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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 aircraft 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This is the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. 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

A Ryanair Boeing 737 on the landing roll at Bristol Airport
A Ryanair Boeing 737 on the landing roll at Bristol Airport
Ryanair is an airline based in Ireland. It is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, operating 209 low-fare routes to 94 destinations across 17 European countries. Over the years it has evolved into the world's most profitable airline, running at remarkable margins by relentlessly driving costs down. Ryanair has been characterised by rapid and continuing expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997. It operates a fleet of 74 Boeing 737s, and currently has firm orders for an additional 225 Boeing 737-800 airplanes by 2010, with options on a further 193. Ryanair is one of Europe's most controversial companies, praised and criticised in equal measure. Its supporters praise its commitment to exceptionally low fares, its radical management, its populism, and its willingness to challenge what Ryanair calls the 'establishment' within the airline industry. Critics, meanwhile, have attacked its labor union policies, and have charged that it practises deceptive advertising. (Full article...)

Selected image

USAF aircraft of the 335th Fighter Squadron (F-16, F-15C and F-15E) fly over Kuwaiti oil fires, set by the retreating Iraqi army during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Did you know

...that a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was used in the 2004 film Flight of the Phoenix? ...that Indra Lal Roy of the Royal Air Force became India's first flying ace after he achieved 10 victories in thirteen days during World War I? ... that a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft crashed shortly after take-off at Bakers Creek, Queensland in 1943, killing 40 of the 41 service personnel on board and making it Australia's worst aviation disaster?

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
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), also nicknamed "The Blond Knight of Germany" by friends and "The Black Devil" by his enemies, was a German fighter pilot and still is the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial combat. He scored 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions and engaging in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe in World War II. During the course of his career Hartmann was forced to crash land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.[1]

Hartmann, a pre-war glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe in 1940 and completed his fighter pilot training in 1942. He was posted to Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) on the Eastern front and was fortunate to be placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffe's most experienced fighter pilots. Under their guidance Hartmann steadily developed his tactics which would earn him the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 25 August 1944 for claiming 301 aerial victories.

He scored his 352nd and last aerial victory on 8 May 1945. He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to United States Army forces and were turned over to the Red Army. Convicted of false "War Crimes" and sentenced to 25 years of hard labour, Hartmann would spend 10 years in various Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955. In 1956, Hartmann joined the newly established West German Luftwaffe and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen". Hartmann resigned early from the Bundeswehr in 1970, largely due to his opposition of the F-104 Starfighter deployment in the Bundesluftwaffe and the resulting clashes with his superiors over this issue. Erich Hartmann died in 1993.

Selected Aircraft

The Beechcraft King Air is a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by the Beech Aircraft Corporation (now the Beechcraft Division of Hawker Beechcraft). The King Air has been in continuous production since 1964, the longest production run of any civilian turboprop aircraft. It has outlasted all of its previous competitors and as of 2006 is one of only two twin-turboprop business airplanes in production (the other is the Piaggio Avanti).

Historically, the King Air family comprises a number of models that fall into four families, the Model 90 series, Model 100 series, Model 200 series, and Model 300 series. The last two types were originally marketed as the Super King Air, but the "Super" moniker was dropped in 1996. As of 2006, the only small King Air in production is the conventional-tail C90GT.

  • Span: 50 ft 3 in (15.33 m)
  • Length: 35 ft 6in (10.82 m)
  • Height: 14 ft 3 in (4.35 m)
  • Engines: 2 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21 turboprops, 550 shp (410 kW) each
  • Cruising Speed: 284 mph (247 knots ,457 km/h)
  • First Flight: May 1963
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

January 15

  • 2009 – An Afghan National Army Air Corps Mil Mi-17 Hip Helicopter crashes in Herat Province in western Afghanistan. The incident occurred in bad weather and travelling at low-altitude in a mountainous region resulting in 13 fatalities including the Afghan General Fazaludin Sayar.
  • 2008 – An Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 30J Fighting Falcon, 87-0347, of the 482nd Fighter Wing, Air Force Reserve Command, based at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico near Key West at ~1930 hrs. during a training mission. The pilot, Major Peter S. Smith, ejects and is recovered by a U. S. Navy helicopter, transported to a local hospital for examination, and released. A board of officers is appointed to investigate the accident.
  • 2002 – First flight of the Airbus A318, French twin engine medium jet airliner.
  • 1999 – The first U. S. Super Hornet squadron is established at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif.
  • 1991 – First hot-air balloon 'Virgin Pacific Flyer' to cross the Pacific Ocean takes off from Japan to Northern Canada with Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson, flying in the trans-oceanic jet streams, it recorded the highest ground speed for a crewed balloon at 245 mph (394 km/h).
  • 1991 – A Soviet Air Force Tupolev Tu-16K Badge crashes at Tartu Air Base, Estonia, on landing when wheels lock up. Pilot and copilot eject, but four other crew are killed.
  • 1981 – A Sikorsky S61 N of British Airways Helicopters and Bell 212 s of Bristow Helicopters are involved in the rescue of nine men from a sinking ship 185 km (115 miles) north-east of the Shetlands
  • 1977 – Skyline Sweden-operated Linjeflyg Flight 618, a Vickers Viscount 838, crashes in Kälvesta, Sweden just outside Stockholm, killing all 22 on board.
  • 1973 – President Richard M. Nixon‘s administration orders a halt to all bombing and shelling of North Vietnam and all mining of North Vietnamese harbors.
  • 1970 – Death of William Thomas Piper Sr., American airplane manufacturer, and founder, eponym, and first president of Piper Aircraft Corporation. Piper served in the Spanish-American War and WWI.
  • 1969 – Launch of Soyuz 5, Soviet spacecraft which mission was to dock with soyuz 4, with cosmonaut Boris Valentinovich Volynov, first Jewish in space.
  • 1966 – The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash occurred ON 17 JAN 1966 when a B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling at 31,000 feet (9,450 m) over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impacting the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area by radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 2½-month-long search.[5][better source needed][6][7]
  • 1966 – Avianca Flight 4, a Douglas C-54, suffers engine failure and crashes off Cartagena, Colombia, killing 56 of 64 on board.
  • 1962 – The U. S. Army suffers its first combat fatalities in an aircraft in Vietnam when an H-21 C Shawnee transport helicopter is shot down by Viet Cong ground fire near Dak Roda, South Vietnam, with three killed. [Note: some sources say the first Shawnee was shot down near the Laotian border in Jul 1962. See: http://www.historynet.com/ch-21-shawnee-the-flying-banana.htm.]
  • 1954 – First flight of the Nord Gerfaut, French delta-wing experimental research aircraft.
  • 1953 – Two Royal Air Force planes, an Avro Lancaster maritime patrol aircraft of No. 38 Squadron and a Vickers Valetta transport aircraft, collide over the Strait of Sicily in heavy rain and poor visibility and crash. The accident kills all 19 people aboard the Valetta and the Lancaster’s entire crew of seven.
  • 1952 – French Leduc 0.16 research ramjet suffers landing gear collapse on its first flight and is damaged.
  • 1950 – Death of Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, Aviation pioneer, 2nd rated pilot in the history of the USAF, Chief of the Air Corps (1938 – 1941), Commanding General of the USAF during WWII.
  • 1949 – First non-stop trans-Canada flight conducted by EP&E North Star commanded by F/O J. A. F. Jolicouer. Vancouver to Halifax: 8 hours 32 min.[8][9]
  • 1945 – The German submarine U-1172 torpedoes the British escort aircraft carrier HMS Thane in the Irish Sea near the Clyde Lightvessel. Thane never again is seaworthy.
  • 1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft in bad weather strike Japanese forces in China, Formosa, and the Pescadores, sinking two destroyers, a transport, and a tanker and destroying 16 Japanese aircraft in the air and 18 on the ground in exchange for the loss of 12 U. S. aircraft.
  • 1943 – Operating from Guadalcanal, United States Marine Corps Major Joe Foss shoots down three Japanese Mitsubishi A6 M Zero fighters, bringing his victory total to 26, all scored since October 13, 1942; he is the first American to match Eddie Rickenbacker’s World War I score of 26. Although Foss never shoots down another plane, his total is enough to make him the second-highest-scoring Marine Corps ace in history and the highest-scoring one to score all of his victories while in Marine Corps service.
  • 1943 – Prototype Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-4 Wackett Bomber, A23-1001, crashes on a test flight to assess powerplant performance and evaluate aerodynamic effects of a new fixed leading edge slat. During return to CAC airfield at Fisherman's Bend, Australia, pilot Sqn. Leader Jim Harper detects fuel leak in port Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine; as problem worsens he attempts shut-down and feathering of propeller but actuation of feathering switch causes explosion and uncontrollable fire. Crew of three attempts evacuation at 1000 feet (300 m), but only pilot Harper succeeds in parachuting, CAC test pilot Jim Carter and CAC power plant group engineer Lionel Dudgeon KWF. Airframe impacts ~three miles SW of Kilmore, Victoria. Wreckage recovered by No. 26 Repair and Salvage Unit on 18 January, delivered to No. 1 Aircraft Depot, RAAF Laverton, on the 19th. Final action taken on 26 January when the Air Member for Supply and Equipment approves "conversion to components" for what remains of the CA-4.
  • 1937 – First flight of the Beechcraft Model 18, or "Twin Beech", American 6-11 seat, twin-engine, low-wing, conventional-gear aircraft.
  • 1937 – First flight of the Lioré et Olivier LeO 45, a French twin engine medium bomber, low-wing monoplane, all metal in construction, equipped with a retractable undercarriage.
  • 1935 – First flight of the RWD-13, Polish touring three-seater high-wing monoplane, biggest commercial success of the RWD.
  • 1934 – The single Dewoitine D.332 Emeraude, French eight-passenger 3 engine airliner, struck a hill near Corbigny in a violent snowstorm on the final return stage of the inaugural Paris-Saigon service.
  • 1934 – Death of Maurice Noguès, French Aviator, in the crash of the Prototype Dewoitine D 332 'Émeraude' on a return flight from Saigon to Paris.
  • 1931 – Gen. Italo Balbo leads the first formation flight across the South Atlantic. Twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.55 s lands in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil coming from Orbetello, Italy
  • 1928 – Death of Paul Marie Raphael Santelli, French WWI Balloon buster.
  • 1919 – Maj A. S. C. MacLaren and Cpt Robert Halley arrive in Delhi, completing the first England-India flight, in a Handley Page V/1500
  • 1916 – First plane to be launched from a submarine (U-12) is a Friedrichshafen FF.29, German lightweight two-seat floatplane.
  • 1914 – The first regularly scheduled passenger airline in the United States begins service. The Benoist Company, flying its Benoist flying boat, runs a line between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.
  • 1898 – Birth of George Donald Tod, American WWI Flying ace.
  • 1896 – Birth of Sidney Emerson Ellis, Canadian Flying ace.
  • 1896 – Birth of Fritz Kieckhäfer, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1895 – Birth of Cyril Burfield Ridley, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1894 – Birth of Phillip Bernard "Bruce" Prothero, Scottish WWI flying ace.
  • 1892 – Birth of Claud Robert James Thompson, Australian WWI flying ace.
  • 1889 – Birth of Aleksandr Alexandrovich Kozakov, most successful Russian WWI fighter ace.
  • 1881 – Birth of John Rodgers, officer in the United States Navy and early aviator.
  • 1799 – The French Army‘s Company of Aeronauts is abolished.

References

  1. ^ Toliver & Constable 1986, p. 12.
  2. ^ "Accident: Iran Air F100 at Isfahan on January 15th 2010, nose gear collapse on landing". Aviation Herald. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  3. ^ Four dead as two Il-76 planes collide in south Russian airport | Russia | RIA Novosti
  4. ^ Munro, Ian (16 January 2009). "US Airways flight 1549 – plane crashes in New York's Hudson River". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
  5. ^ 1966 Palomares B-52 crash
  6. ^ http://www.history.com/news/the-palomares-h-bomb-incident
  7. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/International/palomares-anniversary-time-us-dropped-nukes-spain/story?id=36322038
  8. ^ "First Nonstop, Coast-to-Coast Flight in Canada: 70th Anniversary". Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  9. ^ Atkins, Eric (2018-01-15). "MOMENT IN TIME - The first non-stop flight across Canada". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
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