Portal:Aviation
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The Aviation Portal
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and airships.
Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)
Selected article
Arkia was founded in 1949 as Israel Inland Airlines when it became clear that there was demand for a local airline to connect the north of Israel (especially Tel Aviv) with the southern region of the Negev, as a subsidiary of El Al, Israel's national airline. Flights starting the following year with the airline unsing De Havilland DH.89 aircraft, followed by Douglas DC-3s, to connect Rosh Pina in the north to the port of Eilat in the south. El Al held a 50% stake in the airline at this time with Histadrut, Israel's labour federation, being the other shareholder. The airline later evolved to become Eilata Airlines, Aviron, and then to Arkia Israel Airlines. In its first year of service, Israel Inland carried 13,485 passengers on their twice weekly flight, operated by a Curtis Commando. (Full article...)
Selected image
Did you know
...that the Vickers machine gun was the standard weapon on all British and French military aircraft after 1916? ...that the Cessna 165 aircraft was instrumental in the recovery of the Cessna Aircraft Company in the years following the Great Depression? ...that the asymmetrical monoplane BV 141 is one of many military aircraft designed by Richard Vogt?
General images -
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Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation) -
Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation) -
Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation) -
"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation) -
Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation) -
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Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation) -
Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation) -
One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation) -
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Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation) -
The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation) -
Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation) -
The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation) -
French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation) -
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The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation) -
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Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation) -
Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation) -
The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation) -
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The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation) -
Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation) -
Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation) -
Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation) -
1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation) -
Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation) -
D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation) -
Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation) -
The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft) -
La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation) -
"Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation) -
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The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft) -
Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation) -
First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation) -
1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation) -
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Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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In the news
- May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
- August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
- June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
- January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
- January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
- January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
- October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
- October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
- September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
- August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard
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Selected biography
By 1919 Earhart had enrolled at Columbia University to study pre-med but quit a year later to be with her parents in California. Later in Long Beach she and her father went to a stunt-flying exhibition and the next day she went on a ten minute flight.
Earhart had her first flying lesson at Kinner Field near Long Beach. Her teacher was Anita Snook, a pioneer female aviator. Six months later Earhart purchased a yellow Kinner Airster biplane which she named "Canary". On October 22, 1922, she flew it to an altitude of 14,000 feet, setting a women's world record.
After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest, a wealthy American living in London, England expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean, but after deciding the trip was too dangerous to make herself, she offered to sponsor the project, suggesting they find "another girl with the right image." While at work one afternoon in April 1928 Earhart got a phone call from a man who asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?"
Selected Aircraft
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four-engined airliner manufactured by Airbus S.A.S. It first flew on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse–Blagnac Airport. Commercial flights began in late 2007 after months of testing, with the delivery of the first aircraft to launch customer Singapore Airlines. During much of its development phase, the aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX, and the nickname Superjumbo has also become associated with the A380.
The A380 is double decked, with the upper deck extending along the entire length of the fuselage. This allows for a spacious cabin, with the A380 in standard three-class configuration to seat 555 people, up to maximum of 853 in full economy class configuration. Only one model of the A380 was available: The A380-800, the passenger model. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world superseding the Boeing 747. The other launch model, the A380-800F freighter, was canceled and did not join the ranks of the largest freight aircraft such as the Antonov An-225, An-124, and the C-5 Galaxy.
- Span: 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in)
- Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
- Height: 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in)
- Engines: 4 * Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance GP7200 (311 kN or 69,916 lbf)
- Cruising Speed: 0.85 Mach (approx 1,050 km/h or 652 mph or 567 kn)
- First Flight: 27 April 2005
- Number built: 254 (including 3 prototypes)
Today in Aviation
- 2010 – A Blue Wing Airlines Antonov An-28 crashed shortly after take-off from Godo Holo Airstrip killing all eight on board.
- 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Colombiana Dassault Mirage 5COAM (FAC-3031) on a routine training flight from the Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 1, crashed shortly after take-off from the Palanquero airbase, Puerto Salgar, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. The aircraft from the Escuadrón de Combate 112 suffered a technical fault causing a fire which forced the pilot to successfully eject from the plane without injury.
- 2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-27 Flogger crashed shortly after take-off and the pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft. The accident occurred near the Konkani village, Jodhpur, India and resulted in injuries to 7 local villagers.
- 2008 – Aloha Air Cargo commenced operations as an independent airline after Aloha Airlines ceased operations.
- 2000 – Helios Airways commences airline operations.
- 1997 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 at 4:07:48.62 am EST. Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.
- 1989 – US Navy North American CT-39E Sabreliner, BuNo 158383, 'JK', of VRC-40, NAS Norfolk, Virginia, runs off runway at Andrews AFB, Maryland, at 1100 hrs. Crew of four and one passenger uninjured.
- 1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus spacecraft prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.
- 1984 – First flight of the AMX International AMX
- 1981 – Prototype of an improved variant PZL-106 Kruk (Polish agricultural aircraft) was flown with redesigned wings using shorter struts.
- 1975 – Birth of Dorothy Marie "Dottie" Metcalf-Lindenburger, Nasa Astronaut.
- 1975 – Eight U. S. Air Force helicopters carry a force of U. S. Marines in an assault on Cambodia’s Koh Tang island in an attempt to rescue the crew of Mayaguez; three are shot down. U. S. Navy Grumman A-6 Intruder and A-7E Corsair II bombers and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) strike Ream airfield and targets at Kompong Som in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge releases the Mayaguez crew, which actually is being held at Rong Som Lem island.
- 1970 – The Dymshits – Kuznetsov aircraft hijacking affair (Leningrad Process) was an attempt to hijack a civilian aircraft by a group of Soviet refuseniks in order to escape to the West.
- 1967 – Over Malden Island in the south Pacific, a British Vickers Valiant piloted by Kenneth Hubbard drops the nation’s first nuclear bomb in a test called Operation Grapple. Designed to yield a one megaton explosion, the bomb fails to detonate properly and only disperses about 300 kilotons.
- 1965 – The U. S. Navy deploys its first aircraft carrier to Dixie Station in the South China Sea off South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. It is a single-carrier station for the provision of air support in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and will remain in use until August 1966.
- 1963 – Launch of Mercury-Atlas 9, final manned space mission of the U. S. Mercury program, The spacecraft, named Faith 7, completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, piloted by astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper (alias 'Gordo'). It was Cooper's first Space Flight.
- 1962 – During refuelling at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, Boeing B-47E-135-BW Stratojet, 53-6230, of 340th Bomb Wing catches fire, 10,000 gallons of fuel ignite. Four firemen are killed and 18 others injured when fireball engulfs all within 100 feet of burning aircraft.
- 1960 – Launch of Korabl-Sputnik 1 (also known as Sputnik 4 in the West) was the first test flight of the Soviet Vostok programme, and the first Vostok (spacecraft).
- 1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. It carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research. Its tape recorder failed, making it unable to measure the Van Allen radiation belts.
- 1957 – First flight of The Miles Student M.100, lightweight trainer.
- 1957 – A Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant drops the first British Hydrogen bomb, over Christmas Island.
- 1956 – Fifth Lockheed U-2A, Article 345, 56-6678, delivered to the CIA on 16 December 1955, crashes at Groom Lake, Nevada, killing Agency pilot Wilburn S. "Billy" Rose. Aircraft had just departed Groom with a full fuel load, but an underwing pogo hung up. Pilot attempted to return to try to shake it loose, but let angle of bank increase too much and fully fuelled starboard wing kept dropping.
- 1956 – A RCAF Avro CF-100 Mk. IVB Canuck, 18367, of 445 Squadron, out of CFB Uplands, falling from 33,000 feet (10,000 m) crashed into Villa St. Louis, a convent of the Grey Nuns of the Cross in Orleans, Ontario, Canada at roughly 2300 hrs. (reports vary). 15 people were killed; both crewmen of the aircraft, a priest, 11 nuns and one other woman.
- 1953 – An errant United States Air Force Republic F-84E-30-RE Thunderjet, 51-628, of the 22d Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 36th Fighter-Bomber Group, collides with two USAF C-119 Flying Boxcars of the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, flying in formation near Weinheim, Germany, sending all three planes down in flames. Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar, 51-8235, was struck by the fighter, which then hit struck C-119C, 51-8241, three Flying Boxcar crew killed, three injured. F-84 pilot James W. Chilton parachutes to safety.
- 1948 – Tel Aviv is attacked by the Egyptian Air Force. The Israeli Air Force retaliates by striking Arab troops near Samakh.
- 1945 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Emperor attack the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro in the Indian Ocean, but achieve only one near-miss.
- 1944 – Ex-RAF de Havilland Mosquito B.IV, DK296, formerly flown by 105 Squadron as 'GB-G', delivered to the Soviet Union for testing on 19 April 1944 by Soviet flight crew, is written off this date in landing accident at Sverdlovsk when pilot A. I. Kabanov loses control with engines at low power setting, turns to port, runs off runway, shears off undercarriage and skids to a stop on its belly. Pilot and navigator P. I. Perevalov unhurt. This was the ninth flight of DK296 (which never received a Soviet serial) since it arrived in Russia and was the only Mosquito delivered to Russia. Kabanov was the Deputy Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Air Force at this time, and had much experience flying foreign types
- 1944 – A raid by Fairey Barracuda from the British aircraft carriers HMS Furious and HMS Victorious against German battleship Tirpitz anchored in Norway is recalled due to heavy cloud cover over the target area.
- 1941 – Frank Whittle’s jet engined plane, the Gloster E.28/39, the first British jet, flew for the first time. Whittle had built his first engine in 1935 and completed a successful test in 1937.
- 1940 – 15-16 – British bombers make their first attack on German land targets, in the Ruhr Valley.
- 1940 – During British evacuation and demolition operations in Dutch ports, German dive bombers attack the British destroyer HMS Valentine, which is beached and wrecked at the mouth of the Scheldt.
- 1940 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command conducts its first strategic bombing raid of World War II, as 99 Handley Page Hampden, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, and Vickers Wellington bombers strike German targets in the Ruhr Valley. One British bomber was lost.
- 1936 – British aviation pioneer Amy Johnson returns to England after a record-breaking flight to South Africa in a Percival Gull (G-ADZO).
- 1930 – Ellen Church becomes the world's first flight attendant, working for Boeing Air Transport.
- 1930 – Cleveland Municipal Airport was the first airport with radio air traffic control.
- 1928 – Rev John Flynn founds the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia at Cloncurry, Queensland, using a de Havilland DH.50. The service takes medical services to remote parts of the Australian bush.
- 1928 – In a preview shown at a Los Angeles movie theater, Mickey Mouse makes his debut in a cartoon called Plane Crazy, an animated homage to Charles Lindbergh. Walt Disney fails to find a distributor for his first Mickey cartoon until March 1929, five months after Steamboat Willie‘s release. Despite Plane Crazy being produced earlier, Disney considers Steamboat Willie to be Mickey Mouse’s debut.
- 1925 – Entered into service: Junkers G.23 with Swedish Air Lines.
- 1923 – First course of Provisional Pilot Officers began training at Camp Borden.
- 1922 – Instone Air Line commences flights between London and Brussels.
- 1921 – Laura Bromwell loops in New York State 199 times in 1 h, 20 min, setting a new women’s record for consecutive loops.
- 1919 – An intercity air route between Chicago and Cleveland is inaugurated by the United States Post Office.
- 1919 – The U.S. Post Office Department begins its first air mail service operations between Chicago and Cleveland, later extended to New York and San Francisco. An Airco DH.4 carried the mail.
- 1918 – First flight of the Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11.
- 1918 – The first regular US airmail service commences, between New York and Washington, DC. The first flight is made by Lt Geoffrey Boyle in a Curtiss JN-4H.
- 1793 – Spanish inventor Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider nearly 1/4 mile in one of the first human attempts at flight.
References
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