Portal:Aviation/Historical anniversaries/January in aviation
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Aviation Portal 2006 day arrangement |
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- 1987 - US Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphins and US Navy H-3 Sea Kings help rescue people trapped inside the Dupont Plaza hotel Puerto Rico after a fire there on New Year's Eve
- 1978 - British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley, and Scottish Aviation are absorbed into British Aerospace
- 1960 - Fiji Airways is reconstituted, becoming equally owned by BOAC, QANTAS, and Tasman Empire Airways.
- 1946 - a British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian becomes the first commercial flight to depart Heathrow Airport
- 1945 - the Luftwaffe begins targeting Allied airfields in Europe as "Operation Bodenplatte"
- 1929 - 1-7 – Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, and Elwood Quesada set an endurance record of 151 hours aloft in a Fokker F.VIIa-3m.
- 1914 - The St. Petersburg/Tampa Airboat Line starts services, becoming the first airline to provide regular services, with Anthony Jannus conveying passengers in a Benoist flying boat. A.C. Pheil is the first airline passenger.
- 2004 - Several British Airways flights from London Heathrow Airport to Washington D.C. and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are cancelled due to security fears.
- 1967 - Seven North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s are destroyed by F-4 Phantoms of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing USAF in Operation Bolo
- 1967 - the contracts for the development of the Boeing SST and its engines are awarded
- 1965 - Denis Healey, the UK's Secretary of Defence cancels the nation's fighter and military transport programmes and orders the purchase of the US-built F-4 Phantom and C-130 Hercules in their place.
- 2004 - Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.
- 1981 - Pan Am makes its final Boeing 707 flight.
- 1989 - US Navy F-14 Tomcats shoot down two Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23s
- 1972 - US President Richard Nixon announces $US 5.5 billion in funding for the Space Shuttle program
- 1971 - the United States Marine Corps takes delivery of its first AV-8 Harriers
- 1931 - Gen Italo Balbo leads the first formation flight across the South Atlantic. Twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.55s fly from Portuguese Guinea to Brazil.
- 1928 - 6-8 - Lt Christian Schilt makes ten flights in an O2U Corsair to evacuate wounded marines from the besieged village of Quilali, Nicaragua. He is awarded the Medal of Honor.
- 1926 - Deutsche Lufthansa is formed by the merger of Deutsche Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr
- 1987 - French Air Force jets attack the Libyan Air Force base in Ouadi Doum to avenge a raid by Libya against the French military 3 days before.
- 1981 - a Boeing 747 of CAAC lands at JFK International Airport, marking the first time since 1949 that a flight from mainland China to the United States is performed.
- 1949 - No. 208 Squadron RAF loses four Supermarine Spitfires and a Hawker Tempest to Israeli Air Force fighters
- 1931 - Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
- 1927 - Imperial Airways commences a regular service from Basra to Cairo via Baghdad, the first of its Empire "trunk routes"
- 1910 - Frenchman Hubert Latham is the first pilot to climb to 1000 metres.
- 1989 - a British Midland Boeing 737-400 crashes on the M1 motorway near Kegworth, killing 32 people.
- 1982 - the Airbus A300 FFCC is certified, becoming the first wide body airliner with cockpit accommodations for only two to be certified.
- 1980 - a Mooney 231 lands in San Francisco, after flying coast to coast non-stop, setting a record by completing the flight in 8 hours and 4 minutes.
- 1986 - the UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, resigns amidst a political furore over the future of Westland Helicopters. Two weeks later, Leon Brittan, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will also resign.
- 1992 - TWA files for bankruptcy
- 1982 - a Gulfstream III, Spirit of America, flies around the world in just 43 hours 39 minutes and 6 seconds, becoming the fastest business jet to fly around the world.
- 1962 - 10-11 - a B-52 Stratofortress is flown from Okinawa to Madrid, establishing a new distance record of 12,532 miles (20,168 km)
- 1954 - a BOAC de Havilland Comet crashes into the Mediterranean Sea near Elba with the loss of all 35 people aboard.
- 1946 - a Sikorsky R5 sets an unofficial helicopter altitude record of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) at Stratford, Connecticut.
- 1934 - 10-11 - A flight of six US Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats set a new distance record for formation flying, 2,400 miles (3,862 km) between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor, also setting a new speed record for this crossing of 24 hours 35 minutes.
- 1919 - Airco DH.4s of No.2 (Communications) Squadron, RAF are converted for transporting passengers and mail between London and Paris, in support of the Versailles Peace Conference
- 1912 - Lieutenant commander Charles Samson flies a Short S.38 from the deck of battleship HMS Africa moored in the River Medway, England, becoming the first British naval aviator.
- 1992 - the US FAA approves a helicopter rating for a pilot based solely on flight simulator performance for the first time.
- 1990 - The US Defense Department awards Bell Helicopter a $US 123 million development contract for the V-22 Osprey
- 1944 - in one of the largest air raids to date, 570 USAAF bombers strike Brunswick, Halberstadt, and Oschersleben.
- 1935 - 11-12 – Amelia Earhart makes the first solo flight across the Pacific from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California.
- 1979 - Pilatus Aircraft acquires Britten-Norman
- 1975 - British Airways begins Europe's first no-booking shuttle service, between London and Glasgow.
- 1973 - A US Navy F-4 Phantom scores the 197th and final US air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War
- 1939 - the RAF Auxiliary Air Force Reserve is formed
- 1916 - German aces Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, with 8 kills, are the first pilots awarded with Pour le Mérite ("the Blue Max")
- 2004 - An Uzbekistan Airways plane crashes in Uzbekistan's capital of Tashkent, killing all 37 aboard.
- 1913 - Brazilian naval aviation commences with the foundation of a flying school.
- 1975 - the F-16 Fighting Falcon is announced as the winner of the LWF (Light Weight Fighter) competition
- 1958 - QANTAS becomes the first foreign airline permitted to fly across the United States
- 1992 - the USAF loses a Lockheed U-2 in the Sea of Japan
- 1973 - final B-52 Stratofortress mission of the Vietnam War
- 1935 - Maj James Doolittle establishes a record for a transport flight across the United States, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey in 11 hours 59 minutes.
- 1927 - Boeing Air Transport is formed, to carry airmail between Chicago and San Francisco. This will eventually become United Airlines
- 1991 - Eastern Air Lines is dissolved after 64 years of operation. Many of its remaining assets are parceled out to American and Continental.
- 1980 - British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK.
- 1933 - Jean Mermoz and crew make a non-stop flight from Senegal to Brazil, across South Atlantic, in 17 hours 27 minutes.
- 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
- 1991 - US-led forces attack Iraq in a massive air assault after a United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from occupied Kuwait passes unheeded.
- 1966 - a B-52 Stratofortress collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker during aerial refueling near Palomares, Spain. Seven crewmembers are killed in the crash, and two of the B-52's nuclear weapons rupture, scattering radioactive material over the countryside. One bomb lands intact near the town, and another is lost at sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8 km) offshore.
- 1948 - BOAC begins to replace flying boat routes with the Lockheed Constellation
- 1906 - Zeppelin LZ 2 (makes a forced landing and is destroyed in high winds the following day).
- 1902 - Gustave Whitehead reportedly flies a flying boat rebuilt from his Whitehead Aeroplane No. 21 of the previous year on an 11 km (7 mile) flight and lands safely.
- 2005 - Airbus reveals the 555 seat A380, the largest civil airliner, in Toulouse France.
- 1992 - the United States armed forces retire the last F-4 Phantom II from front-line service
- 1981 - Bell Helicopter delivers its 25,000th production helicopter.
- 1973 - Results of the USAF A-X fly-off announced, with the Fairchild YA-10 selected over the Northrop YA-9.
- 1957 - Three Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses make the world's first round the world, non-stop flight by turbojet-powered aircraft. The flight is completed in 45 hours 19 minutes, with an average speed of 534 mph (859 km/h)
- 1911 - Eugene Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
- 2006 - Jet Airways announces its purchase of Air Sahara, creating the largest domestic airliner in India.
- 1919 - Jules Védrines claims a FF25,000 prize by landing an aircraft (a Caudron G-3) on the roof of a department store in Paris. Védrines is injured and his aircraft is damaged beyond repair in the hard landing in a space only 28 m x 12 m (92 ft x 40 ft).
- 1915 - First Zeppelin raid on the UK by the German Navy.
- 1975 - terrorists hijack an Air France Boeing 707 and have it flown to Baghdad
- 1938 - A Flight Refuelling Ltd Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 refuels an Imperial Airways Short Empire over Southampton Water
- 1932 - Imperial Airways weekly airmail service is extended through Africa as far as Cape Town.
- 1968 - a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashes in the sea near Thule AFB Greenland, carrying four nuclear weapons.
- 1982 - a F/A-18 Hornet makes a fully automated landing, its autopilot linked to a ground radar at the Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River
- 1971 - a US Navy P-3 Orion sets a distance record of 7,010 miles (11,282 km) for an aircraft in its class
- 1973 - Jordan Air crash at Kano, Nigeria kills 176 Muslim pilgrims.
- 1982 - World Airways DC-10 skids at Boston Logan Airport, killing 2 people.
- 1993 - Indian Airlines B737 crashes at Aurangabad, 61 die
- 1966 - An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.
- 1962 - two US Navy F-4 Phantoms are seconded to the US Air Force as the air force plans to adopt the type.
- 1930 - American Airways is formed
- 1995 - Outbreak of the Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador. Peruvian Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-25, as well as Ecuadorian Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters begin ground attack operations.
- 1990 - The first of two new Air Force Ones, VIP variants of the Boeing 747-200, for the use of the United States President and his staff, are delivered.
- 1988 - the French defence ministry approves full-scale development of the Dassault Rafale
- 1953 - The first meeting of the Experimental Aircraft Association takes place at Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Curtis-Wright Field.
- 1946 - Col William Councill sets a new US transcontinental speed record of 4 hours 13 minutes in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star
- 1926 - Ramón Franco sets out from Spain in a Dornier Do J to reach Buenos Aires after 59 hours in the air.
- 1982 - Cessna delivers its 1,000th business jet
- 1972 - Civil aviation in Canada is halted by a strike by air traffic controllers
- 1929 - USS Saratoga carries out a successful simulated dawn raid on the Panama Canal in a training exercise.
- 1986 - the Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed at launch
- 1964 - Soviet MiG-19 shoots down a T-39 Sabreliner which accidentally entered East German airspace with all 3 crew killed.
- 2005 - Nonstop flights between mainland China and Taiwan take off for the first time since 1949.
- 1924 - Pateras Pesara flies an experimental helicopter in Paris. The machine flew 800 metres (2,640 ft) in just over 10 minutes.
- 1988 - a Boeing 747 sets a new around-the-world record of 36 hours 54 minutes
- 1948 - Orville Wright, generally credited as co-inventor of the airplane, dies at 76.
- 1943 - Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquitos make the first daylight air-raid on Berlin
- 1943 - 30-31 – the H2S radar is used by RAF bombers for navigation for the first time
- 1942 - Canadian Pacific Air Lines formed by the acquisition and merger of Arrow Airways and Canadian Airways, along with all the various subsidiaries of the latter.
- 1986 - Boeing completes purchase of de Havilland Canada
- 1983 - the Ayres Turbo Thrush NEEDS cropduster plane officially joins the United States' "war on drugs".
- 1970 - Mikhail Mil dies, aged 61
