Portal:Aviation
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The Aviation Portal
Aviation, or air transport, refers to the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, parachutes, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as balloons and airships. Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal; then a largest step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized with the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world.
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The Wright Flyer was the first powered aircraft designed and built by the Wright Brothers in 1903. It is generally considered to be the first successful powered, piloted aircraft.
In this photograph of the first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright is at the controls, lying prone on the lower wing with hips in the cradle that operated the wing warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright running alongside, has just released his hold to balance the machine.
Did you know
...that in 1929 the Graf Zeppelin completed a circumnavigation of the globe in 21 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes?
...that the BAE Systems HERTI is the first and only fully autonomous UAV to have been certificated by the United Kingdom?
... that to open the swing door on the General Aircraft Hamilcar glider and allow vehicles to emerge, pilots had to climb out of the glider's cockpit and slide down 15 feet of fuselage?
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[[File:|right|250px|The two YC-130 prototypes; the blunt nose was replaced with radar on later production models.]] The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop cargo aircraft and the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over 40 models and variants of the Hercules serve with more than 50 nations. On December 2006 the C-130 was the third aircraft (after the English Electric Canberra in May 2001 and the B-52 Stratofortress in January 2005) to mark 50 years of continuous use with its original primary customer (in this case the United States Air Force).
Capable of short takeoffs and landings from unprepared runways, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in a variety of other roles, including as a gunship, and for airborne assault, search and rescue, scientific research support, weather reconnaissance, aerial refuelling and aerial firefighting. The Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. During more than 50 years of service the family has participated in military, civilian and humanitarian aid operations.
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Born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, Whittle left Leamington College in 1923 to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. A requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, in which he described what is today referred to as a motorjet.
Whittle and Hans von Ohain met after the war and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas. Ohain eventually convinced him that his work was independent and after that point the two became good friends.
In the news
- March 20: Flydubai plane crash leaves 62 dead
- December 5: German MPs vote for action against IS in Syria
- December 4: UK begins airstrikes against IS in Syria
- December 2: Investigators blame pilot error for AirAsia crash into Java Sea
- December 1: UK Prime Minister David Cameron calls for British air strikes against IS in Syria
- November 27: Navigator of downed Russian jet found alive in Syria
- November 26: New Polish government takes down findings on Russian air disaster
- November 25: Pakistani female fighter pilot Marium Mukhtiar dies in jet crash
- September 10: Investigators blame pilot error for deadly jet crash near Boston
- August 23: Airshow collision kills one in Dittingen, Switzerland
Today in Aviation
- 2011 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth at the end of STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program.
- 2003 – Members of the 101st Airborne, aided by a Special Forces Task Force 20, OH-58 Kiowa helicopters and USAF A-10 Warthogs, engage a home in Mosul, Iraq, eventually killing Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay.
- 1992 – Two soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado, manage to avoid being killed when their U.S. Army McDonnell-Douglas AH-64 Apache crashes into the side of the north peak of 12,300-foot Almagre Mountain, known as "Mount Baldy", south of Pikes Peak. Chief Warrant Officers Douglas Mohr and David Reaves are on a routine training mission when their attack helicopter impacts several hundred feet below the crest in steep, rocky terrain. Mohr, 29, of Park City, Montana, suffers a concussion, broken arm and abrasions, and is listed in stable condition at Evans U.S. Army Community Hospital. Reaves, 32, of Hempstead, Texas, suffers small cuts and is expected to be released from hospital on 23 July. Both are from C Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Aviation Brigade. Just before the crash, "The Air Field heard them call for may day", said Sgt. 1st Class Jack Loudermilk, a post spokesman. Fuel on the Apache ignited shortly after impact, burning a 30-square-yard area, but didn't spread because the area was mostly rock. How Reaves and Mohr escaped before the fire was unknown.
- 1989 – Tony Aliengena (4th grade) becomes the youngest pilot to fly a plane around the world.
- 1984 – First flight of the PZL M28 (An-28)
- 1983 – Dick Smith achieves the first solo circumnavigation of the globe in a helicopter. Smith makes the 56,742 km (35,258 mile) journey in stages using a Bell Jetranger III named Australian Explorer.
- 1977 – The Egyptian Air Force makes a full-scale attack on a major Libyan Air Force base at El Adem, reportedly killing three Soviet military advisers.
- 1974 – The US Navy and Marine Corps evacuate 500 people from Cyprus, away from the conflict erupting between Greece and Turkey on the island
- 1973 – Pan Am Flight 816, a Boeing 707, crashes shortly after takeoff from Faa'a's airport Tahiti, French Polynesia, killing 77 out of 78 on board.
- 1972 – American aircraft operating over Vietnam first note the slow-moving, black “Fat Black” surface-to-air missile.
- 1962 – Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301, a Bristol Britannia, crashes during an attempted "go-around" following a three-engined approach at Honolulu International Airport, killing 27 of 40 on board.
- 1962 – Sud Ouest Vautour IIA, c/n 28, first flown 2 January 1958, delivered to the Armée de l'Air (AdA), 18 March 1958. Sold to the Israeli Air Force, 21 March 1958 as 23 and 123. Used as the testbed for the Shafrir 1 missile. Destroyed 22 July 1962 when the missile blows up on the ground while mounted on the aircraft.
- 1959 – Entered service: Antonov An-10 with Aeroflot.
- 1959 – Entered service: Sud-Aviation Caravelle with Air France.
- 1955 – First flight of the Republic XF-84H “Thunderscreech”
- 1954 – An Air Cathay Douglas DC-4 is shot down near Hainan Island
- 1950 – AD Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs from the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge (CV-45) strike targets near Haeju and Inchon, Korea
- 1944 – The last of 5,936 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers is completed.
- 1943 – The first of three modified Lancasters in Trans Canada Airlines markings began Trans-Atlantic Service. By the end of 1944 they were making three round trips per week between Canada and the UK and had carried over 1,000,000 pounds of mail and 2000 passengers.
- 1943 – 46 U. S. bombers attack a Japanese convoy in Bougainville Strait, sinking the seaplane carrier Nisshin.
- 1943 – An Avro Lancaster bomber converted for use as a transport aircraft inaugurates the Canadian Government’s Trans Atlantic Air Service, operated by Trans-Canada Air Lines. It sets a non-stop speed record for a flight from Dorval Airport, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Prestwick, Scotland, of 12 hours 26 minutes.
- 1942 – The first P-38 F Lightning fighters of the U. S. Army Air Forces’ 14th Fighter Group depart Presque Isle, Maine, for the United Kingdom via Iceland. They become the first fighters to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1941 – The first EAC U-boat is attacked by Canso of No. 116 Squadron. The attack was contested due to lack of evidence.
- 1940 – First BCATP pupils report to No. 1 SFTS at Camp Borden for service flying training.
- 1933 – One-eyed pilot Wiley Post lands after completing the first solo flight around the world. Post pioneers the early development of a pressure suit and proves the value of navigating instruments, especially the automatic pilot.
- 1931 – July 22-September 1 – Sir Alan Cobham and crew make a 19,800 km (12,300-mile) return flight between England and the Belgian Congo in a Short Valletta.
- 1929 – Lufthansa uses a catapult to launch a Heinkel He 12 mail plane from the passenger liner Bremen, 400 km (249 miles) out of New York, speeding the mail on its way before the ship reached port.
- 1926 – Viking EY is being landed at Kashabowie Lake, Ontario, by F/O AL Morfee when a tip float digs in and the hull breaks in two.
- 1920 – Donald W. Douglas and Davis R. Davis found the Davis-Douglas Company in Los Angeles, California.
- 1918 – Indra Lal Roy, India’s first “flying ace”, is killed at the age of 20. Born in Calcutta, Lal Roy attended high school in London, where he enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps (later known as the Royal Air Force) during World War I. After scoring 10 kills in action, he was shot down over northeastern France by a German Fokker. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
- 1914 – The Austro-Hungarian Navy battleships Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, Radetzky, and SMS Zrínyi each transport one flying boat from Pola to the Gulf of Cattaro. The following day they carry out a reconnaissance of the border with Montenegro. These are the first operational flights by naval aircraft.
- 1914 – Britain’s first airplane passenger service is launched. The short-lived service flies from Leeds to Bradford and back, on half-hour intervals.
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