Portal:Aviation/Historical anniversaries/August in aviation/August 16

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August 16

• 2005 - West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a charter flight, crashes into the mountains of Venezuela with no survivors.

• 1987 - a Douglas DC-9 of Northwest Airlines crashes on take-off for a flight from Detroit to Phoenix. 154 are killed.

• 1969 - Darryl Greenamayer sets a new piston-engine airspeed record in a heavily modified F8F Bearcat named Conquest I. His record speed of 478 mph (769 km/h) topples a record that had stood for 30 years.

• 1960 - Captain (later Colonel) Joseph Kittinger (USAF) sets a world record for highest parachute jump (102,200 ft or 31,150m) and longest parachute freefall (84,700 ft or 25,815 m) while testing high altitude parachute escape systems in Project Excelsior.

• 1944 - the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor is used against enemy bombers for the first time.