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Portal:Aviation

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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...)

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A U.S. Air Force F-35A off the coast of Florida
A U.S. Air Force F-35A off the coast of Florida
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Lockheed Martin is the prime F-35 contractor, with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A, the short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35B, and the carrier-based (CV/CATOBAR) F-35C. (Full article...)

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San Francisco International Airport (IATA: SFO) opened on May 7, 1927 on 150 acres (607,000 m²) of cow pasture leased from prominent local landowner Ogden L. Mills, and was named Mills Field Municipal Airport. During the economic boom of the 1990s and the dot-com boom, SFO became the 6th busiest international airport in the world. However, since the boom times ended, it has fallen back out of the top twenty.

Did you know

...that four planes were simultaneously hijacked in the 1970 Dawson's Field hijackings? ...that Garuda Indonesia flight 152 was the deadliest air disaster of 1997, claiming the lives of over 230 people? ...that the Silver Centenary biplane, built in Beverley, Western Australia in 1930, received its airworthiness certificate 77 years after its first flight?

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

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Selected biography

Frank Whittle speaking to employees of the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory (now known as the NASA Glenn Research Center), USA, in 1946
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a Royal Air Force officer and was one of the inventors of jet propulsion. By the end of the war, Whittle's efforts resulted in engines that would lead the world in performance through the end of the decade.

Born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, Whittle left Leamington College in 1923 to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. A requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, in which he described what is today referred to as a motorjet.

Whittle and Hans von Ohain met after the war and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas. Ohain eventually convinced him that his work was independent and after that point the two became good friends.

Selected Aircraft

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. It was one of the first true modern fighters of the era, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. The Bf 109 was produced in greater quantities than any other fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945. Fighter production totalled 47% of all German aircraft production, and the Bf 109 accounted for 57% of all German fighter types produced.

The Bf 109 was the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter force in World War II, although it began to be partially replaced by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 from 1941. The Bf 109 was the most successful fighter of World War II, shooting down more aircraft than any of its contemporaries. Originally conceived as an interceptor, it was later developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter bomber, day-, night- all-weather fighter, bomber destroyer, ground-attack aircraft, and as reconnaissance aircraft.

The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring fighter aces of World War II: Erich Hartmann, the top scoring fighter pilot of all time with 352 victories, Gerhard Barkhorn with 301 victories, and Günther Rall with 275 victories. All of them flew with Jagdgeschwader 52, a unit which exclusively flew the Bf 109 and was credited with over 10,000 victories, chiefly on the Eastern Front. Hartmann chose to fly the Bf 109 in combat throughout the war, despite being offered the use of the Me 262. Hans-Joachim Marseille, the highest scoring German ace in the North African Campaign, also scored all of his 158 victories flying the Bf 109, against Western Allied pilots.

  • Span: 9.925 m (32 ft 6 in)
  • Length: 8.95 m (29 ft 7 in)
  • Height: 2.60 m (8 ft 2 in)
  • Engine: 1× Daimler-Benz DB 605A-1 liquid-cooled inverted V12, 1,475 PS (1,455 hp, 1,085 kW)
  • Cruising Speed: 590 km/h (365 mph) at 6,000 m (19,680 ft)
  • First Flight: 28 May 1935
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Today in Aviation

January 9

  • 2011Iran Air Flight 277, crashes while performing a go-around at Urmia Airport killing 77 of the 106 people aboard, and injuring 26 people. A total of 28 people survived. The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 727-286Adv.
  • 2007 – The 2007 Balad aircraft crash was an airplane incident involving an Antonov An-26 airliner, which crashed while attempting to land at the U. S. military base in Balad, Iraq. The crash killed 34 people aboard and left one passenger critically injured.
  • 2001 – Launch of Shenzhou 2, second Chinese uncrewed Shenzhou spacecraft. Inside the reentry capsule were a monkey, a dog and a rabbit in a test of the spaceship's life support systems.
  • 1997 – Balloonists Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson abandon their non-stop, round-the-flight in Virgin Global Challenger, when its hydrogen gas buoyancy cell develops a leak.
  • 1997Comair Flight 3272, an Embraer EMB-120 Brasília, crashes near Ida, Michigan, during a snowstorm. All 29 on board die.
  • 1997 – Royal Air Force BAE Systems Harrier GR.7, ZD377, crashed at Laarbruch, ending up inverted on runway, burned.
  • 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-32 at 7:35:00 am EST. Mission highlights: SYNCOM IV-F5 satellite deployment, LDEF retrieval, IMAX.
  • 1983 – One of two USAF McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom IIs of the Michigan Air National Guard sent on a Special Military Instrument Intercept Clearance Mission to intercept a private Beechcraft D-55 Baron, registered N7142N, that strays into restricted ADIZ zone off the North Carolina coast, collides at 1641 hrs. EST in poor visibility with light-twin piloted by Waynesboro, Virginia lawyer Henry H. Tiffany, the jet's port wing slicing through the Baron's fuselage and cabin, killing all seven on board. Although suffering damage to wing's leading edge, and loss of port wing tank assembly, the F-4C returns safely to Seymour-Johnson AFB near Goldsboro, North Carolina. Pentagon report, prepared by the National Guard Bureau of the Army and the Air Force, issued 18 May 1983, notes that Tiffany, 47, en route from vacation in the Bahamas to Norfolk, Virginia, had failed to adhere to his flight plan, and also failed to notify controllers when he entered the restricted air space 20 miles S of MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. Phantom pilot, Capt. John A. Wellers, was found to have closed on the Beechcraft at higher than intended speed while doing radar search and was faulted for failure to maintain 500 foot vertical separation as per instructions. The report notes that the Aerospace Defense Command radar operators at Fort Lee, Virginia, gave Wellers incorrect altitude data about his target, and that personnel at the FAA's flight control center in Leesburg, Virginia, and military controllers at Fort Lee "were slow to react or acted improperly in the process of identifying the unknown aircraft." Flamboyant lawyer Tiffany had been imprisoned for two months in 1978 after a plane he was piloting was forced down with engine trouble in Haiti with more than a ton of marijuana on board. U.S. drug authorities said later that Tiffany was implicated in a major Northern Virginia smuggling ring. In fact, on the fatal flight, Tiffany was by-passing his flight plan's required U.S. customs stop in Florida and was attempting a direct flight to Norfolk, said a National Transportation Safety Board report issued 23 August 1983.
  • 1975 – A USAF Convair T-29D-CO, 52-5826, c/n 52-25, returning to Langley AFB, Virginia, from Key Field, Meridian, Mississippi, with seven Air Force personnel on board, suffers mid-air collision at 1836 hrs. with a Cessna 150H, N50430, of Cavalier Flyers, with two U.S. Navy personnel on board, 4.1 miles (6.5 km) W of Newport News, Virginia, the wreckage of both aircraft coming down in the James River. Maj. Errol Loving, a Langley AFB spokesman, said that Army salvage workers, aided by local authorities, recovered wreckage and bodies from the river throughout the following weekend. Capt. Gail Anderson of Langley AFB stated that divers had recovered one of the two engines of the T-29 as well as other "significant" parts which were placed on a barge and returned to Langley by Sunday 12 January. Seven of the nine victims' bodies had also been recovered but Maj. Loving stated that the identities of the victims would not be released until all bodies had been identified. The wreckage of the two aircraft were located in the river ~300 yards apart. The probable cause was given as "The human limitation inherent in the see-and-avoid concept, which can be critical in a terminal area with a combination of controlled and uncontrolled traffic. A possible contributing factor was the reduced nighttime conspicuity of the Cessna against a background of city lights." "Following the collision, Billy E. Commander, chief of the Norfolk air traffic control tower, said a new Stage III radar service designed to reduce the potential for mid-air collisions will be available in February to aircraft served by Norfolk Regional Airport and should assure that planes have at least 500 feet of vertical separation from each other."
  • 1973 – In the Vietnam War, President Richard M. Nixon’s administration permits American fighter aircraft to pursue North Vietnamese aircraft north of the 20th Parallel.
  • 1970 – Death of Frederick Libby, first American ace of WWI.
  • 1960 – Death of Ernesto Cabruna, Italian WWI fighter ace.
  • 1959 – Death of Roger Carpentier, French test pilot, killed in the crash of the SNCASE 116 'Voltigeur' prototype.
  • 1956 – The Luftwaffe (Bundeswehr) is re-formed.
  • 1952 – Death of Antonie Strassmann, German aviatrix and actress.
  • 1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft strike Japanese targets at Formosa and Miyako-jima in foul weather, flying 717 sorties and dropping 212 tons (192,325 kg) of bombs. They shoot down all four Japanese aircraft they encounter in the air and claim 42 more on the ground, in exchange for the loss of 10 U. S. aircraft. They also sink a number of merchant ships and small naval craft. It is the last of seven days of Task Force 38 support to the Lingayen landings, during which it has flown 3,030 combat sorties, dropped 9,110 bombs – Totaling about 700 tons (635,036 kg) of bombs – And lost 46 planes in combat and 40 to non-combat causes.
  • 1945 – A C-97 Stratofreighter (Model 367) sets a transcontinental record by flying 2,323 miles from Seattle to Washington, D. C., in 6 hours and 4 min, at an average speed of 383 miles per hour.
  • 1941 – (9-10) Italian bombers attack a Gibraltar-to-Malta convoy escorted by the British aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious, scoring no hits and losing two of their number to Fairey Fulmar fighters from Ark Royal.
  • 1931 The Pratt-MacArthur agreement defines the United States Navy’s naval air force as an element of the fleet that moves with the fleet and helps it carry out its missions. The agreement settles a lengthy controversy between the United States Army and the Navy over the role of naval aviation in overall national defense, as well as internal Navy debates over the role of naval air power.
  • 1926 – Death of Maurice Albert Rousselle, French WWI flying ace.
  • 1923 – (9 or 17) The Cierva C.4, designed by Juan de la Cierva y Cordoniu and piloted by Alejandro Gomez Spencer, makes its first flight, covering a distance of about 180 m (590 feet) at Cuatro Vientos airfield in Spain. It is the first flight by an autogyro, and the first stable flight by any form of rotary-wing aircraft.
  • 1918 – Death of Max Ritter von Müller, German WWI fighter ace, his Albatros D.Va shot down by 2 SE5a fighters near Moorslede.
  • 1917 – The Royal Navy seaplane carrier Ben-my-Chree is sunk by Ottoman artillery while in harbor at Castelorizo Island, becoming the only aviation ship of any nationality sunk by enemy action during World War I.
  • 1911 – Joseph Joel "Joe" Hammond, reaches a speed estimated at 44-47mph and an altitude of 2,500 feet while giving a demonstration attended by the Governor of Western Australia.
  • 1911 – Death of Edvard Rusjan, Slovene flight pioneer and airplane constructor in the crash of his prototype "Sokol".
  • 1900 – Birth of Richard Halliburton, American traveler, adventurer, and author, Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history (36 cents), and having flown round the world (Flying Carpet Expedition) in a Stearman C-3 B.
  • 1898 – Birth of Albert Edward Woodbridge, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1898 – Birth of Robert John Orton Compston DSC**, DFC, British WWI fighter ace.
  • 1892 – Birth of Rothesay Nicholas Montagu Stuart Wortley, British WWI flying ace and aviation journalist.
  • 1892 – Birth of Charles Meredith Bouverie Chapman, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1889 – Birth of Roger Amedee Del'Haye, Canadian WWI flying ace.
  • 1793 – First balloon flight in North America is made by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard, ascending from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and landing in Deptford, Gloucester County, New Jersey.

References

  1. ^ Harro Ranter. "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
  2. ^ "Plane crash in Iraq kills at least 30 workers". msnbc. 2007-01-09. Retrieved 2010-02-20. A cargo plane carrying Turkish workers crashed during landing at an airstrip north of Baghdad, killing 30 people and injuring at least two, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Initial reports indicated the plane crashed due to bad weather and heavy fog, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not yet been authorized. Private Turkish news agencies said the plane was trying to land around noon local time (7 a.m. ET) at the U.S. military base at Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The Foreign Ministry confirmed that the crash happened at Balad, but did not say whether it was at the U.S. base. The Antonov-26 plane had taken off from an airport in Turkey's southern city of Adana and was carrying construction workers from the Kulak construction company, the governor of Adana said. The company's owner was among the dead, CNN-Turk television reported. Phone calls to Kulak's offices in Adana and Ankara went unanswered after the crash. On board were 29 Turks and one American, as well as three air crew members from Moldova, one from Russia and one from Ukraine, Gov. Cahit Kirac said. The deputy head of Turkey's aviation authority, Ali Ariduru, confirmed that there were 35 people on board, but did not give the names or nationalities of the killed and injured. It was unclear whether anyone escaped the crash uninjured. CNN-Turk television said the pilot had aborted an initial landing attempt for an unknown reason, then crashed on his second attempt.