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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

Air Force One
Air Force One
Air Force One (the ATC callsign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President) has, since 1990, consisted of two specifically-configured, highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, known as the VC-25. The planes' three floors (4,000 square feet – 372 m²) include multiple modifications including the president's executive suite which includes a private dressing room, workout room, lavatory, shower, and private office. (Full article...)

Selected image

Credit: Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Jonathan Chandler, U.S. Navy
An F/A-18C Hornet, assigned to the "Golden Dragons" of Strike Fighter Squadron One Nine Two (VFA-192), launches from the flight deck of the conventionally powered aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). Kitty Hawk and embarked Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5) are currently returning to their homeport after a scheduled deployment in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility.

Did you know

...that Astro Flight, Incorporated of Marina del Rey, California created the world's first practical electric-powered radio controlled model airplane and the world's first full-scale solar-powered airplane? ...that Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre, piloting a single-engined seaplane (pictured), became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air in 1924? .. that five UH-1 Iroquois helicopters of the Experimental Military Unit were shot down by a single Viet Cong soldier armed with an AK-47 rifle?

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

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Selected biography

Sophie Blanchard
Sophie Blanchard (25 March 1778 – 6 July 1819) was a French aeronaut and the wife of ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist, and after her husband's death she continued ballooning, making more than 60 ascents. Known throughout Europe for her ballooning exploits, Blanchard entertained Napoleon Bonaparte, who promoted her to the role of "Aeronaut of the Official Festivals", replacing André-Jacques Garnerin. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1814 she performed for Louis XVIII, who named her "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration".

Ballooning was a risky business for the pioneers. Blanchard lost consciousness on a few occasions, endured freezing temperatures and almost drowned when her balloon crashed in a marsh. In 1819, she became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident when, during an exhibition in the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, she launched fireworks that ignited the gas in her balloon. Her craft crashed on the roof of a house and she fell to her death. She is commonly referred to as Madame Blanchard and is also known by many combinations of her maiden and married names, including Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Sophie Armant and Madeleine-Sophie Armant Blanchard.

Selected Aircraft

The VZ-9 Avrocar (full military designation VZ-9-AV) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War.[1] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for a more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement.[2] In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in 1961.

  • Diameter:18 ft (5.486 m)
  • Height: 3 ft 6 in (1.1 m)
  • Engines: 3 x Turbomeca Marboré Continental J69-T-9
  • Max Speed: 300 mph (482 km/h)
  • First Flight: 12 November 1959
  • Number built: 2
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

January 2

  • 2013 – The Government of Myanmar admits for the first time that Myanmar Air Force jets and attack helicopters conducted air strikes against rebel Kachin Independence Army forces in northern Myanmar on 30 December 2012, but claims that all of its other air operations in the area since late December 2012 have focused only on flying in supplies to Myanmar Army forces fighting Kachin rebels.[3]
  • 2010Danube Wings Flight 8230: In Slovakia, a package containing the explosive RDX was placed in the luggage of a passenger at Poprad-Tatry Airport by Serbian police as part of a training exercise. Due to an error, the package was not recovered and the luggage was loaded onto a Danube Wings flight to Dublin. The error was not realized until the plane had departed. The Garda Síochána were not informed until 5 January, causing a bomb alert in Dublin. The innocent passenger was arrested but later released when the Slovak Government admitted he was blameless.
  • 2008 – Asian Spirit Flight 321, an NAMC YS-11 departing from Manila, piloted by Captain Alexandro Tiglao with First Officer Dominick Mendoza as co-pilot, overshot the runway at Masbate Airport at 7:30 a. m., due to heavy tailwinds with gusts reaching 14 knots while landing on runway 21. Although none of the 47 passengers were seriously injured, the accident destroyed the aircraft’s nozzle, the plane’s right propeller and its right and nose wheel, and caused the plane’s fuel tank to leak.
  • 2004 – USA Spacecraft Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.
  • 2004 – An OH-58D Kiowa 90-0370 from 1–17 Cavalry Regiment (assigned to 1–82 Aviation Brigade) shot down near Fallujah, killing a pilot.
  • 1999 – Death of Karl-Heinz Bringer, German rocket engineer.
  • 1989 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-204, a Russian twin-engined medium-range jet airliner capable of carrying 210 passenger, first Russian fly-by-wire airliner.
  • 1972 – Death of James Butler White, DFC, RNAS, British RNAS WWI flying ace.
  • 1968 – Col. Henry Brown and Lt. Col. Joe B. Jordan became the first U.S. Air Force pilots to use an General Dynamics F-111A's emergency escape module when their aircraft, 65-5701, c/n A1-19, of the Air Force Flight Test Center crashes near Edwards AFB, California, due to a weapons gun bay fire.
  • 1967 – The contracts for the development of the Boeing SST and its engines are awarded
  • 1967 – The National Supersonic Transport program, formed by President John F. Kennedy for the purpose of subsidizing the design of a Concorde-fighting supersonic airliner, awards a contract to Boeing for its 2707 SST design. Despite 115 orders from 25 different airlines, the program would lose its funding in 1971, forcing Boeing to lay off 60,000 workers.
  • 1964 – A USAF Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 52-968, c/n 43877, of the 28th Air Transport Squadron, en route from Tachikawa Air Force Base near Tokyo, Japan, to Hickam Air Force Base, Honolulu, Hawaii with nine on board and 11 tons of cargo, disappears over the Pacific Ocean after making a fuel stop at Wake Island. Due at Hickam at 0539 hrs. EST, the Globemaster II is last heard from at 0159 hrs. EST. Fuel exhaustion would have been at 1000 hrs. EST and the aircraft is presumed down at sea. An automatic SOS signal is detected emanating from an aircraft-type radio with a constant carrier frequency of 4728 kilocycles, issuing an automatically keyed distress message, and a dozen aircraft of the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard are sent to search from Hickam and from Guam, Midway, and Johnston Island. Poor weather and limited visibility hampers search efforts. The U.S. Navy's USS Lansing also participates in the search. The eight missing Air Force crew and one U.S. Navy man escorting a body back to the U. S. are officially declared dead on 21 January. This was the first C-124 accident since May 1962.
  • 1963 – The Battle of Ap Bac in South Vietnam is the first time that Viet Cong forces stand and fight against a major South Vietnamese attack. At the outset, Viet Cong ground fire shoots down a United States Army UH-1 attack helicopter and four U. S. Army CH-21 transport helicopters as they arrive at their landing zone. South Vietnamese Air Force C-123 Provider transport planes drop about 300 South Vietnamese paratroopers later in the day.
  • 1959 – Launch of Luna 1 (E-1 series), first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta, first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon. First of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations.
  • 1954 – A new coast to coast record in the US is set by Colonel Willard W. Milliken of the Air National Guard, flying a North American F86 Sabre jet and covering 2,530 miles (4,070 km) from Los Angeles to New York City in 4 hours 8 min. (time includes stop for fuel at Offutt AFB).
  • 1953 – First flight of the Sud-Ouest Djinn, a French single-seat light prototype helicopter. The rotors were driven by compressed-air jets at the end of each blade.
  • 1953 – The first of an order of about 430 US Sabre fighters, the RAF’s first supersonic jet, arrives at RAF Abington, England.
  • 1950 – A North Star aircraft of No. 412 Sq­ron made the first Royal Canadian Air Force round-the-world flight in a flying time of 125.2 hours. The flight was carrying Hon. Lester Pearson to Commonwealth foreign ministers conference in Ceylon.
  • 1944 – (2-13) Allied aircraft systematically attack rail communications in central Italy in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Germany from supplying and reinforcing its forces fighting in southern Italy.
  • 1943 – McDonnell gets a contract to build the Navy's first jet fighter.
  • 1933 – After modifications, HMS Courageous reenters service with the Royal Navy as the world’s first aircraft carrier equipped with hydraulically controlled arresting gear.
  • 1929Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout flew a Golden Eagle 12 hours and 11 min at the Metropolitan Airport in Los Angeles, setting a new non-refueling endurance record for women.
  • 1929Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May left in an Avro Avian with another flying club member, Vic Horner, to deliver diphtheria vaccine to Fort Vermilion, Alberta, 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) north. His flight had become known across Canada as "the race against death".
  • 1914Gustav Hamel took Miss Trehawke Davis aloft to experience a loop, and she thus became the first woman in the world to do so.
  • 1903 – Birth of Pjotr Michailowitsch Stefanowski, Soviet WWII test pilot.
  • 1896 – Birth of Sir Lawrence James Wackett KBE, DFC, AFC, Australian WWI pilot and aircraft designer, widely regarded as "father of the Australian aircraft industry".
  • 1895 – Birth of Alfred Niederhoff, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1886 – Birth of Thomas Gillies Rae, Scottish WWI flying ace.
  • 1882 – Birth of Frederick Walker Baldwin, also known as Casey Baldwin, Canadian engineer, hydrofoil and aviation pioneer, first Canadian to pilot an heavier-than-air flying machine.

References

  1. ^ Yenne 2003), pp. 281–283.
  2. ^ Milberry 1979, p. 137.
  3. ^ Associated Press, "Burma Military Admits Airstrikes Against Kachin," 2 January 2013.
  4. ^ Hussain, Shaiq, and Haq Nawaz Khan, "U.S. Drone Kills Militant Commander," The Washington Post, January 4, 2012, Page A8.
  5. ^ "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
  6. ^ "02. January 2010 Compagnie Africaine d´Aviation Boeing 727–200 9Q-CAA Kinshasa-N´djili International Airport, DR Congo" (PDF). Jacdec. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  7. ^ Liz Minchin. "Five killed in skydive plane tragedy". The Age, 3 January 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2012.