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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

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...)

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Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. Due to the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the term zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships. The German defeat in World War I halted the business temporarily, but under the guidance of Hugo Eckener, the successor of the deceased count, civilian Zeppelins experienced a renaissance in the 1920s. They reached their zenith in the 1930s, when the airships LZ127 "Graf Zeppelin" and LZ129 "Hindenburg" profitably operated regular transatlantic passenger flights. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937 triggered the fall of the "giants of the air", though other factors, including political issues, contributed to the demise. (Full article...)

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Did you know

...that in 1929 the Graf Zeppelin completed a circumnavigation of the globe in 21 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes? ...that the Alexander Aircraft Company, which produced Eaglerock biplanes in Colorado, was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world for a brief period between 1928 and 1929? ... that the airline Vildanden started its first route with wet leased aircraft from Coast Air?

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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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Amelia Earhart, c. 1928
Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897 – missing as of July 2, 1937), daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart, was an American aviator and noted early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight in 1937.

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

[[File:|right|250px|]] The Tupolev TB-3 (Russian: Тяжёлый Бомбардировщик, Tyazholy Bombardirovschik, Heavy Bomber, civilian designation ANT-6) was a heavy bomber aircraft which was deployed by the Soviet Air Force in the 1930s and during World War II. It was the world's first cantilever wing four-engine heavy bomber. Despite obsolescence and being officially withdrawn from service in 1939, TB-3 performed bomber and transport duties through much of WWII. The TB-3 also saw combat as a Zveno project fighter mothership and as a light tank transport.

  • Span: 41.80 m (137 ft 2 in)
  • Length: 24.4 m (80 ft 1 in)
  • Height: 8.50 m (27 ft 11 in)
  • Engines: 4× Mikulin M-17F V12 engines, 525 kW (705 hp) each
  • Maximum Speed: 196 km/h (106 knots, 122 mph) at 3000 m (9,840 ft)
  • First Flight: 22 December 1930
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Today in Aviation

November 11

  • 2009 – Swedish airline MCA Airlines declares bankruptcy.
  • 2004 – AH-1W SuperCobra 161021 from HMLA-169 is shot down by RPG and small arms fire near Fallujah. It is destroyed by Iraqi rebel forces, crew recovered intact.[1]
  • 2002 – Laoag International Airlines Flight 585, a Fokker F-27 Friendship, crashes into Manila Bay shortly after takeoff from Ninoy Aquino International Airport. 19 of the 34 passengers and crew on board are killed.
  • 1996 – ADC Airlines Flight 86, a Boeing 727, crashed when the crew lost control of the aircraft while avoiding a mid-air collision on approach to Lagos, Nigeria. All 153 passengers and crew on board were killed.
  • 1982 – Canadian Anik C3 satellite was launched from the space shuttle Columbia.
  • 1982 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-5 at 12:19:00 UTC. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments. First EVA of program canceled due to suit problems.
  • 1979 – Hawaiian Airlines celebrates 50 years of accident-free air passenger service.
  • 1970 – A USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II crashes in the North Sea after an engine fire. Both crew eject. Capt. Johnny Jones, 28, of Snow Hill, North Carolina, and Capt. David Allen, 27, of Darien, Connecticut are rescued by helicopter, officials at Ruislip, England said.
  • 1966 – Gemini 12, the 18th manned American space-flight, launched.
  • 1966 – Republic F-84F Thunderstreak of the 104th Tactical Fighter Group, Massachusetts Air National Guard out of Barnes Municipal Airport, Westfield, Massachusetts, goes into flat spin during simulated combat over Porter, Maine and crashes on Colcord Pond Road in Freedom, New Hampshire. Capt. Edward S. Mansfield has minor injuries; plane is destroyed. Star of the 551st AEWCW, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, crashes in the North Atlantic ~125 miles E of Nantucket, Massachusetts by unexplained circumstances, approximately the same general area as the one lost 11 July 1965. All 19 crew members are KWF, bodies never recovered.
  • 1966 – A USAF Lockheed EC-121H-LO Warning Star of the 551st AEWCW, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, crashes in the North Atlantic ~125 miles E of Nantucket, Massachusetts by unexplained circumstances, approximately the same general area as the one lost 11 July 1965. All 19 crew members are KWF, bodies never recovered.
  • 1965 – United Airlines Flight 227, a Boeing 727, crashes short of the runway during landing at Salt Lake City International Airport, Utah; 43 of 91 aboard are killed.
  • 1962 – A USAF Boeing RB-47H-BW Stratojet, 53-4297, of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, crashes at MacDill AFB, Florida, when the Stratojet loses power on an outboard engine, rolls, and crashes within the confines of the base. All three crew KWF – aircraft commander Capt. William E. Wyatt, copilot Capt. William C. Maxwell, and navigator 1st Lt. Rawl.
  • 1951 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking T-77 crashed at Morón Air Base.
  • 1950 – AA Fairchild C-82A-FA Packet, 45-57739, c/n 10109, of the 375th Troop Carrier Wing (Medium), en route from Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and due to land at Greenville AFB, South Carolina, at 2230 hrs., crashes near Pickens, South Carolina, ~40 miles W of the destination, shortly after 2200 hrs. this date. On approach to Greenville, the aircraft strikes Bully Mountain in northern Pickens County, killing three crew and one passenger. KWF are Capt. John Miles Stuckrath, pilot; 1st Lt. Robert P. Schmitt, co-pilot; and S/Sgt. John Davis Bloomer; all were attached to Greenville AFB and were part of a Pittsburgh reserve wing called to active duty on 15 October 1950. The passenger was S/Sgt. Walter O. Lott, of Pensacola, Florida. He was a member of a Maxwell AFB unit. "The plane apparently began to plunge after it sheared off tree tops. It cut a cyclonic gap through the immense trees for about 100 yards and plowed into the 2,500-foot mountain near its peak. The impact of the crash sent one motor hurling 800 feet down one side of the mountain, and the other motor landed 500 feet down the opposite side." A post-crash fire burned two acres of forest land. The aircraft had just been overhauled at McChord Air Force Base, Washington, and had refueled at Maxwell AFB before transiting to its new assignment at Greenville AFB.
  • 1945 – A Short Stirling C.5 operated by No. 158 Squadron RAF was departing for the United Kingdom when it crashed on take off from RAF Castel Benito in Libya after the wing caught fire, 21 soldiers and five crew were killed, one person survived.
  • 1944 – 347 carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 attack a convoy of five or six Japanese transports in the Camotes Sea approaching Ormoc, sinking all of them and all four of their escorting destroyers, as well as two more destroyers in Ormoc Bay, and shooting down 16 Japanese aircraft. Almost all of the 10,000 Japanese troops embarked on the transports are killed.
  • 1943 – A strike by carrier aircraft from USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Princeton (CVL-23) against Japanese ships at Rabaul is ineffective due to bad weather. Another strike by approximately 185 aircraft from USS Essex (CV-9), USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), and USS Independence (CVL-22) sinks a Japanese destroyer and damages the light cruiser Agano and a destroyer; the raid is the combat debut of the SB2 C Helldiver dive bomber. A counterstrike by 108 Japanese Zero fighters, Aichi D3 A “Val” dive bombers, and Nakajima B5 N “Kate” torpedo bombers and a number of Mitsubishi G4 M (“Betty”) bombers is ineffective. The U. S loses 11 aircraft, while the Japanese lose 39 single-engine planes and several G4 Ms. During operations from shore bases at Rabaul, Japanese carrier aircraft have lost 50 percent of their fighters, 85 percent of their dive bombers, and 90 percent of their torpedo bombers in less than two weeks.
  • 1943 – The last unit of the former U. S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command, the 480th Antisubmarine Group, is disbanded, and all American antiubmarine activities become the responsibility of the U. S. Navy. The U. S. Army Air Forces’ antisubmarine effort has sunk 12 German submarines.
  • 1942 – Hostilities between Allied and French forces in French North Africa end. Since November 8, U. S Navy planes have shot down 20 French aircraft in air-to-air combat and destroyed many more on the ground, losing 44 U. S. Navy aircraft in exchange.
  • 1941 – Saro Lerwick flying boat, L7257, of No. 4 OTU, sinks at mooring, Invergordon, when caught in a gale.
  • 1940 – regular ferry flights of US-built warplanes commence across the Atlantic.
  • 1937 – The Messerschmidt ME-109 V13 flies world record 379mph/610kph.
  • 1935 – 11-13 – Jean Batten becomes the first woman to fly solo across the South Atlantic, taking 2 days 13 hours to cross from Senegal to Brazil in a Percival Gull. She also breaks the speed record for this crossing, by a full day.
  • 1935 – A. W. Stevens and O. A. Anderson set a new balloon altitude record of 72,395 ft (22,066 m).
  • 1929 – Inter-Island Airways – The future Hawaiian Airlines – commences operations.
  • 1918 – The Armistice with Germany brings World War I to an end. The Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, and Royal Air Force have suffered 16,623 casualties during the war, while the German Air Service has suffered in excess of 15,000.

References

  1. ^ "Naval Air Accidents 2004". Retrieved 2009-06-02.
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