OCT03

1917 - 1st flight of The Martinsyde F.3 British powerful and fast biplane fighter prototype, private venture which will lead to the F-4 Buzzard.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/martinsyde_buzzard.php

1918 - Death of Fritz Höhn, German WWI fighter ace, Killed in action in his Fokker D.VII .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_H%C3%B6hn - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/hohn.php

1918 - Death of Charles Robert Reeves Hickey, Canadian WWI fighter ace, killed in a mid-air collision with another Sopwith Camel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hickey - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/hickey.php

1931 - Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn takes off from Samushiro Beach, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington for the 1st non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean in a Bellanca Skyrocket J-400 'Miss Veedol'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Pangborn#Trans-Pacific_flight

1931 - 1st flight of The Latécoère 290, French high wing single engine 3 seat torpedo bomber floatplane (1st tested as a land plane)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lat%C3%A9co%C3%A8re_290 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=934

1933 - 1st flight of The Salmson Phrygane ("Caddisfly"), French light aircraft, conventional, high-wing braced monoplane with fixed tailwheel undercarriage and a fully enclosed cabin for the pilot and two passengers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmson_Phrygane - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1156

1933 - 1st flight of the Couzinet 80, French 4 seat twin engine low wing monoplane trainer, prototype evolution of the Couzinet 30.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9503

1935 - Italy invades Abyssinia without warning, using aircraft from the beginning of the invasion, beginning the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The Italian expeditionary force has 150 aircraft – Including Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, Caproni Ca.113, and Caproni Ca.133 bombers, Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats, and IMAM R.37bis strategic reconnaissance planes – while the serviceable portion of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force consists only of three small, obsolete biplanes.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1935.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italo-Ethiopian_War

1935 - Birth of Charles Moss Duke, Jr., USAF test pilot, astronaut and aerospace engineer for NASA, 10th and youngest of only twelve people who have walked on the Moon.

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

1941 - Death of Charles Duncan Bremner Green, Canadian WWI flying ace and WWII instructor with the RCAF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_D._B._Green - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/green1.php

1942 - AEA's Excalibur Vought-Sikorsky VS-44 crashed on take-off at Botwood (Newfoundland) when flaps were inadvertently extended to landing position, thus causing the aircraft to stall immediately after lift-off. In the crash, 5 out of the 11-strong crew and 6 out of 26 passengers perished.

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

1942 - Third A4 rocket, later dubbed the V-2, flies from Peenemünde following its trajectory perfectly, covering 190 km (119 miles) in 296 seconds at five times the speed of sound, reaching an altitude of 84.5 km (53 miles), 1st man-made object to reach space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_(rocket_family)#A4_.28V-2_rocket.29

1945 – Captured Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 V14, which was the 1st helicopter to fly across the English Channel when it was moved from Cherbourg to RAF Beaulieu, crashes on third test flight at RAF Beaulieu, when a driveshaft failed. The accident was thought to be due to a failure to correctly tension the steel cables which secured the engine, despite warnings from Luftwaffe helicopter pilot Helmut Gerstenhauer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Achgelis_Fa_223#Cross-Channel_flight

1946 – A Berlin-bound 4 engine Douglas C-54 named 'Flagship New England' crashed into a mountainside outside of Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The flight, operated by American Overseas Airlines was mostly carrying wives and children of US Army personnel serving in post-war Germany. All 39 people on board died.

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

1948 - Death of Alois Wolfmüller, German engineer and aviation pioneer.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Wolfm%C3%BCller

1949 - 1st flight of the Salmson D-21 'Phrygane', French light aircraft, conventional, high-wing braced monoplane tourer prototype, Reengined version of the D-1.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=3659

1949 – 1st (of only two) prototypes of the Kellett XR-10 helicopter crashes due to a control system failure, killing Kellett's chief test pilot, J.D. 'Dave' Driskill. The project was abandoned shortly thereafter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellett_XR-10 - http://thetartanterror.blogspot.fr/2012/06/j-d-dave-driskill-19xx-1949.html

1951 - Squadron HS1, the United States Navy's 1st Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) helicopter squadron is commissioned at Key West in the Florida Keys.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1951.aspx

1951 - Birth of Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan, American geologist and NASA astronaut, 1st American woman to walk in space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_D._Sullivan

1953 - Lieutenant Commander J.B. Vardin sets a new world speed record, flying a Douglas F4D1 Skyray, averaging 1,211kph (752mph) in four runs over a 3 kilometre course.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/douglas_skyray.php -

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1953.aspx

1960 - 1st flight of the Convair 880 Model 22-M, re-engined version of the American narrow-body jet airliner.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/convair-880.php

1962 – Project Mercury: Sigma 7 is launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_8

1967 - William J. 'Pete' Knight sets a new airspeed record in the North American X-15, of Mach 6.72 (4,543 mph, 7,297 km/h). This is the fastest flight (Flight 188) that the X-15 will make.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15#Fastest_flights

1985 - Launch of STS-51-J, NASA Space Shuttle mission and 1st flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-J - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Atlantis

1994 - Launch of Soyuz TM-20, Russian expedition to Mir.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-20

1995 - Death of Charles Lacy Veach, USAF pilot and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Veach

1988 - STS-26 Discovery is back on earth, 1st mission after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-26

1998 - Launch of STEX (Space Technology Experiments), American experimental NRO satellite

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

2002 - Death of Felix Kracht, German aviation engineer.

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

2002 - Death of Siegfried F. Erdmann, German Engineer specialized in supersonic Aerodynamics.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_F._Erdmann

2009 - Death of Fernando "Frank" Caldeiro, Argentine-American engineer and NASA astronaut

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

2011 - Avianova, Russian low cost airline, ceased operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianova_(Russia)

2011 - CAFE Green Flight Challenge sponsored by Google is won by Team Pipistrel USA with a Taurus G-4 electric plane. It flew over Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, California, in less than two hours using just a half-gallon of gas for each person aboard.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/NASA-Awards-13-Million-to-Winner-of-Electric-Airplane-Contest-131011588.html