Portal:Aviation/Historical anniversaries/December in aviation
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Aviation Portal 2008 day arrangement |
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- 1951 - F/O Bruce Gogerly of 77 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), flying a Gloster Meteor, shoots down a Soviet-piloted MiG-15, the first of four air-to-air kills for RAAF pilots during the Korean War.[1]
- 1933 - Indian National Airways commences the first daily service in India, between Calcutta and Dacca.
- 1783, Charles and his assistant Robert make the first flight in a hydrogen-filled balloon (Charliere). On his second flight, Charles reached an altitude of 2,700 m over Vivarais. They travel from Paris to Nesles, a distance of 43 km (27 miles).
- 1986 - an Air France Concorde returns to Paris after an 18-day around the world trip with 94 passengers.
- 1965 - USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered warship to see combat, launching air strikes at the Viet Cong near Bien Hoa
- 1971 - 3-17 - Indo-Pakistan War. The Indian Air Force loses 72 aircraft and the Pakistan Air Force 94 aircraft.
- 1945 - A Mk5 Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS Ocean.
- 1983 - in reprisal to an attack on United States military bases in Beirut, 28 United States Navy A-6 Intruders attack suspected terrorist bases in Libya.
- 1955 - Glenn L. Martin, founder of the Glenn L. Martin Company, dies at age 69.
- 1921 - The first regular air services in Australia commence, with West Australian Airways.
- 1919 - Avianca is founded as the Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transporte Aéreo in Barranquilla.
- 1966 - the West German Luftwaffe grounds its fleet of F-104s to investigate continuing accidents with the type.
- 1950 - C-47 Dakotas of 13 Flight Royal Hellenic Air Force evacuate US casualties from the Chonjin Reservoir.
- 1990 - an Alaskan Airlines Boeing 727 takes off from Seattle International Airport in visibility of only 500 ft (152 m), the lowest for any airliner takeoff in the US.
- 1980 - Pan Am's Boeing 747, the China Clipper, arrives from JFK International Airport in New York, to Beijing, after a stop in Tokyo. It marks the first time since 1949 that a commercial flight between the United States and mainland China is completed.
- 1941 - the Imperial Japanese Navy makes a devastatingly successful surprise attack on the US Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor. Six aircraft carriers launched a total of nearly 400 warplanes which claimed five US battleships and ten other vessels, and damaged three other battleships. The US declares war on Japan.
- 1934 - Imperial Airways extends its airmail service to Australia.
- 2002 - United Airlines files for Chapter 11 reorganization, the largest airline bankruptcy in US history.
- 1983 - Delta Air Lines receives the 1,000th production Boeing 737 at Boeing's headquarters.
- 1950 - RAAF Gloster Meteors replace the P-51s of 77 Sqn. in Korea
- 1946 - The Bell X-1 makes its first powered flight at Muroc Army Air Field.
- 1970 - Artem Mikoyan dies, aged 65
- 2004 - Two CT-114 Tutors from Canada's Snowbirds aerobatic team collide while training near Mossbank, Saskatchewan. Captain Miles Selby is killed and Captain Chuck Mallet is injured.
- 2004 - The United States Federal Aviation Administration issues an Emergency Airworthiness Directive effectively grounding the entire U.S. fleet of Beechcraft T-34 Mentor aircraft. The AD is in response to fatal in-flight structural failure accidents during simulated aerial combat flights.
- 1998 - Captain Michael VandenBos of the Snowbirds aerobatic team dies in a midair collision between two CT-114 Tutors during training near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
- 1955 - The Ryan X-13 Vertijet makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.
- 1941 - The first landing attempt by Japanese pilots is made in their attempted attack on Wake Island in the Battle of Wake Island; it is to become the only failed World War 2 landing.
- 1978 - 6 masked men bind 10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at John F. Kennedy International Airport, escaping with US$5.8 million in cash & jewellery.
- 1981 - Spacelab 1 arrives at the Kennedy Space Center.
- 1985 - Arrow Air Flight 1285, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 of charter airline Arrow Air crashes while taking 250 soldiers back to the United States for Christmas, killing everyone on board.
- 1957 - Maj Adrian Drew sets a new world speed record, in a modified F-101 Voodoo, of 1,207 mph (1,943 km/h)
- 1955 - The Bell X-1E rocketplane makes its first glide flight at Edwards Air Force Base.
- 1951 - Alaska Air becomes the first airline to fly over the North Pole
- 1928 - Royal Air Force Vickers Victorias evacuate British civilians from Kabul.
- 1918 - Cpt R.M. Smith, Brig Gen A.E. Borton and Maj Gen W. Salmond set out in a Handley Page O/400 from Heliopolis to Karachi, to survey a route for airmail to India.
- 1951 - Maj George Davis of the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron shoots down four MiG-15s in a single day
- 1924 - in an early parasite fighter experiment, Lt Clyde Flinter unsuccessfully attempts to dock his Sperry Messenger with the US Army airship TC-3.
- 1918 - Maj A.S.C. MacLaren and Cpt Robert Halley set out on the first England-India flight, in a Handley Page V/1500
- 1913 - 13-14 - German balloonist Hugo Kaulen stays aloft for 87 hours. This record lasted until 1935.
- 1872 - Paul Haenlein tests the first airship with a gas engine in Brünn, achieving 19 km/h. The tests were stopped because of a shortage of money.
- 1986 - 14-23 - First non-stop flight around the planet without refueling - the Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, on a distance of 26,366 statute miles (the FAI accredited distance is 40,212 km)
- 1984 - the Grumman X-29A makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.
- 1964 - The US Air Force launches Operation Barrel Roll, attacking the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos
- 1959 - Cdr L Flint sets a new altitude record of 103,389 ft (31,513 m) in a F-104 Starfighter
- 1927 - US aircraft carrier USS Lexington is commissioned.
- 1924 - a Martin MO-1 is launched using an explosive-driven catapult fitted to a turret on USS Mississippi, requiring less distance than ever for the take-off.
- 1996 - the merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing is announced
- 1959 - Maj J W Roberts sets a new airspeed record of 1,526 mph (2,456 km/h) in a F-106 Delta Dart
- 1955 - the de Havilland Mosquito flies its final operational sortie with the Royal Air Force
- 2000 - Lockheed-Martin X-35C, the Navy version of the Joint Strike Fighter, makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.
- 1948 - The Northrop X-4 Bantam makes its first flight at Muroc Army Air Field.
- 2003 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately built and manned aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound
- 1984 - C-5 Galaxy of the USAF becomes airborne with 920,836 pounds (417,684 kg) aboard, setting a U.S. national record
- 1950 - the F-86 Sabre begins operations in Korea
- 1935 - the Douglas DC-3, one of the most successful airliners of all time, makes its first flight
- 1903 - The Wright Brothers make four flights in their Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. After years of dedicated research and development, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright fly 120 ft (37 m) in the first practical aeroplane. This may be the first controlled powered heavier-than-air flight and the first photographed powered heavier-than-air flight. On their fourth flight they manage 850 ft (260 m)
- 1969 - the England-Australia Commemorative Air Race is flown in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Smith brothers' flight. It is won by W. J. Bright and F. L. Buxton in a Britten-Norman Islander
- 1941 - Lt Buzz Wagner becomes the first US ace of the war.
- 1939 - the Royal Air Force abandons daylight raids on Germany after a raid by Vickers Wellingtons takes heavy losses.
- 1990 - Northwest Airlines buys a 25% share in Hawaiian Airlines
- 1970 - with pre-tax losses of $US 130 million, the year ends as the worst ever for US airlines.
- 1954 - The Convair YF-102A Delta Dagger makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.
- 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.
- 1966 - The Northrop HL-10 lifting body makes its first glide flight at Edwards Air Force Base.
- 1941 - a radar-equipped Fairey Firefly sinks a German submarine (U-451) at night, the first such victory
- 1974 - The Rockwell B-1A Lancer makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base
- 1972 - Andrei Tupolev dies, aged 86
- 1910 - Lt Theodore Ellyson of the United States Navy is assigned to flight training with the Curtiss company, making him the first naval aviator.
- 1968 - Apollo 8 orbits the moon carrying Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders.
- 2003 - United Transit 141 crashes in Benin, spreading rumors that it is the Boeing 727 that disappeared earlier during the year.
- 1981 - USAF lieutenant Thomas Tiller is rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by a boat after his plane, a F-4 Phantom had an accident seven days before.
- 1979 - Antonov An-12s and An-22s airlift the first Soviet troops into Afghanistan. 5,000 arrive in the first 24 hours.
- 1914 - HMS Empress, HMS Engadine and HMS Riviera launch a seaplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. Fog prevents the aircraft from reaching their target, and only three of the nine aircraft find their way back to their mother ships.
- 2005 - At around 6PM, a Piper Aztec, Registered N444DA, crashed in shallow water off the coast of the island of South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands. Its destination was Providenciales International Airport. All 4 on board (1 pilot 3 passengers) died.
- 1972 - 117 B-52 Stratofortresses attack Hanoi in Operation Linebacker II, the largest air assault in the Vietnam War to this time.
- 1992 - USAF F-16 Fighting Falcons shoot down an Iraqi Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 in Southern Iraq's "no fly zone"
- 1935 - the USAAC uses aerial bombardment to divert a flow of lava from Mauna Loa, Hawaii that is threatening Hilo's waterworks.
- 1926 - Imperial Airways begins England-India mail and passenger service.
- 1968 - Israeli commandos mount a surprise raid on Beirut Airport, destroying 13 aircraft and jeopardising the Lebanese aviation industry.
- 1940 - 29-30 - the Luftwaffe makes a devastating attack on London, making extensive use of incendiary weapons.
- 1927 - Georg Wulf, co-founded of Focke-Wulf is killed in the crash of the Focke-Wulf Fw 19
- 1972 - President Richard Nixon halts aerial bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks.
- 1999 - Fear of the Y2K computer bug and possible in-flight consequences for those planes flying during the night of December 31, 1999 and the early morning of January 1, 2000, spreads around the airline industry.
- 1970 - Jeanne Holm becomes the USAF's first female General.
- 1967 - the Royal Air Force's V-bomber force begins to be dismantled, pending the deployment of the Polaris missile aboard Royal Navy submarines to act as Britain's nuclear deterrent.
- 1967 - NASA begins initial talks to develop guidelines for a re-usable spaceplane.
- 1922 - the first German aircraft flies over Britain since the end of World War I, a Deutsche Luft-Reederei Dornier Komet
- 1908 - Wilbur Wright wins a prize of FF 20,000 from Michelin for the longest flight of the year - 124 km (77 miles) from Camp d'Auvours.
