Portal:Aviation/Historical anniversaries/December in aviation/December 21

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December 21

• 1990 - Kelly Johnson dies, aged 80.

• 1988 - Pan Am flight 103, a Boeing 747 flying from London to New York City, and carrying many passengers back home for Christmas, explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 258 persons. Libyan terrorists are blamed for the tragedy.

• 1965 - New York Airways commences helicopter services between the roof of the Pan Am building and John F. Kennedy International Airport

• 1914 - The UK is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time - a Taube drops two bombs near the Admiralty Pier, Kent.

• 1923 - French airship Dixmude crashes into the Mediterranean. Fifty-two people are killed.

• 1979 - The NASA AD-1 oblique-wing concept demonstrator makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

• 1923 - The French dirigible Dixmude exploded over the Mediterranean Sea en route from Cuers-Pierrefeu to Algeria after being struck by lightning. All 52 crew members on board perished.