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
With numerous skyscrapers and mountains located to the north and its only runway jutting out into Victoria Harbour, landings at the airport were dramatic to experience and technically demanding for pilots. The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the 6th most dangerous airport in the world.
The airport was home to Hong Kong's international carrier Cathay Pacific, as well as regional carrier Dragonair, freight airline Air Hong Kong and Hong Kong Airways. The airport was also home to the former RAF Kai Tak. (Full article...)
Selected image
Did you know
...that Suriname's worst air disaster was Surinam Airways Flight 764, which crashed after the pilots ignored repeated warnings that they were flying too low?
...that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight contains the world's oldest airworthy survivor of the Battle of Britain, alongside ten other historic aircraft - two of which fought over Normandy on D-Day? ...that during Operation Deep Freeze II in 1956, US Navy Rear Admiral George J. Dufek commanded the first aircraft to land at the South Pole, the C-47 Skytrain “Que Sera Sera”?
General images -
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D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation) -
Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation) -
Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation) -
The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation) -
Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation) -
Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation) -
The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft) -
The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation) -
The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation) -
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Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation) -
The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft) -
Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation) -
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The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation) -
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) -
"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation) -
Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation) -
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French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation) -
Flagg biplane from 1933 (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) -
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Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation) -
Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (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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1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation) -
First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation) -
Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation) -
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One of Leonardo's sketches (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) -
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Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation) -
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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) -
1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation) -
La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation) -
Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation) -
The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (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
Assigned as a P-40 pilot with the 45th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Fighter Group at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, 2nd Lt. Gabreski witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but did not become airborne in time to engage the attackers.
In March 1943 Gabreski became part of the 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, and in May was promoted to Major and named commander of the 61st Fighter Squadron, which included six Polish nationals as pilots in 1944. He made his 28th kill on July 5, 1944, passing Eddie Rickenbacker's record from World War I to become America's top ace (although several pilots passed him by the end of the war).
Col. Gabreski flew combat again during the Korean War, as commander of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, piloting an F-86 Sabre. He was credited with 6.5 MiG-15 kills, making him one of seven U.S. pilots to be aces in more than one war (the others are Col. Harrison Thyng, Col. James P. Hagerstrom, Major William T. Whisner, Col. Vermont Garrison, Major George A. Davis, Jr., and Lt.Col. John F. Bolt, USMC).
He ended his career as a commander of several tactical and air defense wings, his last assignment being commander of the 52d Fighter Wing at Suffolk County Air Force Base in Westhampton Beach, New York.
Selected Aircraft
The B-36 was the only American aircraft with the range and payload to carry such bombs from airfields on American soil to targets in the USSR, as storing nuclear weapons in foreign countries was diplomatically delicate. The nuclear deterrent the B-36 afforded may have kept the Soviet Army from fighting alongside the North Korean and Chinese armies during the Korean War. Convair touted the B-36 as an "aluminum overcast," a "long rifle" to give SAC a global reach. When General Curtis LeMay headed SAC (1949-57) and turned it into an effective nuclear delivery force, the B-36 formed the heart of his command. Its maximum payload was more than four times that of the B-29, even exceeding that of the B-52.
- Span: 230 ft 0 in (70.10 m)
- Length: 162 ft 1 in (49.40 m)
- Height: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
- Engines: 6× Pratt & Whitney R-4360-53 "Wasp Major" radials, 3,800 hp (2,500 kW) each
- Cruising Speed: 230 mph (200 kn, 380 km/h) with jets off
- Range: 6,795 mi (5,905 nmi, 10,945 km) with 10,000 lb (4,535 kg) payload
- First Flight: 8 August 1946
Today in Aviation
- 2013 – Nepal Airlines Flight 555, the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 9N-ABO, skids off the runway at Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, Nepal, and falls 20 meters (65 feet) into the Gandaki River. All 21 people on board survive, but seven suffer serious injuries.
- 2011 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 at 12:56:28 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF6, ELC 3, ROEU, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Final flight of Endeavour.
- 2001 – A Turkish Air Force CASA CN-235M-100 crashes into a field in Malatya, Turkey killing all 34 on board.
- 1995 – A Royal Air Force BAe Nimrod is forced to ditch in Moray Firth
- 1992 – STS-49, maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour lands at Edwards AFB.
- 1992 – Munich-Riem Airport, the main, international airport of Munich until is closed down. Operations moved to the new location near Freising. The IATA airport code MUC and the ICAO airport code EDDM were transferred to the new Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport.
- 1992 – The 2,000th C-130 Hercules rolls off the production line.
- 1986 – Top Gun (film) opens in theaters in United States.
- 1977 – The landing gear failed on a New York Airways Sikorsky S-61 while it was taking on passengers on the roof of the Pan Am building. The aircraft rolled onto its side. Its spinning rotor blades killed four passengers waiting to board (including movie director Michael Findlay) and injured a fifth. Parts of a broken blade fell into the streets below, killing one pedestrian and injuring another.
- 1968 – A British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Super Vickers VC10 on a routine service from Chicago and Montreal makes the airline’s first fully automatic approach and landing in London.
- 1961 – First flight of Mikoyan/Gurevich Ye-152/1, Soviet single-seat fighter/interceptor aircraft.
- 1959 – Newly-formed RCAF aerobatic team, the Golden Hawks, flying gold-finished North American F-86 Sabre, performed its first demonstration at Torbay, Newfoundland.
- 1958 – Captain Walter W. Irwin sets a new airspeed record of 1,404 mph (2,259 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter, the first record over 2,000 km/h.
- 1957 – First flight of the Saunders-Roe SR.53, prototype interceptor aircraft of mixed jet and rocket propulsion developed for the Royal Air Force.
- 1954 – Birth of Dafydd Rhys "Dave" Williams, Canadian physician and a retired CSA astronaut. He had two space flights, both of which were Space Shuttle missions.
- 1953 – 90 U. S. Air Force Republic F-84 Thunderjets carry out a successful attack against Chusan, Korea.
- 1946 – A B-17G Flying Fortress crashes into White's Hill near Fairfax, California, while en route to Hamilton Field in Marin County, California, after running out of fuel. Two crew members are killed.
- 1945 – Birth of Brewster Hopkinson Shaw, Jr. former NASA astronaut, veteran of three space shuttle missions and has logged 533 hours of space flight. He was pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia in November 1983, commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis in November 1985 and commander of Space Shuttle Columbia in August 1989.
- 1945 – (16-17) British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft strike Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Gunto.
- 1943 – Launch of Operation Chastise, attack on German dams by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis.
- 1942 – Canadian Pacific Airlines was formed.
- 1940 – Death of Allen Benjamin Angus, DFC, Canadian WWII fighter pilot and first Canadian ace of WWII.
- 1930 – First flight of the Blériot Bl-110 nicknamed 'Joseph Le Brix', French high wing single engine monoplane prototype designed for endurance records.
- 1929 – Wings, a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, is the first film, and the only silent film ever, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
- 1920 – Birth of Joseph Otis Fletcher, American Air Force pilot and polar researcher, first pilot to land at the North Pole along with William Pershing Benedict with a Douglas C-47 Skytrain.
- 1919 – A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1918 – The Imperial German Navy recommissions the light cruiser Stuttgart after her conversion into a seaplane carrier. She is the only German seagoing aviation ship capable of working with the fleet commissioned during either World War I or World War II.
- 1917 – Death of Enrico Cottino and Francesco Guadalupi in their Farman 14.
- 1915 – (16-17 overnight) Two Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504s interceot the Imperial German Navy Zeppelins LZ 38 and LZ 39, badly damaging LZ39 with four 20-lb (9-kg) bombs dropped on its envelope from above.
- 1890 – Birth of http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bossoutrot, French pioneer aviator and politician.
References
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