Portal:Aviation/Historical anniversaries/May in aviation
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Aviation Portal 2008 day arrangement |
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- 1982 - American Airlines launches AAdvantage, the first frequent flyer program in history. United Airlines launches its own program, Mileage Plus, only a week later.
- 1965 - a Lockheed YF-12 sets a new international airspeed record of 2,070 mpg (3,331 km/h).
- 1960 - CIA pilot Gary Powers is captured by the Soviet Union when his Lockheed U-2 is shot down near Sverdlovsk
- 1952 - the IATA agrees on new "tourist class" fares, which are adopted by Pan Am on its NewYork-London "Rainbow service"
- 1951 - US Navy A-1 Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs from USS Princeton attack the Hwachon Dam, flooding the Pukhan River
- 1927 - Imperial Airways introduces its luxury "Silver Wing" service between London and Paris.
- 1925 - the Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps is established.
- 1952 - BOAC introduces the de Havilland DH.108 Comet on its London-Johannesburg route, the first regular service flown by a jet airliner. G-AYLP makes the first flight.
- 1923- 2-3 - Kelly MacReady complete the first non-stop flight from New York to Los Angeles, in 27 hours in a Fokker T-2.
- 1916 - eight German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties. The Zeppelin L 20 is wrecked in a storm off Stavanger, Norway on the return journey.
- 1892 - Born Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, was a German pilot and is still regarded today as the "ace of aces". He was a very successful fighter pilot, military leader and flying ace who won 80 air combats during World War I.
- 2006 - Armavia Flight 967 crashes six kilometers before Adler-Sochi International Airport into the Black Sea, killing all 113 people aboard.
- 1986 - 20 passengers die after an explosion caused by Tamil Tigers separatists aboard a Air Lanka Lockheed L-1011
- 1923 - the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation is formed by Igor Sikorsky at a Long Island chicken farm.
- 1969 - 4-11 - the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown's crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy F-4 Phantom, taking 4 hours 47 minutes.
- 1949 - The Canadian Blue Devils aerobatic team is formed.
- 1942 - 4-8 - the Battle of the Coral Sea is fought between US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers. Japanese light carrier Shoho is sunk and Shokaku is badly damaged, and the USS Lexington is sunk.
- 1936 - 4-7 - Amy Johnson sets a new England-South Africa speed record of 3 days 6 hours 26 minutes in a Percival Gull Six.
- 2004 - Air France and Netherlands-based KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) merge, the two airlines are now known as Air France-KLM.
- 1983 - Richard Boddy, pilot of an Eastern Airlines TriStar barely avoids disaster when he is able to land at Miami International Airport, after getting one engine back to life after both engines had stopped working during a flight to the Bahamas.
- 1968 - a Grumman Gulfstream II becomes the first executive jet to cross the Atlantic
- 1930 - 5-24 - Amy Johnson flies from Croydon, England, to Darwin, Australia in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth
- 1941 - Igor Sikorsky sets a world endurance record for helicopter flight of 1 hour 32 minutes, in a Sikorsky VS-300
- 1937 - German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed whilst attempting to dock with its mooring mast at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
- 1896 - Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the unmanned Aerodrome No. 5 from a houseboat on the Potomac river a distance of 3,300ft.
- 1945 - the Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine
- 1933 - 7-8 - Stanislaw Skarzynski flies the South Atlantic from Senegal to Brazil in a small single-seater tourist airplane RWD-5bis, in 20 hours 30 minutes, over a distance of 3,582 km (2,238 miles). The RWD-5bis was the smallest plane to have ever flown the Atlantic - empty weight below 450 kg (990 lb), loaded 1100 kg. It is a part of 17,885 km Warsaw - Rio de Janeiro flight from April 27 to June 24.
- 1917 - British ace Major Edward Mannock claims his first kill.
- 1917 - British ace Captain Albert Ball (44 victories) is killed in a crash following a dogfight with Lothar von Richthofen, who also crashes but survives.
- 1992 - excavations begin at Devonport Naval Base, near Auckland, in search of two Boeing seaplanes supposedly buried there in 1919 - the first two aircraft built by that company. The search proves fruitless.
- 1934 - 8-23 - Jean Batten sets a new women's speed record between England and Australia. She flies a de Havilland DH.60 and makes the trip in 14 days 22 hours.
- 1927 - 8-9 - Charles Nungesser and François Coli attempted to cross the Atlantic from Paris to New York in Levasseur PL-8 The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc) biplane, but disappeared.
- 1919 - A US Navy flying boat, NC-4 begins an Atlantic crossing, flying by short stages from Long Island, New York to Lisbon, Portugal. It arrives 19 days later on May 28.
- 1911 - US Naval Aviation Service created and the Navy's first airplane, a Curtiss Model D, is ordered.
- 1987 - An Ilyushin Il-62 of LOT Polish Airlines bound for New York, crashes on take-off, killing 183 persons.
- 1926 - Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett make the first flight over the North Pole in a Fokker VIIa-3m.
- 1917 - French ace René Fonck shoots down six German aircraft in a day.
- 1912 - Liuetenant Commander Charles Samson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft off the deck of a moving ship. He takes off in a Short S.38 from the deck of HMS Hibernia in Weymouth Bay.
- 1972 - Lts Randy Cunningham and J G William become the first US Navy aces of the Vietnam War, adding three Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s to their tally on this day alone.
- 1941 - Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try and negotiate an alliance with Britain against the Soviet Union
- 1940 - Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Paratroops again play a key role.
- 1964 - Jackie Cochran sets a new women's airspeed record of 1,429 mph (2,300 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter
- 1949 - No. 28 Squadron RAF flies from Malaya to Hong Kong to help reinforce the island against Communist forces on mainland China.
- 1926 - 11-14 - Roald Amundsen makes the first airship flight over the North Pole. The Norge leaves Spitzbergen and arrives in Teller, Alaska three days later.
- 1903 - Richard Pearse is claimed to have made a flight of around 1,000 yards (900 m), landing in the semi-dry bed of the Opihi River.
- 2004 - The last F-4 Phantom fighters are withdrawn from service with the Israeli Air Force.
- 1960 - a USAF C-130 Hercules drops a record 35,000 lb (15,876 kg) by parachute.
- 1952 - Sqn Ldr P. G. Fisher makes the first non-stop, unrefuelled flight from England to Australia in an English Electric Canberra bomber in a record 23 hours 5 minutes.
- 1938 - the US Navy commissions its sixth aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise.
- 1982 - Braniff International Airways' president Howard D. Putnam announces the airline has filed for protection under bankruptcy laws, and the airline's fleet of 71 aircraft is grounded.
- 1940 - the Sikorsky VS-300, which made its first flight the previous year, makes its first untethered flight.
- 1912 - King George V of the United Kingdom approves the formation of the Royal Flying Corps.
- 1909 - Samuel Cody makes the first aeroplane flight in the UK longer than 1 mile (1.6 km) in British Army Aeroplane No. 1.
- 1908 - Charles Furnas becomes the first north american passenger in an aeroplane, piloted by Wilbur Wright. Wilbur Wright flew Charles W. Furnas for a distance of 2.5 miles in a Wright Model B.
- 1957 - a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant drops the first British Hydrogen bomb, over Christmas Island
- 1948 - Tel Aviv is attacked by the Egyptian Air Force. The Israeli Air Force retaliates by striking Arab troops near Samakh.
- 1940 - 15-16 - British bombers make their first attack on German land targets, in the Ruhr Valley
- 1930 - Ellen Church becomes the world's first flight attendant, working for Boeing Air Transport
- 1928 - Rev John Flynn founds the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia at Cloncurry, Queensland, using a de Havilland DH.50. The service takes medical services to remote parts of the Australian bush.
- 1922 - Instone Air Line commences flights between London and Brussels.
- 1918 - The first regular US airmail service commences, between New York and Washington, DC. The first flight is made by Lt Geoffrey Boyle in a Curtiss JN-4H.
- 1995 - a Royal Air Force BAe Nimrod is forced to ditch in Moray Firth
- 1992 - the 2,000th C-130 Hercules rolls off the production line.
- 1979 - a New York Airways Sikorsky S-61 tips over while taking on passengers at the Pan Am Building in New York City, killing four. The heliport is permanently closed afterward.
- 1958 - Cpt W. W. Irwin sets a new airspeed record of 1,404 mph (2,259 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter, the first record over 2,000 km/h
- 1958 - four F3H Demons and four F8U Crusaders make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic
- 1943 - 17-18 - specially modified RAF Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron make the "Dambusters" raids on the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams
- 1938 - the US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act, leading to the construction of the Essex class aircraft carriers
- 1916 - Parasite fighter experiments begin in the UK to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship.
- 1982 - American Airlines' 1 millionth passenger is flown.
- 1970 - National Airlines ends a 108-day strike by offering ground crews a 33% pay increase.
- 1953 - Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier
- 1935 - the Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky crashes near Tushino after a mid-air collision. Fifty-six people are killed, making it the worst air crash at this time.
- 1919 - Harry Hawker and Lt Cdr Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve attempt a non-stop Atlantic crossing but are forced to ditch their aircraft only 2,253 (1,400 miles) after leaving Newfoundland. London's Daily Mail newspaper awards them a prize of £5,000 for their attempt anyway
- 1949 - a JRM Mars sets a new record of 308 for the largest number of people to be carried on a single aircraft.
- 1924 - the first aerial circumnavigation of Australia is carried out, by an RAAF crew in a Fairey IIID.
- 1918 - Raoul Lufbery, commander of the 94th (Hat in the Ring) Aero Squadron and second highest scoring American ace with 17 victories, is killed in air combat.
- 1978 - McDonnell Douglas delivers its 5,000th F-4 Phantom aircraft, twenty years after the first flight of the prototype.
- 1951 - Cpt James Jabra becomes the first fighter ace to score his five victories in a jet (a F-86 Sabre) over jets (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s)
- 1941 - the Luftwaffe's largest paratroop assault sees 22,750 troops landed in Crete in Operation Merkur. The heavy losses taken mean this will also be the Luftwaffe's last such operation for the war.
- 1932 - 20-21 - Amelia Earhart, flying a Lockheed Vega, becomes the first woman to make solo flight across the North Atlantic, from Harbour Grace in Newfoundland to Derry in Northern Ireland.
- 1927 - 20-21 - Charles Lindbergh flies The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic nonstop and solo, direct from New York City to Paris, as a first solo transatlantic flight.
- 1927 - Flt Lt Roderic Carr sets out to set a new distance record, attempting to fly from England to India in a Hawker Horsely. Three days later, he will be rescued from the Persian Gulf.
- 1918 - German bombs fall on London for the last time in World War I.
- 1917 - German submarine U-36 is sunk by an RNAS flying boat
- 1956 - a B-52 Stratofortress drops the US's first air-dropped hydrogen bomb, a 3.75 MT device on Bikini Atoll
- 1949 - a Sikorsky S-52 sets a new helicopter altitude record of 21,200 ft (6,468 m).
- 1943 - Royal Air Force scatters 1st copies of The Flying Hollander
- 1947 - 1st US ballistic missile fired
- 1959 - Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general-major in the United States Air Force.
- 1962 - Robert A. Rushworth, USAF major, takes the X-15 to an altitude of 30 600 metres.
- 1969 - Thomas Stafford & Eugene Cernan pilot the Apollo 10 15 km (9.4 mi) above lunar surface
- 1976 - NASA launches space vehicle S-179
- 1992 - India launches its Agni missile
- 2006 - The collision of a Greek and a Turkish fighter jet above southeastern Aegean Sea results in the death of the Greek pilot. The accident took place as the two aircraft were involved in a mock fight.
- 1988 - Shamu One, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 painted like and named after a SeaWorld whale, begins flying for the airline.
- 1958 - the Short SC.1 VTOL aircraft makes its first hovering flight
- 1928 - Umberto Nobile commands the Italian airship Italia on an ill-fated flight over the North Pole. The airship crashes on its way back, and Roald Amundsen is killed trying to rescue survivors.
- 1923 - Belgian airline SABENA is formed, adding new European routes to SNETA's routes in Belgian Congo that it takes over.
- 1904 - First flight of the Wright Flyer II.
- 1988 - British Airways takes over British Caledonian
- 1982 - The last service by a British Airways Boeing 707, from Cairo, Egypt to London, is performed.
- 1976 - Three hijackers and seven hostages die as Filipino troops storm a hijacked Philippine Airlines Douglas DC-9.
- 1918 - Josef Kiss, Austro-Hungarian 5th highest scoring ace, is shot down in combat. He had scored 19 victories.
- 2003 - Boeing 727 tail number N844AA mysteriously disappears in Angola, along with pilot Ben Charles Padilla.
- 1986 - a prisoner in a Parisian jail escapes when his wife rescues him in a helicopter
- 1979 - an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago during take-off, killing all 269. DC-10s are grounded across the US.
- 1983 - a Learjet 55 sets a world speed record in its class of 448 mph (722 km/h) over the 5,655 mile (9,101 km) between Los Angeles and Le Bourget.
- 1972 - the United States and Soviet Union sign the SALT-1 strategic arms limitation treaty
- 1972 - Cessna builds its 100,000th aircraft, the first company in the world to achieve this figure.
- 1969 - the US Army cancels the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne production contract, worth $US 900 million.
- 1965 - Sir Geoffery de Havilland dies aged 82.
- 1941 - Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm aircraft play a key role in finding and sinking the German battleship Bismarck.
- 1915 - Oberleutnant Kästner and Lt Georg Langhoff score the first German air-to-air victory of World War I.
- 1931, Swiss professor Auguste Piccard and his assistant Kipfer take a stratosphere-balloon to 15,781 m, starting in Augsburg and landing on a glacier in Austria.
- 1927 - France's first aircraft carrier, the Bearn is commissioned
- 1997 - March 17 - May 28 - Linda Finch, pilot, aviation historian, and San Antonio, Texas businesswoman, flying a restored and specially equipped 62-year-old Lockheed Electra 10E, recreates the 1937 Amelia Earhart flight to circumnavigate the globe solo. Her attempt was successful, taking 73 days. She touched down in Oakland, California.
- 1995 - Serb forces shoot down a Mil Mi-8 carrying the Bosnian foreign minister and a USAF F-16 Fighting Falcon
- 1987 - Mathias Rust, 19 years old, a West German pilot, shocks people by landing his Cessna 172 plane in Red Square, Moscow.
- 1952 - aerial refueling is used on a combat mission for the first time, with twelve F-84 Thunderjets of the 159th Fighter Bomber Squadron being refueled by a KB-29 Superfortress on their way to Sariwon
- 1951 - Cpt C. Blair makes the first solo flight over the North Pole, in a P-51 Mustang
- 1944 - aircraft carrier USS Block Island is torpedoed and sunk near the Azores. She is the only US Navy carrier lost in the Atlantic.
- 1941 - the USAAC forms Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic to Britain.
- 1934 - Highland Airways commences the first regular airmail service within the United Kingdom, between Inverness and Kirkwall
- 2003 - The final flight of an Air France Concorde takes place.
- 1972 - three Japanese terrorists attack passengers at Tel Aviv Airport
- 1967 - A USAF KC-135 Stratotanker makes an emergency refuelling of six US Navy jets.
- 1911 - Andre Beaumont beats Roland Garros in the Paris to Rome air race, completing the 1,465 km (910 mile) course in 28 hours, 5 minutes.
- 1811 - Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, the "tailor of Ulm" (Germany) crashes in his apparatus, a copy of Degen's, into the Danube. It was presumably a workable hang glider.
