JUL24
1837 - Charles Green ascended the 'Great Nassau' balloon with Robert Cocking. At a height of 5000 feet Cocking liberated himself from the balloon, and descended in a parachute of his own construction into a field at Burnt Ash Farm near Lee. Cocking was killed on reaching the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Green_(balloonist) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cocking
1884 - Birth of Yoshitoshi Tokugawa, Japanese military aviation pioneer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitoshi_Tokugawa - http://earlyaviators.com/etokugaw.htm
1893 - Birth of Cecil Roy Richards, Australian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Roy_Richards - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/richards.php
1893 - Birth of Louis Prosper Gros, French WWI flying ace who served also in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Prosper_Gros - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/gros.php
1895 - Birth of Herbert Henry Hartley, Scottish WWI flying ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/hartley.php
1895 - Birth of Ian Patrick Robert "Old Naps" Napier, Scottish WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Napier - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/napier2.php
1897 - Birth of Amelia Mary Earhart, noted American aviation pioneer, record breaker and author. 1st woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the 1st aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart
1926 - 2 Junkers G-24s take off from Berlin to Peking for a 20,000 km (12,400 mi) flight. (It was initially meant that they would fly all the way to Shanghai, but they were prevented by military conflicts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_G.24
1926 - French Robert Bajac breaks the 2000Kg payload class world record with a Blériot Bl-155.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot_155
1931 - Airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin starts from Friedrichshafen a research trip to the Arctic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin#The_polar_flight
1933 - Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison in their de Havilland Dragon 'Seafarer' nearly succeed in their flight from Croydon to New-York; They crash-landed in Connecticut.
1934 - 1st flight of The Supermarine Stranraer, British flying boat designed and built by Supermarine Aviation Works which marked the end of biplane flying-boat development for the Royal Air Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Stranraer
1938 - Flt. Lt. Cesar Abadia of the Colombian Air Force, performing an aerobatic display at Campo de Marte, Santa Ana, Usaquén, Colombia, with a Curtiss F11C Goshawk, disregarded standing orders not to fly below 500 feet and attempted to dive through a narrow gap between two grandstands. The pilot misjudged his approach and a wingtip hit the Diplomatic stand; the plane then smashed against the Presidential stand and exploded, raining flaming debris down on spectators located between the two grandstands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_air_show_accidents_and_incidents#1938
1941 - Death of Otto-Heinrich von Houwald, Spanish War german flying ace, WWII fighter pilot, killed in action.
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/germany_houwald.htm
1941 - The Boeing-built Douglas DB-7B attack bomber makes its 1st flight.
http://www.boeing.com/boeing/history/chronology/chron05.page?
1943 – RAF uses chaff, codenamed "Window", for the 1st time to foil German radar during Operation Gomorrah. British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Hamburg_in_World_War_II
1944 - Death of Otto Schmidt, German WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Schmidt_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/schmidt2.php
1945 - Death of Takashi Oshibuchi, Japanese WWII flying ace, Killed in action in his Nakajima N1K2-J Shiden kai by Grumman F6F Hellcats over Bungo Straits.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_oshibuchi_t.php
1945 - Death of Kaneyoshi "Kinsuke" Muto, 2d Sino-Japanese War and WWII japanese Fighter ace, killed over the Bungo Channel in his Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden by F6-F Hellcats part of Task Force 38 supporting the bombing of Kure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaneyoshi_%22Kinsuke%22_Muto - http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%A6%E8%97%A4%E9%87%91%E7%BE%A9
http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_muto_k.php
1946 - 1st live flight test of the Martin-Baker system. Fitter Bernard Lynch ejected from a Gloster Meteor Mk III jet at 320 mph.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejection_seat#History
1947 - 1st flight of the Ilyushin Il-22, 1st Soviet jet-engined bomber prototype to fly. It used 4 Lyulka TR-1 turbojets carried on short horizontal pylons ahead and below the wing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-22#Testing_and_evaluation
1947 - Death of Hans-Eberhardt Gandert, German WWI flying ace and high ranking WWII luftwaffe officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Eberhardt_Gandert - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/gandert.php
1947 - 1st flight of the Avro 691 Lancastrian Jet de Havilland Ghost 50 engine equiped (which would be used for the Comet 1) mounted in the outer positions
http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/avro_lancastrianjet.php
1947 - 1st flight of the 3rd and last prototype de Havilland DH 108 "Swallow", British experimental tailless, swept wing with a single vertical stabilizer jet aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH_108#Testing
1948 - Death of Stanley James Goble, Australian WWI flying ace and WWII senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Goble - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/goble.php
1950 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of rocket Bumper 8 (combination of the V-2 rocket and WAC Corporal sounding rocket).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_(rocket) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Canaveral_Air_Force_Station
1951 - Death of Eugen Bönsch, Austro-Hungarian WWI fighter ace who also served in WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_B%C3%B6nsch - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/bonsch.php
1951 - The Bell X-1D, with Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler at the controls, complete an unpowered glide flight a Rogers dry lake but is damaged on landing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_X-1#X-1D
1952 - Death of Arthur Edmund Easterbrook, American WWI flying ace (observer/gunner) and WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Easterbrook - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/easterbrook.php
1953 - 1st flight of The Ikarus 452, Yugoslav experimental jet aircraft . It was a stubby mid-wing cantilever monoplane of pod-and-boom configuration, with twin jets mounted one atop the other at the rear of the fuselage nacelle, with separate intakes for the lower engine (in the wing roots) and the upper engine (on the sides of the rear fuselage).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikarus_452
1956 - 1st flight of the prototype Dassault Étendard IV, french light tactical fighter aircraft.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_%C3%89tendard_IV - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1019
1965 - 1st Hovering flight of the Dassault 'Mirage' IIIV-01, French vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype fighter jet aircraft.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Mirage_III_V#Le_Mirage_III_V - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4801
1965 - 1st American aircraft to be downed by an enemy SAM is a Phantom F-4C from the 45th Tactical Fighter Squadron over VietNam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II#United_States_Air_Force
1966 - Death of Bogart Rogers, American WWI flying ace, Movie producer and writer (Among his screenplays was The Eagle and the Hawk - 1933).
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0736752/ - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/rogers1.php
1969 - Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Lunar_ascent_and_return
1975 - Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, last Apollo mission, and 1st joint U.S./Soviet space flight for docking an American Apollo spacecraft with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, last manned US space mission until the 1st Space Shuttle flight, is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Project
1979 - 1st complete free transition of the Bell XV-15, American tiltrotor VTOL aircraft.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_xv-15.php
1984 - 1st flight of the Pena 'Capena', French single seat aerobatic competition low wing monoplane for amateur construction.
http://lpena.free.fr/louis.htm - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9980
1992 - Mandala Airlines Flight 660 Vickers Viscount 816 crashed in Indonesia into a mountain on Ambon Island as it attempted to land at Pattimura Airport in a heavy thunderstorm, killing all 70
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala_Airlines_Flight_660
1993 - 1st flight of The PZL M28 Skytruck, Polish STOL light cargo and passenger plane, evolution of the licence-built Antonov An-28.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M28
1993 - 1st flight of the American Sportscopter Ultrasport 254, ultralight helicopter.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/ultra-331.php
2001 - STS-104, Space Shuttle Atlantis, is back on earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-104
2004 - The 16th FAI World Precision Flying Championship begins in Herning, Denmark, ends with the victory of Polish Krzysztof Wieczorek in a 3Xtrim 3X55 Trener.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_FAI_World_Precision_Flying_Championship
2009 - Aria Air Flight 1525 Ilyushin Il-62M landing at an excessive speed, overran the runway and crashed at Mashhad International Airport, Mashhad, Iran, killing 16 over 153.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_Air_Flight_1525
2009 - My Way Airlines S.r.l., operated as MyAir.com, Italian low-cost airline, cease operations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyAir
2009 - 1st flight of the ATR-72-600, French-Italian twin-turboprop, short-haul regional airliner converted from the ATR-72-500.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATR_72#ATR_72.E2.80.93600
2012 – The Syrian Air Force attacks rebels for the first time in the Syrian Civil War, when MiG-23s (NATO reporting name "Flogger") bomb eastern areas of Aleppo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aleppo_(2012)#Fighting_in_city_center_and_army_reinforcements
2014 - Air Algérie Flight 5017 McDonnell Douglas MD-83 crashed in Mali, near Gossi killing all 116. It was revealed that the flight crew had asked to return to Burkina Faso, after 1st having requested to deviate from course because of bad weather.