Portal:Aviation

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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747

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

Air Force One
Air Force One
Air Force One (the ATC callsign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President) has, since 1990, consisted of two specifically-configured, highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, known as the VC-25. The planes' three floors (4,000 square feet – 372 m²) include multiple modifications including the president's executive suite which includes a private dressing room, workout room, lavatory, shower, and private office. (Full article...)

Selected image

Credit: Alfred T. Palmer
Assembling B-25 bombers at North American Aviation -- Kansas City, Kansas; Reproduction from color slide

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 Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was only twenty-eight years old when he helped found Pan American World Airways? ... that Wing Commander John Lerew, ordered to defend Rabaul against Japanese invasion in 1942, signaled headquarters the legendary gladiatorial phrase "We who are about to die salute you"?

More Did you know facts

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The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Selected biography

Billy Mitchell (1879–1936) was an early aviation pioneer who rose to become a chief of the U.S. Army Air Service. Mitchell was born in Nice, France and raised on his family estate near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended George Washington University before enlisting in the Army at age 18 during the Spanish–American War. Due to his family connection he quickly received a commission Signal Corps where he had the opportunity to witness a flight demonstration by the Wright brothers in 1908. In 1916 he took private flight lessons and was transferred to the Aeronautical Division.

Mitchell deployed to France in 1917 when the United States entered World War I. While there he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command American combat air units in France. After the war Mitchell was appointed the deputy director of the Air Service became a passionate advocate of air power. In 1921 he set up a demonstration to show the capability of airpower against naval vessels. During the course of the demonstrations aircraft successfully sank a captured German destroyer, the light crusier Frankfurt, and the battleship Ostfriesland.

Mitchell regularly sparred with his superiors over the role of airpower in the military. In 1925 he was reverted to his permanent rank of colonel and was transferred to San Antonio, Texas. Later that year, after a series of aviation accidents he accused Army and Navy leadership of incompetence and "almost treasonable administration of the national defense." In response he was court-martialed for insubordination, found guilty, and sentenced to a five-year suspension from active duty. Mitchell resigned on 1 February 1926 in lieu of serving the sentence. He continued to advocate airpower as a civilian until his death in 1936. In 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt posthumously promoted Mitchell to major general in recognition of his contributions to air power.

Selected Aircraft

The Pregnant Guppy was a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built in the USA and used for ferrying outsized cargo items, most notably NASA's components of the Apollo moon program. The Pregnant Guppy was the first of the Guppy line of aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines, Inc. The design also inspired similar designs such as the jet-powered Airbus Beluga, and the Boeing 747 LCF designed to deliver Boeing 787 parts.

  • Span:141 feet, 3 inches.
  • Length: 127 feet.
  • Height: 31 feet, 3 inches.
  • Engines: 4 3500hp P&W R-4360.
  • Cruising Speed: 250 mph
  • First Flight:September 19, 1962
  • Number built: 1
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Today in Aviation

May 29

  • 2012 – A Pakistan Air Force F-7PG of the 31 Fighter Wing was destroyed by fire during maintenance at Quetta airbase.
  • 2007 – OH-58D(R) Kiowa 93-0978 from B Troop, 2–6 Cavalry Regiment is shot down between Baquba and Muqdadiyah with small arms, killing the chopper's two pilots.[3][4][5]
  • 2003 – A man attempts to hijack Qantas Flight 1737, a Boeing 717, in Melbourne, Australia, intending to crash the plane in Tasmania. He is overpowered by the flight crew and passengers, but injures three people.
  • 2001 – A US Navy McDonnell-Douglas FA-18C Hornet from VFA-106 crashed near Fort Pierce, Florida, during a ferry flight from NAS Oceana, Virginia, to NAS Key West, Florida. Pilot was killed.
  • 2001 – Three crew are killed when a Republic of Korea Army Boeing Vertol CH-47D Chinook, of the 301st Aviation Regiment, Icheon, crashes in Seoul, South Korea while installing a torch-shaped sculpture on the Han River Olympic Bridge, built to commemorate the 1988 Olympic Games. The Chinook had just lowered the flame-shaped statuary onto the bridge central tower when its rotors hit the sculpture and then the tower. The front rotor clipped the top of the sculpture and separated from the helicopter which then fell onto the span, breaking in two, with the rear bursting into flame on the bridge and the forward half falling into the river. No other casualties were reported. The bridge had been closed during the installation work. The dead were identified as pilot Chun Hong-yop, co-pilot Nam In-ho and Sgt. 1st Class Kim Woo-soo. Army scuba divers were working to recover the wreckage. Footage of this crash is widely available on the web.
  • 1986 – (29-June 1) The 5th FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Castellón de la Plana, Spain.
  • 1981 – The Bell X-14B, NASA N704NA, originally USAF 56-0422, upgraded from the A-configuration with an onboard computer and digital fly-by-wire control system installed to enable emulation of landing characteristics of other VTOL aircraft, and used in this test role, is damaged beyond repair in a landing accident this date. Airframe was saved from being scrapped and is now under restoration at the Ropkey Armor Museum, Crawfordsville, Indiana.
  • 1980 – Canadian Armed Forces accepted the first CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft at CFB Greenwood, NS.
  • 1977 – The keel of the first aircraft carrier to be built in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is laid at Ferrol.
  • 1975 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6700, Article 367, seventh airframe of first USAF contract, delivered to USAF at Groom Lake in February 1957, but apparently transferred to the Central Intelligence Agency by June 1957, then to Strategic Air Command in fall 1960, converted to U-2C by October 1966. Flyable storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, 1969. Converted for Advanced Location and Strike System (ALSS) project, 1972. Crashed in a heavily wooded area of West Germany ~100 miles NE of Bonn this date, Capt. Robert "Terry" Rendleman, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, escaping unhurt after experiencing flight control problems, aircraft entering Mach tuck at high altitude, forcing pilot to eject. He was taken to hospital in Wiesbaden in good condition, an Air Force spokesman said. Aircraft was on Constant Treat deployment of the ALSS system.
  • 1969 – A USAF General Dynamics F-111 on a training flight out of Nellis AFB, Nevada, crashes from low altitude when deficient wind-shield bulged down from the top of the canopy bow and instantly crazed. Tactical Air Command replaces 50 F-111 windshields in 1969 and 93 in 1970.
  • 1953 – The first of two 40 passenger de Havilland Comets arrived in Ottawa. With the arrival of this Aircraft, the RCAF became the first air force in the world to operate jet transports and the first operator to make scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings.
  • 1947 – United Airlines Flight 521, a Douglas DC-4, was a scheduled flight departing from LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland, Ohio. While attempting to take off from runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only six of those survived. It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. This record stood for less than 24 hours when an Eastern Airlines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland killing all 54 aboard.
  • 1947 – Twelve members of the Colombian army air force are injured in the crash landing of their transport at Bogotá, Colombia, after it collided in mid-air with a buzzard.
  • 1947 – A Boeing F-13A Superfortress, 45-21848, c/n 13742, of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, crashes shortly after take off from Ladd Field, Alaska, coming down 3 miles E of Fairbanks, Alaska. Three crew were reported missing while nine others were injured.
  • 1947 – An Army Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster courier plane, 42-72553, c/n 10658, of the 6th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, 5th Air Force, with 33 passengers and eight crew on board crashes into a mountain SW of Tokyo, Japan. An Army announcement said that it had not been determined whether or not there were any survivors. A revised count reported that there were 40 aboard the C-54, 28 enlisted, eight officers, and four civilians, all killed in the crash. They were reported to be burned beyond recognition. The flight, inbound from Korea, had apparently exploded as it approached Tachikawa Airfield for a landing.
  • 1947 – A captured, modified V-2 rocket, launched from White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, at 2030 hrs. CST, fails to reach its maximum altitude, and comes down ~three minutes later, impacting in Tepeyac cemetery, ~six miles S of Juarez, Mexico. Unburnt fuel explodes, with the blast being felt in both Juarez and El Paso, Texas. Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner, commander at White Sands, confirmed by telephone the launch of the rocket, but refused any further comment.
  • 1944 – Luftwaffe fighter ace Friedrich-Karl "Tutti" Müller (140 victories in 600 combat sorties) is killed in a landing accident at Salzwedel, when his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, Werknummer 410827, stalls on landing approach at low altitude. He is posthumously promoted to Oberstleutnant.
  • 1941 – The USAAC forms USAAC Ferrying Command|Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic to Britain.
  • 1943 – A merchant aircraft carrier, or “MAC-ship,” puts to sea with a convoy for the first time as MV Empire MacAlpine sets out from the United Kingdom with Convoy ONS 59 bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She carries four Swordfish aircraft of No. 836 Squadron.
  • 1943 – Japanese resistance on Attu ends.
  • 1941 – The United States Army Air Corps forms Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom.
  • 1941 – Geran dive bombers attack a British naval task force as it retires from Crete with evacuated British troops aboard. They fatally damage the destroyer HMS Imperial, sink the destroyer HMS Hereward, and damage the light cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Dido, and HMS Orion. A single bomb that strikes Orion kills 260 and wounds 280.
  • 1941 – Surviving elements of Fliegerführer Irak depart Iraq.
  • 1934 – The Collier trophy for the year’s outstanding aviation achievement is awarded in Washington, D.C. to Hamilton Standard Propeller Company for the development of the controllable-pitch propeller.
  • 1929 – Boeing Aircraft of Canada was incorporated by William Edward Boeing of Seattle, Henry Stonestreet Hoffar and Charles George Beeching of Vancouver, to design and build aircraft and to take over, as a going concern, the Hoffar-Beeching Shipyards at Vancouver.
  • 1925 – Alan Cobham lands the prototype de Havilland D.H.60 Moth after flying 1,000 miles to Zurich, Switzerland and back to Croydon, England in a single day.
  • 1923 – Reuben Fleet founds Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.
  • 1910 – Glenn Curtiss flies from Albany NY to New York City, a then-epic flight of about 150 miles. This could loosely be credited as the first air mail flight, for he unofficially carried a letter from Albany’s mayor to the mayor of NYC.
  • 1908 – The first passenger flight in Europe occurs as Henri Farman takes up Ernest Archdeacon for a brief flight at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.

References

  1. ^ Boone, John, "Pakistan: Senior Taliban Militants Killed By US Drone Strike," The Guardian, 29 May 2013, 15:28 EDT.
  2. ^ Khan, Ismail, and Ihsanullah Tipu Mejsud, "After Taliban Deputy’s Death, Hints of a Schism," The New York Times, May 30, 2013.
  3. ^ "Chopper attack, bombs kill 10 U.S. troops in Iraq". CNN.com. 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  4. ^ "10 GIs Die In Iraq On Memorial Day". CBS News. 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
  5. ^ "ARMY AIR CREWS: Kiowa Crewmembers Line of Duty Deaths". Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  6. ^ https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/28-may-1935/
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