SEP27

1916 - Birth of José Falcó Sanmartín, Spanish Republican flying ace of the civil war.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Falc%C3%B3_Sanmart%C3%ADn

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Rumey#Killed_In_Action - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/rumey.php

1918 - Death of Captain Samuel Frederick Henry "Siffy" Thompson, WWI two-seater fighter ace, killed in his Bristol F.2b near Cambrai by Otto Schmidt with a Fokker D.VII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Frederick_Henry_Thompson - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/thompson5.php

1918 - Death of Clifford John Tolman, British WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol F.2b.

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

1918 - Death of Thomas Proctor, Irish WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol F.2b.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/ireland/proctor.php

1918 - Canadian WWI flying ace Lewis Hector "Hec" Ray with his Sopwith Dolphin shot down 3 Fokker D.VII and a Balloon on a single mission.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/ray2.php

1922 - Dr. Albert Taylor and Leo Young, scientists at the US Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory, make the 1st successful detections of objects by "radio observation". They use wireless waves to detect objects not visible due to weather or darkness. This insight leads to the advent of radar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/September_in_aviation/September_27

1922 - US Navy conducts the 1st large-scale torpedo bombing exercises. Eighteen Naval Aircraft Factory PTs attack three battleships and score 8 hits in 25 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/September_in_aviation/September_27

1924 - The Two-Seater Dual Control Light Aeroplane Competition begins at Lympne Aerodrome. The rules required competing aircraft to have engines with a capacity of no more than 1,100 cc, to have full dual controls and one or two airspeed visible from either cockpit. All tests were to be flown with a load of 340 lb (154 kg), excluding fuel but including the pilot's weight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lympne_light_aircraft_trials#1924

1927 - Otto Könnecke takes off from Cologne with a Caspar C 32, German agricultural single-bay biplane with staggered, equal-span wings, in an attempt ro reach the USA on an eastern flight via India and Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_C_32

1928 - The Under Secretary of State for Air, Sir Philip Sassoon, and the Director of Equipment, Air Commodore Longmore, begin a 9,900 mile flight from Felixstowe to Karachi and back, by Blackburn Iris II flying boat, to inspect Royal Air Force units in Malta, Egypt and Iraq

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

1929 - French Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte takes off from Paris Le Bourget to Moullart, Manchuria in a Breguet 19 Super Bidon named 'Question Mark', for a new distance record.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_19#Sports_Variants

1933 - 1st flight of the Leopoldoff L-3 'Colibri', French-built light sporting and trainer biplane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopoldoff_Colibri - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=893

1935 - 1st flight of The Loire 250, French single-seat prototype fighter monoplane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loire_250 - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1563

1940 - S/L Ernest Archibald "Ernie" McNab became the 1st RCAF ace during WWI, shooting down a Me 110 and a Ju 88 that day.

http://www.acesofww2.com/Canada/aces/McNab.htm - http://cieldegloire.com/003_mc_nab_e_a.php

1940 - 1st convoy of aircraft to use the West African Reinforcement Route, six Hawker Hurricanes, led by a Bristol Blenheim carrying a navigator en route across the African Continent, arrives at Abu Sueir in Egypt, from Takoradi in the Gold Coast.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1940.aspx -

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar///////UN/UK/UK-Med-I/maps/UK-Med-I-12.jpg

1941 - Death of Riccardo Helmut Seidl and Bartolomeo Tomasino, Italian WWII pilots, Killed while attacking convoy Halberd (British convoy from Gibraltar to Malta) in their Savoia-Marchetti S.M.84 .

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riccardo_Helmut_Seidl - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeo_Tomasino

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

1942 - Death of George Hedley Stainforth AFC RAF, British Royal Air Force pilot and 1st man in the world to exceed 400 miles per hour. killed in action whilst piloting His Bristol Beaufighter at Gharib, near the Gulf of Suez.

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

1943 - Death of Hans-Dieter Frank, German Luftwaffe WWII night fighter ace, killed in a mid-air collision with another Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Dieter_Frank - http://www.cieldegloire.com/001_frank_h_d.php

1946 - Death of Joseph Denis Bernard Robert De Bonnefoy, French WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_De_Bonnefoy - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/france/de_bonnefoy.php

1946 - Death of Geoffrey de Havilland Jr, British test pilot and the son of the English aviation pioneer and aircraft designer of the same name, killed when his de Havilland DH.108 breaks up in mid-air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_de_Havilland_Jr - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Swallow#Testing

1949 - 1st flight of the Arsenal VG-90, French Single seat Carrier born jet fighter prototype.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1038 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_VG_90

1952 - Birth of Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, Romanian Aviator, Engineer, Diplomat and Cosmonaut.

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

1956 - 1st piloted airplane to exceed Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound) is the rocket-powered Bell X-2. Unfortunately, The X-2 began a series of diverging rolls and tumbled out of control. The pilot tried to regain control of the aircraft. Unable to do so, he separated the escape capsule. Too late, he attempted to bail out. Milburn G. "Mel" Apt was killed when the capsule hit the Edwards bombing range. The rest of the X-2 crashed five miles away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_X-2#Operational_history - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milburn_G._Apt

1959 - Death of René Caudron, french aviation pioneer and aircraft designer along with his brother Gaston.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A8res_Caudron

1964 - 1st flight of The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2, British Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_TSR-2

1966 - Birth of Stephanie Diana Wilson, American engineer and NASA astronaut.

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

1967 - A Lockheed SP-2H Neptune of VP-30, collided with a US Navy Vought RF-8G Crusader assigned to VFP-62 during a heavy rainstorm, near Jacksonville Beach, Florida. All 6 on both planes were killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1960%E2%80%931974)#1967

1973 - Launch of Soyuz 12, Soviet manned test flight by the Soviet Union of the newly-redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft that was intended to provide greater crew safety in the wake of the Soyuz 11 tragedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_12

1973 - Texas International Airlines Flight 655 Convair 600 crashed in bad weather into Black Fork Mountain, Arkansas, killing all 11

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_International_Airlines_Flight_655

1976 - Birth of Luca Parmitano, Italian Air force pilot, test pilot and ESA spationaut.

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

1977 - Japan Airlines Flight 715 McDonnell Douglas DC-8 crashed on final approach into the side of a hill 4 miles from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, killing 34 over 79.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_715

1990 - United Airlines becomes the 1st commercial operator to use satcoms (satellite data communications) on a flight between San Francisco and Hong Kong.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1990.aspx

1993 - Death of James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, American aviation pioneer and USAF pilot.

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

1997 - Communications are suddenly lost with the Mars Pathfinder space probe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pathfinder#End_of_mission

2003 - Launch of SMART-1, Swedish-designed European Space Agency satellite, designed to orbit around the moon and Eurobird 3, European communications satellite with launcher Ariane 5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_1 - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurobird_3

2007 - Launch of Dawn, spacecraft sent by NASA with international cooperation on a space exploration mission to the two largest members of the asteroid belt — Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.

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

2008 – CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the 1st Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.

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

2011 - Launch of TacSat-4, 4th in a series of U.S. military experimental reconnaissance and communication satellites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TacSat-4