth of Richard Pearman Minifie, Australian WWI fighter ace who also served as a squadron leader in the Air Training Corps of the RAAF during WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Minifie - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/minifie.php

1897 - Birth of Jeffery Batters Home-Hay, Canadian WWI flying ace, pioneering bush pilot, Commercial Pilot who served In the RCAF during WWII. He took part in the 1st Canadian transcontinental flight from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Vancouver

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Batters_Home-Hay - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/home-hay.php

1904 - Birth of Valery Pavlovich Chkalov, Russian aircraft test pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Chkalov

1914 - Birth of Wilhelm Balthasar, german Spanish War and WWII fighter ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Balthasar - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/balthasar.html - http://www.cieldegloire.com/001_balthasar_w.php

1914 - Birth of Nicolas Roland Payen, french engineer and 1st designer of the Delta wing. Builder of the world's smallest jet aircraft (Pa-49).

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Roland_Payen

1916 - Zeppelin LZ54 (L19), damaged and with 3 engines over 4 failing, came under Dutch fire. It sank in the North Sea, drowning all crew members.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin_L.19_(LZ_54) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins#Zeppelins_constructed_during_World_War_I

1919 - Death of Leslie Jacob "Rummy" Rummell, American WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Rummell - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/rummell.php

1924 - 1st flight of the FBA 17 HMT 2, French conventional two-bay biplane with unequal-span, unstaggered wings and side-by-side open cockpits with a pusher engine transport flying boat

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=727

1925 - A Breguet 19 flown by Captain Ludovic Arrachart and Captain Henri Lemaître takes off from Paris to Villa Cisneros (Sahara) for a new distance record flight in straight line.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_19#Versions_de_comp.C3.A9tition

1931 - Austrian Friedrich Schmiedl launches his V7 mail rocket with 100 letters aboard from Schoeckel bei Graz to Sankt Radegund, Austria, a distance of 2 kilometers.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schmiedl

1931 - 1st flight of the Latécoère 35, French high-wing monoplane 3 engine transport prototype.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=637

1932 - 1st flight of The Avia B-34, Czech biplane fighter aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avia_B-34

1938 - Death of Enrico Comani, Italian Aviator on a return trip from Brazil with a CANT Z.506B floatplane. After engines failure, they Ditched in a rough sea. To avoid fire and explosion the crew jumped in the water full. One member over 5 survived to sharks.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Comani

1944 - Egon "Connie" Mayer, German WWII fighter ace, becomes the 1st pilot to score 100 victories on the western front shooting down a P-47 whith his FW-90 A-6 near Arguen.

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/mayer.html

1944 - 1st flight of The Republic XP-72, American prototype interceptor fighter developed as a progression of the P-47 Thunderbolt design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XP-72

1951 - 1st flight of the Douglas DC-6B, extended version All-passenger variant of DC-6A, without cargo door.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/douglas_dc-6.php

1954 - Japan Air Lines inaugurates its 1st international service: a twice-weekly route to San Francisco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines#Regulated_era

1957 - Death of Antonio Lippi, Italian Aviator who flew with Italo Balbo on transatlantic flights.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Lippi

1964 - NASA space probe Ranger 6 impacted the Moon on the eastern edge of Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility).The orientation of the spacecraft to the surface during descent was correct, but no video signal was received and no camera data obtained.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_6#Mission_profile

1966 - Pakistan International Airlines Flight 17 Sikorsky S-61N crashed near Fardipur, Bangladesh, because of a mechanical failure due to insufficient lubrication, with the loss of 20 passengers and all three crew. One passenger survived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIA_Flight_17

1966 - 1st flight of production version of the HFB-320 Hansa Jet, German all-metal, twin-engine, 10-seat business jet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HFB-320_Hansa_Jet

1974 - 1st 'Official' flight of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, US multirole jet fighter aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-16_Fighting_Falcon

1987 - PEOPLExpress Airlines, American low-cost airline, ceases operations and merges with Continental.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Express_Airlines#Merger_with_Continental_Airlines

1989 - Swedish jet fighter prototype JAS 39 Gripen crashed when landing in Linköping as a result of pilot-induced oscillation. Test pilot Lars Rådeström was able to walk away with only a broken arm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen#Testing_and_production - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_R%C3%A5destr%C3%B6m

1998 - Cebu Pacific Flight 387, a DC-9-32 travelling from Manila to Cagayan de Oro, crashed on the slopes of Mount Sumagaya in Misamis Oriental.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebu_Pacific_Flight_387

2001 - 1st flight of The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (formerly Predator B), American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), capable of remote controlled or autonomous flight operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper

2009 - Launch of Omid, Iran's 1st domestically made satellite, a data-processing satellite for research and telecommunications, launched by an Iranian-made carrier rocket: Safir 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omid