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

Hot air balloon
Hot air balloon
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers.

A hot air balloon consists of a bag called the envelope that is capable of containing heated air. Suspended beneath is the gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule) which carries the passengers and a source of heat. The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant since it has a lower density than the relatively cold air outside the envelope. Unlike gas balloons, the envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom since the air near the bottom of the envelope is at the same pressure as the surrounding air. In today's sport balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric and the mouth of the balloon (closest to the burner flame) is made from fire resistant material such as Nomex.

Recently, balloon envelopes have been made in all kinds of shapes, such as hot dogs, rocket ships, and the shapes of commercial products. Hot air balloons that can be propelled through the air rather than just being pushed along by the wind are known as airships or, more specifically, thermal airships. (Full article...)

Selected image

Credit: U.S. Air Force
The Ryan X-13 Vertijet was designed to explore the feasibility of a pure-jet vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft. Here, the X-13 is about to moor itself to a dual-role flatbed transport/launch trailer.

Did you know

... that Paul Haenlein was the first to create a dirigible airship powered by an internal combustion engine? ...that Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris accomplished the world's first powered flight in 1856, with a glider that was pulled behind a running horse? ... that Soviet test pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki set twenty aviation world records?

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

AIR VICE-MARSHAL GEORGE JONES
Air Marshal Sir George Jones KBE, CB, DFC (18 October 1896 – 24 August 1992) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He rose from being a private soldier in World War I to Air Marshal in 1948. He served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1942 to 1952, the longest continuous tenure of any RAAF chief. Jones was a surprise appointee to the Air Force’s top role, and his achievements in the position were coloured by a divisive relationship during World War II with his head of operations and nominal subordinate, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock.

Jones first saw action as an infantryman in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, before transferring to the Australian Flying Corps the following year. Initially an air mechanic, he undertook flying training in 1917 and was posted to a fighter squadron in France, achieving seven victories to become an ace. After a short spell in civilian life following World War I, he joined the newly-formed RAAF in 1921, rising steadily through training and personnel commands prior to World War II.

He did not actively seek the position of Chief of the Air Staff before being appointed in 1942, and his conflict with Bostock—with whom he had been friends for 20 years—was partly the result of a divided command structure, which neither man had any direct role in shaping. After World War II Jones had overall responsibility for transforming what was then the world's fourth largest air force into a peacetime service that was also able to meet overseas commitments in Malaya and Korea. Following his retirement from the RAAF he continued to serve in the aircraft industry and later ran unsuccessfully for political office.

Selected Aircraft

The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven". The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from 5,235 to 9,380 nautical miles (9,695 to 17,372 km) depending on model. Its distinguishing features include the largest diameter turbofan engines of any aircraft, six wheels on each main landing gear, a circular fuselage cross-section, and blade-shaped tail cone. Developed in consultation with eight major airlines, the 777 was designed to replace older wide-body airliners and bridge the capacity difference between the 767 and 747. As Boeing's first fly-by-wire airliner, it has computer mediated controls; it is also the first entirely computer-designed commercial aircraft.

The 777 is produced in two fuselage lengths. The original 777-200 model first entered service in 1995, followed by the extended range 777-200ER in 1997; the stretched 777-300, which is 33.3 ft (10.1 m) longer, began service in 1998. The longer-range 777-300ER and 777-200LR variants entered service in 2004 and 2006, respectively, while a freighter version, the 777F, debuted in 2008. Both longer-range versions and the freighter feature General Electric GE90 engines, as well as extended and raked wingtips. Other models are equipped with either the GE90, Pratt & Whitney PW4000, or Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines. The 777-200LR ranks as the world's longest-range airliner and holds the record for longest distance flown by an unrefuelled commercial aircraft, with the demonstrated capability to fly more than halfway around the world.

United Airlines first placed the 777 into commercial airline service in 1995. As of August 2023, 1,716 777s have been delivered. The most common variant used worldwide is the 777-300ER, with 832 aircraft delivered, and Emirates operates the largest 777 fleet, with 134 aircraft (as of May 2019). The airliner has had 8 hull-loss accidents, with 541 fatalities. The most deadly incident was Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, in which a 777-200ER carrying 298 people was shot down by a missile over Ukraine on 17 July 2014.

Through the 21st century, the 777 has emerged as one of its manufacturer's best-selling models. Because of rising fuel costs, airlines have acquired the type as a comparatively fuel-efficient alternative to other wide-body jets and have increasingly used the aircraft on long-haul, transoceanic routes. Direct market competitors include the Airbus A330-300, the A340 and A350 XWB.

  • Span: 212 ft 7 in (64.8 m)
  • Length: 242 ft 4 in (73.9 m)
  • Height: 61 ft 5 in (18.7 m)
  • Engines: 2 X GE 90-115B
  • Cruising speed: 0.84 Mach (555 mph, 892 km/h, 481 kn) at 35,000 ft (11,000 m) cruise altitude
  • First flight: 12 June 1994
  • Number built: 1,716 as of August 2023 (based on deliveries)
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

May 11

  • 2011 – Libyan rebel forces capture Misrata Airport, which also serves as a Libyan Air Force base.[2]
  • 2010 – Death of Walker Melville "Bud" Mahurin, American WWII and Korean war fighter ace, (only USAF pilot to score in both the European and Pacific Theaters and the Korean War).
  • 2010 – A Dassault Mirage 2000 of the French Air Force crashed in a forest of Bougue close to Villeneuve-de-Marsan (Landes, Aquitaine), 6 km east of Mont de Marsan AB (LFBM), after technical problems. The pilot ejected safely and only received minor injuries.
  • 2009 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 at 18:01:56 UTC. Mission highlights: Last Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission (HST SM-04). Final Non-ISS flight.
  • 2007 – A Republic of China Air Force Northrop F-5 crashes onto a building at an army base in Hukou, Taiwan. The two crew members are killed, as well as two soldiers of the Singapore Army undergoing training at the base. Another nine Singapore Army soldiers are injured, one dies of his injuries 17 days later.
  • 1996 – ValuJet Flight 592, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes in the Everglades near Miami, because of a fire in its cargo hold. All 110 people on board are killed.
  • 1995 – Death of John Geoffrey Sadler Candy, British WWI flying ace who served during WWII.
  • 1990 – Philippine Airlines Flight 143, a Boeing 737, explodes and burns on the ground at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, killing 8 of 120 on board, marking the first loss of a Boeing 737-300.
  • 1987 – First flight of the Learjet 31, American ten seat (two crew and eight passengers) twin-engined, high speed business jet. Manufactured by Learjet (a subsidiary of Bombardier Inc.).
  • 1970 – Death of William Howard "Hank" Stovall, American WWI flying ace, Businessman and High Ranking officer in WWII.
  • 1970 – A category F5 tornado strikes Lubbock, Texas destroying about one quarter of the city. Nineteen of 23 U.S. Air Force trainers (probably Cessna T-41 Mescaleros) at Lubbock International Airport are destroyed, amongst 100 aircraft damaged.
  • 1969 – A Royal Navy F-4 Phantom of 892 Naval Air Squadron set a new world air speed record between New York and London in 4 hours and 46 min, winning the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race. It flew from the Floyd Bennet Naval Air Station to Wisley Aerodrome and was refuelled by a Handley Page Victor aerial tanker over the Atlantic.
  • 1964 – A Bell 533 modified with 2 small sweptback fixed wings to convert the aircraft into a compound helicopter, flew at 357 km/h.
  • 1964 – Jackie Cochran sets a new women's airspeed record of 1,429 mph (2,300 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter.
  • 1964 – A USAF Boeing C-135B-BN Stratolifter, 61-0332, c/n 18239, crashed on landing at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, hitting a taxi. 84 on board, 5 survivors, passengers in taxi also killed. Date of 11 August 1964 cited by Joe Baugher. The crash occurred while attempting to land during a rainstorm at approximately 1920 hrs.
  • 1960 – A United States Army Signals Corps balloon ascends to an altitude of 43,890 m (144,000 feet) before bursting setting a record breaking night time altitude ascent.
  • 1957 – Death of Victor Herbert Strahm, American WWI flying ace, who served in WWII and was chief test pilot for the USAAF.
  • 1953 – First prototype of the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear, Tu-95/1, first flown 12 November 1952, crashes this date NE of Noginsk, Russia, during its 17th flight and burns due to an engine fire in the starboard inner turboprop. Engine falls off of wing, nine of twelve crew parachute to safety but three are killed, including test pilot Alexey Perelet.
  • 1948 – Maj. Simon H. Johnson, deputy commanding officer of the Eglin AFB, Florida, fighter section, is killed when his Republic F-84 Thunderjet disintegrates during an air demonstration on the Eglin reservation, in front of some 600 witnesses. The public information officer at Eglin stated that the pilot was "engaged in operational tests on the plane" when the accident occurred. Maj. Johnson, a resident of Shalimar, Florida, was originally from Houston, Texas. He had served a year in Italy flying 50 missions in North American P-51 Mustangs with the 31st Fighter Group, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the air medal with five clusters. He had attended the University of Texas and graduated from the U.S. Army flying school in 1940.
  • 1943 – In Operation Landcrab, American forces invade Attu. With an all-F4 F Wildcat airwing consisting of 26 F4 F-4 fighters and three F4 F-3P photographic reconnaissance aircraft, the escort aircraft carrier USS Nassau (CVE-16) supports operations on Attu until May 20; it is the first time that the U. S. Navy employs carrier-based photographic reconnaissance aircraft and the first time in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II of Operations that an escort carrier engages in combat. The U.S. Navy concludes that bombers should be included in future escort carrier air wings to make them more effective in supporting amphibious operations.
  • 1936 – First flight of The Bristol Type 138 High Altitude Monoplane, British high-altitude research aircraft, single-engine, low-wing monoplane with a fixed, tailwheel undercarriage.
  • 1934 – Sole prototype of U.S. Navy Douglas XO2D-1, BuNo 9412, noses over on water landing near NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., after starboard landing gear would not retract, nor support runway landing. Pilot survives. Aircraft salvaged, rebuilt, but no production contract let.
  • 1932 – The USS Akron, arriving at Camp Kearny, San Diego, California, after a cross-continent transit attempts to moor, but proves too buoyant. The mooring cable is cut to avert a catastrophic nose-stand by the airship and the Akron heads up. Most men of the mooring crew, predominantly "boot" seamen from the Naval Training Station San Diego, let go of their lines but three do not. One man was carried 15 feet (4.6 m) into the air before he let go and suffered a broken arm in the process while three others were carried up even farther. Two of these men — Aviation Carpenter's Mate 3d Class Robert H. Edsall and Apprentice Seaman Nigel M. Henton — lost their grips and fell to their deaths. The third, Apprentice Seaman C. M. "Bud" Cowart, clung desperately to his line and made himself fast to it before he was hoisted aboard the Akron one hour later. Akron managed to moor at Camp Kearny later that day. The stranded crewman provides the template for the very first rescue by George Reeves' portrayal of Superman in the first television episode of "Adventures of Superman", "Superman on Earth", first aired 19 September 1952.
  • 1928 – Death of Ulrich Neckel, German WWI fighter ace
  • 1918 – Death of Kurt Nachod, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace, from injuries after the crash of his Hansa-Brandenburg C. I 2 days before
  • 1917 – Death of Edmund Nathanael, German WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Albatros D.III by a SPAD VII.
  • 1911 – Édouard Nieuport, a racing cyclist before he went into aircraft construction (co-founder with his brother Charles of the eponymous Nieuport aircraft manufacturing company), sets a new speed record of 74.4 mph (119.7 km/h) flying his "Nieuport 11-N, " monoplane powered by a 28-hp engine.
  • 1906 – Birth of Jacqueline Cochran, pioneer American aviator, considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. She was an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
  • 1896 – Birth of Heinrich Henkel, German WWI flying ace
  • 1892] – Birth of Walter Ewers, German WWI flying ace
  • 1875 – Birth of Harriet Quimby, early American aviator and movie screenwriter, first woman to gain a pilot's license in the US and first woman to fly across the English Channel.

References

  1. ^ a b Times of Israel and Associated Press staff, "Israel grounds drone fleet after crash," Times of Israel, May 12, 2013, 10:03 p.m.
  2. ^ "Libya Rebels 'Capture Misrata Airport'". BBC News. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
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