SEP29

1913 - French Maurice Prévost wins the Gordon Bennett Cup in Reims, flying the Deperdussin Monocoque, setting a record speed of 203,85km/h.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deperdussin_Monocoque - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9035

1917 - Birth of Vittorio Sanseverino, Italian WWII pilot, known for having test-flown a large part of the aircraft built by FIAT for the postwar Italian Air Force.

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

1917 - Birth of Jean Bertin, French aeronautical engineer

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

1918 - Death of Nicholson Stewart Boulton, British WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Bristol F.2b.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/boulton1.php

1918 - Death of Edward Barfoot Drake, British WWI flying ace, killed his Sopwith Camel by ground fire.

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

1918 - Death of Leslie Edwin Mitchell, British WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Bristol F.2b.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/mitchell2.php

1918 - Death of Frank Luke Jr., American WWI fighter ace, ranking second among U.S. Army Air Service pilots after Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Landing his damaged SPAD XIII behind ennemy lines and Approached by German infantry, Luke drew his Colt Model 1911 pistol and fired a few rounds at his attackers before dying..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Luke#Death_-_September_29.2C_1918 - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/luke1.php

1922 - 1st flight of The Thomas-Morse R-5 (TM-22), American single-engined parasol monoplane racing aircraft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas-Morse_R-5

1926 - 1st flight of the FBA 17 HL 1, French 1-seat catapulatable single engine biplane liaison flying boat prototype.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBA_17 - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=5654

1927 - Death of Georg Wulf, German aviation pionneer, test pilot and aircraft designer, co-founder of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG company, killed in the crash of the Fw-19a 'Ente' during a demonstration of single-engine flight.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wulf - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_F_19

1929 - French Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte arrive at Moullart , Manchuria in a Breguet 19 Super Bidon named 'Question Mark', having set a new distance record of 7,905 km (4,912 miles) from Le Bourget, France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_19#Sports_Variants - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=5693

1931 - 1st flight of The Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11 (Høver M.F.11), Norwegian 3-seat, single-engined biplane used by the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service for maritime reconnaissance in the decade before WWII. The M.F. 11 was the main aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service up until the German invasion of Norway in 1940.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinens_Flyvebaatfabrikk_M.F.11

1931 - Flight Lieutenant G.H. Stainforth sets a new world speed record, breaking the 400mph barrier. The flight, in a Supermarine S6B, reaches 654kph (406mph) and takes place at Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stainforth#1931_Schneider_Trophy_and_the_400mph_barrier

1931 - 1st fighter designed by the Lockheed firm at Burbank, California, the Lockheed-Detroit YP-24 (2 seat Fighter prototype) is delivered to the US Army.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/lok_p-24.php

1933 - Birth of Mars Zakirovich Rafikov, Soviet fighter pilot and Cosmonaut.

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

1934 - An Airspeed Courier of London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Ltd crashed at Tiverton Bottom, Shoreham, Kent, Killin all 4. An eyewitness stated that he thought the pilot may have stalled trying to avoid high tension power lines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_London,_Scottish_%26_Provincial_Airways_Airspeed_Courier_crash

1935 - British Airways Ltd is formed by the merger of Spartan Air Lines Ltd, United Airways Ltd, and Hillman's Airways.

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

1936 - Charles W.A. Scott and Giles Guthrie takes off their Percival Vega Gull in the Schlesinger Air Race from Portsmouth, UK to Rand, South Africa.

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

1940 - Avro Ansons L9162 and N4876 of No. 2 Service Flying Training School RAAF collided in mid-air and became locked together in flight. A successful emergency landing was made at Brocklesby, New South Wales. L9162 became a ground instructional airframe, whilst N4876 was repaired and returned to service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Brocklesby_mid-air_collision

1942 - 1st flight of the Australian built De Havilland D.H.84 Dragon, British twin engine commercial aircraft, designed as navigation trainer for the Royal Australian Air Force.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/havilland_dh-84.php

1942 - The 3 Eagle Squadrons (US volunteers - Squadron N° 71, 121 &133) were officially turned over by the RAF to the fledgling 8th Air Force of the USAAF and became the 4th Fighter Group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Squadrons#Formation_and_evolution

1942 - Birth of Clarence William "Bill" Nelson, senior United States Senator and 2nd sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space.

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

1946 - 1st flight of The Vought F7U Cutlass, American carrier-based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War era. It was a highly unusual, semi-tailless design, allegedly based on aerodynamic data and plans captured from the German Arado company at the end of WWII, last aircraft designed by Rex Beisel, who was responsible for the first fighter ever designed specifically for the U.S. Navy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F7U_Cutlass

1946 - Blue Angel 4, US Navy Aerobatic team pilot Ross Forest "Robby" Robinson, is killed in the crash of his Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat. He failed to pull out of a dive during a Cuban Eight manoeuvre - when a wingtip broke off his airplane, sending him into an unrecoverable spin. 1st loss of the Navy demonstration team.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3494807 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Angels#Accidents

1946 - A United States Navy (USN) Lockheed P2V Neptune crewed by Commander T. Davis and E.P. Rankin, takes off for a non-stop world distance record of 18,081 kilometres (11,235 miles) flying from Perth in Australia to Columbus in Ohio.

http://p2vneptune.com/turtle.shtml - http://www.maritimepatrolassociation.org/documents/heritage/Truculent_Turtle_1946.pdf

1950 - Captain Richard V. Wheeler makes a parachute jump of 12,938 metres (42,449 feet) at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1950.aspx

1954 - 1st flight of The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, American supersonic military jet fighter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_F-101_Voodoo

1956 - Birth of James Donald Halsell, Jr., USAF pilot and NASA astronaut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Halsell

1957 - A Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, flew from Los Angeles to London in 18 hours and 32 minutes (about 5,420 mi/8,723 km at 292.4 mph/470.6 km/h).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Constellation#Records

1959 - Braniff Airways Flight 542 Lockheed L-188 Electra disintegrated in mid-air approximately 3.8 miles (6.1 km) southeast of Buffalo, Texas killing all 34 on board. The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was structural failure of the left wing resulting from forces generated by undampened propeller whirl mode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braniff_Flight_542

1962 - Launch of Alouette 1, Canada's 1st satellite, and the 1st satellite constructed by a country other than the USSR or the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alouette_1

1964 - 1st flight (conventional) of The Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) XC-142, American tiltwing experimental aircraft designed to investigate the operational suitability of vertical/short takeoff and landing transports.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTV_XC-142

1968 - Death of William "Bill" Barton Bridgeman, American test pilot who broke aviation records while working for the Douglas aircraft company testing experimental aircraft. His airplane went down in the Pacific Ocean during a routine test flight from Los Angeles to Santa Catalina Island. His body was never found.

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

1968 - A 10-foot (3-meter) GHOST balloon flew at an altitude of approximately 52,000 feet (16,000 meters) completing a full 365 days in flight, becoming the 1st balloon to fly for a full year.

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

1972 - French Air Force test pilot Gilbert Klopfstein returns at Bretigny with the Nord 262 he had hijacked equiped with Klopfstein own prototype head-up display. After he succesfully demonstrated his invention (known today as the 'Klopfstein Display') to the USAF and the MIT and afraid of consequences at his return, He just gave the MIT pre-print report to his chief which was waiting on the tarmac with the military police and walked away. No arresting orders were given.

http://www.headupflight.net/gilbert/gilbert2.htm

1973 - Soyuz 12, Soviet test flight of the newly-redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft, is back on earth.

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

1977 - Launch of Salyut 6, Soviet orbital space station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_6

1988 – NASA launches STS-26, the return to flight mission (with space shuttle Discovery) after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

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

1990 - 1st flight of The Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics YF-22, American single-seat, twin-engined prototype fighter aircraft which will lead to the F-22 Raptor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-22

1990 - Death of Giovanni Carta (John Carta), Italo-American aviator and Extreme Skydiver, in the crash of a Lockheed P2V Harpoon during an airshow at Sacramento, California.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carta#Biografia

1998 - Lionair Flight 602 Antonov An-24RV with several high-ranking military officials of the Sri Lankan Army, is shot down by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels using MANPADS, killing all 55.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionair_Flight_602

1999 - 1st flight of the GROEN Hawk 4, American 4 seats autogyro.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/groen_hawk.php

2004 – The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight (X1 - Flight 16P) piloted by Mike Melvill to 102.9 km, the 1st of two required to win the prize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne_flight_16P

2005 - Death of Gennadi Vasiliyevich Sarafanov , Soviet pilot and Cosmonaut.

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

2006 - Soyuz TMA-8, Soyuz mission to the ISS, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-8

2006 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 Boeing 737-8EH collides in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business 600 jet near Peixoto de Azevedo, Mato Grosso, Brazil, killing 154 total people, and triggering a Brazilian aviation crisis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Transportes_A%C3%A9reos_Flight_1907

2009 - Death of Pavel Romanovich Popovich, Soviet pilot and Cosmonaut.

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

2009 - Olympic Airlines, formerly Olympic Airways, Greek flag carrier airline, cease operations. Restructured by privatisation in Olympic Air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Airlines - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Air

2010 - Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis vanished in the Adriatic Sea while taking part in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race across Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Abruzzo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Rymer_Davis

2011 - Launch of Tiangong-1, China's 1st space station, experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities, 1st operational component of the Tiangong program, which aims to place a larger, modular station into orbit by 2020.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong-1

2011 - Nusantara Buana Air CASA C-212 Aviocar crashed near Near Bohorok, Sumatra, killing all 18 on board. According to witnesses, they saw the plane smoking and circling low before the crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Nusantara_Buana_CASA_C-212_crash

2011 - Launch of QuetzSat 1, Mexican high-power geostationary communications satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuetzSat_1

2012 - Swiss pilot Carlo Schmid (22 years old), lands back his Cessna 310 in Dubendorf, switzerland, setting a new youngest solo round the world flight, after a 80 days journey and 110hr flying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Schmid_(Swiss_pilot) - http://www.rtw2012.com/