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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

Color Autochrome Lumière of a Nieuport Fighter in Aisne, France 1917
Color Autochrome Lumière of a Nieuport Fighter in Aisne, France 1917
One of the many innovations of World War I, aircraft were first used for reconnaissance purposes and later as fighters and bombers. Consequently, this was the first war which involved a struggle for control of the air, which turned it into another battlefield, alongside the battlefields of land and sea. (Full article...)

Selected image

Controlled Impact Demonstration
Controlled Impact Demonstration
The Controlled Impact Demonstration was a joint project between NASA and the FAA in which a Boeing 720 was deliberately crashed in order to test the ability of the fuel additive FM-9, to inhibit the ignition and flame propagation of Jet-A fuel.

Did you know

...that the mysterious objects known as Black Triangles may actually be hybrid airships? ...that Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre, piloting a single-engined seaplane (pictured), became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air in 1924? ... that former USAF officer David P. Cooley who was the chief test pilot for the F-117 Nighthawk died in March 2009 while testing the F-22 Raptor?

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

Amy Johnson (1 July 1903 – 5 January 1941) C.B.E. was a pioneering British aviatrix.

Born in Kingston upon Hull, Johnson graduated from University of Sheffield with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. She was introduced to flying as a hobby, gaining a pilot's A Licence No. 1979 on 6 July 1929 at the London Aeroplane Club. In that same year, she became the first British woman to gain a ground engineer's C License.

Johnson achieved worldwide recognition when, in 1930, she became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. She left Croydon on 5 May of that year and landed in Darwin, Australia on 24 May after flying 11,000 miles. Her aircraft for this flight, a De Havilland Gipsy Moth (registration G-AAAH) named Jason, can still be seen in the Science Museum in London. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in homage to this achievement, and was also honoured with the No. 1 civil pilot's licence under Australia's 1921 Air Navigation Regulations.

In July 1931, Johnson and her co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first pilots to fly from London to Moscow in one day, completing the 1,760-mile journey in approximately 21 hours. From there, they continued across Siberia and on to Tokyo, setting a record time for flying from England to Japan. The flight was completed in a De Havilland Puss Moth.

Selected Aircraft

British Airways Boeing 747-400
British Airways Boeing 747-400

The Boeing 747 is a widebody commercial airliner, often referred to by the nickname Jumbo Jet. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first widebody ever produced. Manufactured by Boeing's Commercial Airplane unit in the United States, the original version of the 747 was two and a half times the size of the Boeing 707, one of the common large commercial aircraft of the 1960s. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the passenger capacity record for 37 years.

The four-engine 747 uses a double deck configuration for part of its length. It is available in passenger, freighter and other versions. Boeing designed the 747's hump-like upper deck to serve as a first class lounge or (as is the general rule today) extra seating, and to allow the aircraft to be easily converted to a cargo carrier by removing seats and installing a front cargo door. Boeing did so because the company expected supersonic airliners (whose development was announced in the early 1960s) to render the 747 and other subsonic airliners obsolete; while believing that the demand for subsonic cargo aircraft would be robust into the future. The 747 in particular was expected to become obsolete after 400 were sold but it exceeded its critics' expectations with production passing the 1,000 mark in 1993. As of September 2023, 1,574 aircraft have been built, with the final delivery in January 2023.

The 747-8, the latest version in service, is among the fastest airliners in service with a high-subsonic cruise speed of Mach 0.855 (564 mph or 908 km/h). It has an intercontinental range of 7,730 nautical miles (14,320 km; 8,900 mi). The 747-8I (passenger version) can accommodate 467 passengers in a typical three-class layout. The 747-8 completed production on 6 December 2022 and the final 747 was delivered to Atlas Air on 31 January 2023.

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Today in Aviation

January 29

  • 2013 – SCAT Airlines Flight 760, a Bombardier CRJ200, crashes in thick fog near Kyzyltu, Kazakhstan, 5 km (3.1 miles) short of the runway at Almaty, killing all 21 people on board.
  • 2010 – First flight of the Sukhoi PAK FA “Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation”, a Russian twin-engine stealth jet fighter prototype.
  • 2005 – An Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet crashes into ocean while landing on USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). The No. 3 arresting wire snapped, resulting in the plane plunging into the Pacific Ocean 100 miles SE of Yokosuka, Japan, hitting an SH-60F and an EA-6B Prowler en route to the water. Crew LTJG Jon Vanbragt, LCDR Markus Gudmundsson ejected safely.
  • 1996 – An Grumman F-14A-135-GR Tomcat, BuNo 162599, of VF-213, crashes on take-off from Nashville Airport, Nashville, Tennessee, killing both crew and three people on ground as fireball engulfs three houses. The U.S. Navy determines that the accident was the result of pilot error, when pilot Lt. Cmdr. John Bates, attempted a high speed, steep-angle take-off, the review board announces in April 1996.[335] Pilot loses spatial orientation in overcast, suffers vertigo.[336] Bates had previously cracked up an F-14 in April 1995.
  • 1991 – U. S. Air Force F-15 C Eagles of the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing shoot down two Iraqi MiG-23 s using Sparrow missiles. After a British frigate detects 17 Iraqi small boats in the Persian Gulf carrying commandos for use in a seaborne assault during the Battle of Khafji, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Lynx helicopters attack them with Sea Skua missiles. Soon more Lynxes and Royal Navy Sea King Commando and U. S. Navy LAMPS III helicopters – with some of the helicopters using door machine guns and hand grenades – And Royal Air Force Jaguar and U. S. Navy carrier-based A-6E Intruder bombers join in. The attacks sink 14 of the boats and drive the other three ashore, preventing the planned commando operation.
  • 1989 – A RCAF Lockheed CC-130E Hercules, 130318, formerly 10318, c/n 4124, of 43 Squadron, participating in annual Brim Frost exercises hits runway lights and a river bank short of the runway and crashes onto the runway at Wainwright AAF, Alaska at -46 degrees Fahrenheit. Eleven of the eighteen occupants are killed.
  • 1988 – Boeing 747SP owned by United Airlines start a round-the-world air speed record from seattle. The Friendship Foundation, was established and all money went to children’s charities. A ticket on the flight cost $5,000, and in total the flight raised more than $500,000 for children.
  • 1979 – Death of John Elmer “Jack” Drummond, Canadian WWI flying ace.
  • 1972 – Death of Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov, Soviet engineer, Aircraft designer and team-leader of the developers of the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 aircraft.
  • 1971 – Entered Service: EA-6 Prowler with VAQ-129 at NAS Whidbey Island.
  • 1971 – A Lunar Landing Training Vehicle crashes at Ellington AFB, Texas. NASA test pilot Stuart Present ejects safely.
  • 1970 – Death of Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov, Soviet engineer, team-leader of the developers of the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 aircraft.
  • 1969 – A Wisconsin Air National Guard Boeing KC-97L Stratotanker, 52-0904, c/n 16598, arriving at Milwaukee-General Mitchell Airport, (MKE/KMKE) on flight from Key West International Airport, Florida, in fog and rain (ceiling reported as 200 feet with 1/2 mile visibility), contacts ground 1/2 mile (.8 km) short (S) of runway, breaks up and catches fire with fatalities to four of 11 on board.
  • 1959 – The first jet passenger service across the United States is begun by American Airlines using Boeing 707 jet airliners.
  • 1952 – Convair B-36D Peacemaker, 44-92080, of the 92nd Bomb Wing, lands short at Fairchild AFB, written off. All crew survive. Aircraft had been built as a B-36B-20-CF, upgraded.
  • 1948 – Birth of Mamoru “Mark” Mohri, Japanese scientist, NASDA and NASA astronaut.
  • 1945 – The Germans scuttle the incomplete aircraft carrier Seydlitz – The proposed name “Weser” for her had never been officially assigned – At Königsberg to prevent her capture by the Soviet Union.
  • 1945 – Twentieth Air Force B-29 s bomb Iwo Jima.
  • 1944 – German raids of 30 and 47 fighter-bombers attack Allied ships off Anzio with guided bombs, sinking the British light cruiser HMS Spartan and a Liberty ship and badly damaging a salvage tug.
  • 1944 – Two squadrons of U. S. Navy PB2Y Coronados bomb Wake Island, the tenth American strike of the war against Wake and the first since October 1943.
  • 1944 – The 12 aircraft carriers of Task Force 58—the Fast Carrier Forces, United States Pacific Fleet—begin operations to destroy Japanese airpower in the Marshall Islands prior to the American invasion of the islands; it is the first time that the American Fast Carrier Forces are used in this way. During the day, U. S. Navy carrier aircraft in a single strike put the 100-aircraft-strong base at Roi permanently out of action; they also attack Kwajalein Island and Maloelap and Wotje atolls. A Japanese fighter shot down over Roi-Namur at 0800 hours is the last Japanese aircraft encountered in the air during the Marshall Islands campaign. Eight American aircraft are lost.
  • 1943 – (29-30) In the last naval battle of the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of Rennell Island, Japanese land-based (Allied reporting name “Betty”) torpedo bombers attack a U. S. convoy bound for Guadalcanal while it is steaming east of Rennell Island in the southeastern Solomon Islands. They sink the U. S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29).
  • 1942 – Birth of Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, Cuban AIr force pilot and Cosmonaut, first Cuban citizen and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the USA to travel into earth orbit. He was also the first Hispanic and first Black person in space.
  • 1941 – Brewster F2A-2 Buffalo of VF-2, assigned to the USS Lexington, is lost prior to embarkation when a squadron pilot engaged in dive-bombing practice out of Pearl Harbor, H.I., loses both ailerons during 6G pull-out from what was claimed to be a 400 mph (643 km/h) 45-degree angle dive. With little control remaining, pilot successfully bails out.
  • 1941 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-2 (Development names ANT-58 and 103, NATO reporting name: Bat), a twin-engine Soviet (high) speed daylight bomber.
  • 1940 – First flight of the Bolkhovitinov S (Sparka – Twin/joined (engine)), a Russian high speed bomber prototype aircraft powered by two M-103 inline engines in tandem in a fuselage nose, driving two contra-rotating coaxial three-blade propellers.
  • 1939 – Carl Bode sets an altitude record of 3427 m with the 2nd prototype helicopter Focke-Wulf Fw 61.
  • 1936 – Entered Service: Grumman F3 F, last biplane fighter to enter service with the United States Navy.
  • 1936 – N0. 7 (GP) Squadron formed at Ottawa to include previous Test Flight, GP Flight and two Mobile Photo Detachments.
  • 1932 – Imperial Japanese Navy seaplanes from the seaplane carrier Notoro attack Nationalist Chinese military positions in Shanghai, China, beginning Japanese air operations in the Shanghai Incident. The operations, which will continue into February, are the first significant military air operations to take place in East Asia.
  • 1932 – First flight of the Bristol Type 118, a British general-purpose military aircraft, two-seat biplane prototype for overseas markets, evolution of the Type 118 with a powerful engine.
  • 1926 – John A. Macready set a U. S. altitude record of 38,704 feet in an XC05 A with Liberty 400-horsepower engines at Dayton, Ohio.
  • 1924 – Raoul Pateras Pescara flies an experimental helicopter in Paris. The machine flew 800 m (2,640 ft) in just over 10 min.
  • 1920 – President Woodrow Wilson appoints Orville Wright to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
  • 1919 – Birth of Helma Sjuts, German balloonist.
  • 1918 – First unqualified air combat victory at night against another aeroplane takes place, when two Sopwith Camels of No.44 Squadron shoot down a Gotha bomber during a raid on London.
  • 1916 – The second and last Zeppelin raid on Paris inflicts 54 casualties.
  • 1910 – Birth of Philip Gerald Cochran, American USAAC WWII pilot developed many tactical air combat, air transport, and air assault techniques.
  • 1908 – The Imperial All-Russia Aero Club is founded and raises money through public subscription by imperial decree.
  • 1895 – Birth of Paul Frank Baer, American WWI flying ace who scored the first aerial victory ever for American military aviation. Post war he became an Aeronautic inspector and Commercial pilot.
  • 1895 – Birth of George Robert Howsam, Canadian WWI fighter ace, Director of Training for the RCAF during WWII.
  • 1895 – Birth of James “Robbo” Milne Robb, Scottish WWI flying ace, Fleet aviation officer and during WWII high-ranking officer in the RAF. One of the Only to have flown a Jet fighter (a Gloster meteor) on service.
  • 1894 – Birth of Karl Meyer, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1850 – Birth of Lawrence Hargrave, English Born Australian engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer.

References

  1. ^ "Regional carrier MacAir shut down with loss of 200 jobs". The Courier-Mail. 5 February 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
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