SEP03
1849 - Frenchman Francisque Arban complete the 1st free balloon flight over the alps (Marseille-Subini near Turin).
1879 - Birth of Eustace Broke Loraine, pioneer British aviator and 1st Royal Flying Corps officer to be killed in an aircraft crash.
1892 - Birth of Eugenio Casagrande, conte di Villaviera, Italian aviation pionneer.
1896 - Birth of Marcel Laurent Henriot, French WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Henriot - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/henriot.php
1896 - Birth of Gerald Ernest Gibbs, WWI fighter ace, senior commander in the Royal Air Force in the 1st half of the 20th century and the last RAF commander-in-chief of the Indian Air Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gibbs_(RAF_officer) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/gibbs2.php
1898 - Birth of Robert Mordaunt Foster, British WWI fighter ace, WWII pilot and high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Foster_(RAF_officer) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/foster2.php
1904 - Birth of Florence Gunderson Klingensmith, American aviator of the Golden Age of Air Racing, founding member of the Ninety-Nines (a women's pilot group) and one of the 1st women to participate in air races with men.
1910 - Peruvian aviator Juan Bielovucic (or Jean or Ivan) lands his Voisin Biplane in Bordeaux after an endurance flight of 540 km from Issy les Moulineaux, The total distance was 540 km and the total flight time was 6 hours, 15 minutes, new world cross country record.
http://aviation.maisons-champagne.com/dir.php?centre=04-bio-bielovucic&menu=11 - http://earlyaviators.com/ebielov1.htm
1915 - German Zeppelin LZ40 (L10) is destroyed when struck by lightning off Neuwerk Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins#Zeppelins_constructed_during_World_War_I
1915 - 1st flight of The Curtiss C-1 Canada, Canadian twin-engined bomber aircraft, 1st Canadian-built twin engined aircraft.
1916 - Death of Henry Cope Evans, British WWI flying ace, killed in his D.H.2 by German anti-aircraft fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Evans_(RFC_officer) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/evans2.php
1917 - The US 1st Aero Squadron arrives in France at Le Havre, being the 1st U.S. squadron in France.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Reconnaissance_Squadron#World_War_I
1917 - Death of Otto Hartmann, German WWI flying ace, killed in action by one of 48 Squadron's Bristol Fighters near Dixmude.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Hartmann_(Jagdflieger) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/hartmann.php
1917 - Home-based single-seat scout aircraft operate at night for the 1st time, when 3 Sopwith Camels of No.44 Squadron fly patrols against Gotha bombers attacking Chatham. Although no interceptions are made, the sorties proved that single-seat fighters could operate safely at night.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_fighter#Early_examples
1917 - Birth of Robert C. Truax, US Navy and Aerojet rocket engineer, founder of Truax Engineering. He was a proponent of low-cost rocket engine and vehicle designs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Truax
1918 - Death of Francis James Ralph, British WWI flying ace (as observer/Gunner), killed in action in the Bristol F.2b flown by Horace Percy Lale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_James_Ralph - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/ralph.php
1920 - 1st flight of The Martin NBS-1 (Night Bomber-Short Range), American scout bomber, improved version of the Martin MB-1, wood-and-canvas biplane without staggered wings, employing twin rudders on a twin vertical tail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_NBS-1
1922 - Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman makes her 1st appearance in an American airshow at Curtiss Field on Long Island near New York City honoring veterans of the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment of WWI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Coleman#Airshows
1925 - 1st flight of the SPCA 'Météore' 63, French 3 engine biplane flying boat for use as an airliner, 1st product of the SPCA company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPCA_M%C3%A9t%C3%A9ore_63 - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4569
1925 - USS Shenandoah ZR-1 (US Zeppelin) is caught in a violent updraft that carried it beyond the pressure limits of its helium gas bags. It is torn apart in the turbulence and crashes in several pieces near Caldwell, Ohio. , killing 14.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shenandoah_(ZR-1)#Wreck_of_the_Shenandoah
1929 - Transcontinental Air Transport 'City of San Francisco' crashed on Mt. Taylor, New Mexico, in a thunderstorm killing all 8.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Trimotor#Accidents_and_incidents
1932 - Jimmy Doolittle sets a new landplane airspeed record of 296 mph (476 km/h) in the Gee Bee R-1 at the National air race in Cleveland.
1933 - Death of Francesco De Pinedo, famous Italian aviator. Killed while taking off in a Bellanca monoplane, preparing a record length flight from New York City to Baghdad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_de_Pinedo
1937 - 1st flight of the CAC Wirraway prototype, Australian training and general purpose military aircraft, development of the imported North American NA-16 1A.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAC_Wirraway
1938 - Jacqueline Cochran wins the Bendix Trophy air race at an average speed of 401.83km/h with a Seversky Sev-S2.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/seversky_s2.php
1939 - European air services are temporarily suspended as war is declared. Air-raid warning sirens sound in the London area for the 1st time. However, the warning is a false alarm, triggered by the detection of a French aircraft, en route to the United Kingdom, that had not filed a flight plan
1939 - 1st WWII RAF reconnaissance over Germany is done by a Blenheim IV of No.139 Squadron.
1939 - Pilot Officer John Noel Isaac of No.600 Squadron becomes the 1st Briton to die in the WWII when his Bristol Blenheim crashes into Heading Street in Hendon at 1250hrs, 1 hour 50 minutes after the British declaration of war.
1939 - RAF Bomber Command conducts the RAF's 1st operational sorties of WWII, when 18 Handley Page Hampdens and 9 Vickers Wellingtons of RAF Bomber Command undertake a search for German naval shipping. However, they do not locate any targets and all return safely.
1939 - 1st propaganda leaflet raid. Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys of No.51 and No.58 squadrons drops 5.4 million leaflets over targets included Hamburg, Bremen and the Ruhr.
1942 - Death of Susumu Matsuki, Japanese WWII flying ace, killed in action.
1943 - Birth of Moritz Suter, Swiss Airliner pilot and founder of airlines Crossair and Hello.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritz_Suter
1944 - Birth of Sherwood Clark "Woody" Spring, US Army pilot, test pilot and NASA Astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_C._Spring
1949 - 1st flight of the Bristol Type 171 "Sycamore" Mk2, British post-WWII commercial helicopter, 2nd prototype built as a 4-seater with a 550hp Alvis Leonides 71 piston engine, which formed the basis for the 1st production series.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bristol_sycamore.php
1950 - Death of Traian Vuia, Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traian_Vuia
1950 - 1st flight of the SNCASO SO-6021 'Espadon', French single seat jet fighter prototype.
http://www.aviafrance.com/s-n-c-a-s-o-so-6021-espadon--aviation-france-9362.htm
1953 - 1st flight of The Pilatus P-3, Swiss military training aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilatus_P-3
1955 - J. S. Fairfield makes the 1st ejection from an aircraft on the ground, escaping from a Gloster Meteor 7 traveling at 120 mph (193 km/h) along a runway
1961 - Death of Robert Ellsworth Gross, American businessman involved in the field of aviation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Gross_(businessman)
1976 - Viking 2, American spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_2#Lander
1976 - Fuerza Aérea Venezolana C-130H military transport aircraft "24 de Julio" crashed after 3 attempts in bad weather, high winds, low visibility at Lajes Air Base, Terceira Island, Azores, killing all 73.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_C-130_Hercules_crashes#.C2.A0Venezuela
1978 - Soyuz 29, Soviet space mission to the Salyut 6 space station, is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_29
1978 - Air Rhodesia Flight 825 Vickers Viscount is shot down by members of Joshua Nkomo's Patriotic Front using a SA-7 "Grail" (9K32 “Strela-2”) surface-to-air missile. The ten passengers who survived the crash are shot dead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Rhodesia_Flight_RH825
1981 - 1st flight of The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146), British regional airliner, high-wing cantilever monoplane with a T-tail and 4 turbofan engines mounted on pylons underneath the wings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aerospace_146
1982 - 1st flight of the Beechcraft 1900, American pressurized twin-engine turboprop fixed-wing rtegional airliner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_1900
1985 - STS-51-I, Space shuttle Discovery, is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-I
1989 - Cubana de Aviación Flight 9646 Ilyushin Il-62M crashed in a residential area shortly after takeoff from José Martí International Airport, because of bad weather, killing all 126 and 45 on ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubana_Flight_9646
1989 - Varig Flight 254 Boeing 737-241 crashes in Brazil killing 53 passengers. The pilots had not noticed an autopilot malfunction because they were listening to a football match.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_254
1992 - An Italian Air Force Aeritalia G.222, Italian twin turboprop-engine tactical military transport aircraft, is shot down when approaching Sarajevo airfield, while conducting a United Nations relief mission by a a surface to air missile, killing all 8 on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeritalia_G.222#Operational_history
1993 - Death of Duane D. Hackney, USAF Pararescueman, most decorated airman in USAF history and the recipient of 28 decorations for valor in combat (more than 70 awards and decorations in all)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_D._Hackney
1995 - Launch of Soyuz TM-22, Russian transport spacecraft that transported cosmonauts to the Mir space station, bringing Thomas Arthur Reiter 1st german in space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-22
1996 - Americans Ron Bower and John Williams broke the round-the-world helicopter record with a Bell 430 helicopter, flying westwards from the UK with a time of 17 days, 6 hours and 14 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_430#Operational_history
1997 – Vietnam Airlines Flight 815 Tupolev TU-134 crashes on approach into Phnom Penh airport, killing 64.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Airlines_Flight_815
1997 - Death of Shui-Tin 'Arthur' Chin, Chinese-American pilot and Second Sino-Japanese War fighter ace, recognized as America's 1st ace in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Chin - http://www.cieldegloire.com/014_chin_s_t.php - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/china_chin.htm
2001 - Death of Frank "Pongo" Billinge, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Billinge - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/billinge.php
2006 - SMART-1, Swedish-designed European Space Agency satellite, designed to orbit around the moon, is deliberately crashed into the Moon's surface, ending its mission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_1
2007 - Death of James Stephen Fossett, American commodities trader, aviator, sailor, and adventurer and 1st person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon. killed in the crash of his Bellanca Super Decathlon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett#Death
2008 - Death of Donald James Matthew Blakeslee, USAF pilot whose career began as a pilot in the RCAF and flew Spitfire fighter aircraft, during WWII and became a member of the RAF Eagle squadrons. He flew more combat missions against the Luftwaffe than any other American fighter pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Blakeslee - http://cieldegloire.com/014_blakeslee_d_j_m.php
2010 - UPS Airlines Flight 6747-400F, crashed close to Dubai International Airport , killing two crew members.