MARCH02

1937 - French parachutist Jean Niland (aka James Williams) set a parachute record making 6 falls using 6 parachutes on a single jump of 750m from an airplane.

http://www.lunion.presse.fr/article/a-la-une/les-parachutes-de-lexploit

1944 - Death of Waldemar Geest, early german Aircraft designer.

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

1944 - Death of Egon "Connie" Mayer, German WWII fighter ace, 1st pilot to reach 100 victories on the western front, Killed in his FW-90 A-6 by a P-47 while attacking bombers near Montmédy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Mayer - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/mayer.html

1945 - 1st flight of the development version of The Hispano Aviación HA-1109, spanish licence built Messerschmidt BF-109.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispano_Aviaci%C3%B3n_HA-1112

1945 - 1st flight of the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 (as a glider by an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber), British all-metal turbojet-powered flying wing aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_A.W.52

1949 - Commanded by Capt. James G. Gallagher, the crew of 14 aboard the Strategic Air Command B-5A Lucky Lady II of the 43rd Bombardment Group, USAF, completes the 1st nonstop round-the-world flight of 94 hours 1 minute. Flying a distance of 23,452 miles the B-50A is refueled 4 times by KB-29 tankers before landing back at Carswell AFB, Texas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43d_Operations_Group - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady_II

1952 - 1st flight of The Piper PA-23 Apache (later Aztec), US twin-engined monoplane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-23

1953 - 1st flight of The SNCASO SO.9000 Trident I, mixed power French prototype interceptor aircraft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCASO_Trident - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9363

1954 - Death of José Luis Sánchez Besa, Aviation Pioneer and seaplane designer from Chile.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Luis_S%C3%A1nchez_Besa

1955 - Trans-Canada Airlines introduced the Vickers Viscount airliner into regular service, making it the first North American airline to use turbine power aircraft.

http://canadianaviationhistory.pbworks.com/w/page/13801114/On-this-day-in-Canadian-Aviation-History-April

1955 - 1st flight of The Dassault Super Mystère, French fighter-bomber, 1st Western European supersonic aircraft to enter mass production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Super_Myst%C3%A8re

1956 - Flight Officer Welters and 3 of his 4 other Canadian Sky Lancer Aerobatic team members (Jake Adams, Fred Axtell and Dale McLarty) lost their lives when their F-86 Sabre crashed straight into the ground as it came out of a loop during routine practice over the Rhine Valley near Strasbourg, France.

http://aerobaticteams.net/rcaf-sky-lancers.html - http://www.rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/4w-4e/nr-sp/index-eng.asp?id=8289

http://67.69.104.76:84/Marville/other/maother-22d.html

1957 - 1st flight of The Thruxton Jackaroo , British four-seat cabin biplane converted from a de Havilland Tiger Moth.

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

1960 - Birth of Mikhail Vladislavovich Tyurin, Russian cosmonaut.

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

1965 - Operation Rolling Thunder begins, a massive air campaign against North Vietnam by the US

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

1969 - 1st flight of The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde, turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport (SST), with Andre Turcat at the controls.

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

1972 - Launch of Pioneer 10, US robotic space probe, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the solar system and heliosphere, 1st spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10

1978 - Launch of Soyuz 28, Soviet manned mission to the orbiting Salyut 6 space station. It was the fourth mission to the station, the third successful docking, and the second visit to the resident crew launched in Soyuz 26.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_28

1981 - Japan Air Lines is the first airline to use a computerised flight simulator to train its crews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/March_in_aviation/March_2

1982 - Death of James Donald Innes Hardman, British WWI flying ace, WWII high ranking officer and Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) of the Royal Australian Air Force post WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Hardman - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/hardman.php

1991 - Launch of Astra 1B, 2nd of the European Astra communications satellites, and MeteoSat-5, European Weather satellite.

http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/march02.htm

1995 - Launch of STS-67, Space shuttle Endeavour mission (ASTRO-2) to observe objects ranging from some inside the solar system to individual stars, nebulae, supernova remnants, galaxies and active extragalactic objects using the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) and the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-67

1997 - Soyuz TM-24, Russian space mission to MIR, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-24

2004 - Launch of Rosetta, robotic spacecraft of the European Space Agency on a mission to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)

2006 - Death of Marcel Charollais, French Aerobatic pilot.

http://charollais.marcel.over-blog.com/article-2251749.html

2010 - Death of Charles B. Moore, Jr., American physicist, engineer and meteorologist, known for his work with gas balloons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._Moore