Portal:Aviation/Historical anniversaries/February in aviation
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Aviation Portal 2008 day arrangement |
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- 2006 - UAL. Corp, United Airlines' parent company emerges from bankruptcy after being in such position since December 9, 2002, the longest such filing in history.
- 2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates, killing all seven occupants.
- 1983 - Boeing announces it will stop producing Boeing 727 airliners.
- 1981 - Donald Douglas dies, aged 88
- 1923 - the Danish Army Flying Corps is established
- 1920 - the South African Air Force is established as an independent air arm.
- 1998 - A Cebu Pacific Air DC-9-32 crashes into a mountain near Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, killing 104.
- 1872 - French navy-engineer Dupuy de Lome achieves 9 to 11 km/h with his muscle powered airship.
- 2008 - Silver State Helicopters ceases operations and enteres bankruptcy. At the time of closing Silver State operating 194 helicopters from its 34 flight schools.
- 2005 - Kam Air Flight 904 crashes. There were no survivors.
- 1982 - The Mil Mi-26 helicopter lifts a load weighing 57 metric tons to 2,000 metres (6,500 ft) to break a world record for a helicopter.
- 1961 - Operation Looking Glass commences, meaning that the US Air Force Strategic Air Command would have a permanent, airborne command post.
- 1959 - Rock stars Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper die when the Beechcraft Bonanza they are traveling in crashes during a snow storm in Iowa.
- 1935 - Hugo Junkers dies
- 1934 - Lufthansa begins the first regular airmail service across the Atlantic Ocean, between Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.
- 1920 - Pierre van Ryneveld and Quentin Brand set out in a Vickers Vimy from Cairo to cross Africa by air from North to South. They will arrive in Cape Town on March 20.
- 1902 - First balloon flight in Antarctica when Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton ascend to 244 metres in a tethered hydrogen balloon to take the first Antarctic aerial photographs.
- 2003 - 5-9 - Aero-India show is held at Bangalore
- 1972 - Aeroflot and Lufthansa jointly open services between Moscow and Frankfurt-am-Main
- 1972 - NASA and de Havilland Canada extensively modify a C-8 Buffalo for STOL experiments
- 1920 - the Royal Air Force College is established at Cranwell, Lincolnshire.
- 1918 - 2nd Lt Stephen Thompson claims the first aerial victory for the US Air Service.
- 1911 - the first undisputed aeroplane flight in New Zealand is made by Vivian Walsh at Auckland
- 1982 - Freddie Laker's Laker Airways flies for the last time.
- 1933 - 6-8 - Gayford and Nicholetts make the first non-stop flight from England to South Africa in a Fairey Long-Range Monoplane. The 5,309 mile (8,544 km) flight is a new distance record. They take 57 hours 25 minutes.
- 1933 - 6-9 - Jim Mollison flies a de Havilland Puss Moth from the United Kingdom to Brazil, via Senegal, across South Atlantic. He becomes the first person to fly solo across the North and South Atlantics.
- 1964 - The Canadian Golden Hawks aerobatic team is disbanded.
- 1934 - the first airmail flight between Australia and New Zealand is made by Charles Ulm in an Avro Ten, taking 14 hours 10 minutes.
- 1928 - Bert Hinkler leaves Croydon in an Avro Avian, attempting the first solo flight from England to Australia. He will arrive in Darwin on February 22.
- 1989 - a misunderstanding between the crew of a Boeing 707 and Air traffic control leads to a crash on Pico Alto mountain on the Azores
- 1966 - Freddie Laker founds Laker Airways
- 1941 - a fleet of Junkers Ju 52s is used to airlift German troops to North Africa.
- 1919 - Henry Farman carries 11 paying passengers in his F.60 Goliath plane from Paris to London on first commercial flight between the two cities.
- 1918 - Lafayette Escadrille, the US volunteer squadron serving in the French Army is transferred to the US Army and redesignated the 103rd Aero Squadron.
- 1914 - 8-10 - Berliner, Haase and Nikolai fly 3053 km in their free balloon from Bitterfeld to Perm. This record lasted until 1950.
- 1995 - 9-12 - Heavy fighting continues between Peru and Ecuador. Peruvian and Ecuadorian air forces step up their activities.
- 1983 - British Airways begins Boeing 757 service.
- 1982 - a Japan Airlines Douglas DC-8 crashes in Tokyo, killing 24 of the 174 passengers on board. The probable cause of the accident was cited as a possible breakdown by captain Seiji Katagiri, who had mental problems. Every airline pilot must now undergo mental testing as well as physical testing.
- 1960 - the US Air Force opens its National Space Surveillance Control Centre at Bedford, Massachusetts.
- 1939 - Alex Henshaw sets a new speed record for the round trip between England and Cape Town in 4 days 10 minutes in a Percival Mew
- 1995 - Two Peruvian Sukhoi Su-22Ms are shot down by a pair of Ecuadorian Mirage F.1JAs. Almost simultaneously, a Peruvian Cessna A-37B is also shot down by an Ecuadorian Kfir C.2.
- 1995 - the prototype Antonov An-70 is destroyed after a mid-air collision with an An-72 chase plane. All seven aboard are killed in the crash.
- 1993 - McDonnell Douglas produces its 10,000th aircraft
- 1982 - Air Florida Flight 90 Boeing 737 crashes soon after take-off from Washington DC's National Airport, into the Potomac river, killing 70 passengers plus people on the 14th Street Bridge. Many of the passengers actually died frozen by the river's iced waters. The plane's anti-freeze solution was not adequate for the weather that day, and the plane's engines had ice on them before taking off.
- 1952 - Maj George A. Davis Jr is awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, after attacking a group of 12 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s that were about to bounce other US aircraft. He shot down two before being shot down himself.
- 1941 - Britain uses paratroops for the first time in an attack on Tragino
- 1946 - U.S. and British negotiators reach the Bermuda Agreement, the first bilateral agreement regulating air transport. The two countries agree to fix transatlantic air fares through the International Air Transport Association.
- 1986 - US Navy aircraft carriers commence exercises in the Gulf of Sirte, off the coast of Libya, challenging that country's territorial claims to those waters.
- 1981 - Max Anderson and Don Ida make a failed attempt to circumnavigate the world by balloon. Their craft, the Jules Verne only covers 2,900 miles (4,667 km) from Luxor to New Delhi
- 1928 - Lady Mary Hearth leaves Cape Town in an Avro Avian in an attempt to make the first solo flight by a woman from South Africa to England. She will arrive in Croydon on May 17.
- 1995 - $US 5 million in damage is caused when a violent thunderstorm hits Miami International Airport. Four airliners and nine airbridges are seriously damaged.
- 1960 - France detonates its first nuclear weapon
- 1958 - the British Ministry of Defence White Paper makes Britain's nuclear weapons programme public knowledge.
- 1945 - 13-15 - Allied bombers attack Dresden with incendiary weapons, destroying most of the city and killing some 50,000 people.
- 1936 - Imperial Airways commences airmail services to West Africa
- 1963 - the Indian Air Force receives its first batch of Soviet fighters, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s
- 1932 - Ruth Nichols sets a new altitude record for a diesel-powered aircraft, 6,047 m (19,928 ft) in a modified Lockheed Vega
- 1965 - G Meher sets out from Culver City, California on a journey to become the first woman to cross the United States by helicopter
- 1938 - 15-27 - Six USAAC B-17 Flying Fortresses make a goodwill tour of Latin America, traveling 12,000 miles (19,312 km) to Lima, Buenos Aires, Santiago and back.
- 1915 - Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bombers attack the Vistula-Dobrzhani area of Poland
- 2006 - Kobe Airport, a controversial offshore airport in Kobe, Japan, opens for airline service.
- 1903 - Traian Vuia presented to the Académie des Sciences of Paris the possibility of flying with a heavier-than-air mechanical machine and his procedure for taking off, but it was rejected for being an utopia, adding the comments: The problem of flight with a machine which weighs more than air cannot be solved and it is only a dream.
- 2005 - Several airlines will have to pay heavy compensation to passengers for flight delays and cancellations under a European regulation.
- 2005 - Opening of a new international airport in Nagoya, Japan. It is the third Japanese international airport.
- 1970 - 17-18 - US Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses attack Laos.
- 1981 - Jack Northrop dies
- 1944 - Operation Jericho: de Havilland Mosquitos of No. 487 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force and No. 464 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, breach the prison walls at Amiens, France, allowing captured members of the French Resistance to escape.
- 1911 - the first airmail is carried by an aeroplane. Henri Pequet carries mail across the Jumna River, from Allahabad to Naini Junction, India.
- 1985 - an Iberia Boeing 727 crashes in Bilbao, killing 148. The plane got tangled with some television equipment as it tried to land.
- 1985 - China Airlines Flight 006, a Boeing 747, miraculously survives a 30,000-foot (9,146 m) plunge over the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco.
- 1965 - Lufthansa signs up as the first customer for the forthcoming Boeing 737
- 1934 - the United States Army Air Corps begins flying US airmail after the government cancels all existing airmail contracts due to alleged improprieties by the previous administration during the negotiations of those contracts.
- 1962 - John Glenn becomes the first US astronaut to orbit the earth in Mercury Atlas 6
- 1959 - The Canadian government cancels the Avro CF-105 Arrow.
- 1924 - Three French Army officers make the first two-way aerial crossing of the Sahara Desert in a Breguet 14.
- 1984 - 14 hours and 2 minutes after taking off from New York, Air France pilot Patrick Fourticq and his companion, race driver Henry Pescarolo, land their Piper Malibu in Paris, setting a world record for a trans-Atlantic flight by a single engined light aircraft.
- 1951 - an English Electric Canberra becomes the first jet to make an unrefuelled crossing of the Atlantic, taking 4 hours 37 minutes
- 1945 - aircraft carrier USS Saratoga is badly damaged by a kamikaze attack
- 1967 - 845 of the 173rd Airborne Brigade take part in Operation Junction City, the only paratrooper assault of the Vietnam War
- 1912 - Jules Vedrines becomes the first pilot to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). He makes his flight in a Deperdussin monoplane near Pau, France.
- 1987 - Maiden flight of the first A320
- 1935 - Leland Andrews breaks Doolittle's January record, completing a transcontinental transport flight in 11 hours 34 minutes.
- 1909 - John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in Canada in the Silver Dart
- 1989 - a piece of fuselage detaches from a United Airlines Boeing 747 causing an explosive decompression over Hawaii. Nine people are sucked to their deaths.
- 1973 - United States Marine Corps helicopters begin clearing mines from North Vietnamese harbors
- 1970 - HMS Ark Royal is recommissioned after a £UK 30 million refit.
- 1982 - American Airlines announces it will cancel its orders for 15 Boeing 757s.
- 1933 - USS Ranger, the US Navy's first ship designed from the outset as an aircraft carrier, is launched.
- 1979 - Production of the A-4 Skyhawk ends after 26 years, with the delivery of the 2,690th and final aircraft to the United States Marine Corps.
- 1967 - US Navy A-6 Intruders of VA-35 drop sea mines in the mouth of the Song Ca and Song Giang rivers
- 1955 - George F. Smith becomes the first person to survive a supersonic ejection, from a North American F-100 Super Sabre travelling (Mach 1.05).
- 1949 - Feb 26-Mar 2 - B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II of the 43rd Bombardment Group, completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight from and to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona. The 23,452 mile (37,742 km) journey takes 94 hours 1 minute.
- 1931 - Imperial Airways begins scheduled services between England and Africa using Armstrong Whitworth Argosys
- 1970 - Hawker Siddeley begins buying back surplus Hawker Hunters from the Royal Air Force to remanufacture for new customers.
- 2005 - 28-March 3 - Steve Fossett completes the first solo, nonstop, non-refueled aerial circumnavigation of the globe by airplane in a jet-propelled airplane specially designed for this event.
- 1991 - The US calls a ceasefire in Iraq, with airpower having neutralized practically all of the country's ability to make war.
- 1984 - American Airlines sets an industry record by ordering 67 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 airliners, with options to order 100 more in the future.
- 1964 - US President Lyndon Johnson reveals the existence of the CIA's Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft
