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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747

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 craft 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. 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

Ben Gurion International Airport is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, with about 10.2 million passengers passing through it in 2007. It was known as Wilhelma Airport when it was first founded by the British Mandate of Palestine. It was known as Lod Airport from 1948 until 1973, when the name was changed to honor Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

The airport is located near the city of Lod, 15 km (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv. It is operated by the Israel Airports Authority, a government-owned corporation that manages all public airports and border crossings in Israel. Ben Gurion Airport is on Highway 1, the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, accessible by car or public bus.

Ben Gurion Airport is the hub of El Al, Israir Airlines, Arkia Israel Airlines, and Sun d'Or International Airlines. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a focus city of the now-defunct Tower Air. Today, Terminal 3 is used for international flights, and Terminal 1 is used for domestic flights. The airport has three runways and is used by commercial, private, and military aircraft.

Ben Gurion Airport is considered to be among the five best airports in the Middle East due to its passenger experience and its high level of security. Security forces such as Israel Police officers, IDF and Israel Border Police soldiers are complemented by airport security guards who operate both in uniform and undercover. The airport has been the target of several terrorist attacks, but no attempt to hijack a plane departing from Ben Gurion airport has succeeded. (Full article...)

Selected image

Schlieren photography (from the German word for "streaks") allows the visualization of density changes, and therefore shock waves, in fluid flow. Schlieren techniques have been used for decades in laboratory wind tunnels to visualize supersonic flow about model aircraft, but not full scale aircraft until recently. Dr. Leonard Weinstein of NASA Langley Research Center developed the first Schlieren camera, which he calls SAF (Schlieren for Aircraft in Flight), that can photograph the shock waves of a full sized aircraft in flight. He successfully took a picture which clearly shows the shock waves about a T-38 Talon aircraft on December 13, 1993 at Wallops Island, MD. The camera was then brought to the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center because of the high number of supersonic flights there.

Did you know

...that after the Red Baron, French ace René Fonck had the most confirmed World War I aerial victories? ...that Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was only twenty-eight years old when he helped found Pan American World Airways?

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Selected biography

Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), also nicknamed "The Blond Knight of Germany" by friends and "The Black Devil" by his enemies, was a German fighter pilot and still is the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial combat. He scored 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions and engaging in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe in World War II. During the course of his career Hartmann was forced to crash land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.[1]

Hartmann, a pre-war glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe in 1940 and completed his fighter pilot training in 1942. He was posted to Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) on the Eastern front and was fortunate to be placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffe's most experienced fighter pilots. Under their guidance Hartmann steadily developed his tactics which would earn him the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 25 August 1944 for claiming 301 aerial victories.

He scored his 352nd and last aerial victory on 8 May 1945. He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to United States Army forces and were turned over to the Red Army. Convicted of false "War Crimes" and sentenced to 25 years of hard labour, Hartmann would spend 10 years in various Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955. In 1956, Hartmann joined the newly established West German Luftwaffe and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen". Hartmann resigned early from the Bundeswehr in 1970, largely due to his opposition of the F-104 Starfighter deployment in the Bundesluftwaffe and the resulting clashes with his superiors over this issue. Erich Hartmann died in 1993.

Selected Aircraft

[[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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Today in Aviation

June 8

  • 2009 – An Indonesian Army locally-built MBB Bo 105 crashes while flying in bad weather near to Situhaing village on West Java, killing all five occupants.
  • 2008 – Deceased: Gene Damschroder, 86, American politician, WWII pilot, plane crash.
  • 2007 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-117 at 23:38:04 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 13A: S3/S4 Truss, Solar Arrays, crew rotation.
  • 1992 – GP Express Airlines Flight 861, from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia to Anniston Metropolitan Airport in Anniston, Alabama, crashed while attempting to land. The Beechcraft Model 99 had four passengers and a crew of two on board. There were three survivors. Two passengers and the captain received fatal injuries.
  • 1991 – The “Herc” LAPES exercise was held at Mountain View.
  • 1989 – A Soviet Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 suffers a bird strike during a display at the Paris Air Show. Pilot Anatoli Kvochur manages to prevent the plane from injuring anyone, and saves himself by ejecting at only 400 feet.
  • 1988 – Nippon Airways announces that painting eyeballs on Jets cut bird collisions by 20%.
  • 1982 – Argentine bombers destroy the British landing ship Sir Galahad and badly damage the landing ship Sir Tristram at Fitzroy on East Falkland Island, killing 51 men, 48 of them aboard Sir Galahad.
  • 1982 – VASP Flight 168, a Boeing 727, crashes into a hillside in Brazil, killing all 137 on board.
  • 1978 – Wardair became the first operator of the de Havilland Dash 7. The aircraft C-GXVF was named Don Braun after a famous Canadian bush pilot.
  • 1978 – During ammunition certification tests by the Joint Test Force, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, Major (later Major General) Francis C. "Rusty" Gideon Jr. in Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, 73-1669, c/n A10-0006, call sign Paco 40, makes fourth firing pass of five, 100 rounds per pass, but experiences secondary gun gas ignition in front of the GAU-8 muzzle, causing oxygen starvation of engines necessitating emergency shut-down. Before he can relight the cooling engines, he runs out of altitude and ejects in Escapac ejection seat at 2,000 feet AGL, suffering severe injuries including a broken neck. Aircraft impacts on desert floor, whole sequence filmed from Northrop T-38 Talon chase plane. Pilot is treated at a Palmdale, California hospital, and returns to the A-10 cockpit six months later. Joe Baugher cites crash date of 8 August 1977. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD3Y_Qcqulw&NR=1&feature=fvwp
  • 1967 – In the USS Liberty Incident, Israeli Air Force aircraft join Israeli Navy torpedo boats in attacking the U. S. Navy technical research ship USS Liberty (AGTR-5) in the Mediterranean Sea north of the Sinai Peninsula.
  • 1966 – Second North American B-70A-2-NA Valkyrie prototype, 62-0207, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, following a mid-air collision with a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, NASA 813, previously 013, while the aircraft were in close formation for a photo shoot at the behest of General Electric. The pilot of the F-104N, Dr. Joseph A. Walker, late of the X-15 program, and Maj. Carl Cross, the copilot of the XB-70, are killed.
  • 1963 – The National Museum of Naval Aviation opens at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida.
  • 1960 – During a ground test run at Edwards AFB, California, the XLR-99 rocket engine of North American X-15-3, 56-6672, exploded, destroying the aircraft aft of the wing, and throwing the forward fuselage with pilot Scott Crossfield in it 30 feet forward. Fortunately, Crossfield was not injured. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXpEPZ6ZZIs
  • 1959 – The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
  • 1959 – First flight of the Wassmer WA-40
  • 1959 – First flight of the North American X-15 (unpowered) from a B-52 at 11,500 m.
  • 1957 – Royal Canadian Air Force Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.5, 18562, of No. 433 Squadron, North Bay, separated both wings during performance at London, Ontario, air show sustaining two fatalities. F/O's C.A. Sheffield and Les Sparrow died in the crash. Post crash film analysis suggested that the aircraft pulled +7 g's while configured for a maximum of +4.74 g.
  • 1951 – Eight USAF Republic F-84E Thunderjets of the 560th Fighter-Day Squadron, 12th Fighter Escort Group, Bergstrom AFB, Texas crash near Richmond, Indiana. Mission escorting B-36 Peacemaker bombers from Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, to Selfridge AFB, Michigan. Worst mass air crash to date. Eight planes failed due to internal engine icing unknown to happen until this disaster. They were serials 50-1120, -1130, -1133, and -1209, and 51-0479, -0506, and -0679. Three pilots were killed. Classified Top Secret at time of incident out of fear that it was sabotage.
  • 1948 – Air India commences a regular Bombay-London service by Lockheed Constellation.
  • 1946 – A celebration of the Allied victory in World War II is held in London. It includes a flypast of 300 British aircraft over the city that stretches for 60 miles (97 km), led by a Hawker Hurricane that had fought in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
  • 1945 – Carrier aircraft of Task Group 38.4 strike Kyushu. Aircraft bombing Kanoya Air Field employ variable time fuzes on 260-pound (118-kg) bombs for the first time as a means of attacking revetted Japanese aircraft.
  • 1944 – Consolidated C-87-CF Liberator Express, 41-24006, c/n 801, crashes during attempted belly landing at Station 4, Jorhat, India, this date. Pilot was Lawrence C. Ackerson.
  • 1944 – F/O K. O. Moore and crew of a Consolidated Liberator of No. 224 Squadron (RAF) sank two German submarines (U-629 and U-373) in 22 min off the French island of Ushant (Ouessant).
  • 1944 – Ten U. S. Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchells escorted by P-38 Lightnings attack a force of six Japanese destroyers northwest of Manokwari, New Guinea, sinking one and damaging three.
  • 1944 – Off Normandy, a German Heinkel He 177 badly damages the U. S. Navy destroyer USS Meredith (DD-726), which breaks in half and sinks the next day.
  • 1942 – Goodyear prototype G-Class Blimp, G-1, purchased 23 September 1935, in constant use until it is lost in a mid-air collision on this date with another blimp, the L-2. The two blimps were conducting experimental visual and photographic observations during a night flight off Manasquan, New Jersey. Although twelve people were killed in the crash (one survivor),[132] the G-1 had demonstrated her capabilities as a trainer and utility blimp. As the Navy needed additional training airships during the World War II war time build up, a contract was awarded on December 24, 1942 for seven more G-class airships. These were assigned the designation Goodyear ZNN-G. (Z = lighter-than-air; N = non-rigid; N = trainer; G = type/class). The envelope size of these new G-class blimps was increased over that of the G-1 by 13,700 cubic feet (390 m3).
  • 1941 – June 8-July 8 – The British invades Syria – Air combat between British and French aircraft.
  • 1941 – Fourth prototype Heinkel He 177A Greif, V4, fails to pull out of a moderate dive during dive trials,[19] crashes into the Baltic, off Ribnitz. It was later discovered that the accident had resulted from the malfunctioning of an airscrew pitch control mechanism.
  • 1940 – The German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau surprise HMS Glorious with no aircraft aloft or on her flight deck during her voyage from Norway to the United Kingdom and sink her and her two escorting destroyers with gunfire. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force lose 1,472 men aboard Glorious and the two destroyers; only 43 men survive.
  • 1940 – No. 1 (F) Squadron, augmented by personnel of No. 112 (F) “City of Montreal” Squadron, sailed from Halifax, NS for Liverpool, England.
  • 1928 – First US-to-Australia flight lands (Sir Charles Kingford).
  • 1921 – The US Army carries out the first experiments in cabin pressurization, using a de Havilland DH.4.
  • 1920 – Lieutenant John Wilson makes a world record parachute jump from 19,861 feet in San Antonio, Texas.
  • 1919 – Biplane bomber, Cierva BCD3 (Barcala-Cierva-Diaz), designed by Juan de la Cierva, reminiscent of the German Gotha, powered by a trio of 220 hp Hispano-Suiza engines, called El Cangrejo (The Crab), is destroyed on a test flight when it stalls close to the ground. Pilot, Capt. Julio Rios Argiieso (also reported as Angueso), is shaken up but survives. Project is abandoned.
  • 1919 – Royal Air Force Fairey IIIC seaplanes from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier/seaplane carrier HMS Pegasus bomb four Bolshevik naval vessels in North Russia, with little effect.
  • 1918 – First prototype Handley Page V/1500 bomber, E4104, powered by tandem pairs of Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, first flown on 22 May 1918, crashes on thirteenth flight while piloted by Capt. Vernon E. G. Busby when all four engines quit at 1,000 feet altitude (300 m), possibly due to fuel starvation. Pilot attempts turn back to airfield but stalls and spins in. Four riding in the forward fuselage are killed on impact, two in rear rescued before airframe is consumed by fire, but one dies later of injuries. As aircraft was destroyed by post-crash fire, no determination could be made of cause of accident. Although two V/1500s of 166 Squadron are ready for a mission on 8 November 1918, bad weather cancels raid, and with the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 the type never flies operationally.
  • 1908 – Alliott Vernon Roe flies his first aircraft at Brooklands, Surrey.
  • 1905 – Gabriel Voisin succeeds in lifting off from the river Seine in his box-kite glider when towed by a motorboat.

References

  1. ^ Toliver & Constable 1986, p. 12.
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