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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This is the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large 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 by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

J-3 aircraft with CAP markings
J-3 aircraft with CAP markings
The Civil Air Patrol is the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force. It was created just days before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and is credited with sinking at least two German U-boats during the War. It was seen as a way to use America's civil aviation resources to aid the war effort, rather than grounding them, as was the case in the United Kingdom. Today, the Civil Air Patrol is a volunteer organization dedicated to education and national service, including people from all backgrounds and all walks of life. It performs three key missions: Emergency services (including search and rescue), aerospace education for youth and the general public, and cadet programs. The September 11, 2001 attacks demonstrated the importance of the Civil Air Patrol, as it was this organization's aircraft that flew blood to victims of the attack as well as providing the first aerial pictures of the World Trade Center site. (Full article...)

Selected image

Boeing-Stearman NS-1 Bi-plane
Boeing-Stearman NS-1 Bi-plane
Credit: U.S. Navy
Boeing-Stearman Model 75's. Taken in 1936 at NAS Pensacola during training of the first class of the Naval Aviation Cadet program. Photo includes Boone Guyton (plane in rear) who later became a test pilot for Chance-Vought (Vought Sikorsky) in 1939.

Did you know

..that an aircraft's pitot-static system allows a pilot to monitor airspeed, Mach number, altitude, and altitude trend? ...that the Ryan X-13 Vertijet aircraft landed by using a hook on its nose to hang itself on a wire? ... that before he flew the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic transatlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh's first choice of aircraft was the Ryan M-2?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Helmut Paul Emil Wick (5 August 1915 – 28 November 1940) was a German Luftwaffe ace and the fourth recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade, the Oak Leaves, was awarded by the Third Reich to recognise extreme bravery in battle or successful military leadership. It was Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Helmut Wick.

Born in Mannheim, Wick joined the Luftwaffe in 1936 and was trained as a fighter pilot. He was assigned to Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" (JG 2—2nd Fighter Wing), and saw combat in the Battles of France and Britain. Promoted to Major in October 1940, he was given the position of Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander) of JG 2—the youngest in the Luftwaffe to hold this rank and position. He was shot down in the vicinity of the Isle of Wight on 28 November 1940 and posted as missing in action, presumed dead. By then he had been credited with destroying 56 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, making him the leading German fighter pilot at the time. Flying the Messerschmitt Bf 109, he claimed all of his victories against the Western Allies.

Selected Aircraft

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 planes, the airplane outperformed both the other entries and the Air Corps' expectations. Although losing the contract due to an accident, the Air Corps was so in favor of the B-17 that they ordered 13 B-17s regardless. Evolving through numerous design stages, from B-17A to G, the Flying Fortress is considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft. From its pre-war inception, the USAAC touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a high-flying, long-ranging potent bomber capable of defending itself. With the ability to return home despite extensive battle damage, its durability, especially in belly-landings and ditchings, quickly took on mythical proportions.

The B-17 was primarily involved in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command's night-time area bombing in Operation Pointblank, which helped secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated, to a lesser extent, in the War in the Pacific.

Today in Aviation

April 15

  • 2010 – A Westland Lynx helicopter of the South Korean Navy was on a routine patrol mission when it crashed in sea near Chuja Island 14.5 km southeast of Jindo, South Jeolla Province. One occupants was killed and three others are missing.
  • 2009 – The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency cancels the operating license of airline Elbrus-Avia.
  • 2008 – Hewa Bora Airways Flight 122, a Douglas DC-9, crashes into a market near Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40 people, including three passengers.
  • 2007 – Two British Aérospatiale Puma helicopters are involved in a mid-air collision near Taji, north of Baghdad. Both aircraft crash, with two personnel killed and one seriously injured.[1]
  • 2002 – Air China Flight 129, a Boeing 767-200ER, crashes into a hill during a landing attempt at Busan, South Korea in misty conditions; of the 155 passengers and 11 crew, 38 survive.
  • 1992 – A U.S. Navy North American T-2C Buckeye crashes in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after launch from training carrier USS Forrestal, operating ~70 miles S of NAS Pensacola, Florida. Both instructor pilots eject but helicopter only retrieves Lt. Tim Fisher of VT-19, based at NAS Meridian, Mississippi, other pilot lost. This was the first training accident since the Forrestal became a training carrier on 4 February 1992.
  • 1981 – A United States Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-4E Phantom II of the 86TFW was shot down by another American Phantom and crashed near Tyndall AFB. The wingman mistook his leader for a drone.
  • 1971 – Entered Service: Hawker Siddeley AV-8 A Harrier with VMA-513 of the United States Marine Corps.
  • 1971 – Sergei Nikolayevich Anokhin, Russian engineer and former Cosmonaut (1 April 1910 - 15 April 1986), is injured in the crash of a Tupolev Tu-16 into the Aral Sea while the bomber was flying parabolas for zero-G tests of the engine of the Molniya Block L upper stage, to study why the stage was continually failing to restart in earth orbit.
  • 1969 – The EC-121 shoot-down incident occurred when a United States Navy Lockheed EC-121 M Warning Star on a reconnaissance mission was shot down by North Korean MiG-17 aircraft over the Sea of Japan. The plane crashed 90 nautical miles (167 km) off the North Korean coast and all 31 Americans on board were killed.
  • 1965 – U. S. Navy carrier aircraft strike Viet Cong positions at Black Virgin Mountain in South Vietnam.
  • 1962 – The United States Marine Corps' involvement in the Vietnam War begins when Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 362 (HMM-362), equipped with HUS-1 Seahorse transport helicopters, arrives at Soc Trang, South Vietnam, to begin Operation Shufly. It soon begins to airlift South Vietnamese troops.
  • 1960 – Twenty-four airmen escape with their lives when a KC-97G-23-BO Stratotanker, 52-0919, c/n 16612, of the 307th Air Refueling Squadron, 307th Bomb Wing, crashes and burns on take-off from Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, when the undercarriage collapses. The only casualties are two airmen who suffer leg fractures and 5 others who suffer minor cuts and burns.
  • 1958 – Two more Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers of Strategic Air Command suffer crashes.
  • 1952 – While making a maximum gross weight takeoff at ~ 0345 hrs., a Convair B-36B-10-CF Peacemaker, 44-92050, c/n 47, failed to become safely airborne and crashed off the end of a runway at Fairchild AFB. The aircraft was airborne briefly for ~ a quarter mile, when one starboard engine began backfiring and caught fire, followed by the shutdown of all six engines. The aircraft then skidded on its nose for another quarter mile, struck a ditch, and exploded. A "large heavy object (of highly classified nature)" tore through the front of the plane on impact, causing severe injuries to many crewmen. Later, amid several smaller explosions, a huge single explosion shook the ground. Seventeen men were aboard the plane; 15 were killed and two survived with major injuries. Joe Baugher states that the aircraft failed to climb out due to mis-set elevator trim which kept nose down on takeoff.
  • 1948 – Newspapers all over the world publish pictures of a Boeing B-47 using jet-assisted takeoff.
  • 1948 – Pan Am Flight 1-10, a Lockheed Constellation, crashes while on approach to Shannon Airport; of the 31 on board, only one survives.
  • 1947 – Trans-Canada Air Lines inaugurated Transatlantic Service between Montreal Dorval and Preswick with the Douglas DC-4 North Star. Flight was 8 hrs, 39 mins.
  • 1947 – BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) opens its first regular service to Canada; it is a weekly flight by a Constellation from London to Montreal.
  • 1946 – Formation of the first post-war Auxiliary Squadrons was authorized – 400 (Toronto), 401 (Montreal), 402 (Winnipeg), 418 (Edmonton), 424 (Hamilton), 439 (Montreal), and 442 (Vancouver).
  • 1945 – (Overnight) An Avro Lancaster on a night mission against Potsdam becomes the last British bomber shot down by a German night fighter during World War II.
  • 1945 – (15-16) Task Force 58 launches fighter sweeps over Kyushu, claiming 29 Japanese aircraft shot down and 51 destroyed on the ground on the first day.
  • 1945 – (15-16) The third Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 165 kamikazes. They sink the destroyer USS Pringle (DD-477) and a minesweeper and damage the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11), three destroyers, a destroyer escort, a minesweeper, and a landing craft.
  • 1944 – Second prototype Dornier Do 335 V2, Werkenummer 230002, CP+UB, suffers rear engine fire while undergoing testing at the Erprobungsstelle Rechlin central Luftwaffe test facility just outside Rechlin, Germany, written off.
  • 1943 – The first production model Boeing B-29 rolls out of the Wichita, Kan., plant.
  • 1943 – Operation Flax is put into effect, the systematic targeting by Allied fighter pilots of Luftwaffe transport aircraft bound for North Africa
  • 1943 – The first encounter of the U. S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolt with enemy fighters occurs, as 335th Fighter Squadron P-47Cs shoot down three German fighters in exchange for a loss of three P-47Cs.
  • 1943 – During a single 12-hour period, the U. S. Army Air Forces’ Eleventh Air Force flies 112 sorties against Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands, dropping 180,000 pounds (81,653 kg) of bombs on Kiska and 4,000 pounds (1,814 kg) on Attu.
  • 1941 – A German reconnaissance aircraft with a camera and exposed film of Soviet installations crashes near Rovno in the Soviet Union, but no Soviet attention to preparations for a possible German attack results.
  • 1941 – No. 404 (Coastal Fighter) Squadron was formed in England.
  • 1936 – The first production North American NA-16, designated the BT-9, makes its first flight.
  • 1935 – The Douglas TBD Devastator makes its first flight. It is the Navy’s first all-metal monoplane.
  • 1925 – The U. S. Navy begins a program of daily flights to an altitude of 10,000 ft. from the Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington, DC. The main purpose of these flights is to obtain weather data and to test upper-air sounding equipment that collects information that could be used to forecast weather.
  • 1919 – The United States Navy selects the collier USS Jupiter for conversion into its first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3).
  • 1909 – A crowd at the Centocelle Field, Rome, Italy, sees Wilbur Wright make a 10-minute flight in which he reaches an altitude of 98 feet.
  • 1892 – Theo Osterkamp, World War I and World War II German fighter pilot, was born (d. 1975). Osterkamp was one of only a few pilots to score victories in both World Wars.
  • 1875 – The scientific flight of the Montgolfiere "Zenith" up to 8,000 m ends in the death of two aeronauts and the deafness of Gaston Tissandier.

References

  1. ^ Dodd, Vikram (2007-04-16). "Two killed in Iraq midair collision". London: Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
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