MAY09

1883 - Birth of Gian Felice Gino, italian early aviator

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

1888 - Birth of Francesco Baracca, Italy's top fighter ace of WWI, credited with 34 aerial victories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Baracca - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/baracca.php

1889 - Birth of Leonard "Leo"Arthur Christian, Canadian WWI flying ace who returned to service in the RCAF in WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Arthur_Christian - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/christian.php

1896 - Birth of Robert Leslie Chidlaw-Roberts, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Chidlaw-Roberts - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/chidlaw-roberts.php

1904 – The Imperial Russian Navy armored cruiser Rossia carries a balloon on a raiding cruise against Japanese ships into the Sea of Japan in the f1st use by a warship of a balloon on the high seas in wartime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/May_in_aviation/May_9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Rossia#Russo-Japanese_War

1912 - Charles Rumney Samson becomes the 1st pilot to take off from a moving ship, the battleship HMS Hibernia in Weymouth Bay, flying a Short S.27.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rumney_Samson#Naval_aviation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hibernia_(1905)

1913 - Birth of Giuseppe Aurili, Spanish war and WWII italian flying ace.

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_aurili.htm

1914 - 1st parachute descent from an aircraft in Great Britain is made by William Newell from a Grahame-White Type X Charabanc (or Aerobus) at Hendon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grahame-White_Type_X

1916 - Birth of Franco Cappa, WWII italian pilot.

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

1916 - Using a bombsight developed by Bourdillon and Tizard, a British Short 184 seaplane hits a target in with a 500 pound bomb from a height of 4,000 feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Type_184

1917 - Australian WWI fighter ace Fred Parkinson Holliday, with British fighter ace (as observer/Gunner) Anthony Herbert William Wall, scored 4 vitories on that single day with their Bristol Fighter.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/holliday.php - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/wall.php

1917 - Death of Wilhelm Cymera, German WWI flying ace, killed in action.

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Cymera - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/cymera.php

1917 - Death of Victor Carlstrom, early swedish-American aviation pioneer, killed with a student when the wing of the aircraft he was piloting failed in flight

http://earlyaviators.com/ecarlstr.htm

1917 - William E. Boeing's Pacific Aero Products Company is renamed the "Boeing Airplane Company."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing#Before_1930s - http://www.boeing.com/history/chronology/chron01.html

1918 - Death of Charles Roger Lupton, British WWI flying ace, killed in a midair collision with a French Aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lupton - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/lupton.php

http://www.yorkshireindexers.co.uk/wiki/index.php5?title=LUPTON,_Charles_Roger

1918 - French WWI fighter ace René Fonck shoots down 6 German aircrafts that day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Fonck#1918 - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/fonck.php

1918 - British WWI fighter ace John Everard Gurdon scored 4 victories on that single day with his Bristol F.2b. (1 with Anthony Thornton and 3 with A V Bollins as observers/gunners).

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/gurdon.php

1918 - Canadian WWI fighter ace Alfred Clayburn Atkey, with British fighter ace (as observer/Gunner) Charles George Gass, scored 5 victories on that single day with their Bristol F.2b .

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/atkey.php - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/gass.php

1918 - Maj. Harold M. Clark Jr. and Sgt. Robert P. Gay make the 1st interisland flight in Hawaii. They fly from Fort Kamehameha to Maui, and then at an altitude of 8,000-feet to the Big Island where they crash into the slope of Mauna Kea in heavy clouds and darkness. They weren’t injured and spent a week wandering the Big Island before they found help.

http://hawaii.gov/hawaiiaviation/chronology-of-aviation-in-hawaii/1879-1919/

1923 - 1st flight of the Blériot Bl-115, French 4 engine 8 passengers biplane airliner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot_115 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1670

1925 - 1st flight of the Bleriot-SPAD 61-3, (Evolution of Spads 61-1 & 61-2) French biplane fighter aircraft.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/bleriot_s-61.php - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9415

1926 - 1st airplane flight over the North Pole is made by Americans Lt. Cdr. Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett in a Fokker F-VII/3m. Their total distance from Spitzbergen, Norway is 1,600 miles (2,575 km).

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

1931 - Birth of Vance DeVoe Brand, amrican engineer and former test pilot and NASA astronaut.

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

1932 - U.S. Army Air Corps Captain A. F. Hegenberger becomes the 1st pilot in the world to make a "blind" landing using instruments alone, with no back-up co-pilot on board in Dayton, Ohio, flying a Consolidated NY2 trainer.

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

1933 - 1st flight of The Vought XF3U , American two-seat, all-metal biplane fighter prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_XF3U

1934 - An Air France Wibaut 280-T, french 3 engine airliner, crashed into the English Channel off Dungeness, Kent, United Kingdom, killing all six people on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wibault_280

1934 - 1st flight of The de Havilland DH.87 Hornet Moth, single-engined cabin biplane designed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company as a potential replacement for its highly successful de Havilland Tiger Moth trainer

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

1936 - The German airship Hindenburg lands at Lakehurst, New Jersey after its 1st scheduled transatlantic flight.

http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/flight-schedule/maiden-voyage#maiden

1937 - Death of Walter Mittelholzer, Swiss aviation pioneer,pilot, photographer, travel writer, and also as one of the 1st aviation entrepreneurs.

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

1937 - 1st flight of The Lockheed XC-35, American twin-engine, experimental pressurized airplane, 1st American aircraft to feature cabin pressurization. It was initially described as a 'supercharged cabin' by the Army, development of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_XC-35

1940 - 1st flight of the 2nd prototype of the Mikoyan/Gurevich MiG-1, Soviet fighter aircraft .

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mig-1.php

1941 - Death of Sydney "Timbertoes" Carlin, British WWI flying ace and air gunner during WWII, dying from wounds after an enemy bombing raid at RAF Wittering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Carlin_(RAF_officer) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/carlin.php

1942 - Operation Bowery, 64 Supermarine Spitfires are flown to Malta from the US aircraft carrier USS Wasp and the Royal Navy carrier HMS Eagle.

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

1943 – A German night fighter crew defects to the United Kingdom, flying a Junkers Ju 88R-1. The defection gives British scientists and tacticians access to a Lichtenstein airborne interception radar for the 1st time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_88#Versatility_and_operational_development

1946 - 1st flight of the SECAN SUC-10 'Courlis', French 4 seat high-wing pusher touring monoplane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SECAN_Courlis - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=583

1947 - 1st Flight of The Percival Merganser, British light civil transport twin-engine, high-wing monoplane of all-metal, stressed skin construction with retractable tricycle undercarriage

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

1948 - 1st Flight of the Aeronova A.E.R.1, Italian roadable monoplane.

http://www.aviastar.org/manufacturers/0073.html

1949 - Birth of Oleg Yur'yevich At'kov, Soviet Medical Doctor and Cosmonaut.

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

1949 - 1st recorded loop by a Helicopter : Harold E. "Tommy" Thompson of Sikorsky's flight-test department performs a loop with a Sikorsky S-52.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MmY4HtOm_M

1949 - 1st flight of The Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor , American mixed-propulsion interceptor using a jet engine for most flight, and a cluster of four small rocket engines for added thrust during climb and interception.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-91_Thunderceptor

1952 - Death of Elia Antonio Liut, Italian Aviation pioneer.

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

1952 – 2nd and last prototype Martin XB-51 crashes at end of runway at Edwards AFB, California while performing low level aerobatics, killing test pilot Neil H. Lathrop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_XB-51#Operational_history

1954 - 1st flight of the Goodyear GA-400R Gizmo, American one man helicopter for liaison and observation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodyear_GA-400R_Gizmo

1960 - 1st flight of The Auster D.6, British 4-seat high wing light aircraft with a horizontally-opposed engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auster_D.6

1962 - 1st flight of The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe, twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter designed by Sikorsky Aircraft for the US Army. It is named after Tarhe (whose nickname was "The Crane"), an eighteenth-century chief of the Wyandot Native American tribe.The civil version is the S-64 Skycrane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_CH-54_Tarhe

1965 - Launch of Luna 5 (E-6 series), unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_5

1967 - 1st flight of the Fokker F28 Fellowship, Dutch short range jet airliner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_F28_Fellowship

1968 - 1st flight of the Siren C.34 'Edelweiss' IV, French single - seat sailplane and retractable wheel prototype with a V tail

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9903

1969 - Death of Beckwith Havens, Early american aviator.

http://earlyaviators.com/ehavens.htm

1972 - Launch of Operation Linebacker, 7th Air Force and US Navy Task Force 77 aerial interdiction campaign to halt or slow the transportation of supplies and materials for the Nguyen Hue Offensive.

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

1973 - 1st flight of The IAR-826, Romanian agricultural aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAR-826

1976 - Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) flight ULF48 Boeing 747-131F is struck by lightning, entering a forward part of the aircraft and exiting from a static discharger on the left wingtip. Fuel vapors in the no. 1 fuel tank then ignited. The explosion caused the upper wing skin panel to separate, causing a drastic altering of the aero elastic properties of the wing. A bit later the whole wing failed leading to the crash.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19760509-0

1977 - Death 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

1978 - David Cook makes the 1st crossing of the English Channel in a powered hang-glider.

http://www.shadowowners.flyer.co.uk/cook_2.htm - http://www.davidcookaviator.com/david-cook/achievements.html

1981 - 2nd prototype of Dornier Do-228 200 (E-2 extended version, twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft), makes his 1st flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_228

1983 - 1st all-woman flight crew to fly a round trip across the Atlantic is a C-141 Starlifter crew from the 18th Military Airlift Squadron, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_Airlift_Squadron#The_modern_era

1987 - An Ilyushin Il-62 of LOT Polish Airlines (flight LOT 5055) bound for New York, crashes on take-off, killing 183 persons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines_Flight_5055

1991 - Death of Aviard Gavrilovich Fastovets, Soviet test pilot.

http://wp.scn.ru/mig_okb/pilots-06

2003 - Launch of Hayabusa, japanese unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis.

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

2004 - American Eagle Flight 5401 ATR-72 skipped once, bounced hard twice, and then crashed at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Eagle_Flight_5401

2008 - Death of Ronald Anthony 'Ron' Parise, Italian American scientist who flew aboard 2 NASA Space Shuttle missions as a payload specialist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_A._Parise

2012 - A Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner went missing on a demonstration flight with 47 passengers and eight Russian crew members on board after it took off from the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia. The airliner began descending shortly after taking off and crashed into a cliff on Mount Salak in the province of West Java killing all on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Superjet_100#Accidents_and_incidents