JAN08

1863 - Birth of Léon Levavasseur, French powerplant engineer, aircraft designer and inventor. His innovations included the V8 engine, direct fuel injection, and evaporative engine cooling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Levavasseur

1881 - Birth of William Thomas Piper Sr., American airplane manufacturer, and founder, eponym, and 1st president of Piper Aircraft Corporation. Piper served in the Spanish-American War and WWI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Piper

1886 - Birth of Robert Heibert, German WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Heibert - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/heibert.php

1892 - Birth of Otto Creutzmann, German WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Creutzmann - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/creutzmann.php

1893 - Birth of Ernst Hess, German WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Hess - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/hess.php

1894 - Birth of Friedrich Theodor Noltenius, German WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_T._Noltenius - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/noltenius.php

1896 - Birth of Steponas Darius (known as Stephen Darius in the USA; born Steponas Darašius), Lithuanian-American raid pilot.

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

1897 - Birth of William Frederick James "Jim" Harvey, British WWI fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Frederick_James_Harvey - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/harvey.php

1898 - Birth of Thomas Sinclair Harrison, South African WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sinclair_Harrison - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/safrica/harrison2.php

1910 - 1st flight in Mexico is made by Alberto Braniff over the "Jardín Balbuena", this place becoming the 1st aerodrome of th country.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jard%C3%ADn_Balbuena

1919 - Death of Max Näther, German WWI fighter ace, probably the youngest German Ace in WWI, Killed by ground fire when flying over Kolmar during the border war with Poland that followed Germany's defeat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_N%C3%A4ther - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/nather.php

1927 - Thomas Neville Stack and Bernard More Troughton Shute Leete reach Karachi, India with their de Havilland DH.60 coming from UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Neville_Stack#England_to_India

1927 - A de Havilland DH.66 Hercules, British seven-passenger, three-engined airliner, complete an inaugural (62 hrs 27 min) flight from Croydon UK to Delhi, India.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Hercules - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Airways#Route_Proving

1929 - The sole SPCA 10, French 3 engine high wing patrol flying boat, dove into sea killing all 5 on board.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4568

1932 - 1st flight of the Nieuport-Delage NiD-628, French sesquiplane fighter prototype, reengined version of the NID.62.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=672

1933 - A Kawanishi H3K1 flying boat, the largest design in the Pacific at the time, crashes while alighting at night at Tateyama on a training flight, cause given as a slow-reading altimeter. Noted naval aviator Lt. Cmdr. Shinzo Shin killed, as are two more of nine crew.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1925%E2%80%931934)

1934 - Frances Harrell Marsalis and co-pilot Helen Richey set a women's flight endurance record of 237 hours, 42 minutes.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=68054616

1942 - Birth of Vyacheslav Dmitriyevich Zudov, USSR cosmonaut.

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

1943 - Death of Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary, Battle of Britain pilot, WWII flying ace and author (The Last Enemy) during a night training flight on a Bristol Blenheim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hillary#Return_to_flight.2C_and_death - http://www.cieldegloire.com/002_raaf_hillary_r_h.php

1944 - 1st flight of The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, 1st jet fighter used operationally by the USAF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-80_Shooting_Star

1945 - 1st flight of the The Mitsubishi J8M Shusui, Japanese WWII rocket-powered interceptor aircraft closely based on the German Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. The prototype was towed aloft, water ballast added in place of the fuel tank and rocket engine to test its aerodynamics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_J8M#Operational_history

1945 - Pan Am flight 161 Martin M-130 "China Clipper" came down too low and hit the water at a high speed and nose down over a mile out from the intended landing area and is destroyed in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, killing 23 over 30.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Clipper#Loss

1947 - 1st flight of The Yakovlev Yak-19, prototype Soviet jet fighter aircraft, 2nd Yakovlev jet fighter after the Yak-15, 1st OKB aircraft designed from the onset to have an all-metal stressed skin, and a hydraulic system, 2nd Soviet aircraft to use an afterburning turbojet, the Klimov RD-10F, and last Yakovlev Aircraft to use a version of the German Jumo 004-derived RD-10 jet engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-19

1948 - 1st flight of The Lavochkin La-15 (GAZ-21 product code Izdeliye 52, USAF reporting name Type 21, NATOname Fantail), early Soviet jet fighter and a contemporary of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavochkin_La-15

1949 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier MS-700 N°1, French 4 seat twin engine low wing monoplane tourer prototype.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9799

1950 - Last flight of the Sud-Ouest SO 8000 Narval, French prototype Carried born Fighter, twin-boom configuration with sweptback wing, pusher engine driving contra-rotating propellers.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/so_narval.php

1959 - 1st flight of The Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy, British post-war military transport/cargo aircraft and last aircraft produced by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_AW.660_Argosy

1959 - Southeast Airlines Flight 308 Douglas DC-3A crashed into the Holston Mountain range On approach to Tri-Cities Regional Airport at Bristol, killing all 10, due to the failure of the pilot to identify Gray intersection properly and his decision to continue an ILS (instrument landing system) approach contrary to company and regulatory procedures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Airlines_Flight_308

1965 - Death of John Denis Breakey, British WWI flying ace and WWII RAF high ranking officer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denis_Breakey - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/breakey.php

1966 - Death of Alessandro Resch, Italian WWI flying ace and airliner pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Resch - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/resch.php

1968 - Death of Jacques Victor Sabattier de Vignolle, French WWI flying ace

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/sabattier.php

1973 - Launch of Luna 21 (Ye-8 series, also called Lunik 21), Soviet unmanned space mission to explore the moon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_21

1980 - Death of Jens Tryggve Herman Gran, Norwegian aviator, explorer and author, 1st pilot to cross the North Sea.

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

1981 - A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_Case

1982 - Airbus A300 becomes the world's 1st wide-bodied airliner to be certified for operation by a flight crew of two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/January_in_aviation/January_8

1982 - A Gulfstream III, owned by the United States National Distillers and Chemical Corporation, takes off from Teterboro for new round-the-world record.

http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1982/1982%20-%200168.PDF

1983 - Death of of Lieutenant-General Gerhard "Gerd" Barkhorn, 2nd most successful fighter ace of all time after fellow Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Barkhorn - http://cieldegloire.com/001_barkhorn_g.php - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/barkhorn.html

1987 - Death of Christian Frank Schilt, one of the 1st Marine Corps aviators who served in WWI, WWII and Korean War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_F._Schilt

1989 - British Midland Flight 092 Boeing 737-400 registered G-OBME, crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway just short of the runway of East Midlands Airport, Leicestershire. 47 people died out of 118 passengers.

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

1994 - Launch of Soyuz TM-18 towards Mir Space station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-18

1996 - Air Africa Antonov An-32B overshot the runway at N'Dolo Airport in Kinshasa, DR Congo after failing to take off. The aircraft ploughed into Kinshasa's Simbazikita street market, causing an estimated 300 fatalities (including two on board the aircraft) and 253 serious injuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Air_Africa_crash

2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 Avro RJ100 crashes during its final approach near Diyarbakir Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of 75 passengers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_634

2003 - Air Midwest Flight 5481 operating as US Airways Express Flight 5481 Beechcraft 1900D stalled after take-off, crashed into a US Airways hangar and burst into flames 37 seconds after leaving Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, killing all 21 and 1 on ground, due to a maintenance error on the elevator cables and use of incorrect, but Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved, passenger weight estimates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Midwest_Flight_5481

2012 - Slovenian pilot Matevž Lenarcic launched an around-the-world flight attempt from Slovenia in a turbocharged Pipistrel Sinus SW914 ultralight aircraft sponsored as the GreenLight World Flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipistrel_Virus#Operational_History - http://www.worldgreenflight.com/index.php?id=1

http://www.pipistrel.si/extras/extreme-flights/matevz-lenarcic-flew-around-the-world-and-set-a-world-record