MAY01

1889 - Birth of Wilbert Wallace "Wilbur" White, Jr., American WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbert_White - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/white6.php

1892 - Birth of Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, German Aviation pioneer and initiator of the 1st trans-atlantic flight in East-West direction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfried_G%C3%BCnther_Freiherr_von_H%C3%BCnefeld

1893 - Birth of Forster Herbert Martin Maynard, New Zealand WWI flying ace, Air Officer Commanding of Malta during the early part of WWII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._H._Maynard - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/nzealand/maynard.php

1896 - Birth of Paul Codos, French Raid Aviator.

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

1896 - Birth of William H. "Bill" McAvoy, American test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._McAvoy - http://www.locategrave.org/l/556227/William-H-McAvoy-CA

1897 - Birth 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

1898 - Birth of Karl Waldemar Ritscherle, German WWI flying ace, who served in WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Ritscherle - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/ritscherle.php

1899 - Birth of Stanislaw Jakub Skarzynski, Polish Air Force and aviator famous for his transatlantic solo flight in 1933, and WWII pilot. He helped in transferring Polish pilots, fleeing from Poland, through Romania to France where the Polish Air Force was recreated.

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

1909 - 1st official flight by a British pilot in Britain, John Moore-Brabazon (later Lord Brabazon of Tara) made a flight of 500 yards in his Voisin at Shellbeach.

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

1912 - 1st flight of the Avro Type F, single seat British aircraft from Avro and the first aircraft in the world to feature a completely enclosed cabin.

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

1916 - German Airship Schütte-Lanz SL3 is stranded near Riga as structure of the ship degraded because of atmospheric exposure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sch%C3%BCtte-Lanz_airships#SL3

1918 - Austro hugarian WWI fighter ace Benno Fiala Ritter von Fernbrugg flying his Albatros D.III, shoot down a Sopwith Camel, a SIA 7b and 2 balloons ont that single day.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/fiala.php

1922 - Deruluft (Deutsch-Russische Luftverkehrs A.G., or Deruluft), joint Soviet-German airline, opens its 1st service to Moscow from Königsberg (later Kaliningrad)

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

1925 - The Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps is formed.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1925.aspx

1925 - Birth of Malcolm Scott Carpenter, American engineer, test pilot, astronaut, and aquanaut.

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

1926 - 1st Flight of Spad 61SES, last version of the Bleriot S.61 , french fighter aircraft with redesigned wings, but it proved to have inferior characteristics to those of the standard Type 61-2

http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/bleriot_s-61.php

1927 - 1st cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris.A galley is fitted into the rear of the fuselage of the Armstrong Whitworth Argosy aircraft 'City of Birmimgham' operating the service.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-civil-aviation/1927.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_Argosy#Operational_history

1934 - Fank Akers made a hooded landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Maryland, in the 1st demonstration of the blind landing system intended for carrier use and under development by the Washington Institute of Technology.

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

1936 - RAF Training command is formed.

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

1940 - 1st flight of The Douglas SBD Dauntless, American WWII naval dive bomber also operated by the United States Army as the A-24 Banshee.

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

1942 - Squadron No. 588 of the Soviet Air Force, an all-woman night-bombing unit equipped with Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes , is formed in the USSR. Notorious for its daring low-altitude night raids on German rear-area positions, with veteran pilots Katya Ryabova and Nadya Popova on one occasion flying 18 such missions in a single night. The women pilots observed that the enemy suffered a further degree of demoralization simply due to their antagonists being female. As such, the pilots earned the nickname "Night Witches".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/May_in_aviation/May_1

1942 - 1st flight of The Miles M.35 Libellula, British tandem wing fighter-sized aircraft prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_M.35_Libellula

1945 – The U.S Navy’s mixed-propulsion Ryan FR Fireball becomes the 1st aircraft incorporating jet propulsion to qualify for use aboard aircraft carriers.

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

1947 - Harold Brownlow Morgan "Micky" Martin and Edward Barnes Sismore land their De Havilland Mosquito, setting a new London-Cape Town speed record, covering a distance of 6,717 miles in 21 hours 31 minutes at an average speed of 279mph.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1947.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Brownlow_Martin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Barnes_Sismore

1949 - The Air Arm, Hong Kong Defence Force is established with Royal Air Force (RAF) assistance.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1949.aspx

1950 - 1st prototype of the De Havilland D.H.108 'Swallow'crashes. During low-speed sideslip and stall tests the 1st prototype, TG283, was lost in a crash at Hartley Wintney killing the pilot (WWII flying ace) Sqn Ldr George Eric Clifford 'Jumbo' Genders, when, after abandoning the aircraft at low altitude in an inverted spin, his parachute failed to open in time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH_108 - http://thetartanterror.blogspot.fr/2009/04/sqn-ldr-gec-eric-genders-afc-dfm-1920.html

http://www.cieldegloire.com/002_raf_genders_g_e_c.php

1951 - US Navy A-1 Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs from USS Princeton attack the Hwachon Dam, flooding the Pukhan River

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwachon_Dam#Korean_War_raid

1953 - Death of Clemante Ravetto, Italian aviation Pioneer.

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

1954 - 1st display in a fly-past over Moscow of the Myasishchev M-4 / 3M Bomber.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mjas_201m.php

1957 - An Eagle Aviation twin-engined Vickers VC.1 Viking registered G-AJBO crashed into trees near Blackbushe Airport, located in Hampshire, England

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_Blackbushe_Viking_accident

1957 - Birth of Paul David Ronney, American engineer payload specialist astronaut.

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/ronney.htm

1959 – North Vietnam organizes No. 919 Transport Regiment as the 1st unit of the Vietnam People’s Air Force.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_People's_Air_Force#Beginning-1964_.28North_Vietnam.29

1960 - A Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by U.S. Air Force Col. Francis Gary Powers, is shot down over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident

1963 - Jacqueline Cochran takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, California, to set a 100-km (62-mile) closed-circuit world speed record for women of 1,203.7mph in a Lockheed Starfighter.

http://www.aero-web.org/specs/lockheed/f-104g.htm

1964 - 1st Flight of the BAC 221, British supersonic research aircraft. the Fairey Delta 2 rebuilt by British Aircraft Corporation to test the delta wing of the "Concorde".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Delta_2

1965 - During flight tests the YF-12As set a speed record of 2,070.101 mph (3,331.505 km/h) and an altitude record of 80,257.86 ft (24,462.6 m)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-12

1967 - Death of Lucien Girier, French WWI pilot, raid pilot and French air force High ranking officer.

http://calm.sopixi.fr/files/gal-girier.pdf - http://calm.sopixi.fr/general-lucien-girier.htm

1970 - Death of Henry Adler Berliner, American aircraft and helicopter pioneer.

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

1975 - Death of Francis Stanley Symondson, British WWI flying ace, air racer, instructor and stunt pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_S._Symondson - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/symondson.php

1982 – Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands War.

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

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1982.aspx

1982 – American Airlines launches AAdvantage, the first frequent flyer program in history

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

1990 - 1st flight of McDonnell Douglas MD 520N, developed from the Hughes 500, a civilian version of the US Army's OH-6A Cayuse/Loach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD_Helicopters_MD_500

1993 - Death of Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova, one of the 1st female pilots in the Soviet Union and WWII pilot.

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

1996 - 1st flight of The General Atomics ALTUS II, American unmanned aerial vehicle, designed for scientific research.

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

2001 - STS-100, Space Shuttle mission Endeavour to the ISS, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-100

2003 - US President George W. Bush rode in the co-pilot seat of a Viking that landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, where he delivered his "Mission Accomplished" speech announcing the end of major combat in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That Navy flight is the only one to use the callsign "Navy One"

http://www.aviationhistory.org/ah_viking_navy_one.html

2006 - Death of Bruce A. Peterson, American engineer and NASA test pilot. He flew a wide variety of airplanes including the F5D-1, F-100, F-104, F-111A, B-52, NT-33A Variable Stability Trainer, the wingless lifting bodies and numerous general aviation aircraft as well as several types of helicopters and sailplanes.

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

2009 – Fijian airline Air Fiji ceased operations.

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

2010 - Death of Paul Rudolf 'Rudy' Opitz, German Glider pilot, Luftwaffe Chief test pilot for the Me-110 and the Me-163.

http://www.riverviewfh.com/obituary.php?w=1220

2011 - Operation Neptune Spear: 2 modified United States Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) carry United States Navy SEALs of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to Abbottabad, Pakistan, where they attack the compound of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Neptune_Spear#Operation_Neptune_Spear