2011 – The Government of Niger begins patrols by Niger Air Force aircraft over its border with Libya to avoid infiltration of Niger's territory by armed groups from Libya and the crossing of the border by mercenaries from the Sahel heading to Sabha, Libya, and to end the smuggling of military forces and resources out of Libya.[2]
2007 – UH-60L Black Hawk 06-27077 crashes in northern Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers. The military said initial indications showed the aircraft experienced a mechanical problem.[3][4][5][6]
2002 – A Twin Otter carrying 18 people, including tourists from Germany, the United States and Britain, crashed in Nepal, killing all aboard.
1999 – China Airlines Flight 642, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes on landing at Hong Kong International Airport during "Typhoon" Sam; of the 315 people on board, three die.
1997 – The crew of an Eglin Air Force Base General Dynamics F-16B Block 15L Fighting Falcon, 82-1037, of the 39th Flight Test Squadron, "ET" tailcode, ejected over the Gulf of Mexico after their jet suffered separation of engine fourth stage at speeds past Mach, about seven miles south of Destin, Florida. The airmen were rescued by the crew and passengers of Top Gun, a charter fishing boat out of Destin, who saw the crash. The airmen were members of the Eglin's Development Test Center's 39th Flight Test Squadron. The plane was returning to Eglin after flying as a chase plane in a mission with an Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.Divers located the jet in 70 feet of water a week following the accident. A barge carried the wreckage to a hangar at Eglin where investigators hoped to find clues as to what caused the crash.
1985 – British Airtours Flight 28M, a Boeing 737, aborts its takeoff from Manchester, England because of an engine fire. While 82 passengers and crew escape alive, 55 are killed, most from smoke inhalation.
1981 – Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103, a Boeing 737, disintegrates during flight and crashed near Taipei, Taiwan; severe corrosion in the fuselage structure leads to explosive decompression and disintegration at high altitude; all 110 on board are killed.
1973 – RAF McDonnell Douglas/Hawker Siddeley F-4M Phantom FGR.2, XV427, 'X', of 17 Squadron, RAF Brüggen, flies into high ground at Arfeld, Bad Berleburg, West Germany killing both crew. Aircraft had fallen out of a four ship formation during a turn and the pilot attempted to rejoin by ‘cutting a corner’ but impacted rising terrain.
1970 – Two Sikorsky HH-53 C helicopters complete a non-stop transpacific flight of 9,000 miles (14,484 km) using in-flight refueling.
1966 – Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5922, returned to flight status on 23 July 1966 after wing replacement, is delivered to the U.S. Air Force at Edwards AFB, California for Cat II testing, but on this date during one the airframe's first flights at that base, a chip detector warning light for the number three propeller illuminates, so the engine is shut down and the prop feathered. Heavy braking during extended roll-out as a result of landing with the collective lever disengaged causes brake fires in the main gear pods. Damage takes until 2 September to repair.
1965 – Ellen Church, First American airline stewardess, dies. (b. 1904).
1963 – Joe Walker in the X-15 test plane reaches altitude of 106 km (67 miles).
1951 – The aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) joins Task Force 77 off the northeast coast of Korea. Embarked aboard Essex is Fighter Squadron 172 (VF-172), equipped with F2H-2 Banshee fighters. It is the first deployment of the Banshee to a war zone.
1951 – Bell X-1D, 48-1386, suffers fire/explosion internally while being carried aloft for its first flight, jettisoned from mothership, Boeing B-29-96-BO Superfortress, 45-21800, impacting on Rogers Dry Lakebed, Edwards AFB, California.
1944 – Operation Goodwood, a series of Royal Navy air strikes by the aircraft carriers HMS Formidable, HMS Furious, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Nabob, and HMS Trumpeter against the German battleship Tirpitz at her anchorage in Norway, begins with a day strike designated Goodwood I, which is foiled by heavy cloud cover over the target area. An evening strike, Goodwood II, also is unsuccessful, and Nabob is so badly damaged by a torpedo from the German submarine U-354 that she never again sees action.
1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act becomes effective in the United States, coordinating all non-military aviation under the Civil Aeronautics Authority.
1932 – Gerald P. Carr, American astronaut was born. Col. Carr was the commander of Skylab 4, launched November 16, 1973, and concluded February 8, 1974. This was the longest manned flight (84 days, 1 h, 15 min) in the history of manned space exploration to that date.
1927 – A KLM Fokker F. VIII crashes near Sevenoaks, Kent due to structural failure of the tailfin, killing one of 11 on board.
1922 – First flight of the Vickers Victoria (serial no. J6869), a military transport, taking off from Brooklands, England with Stan Cockerell at the controls.
1918 – Lieutenant Frigyes Hefty of the Austro-Hungarian Air Corps successfully parachutes from his burning fighter after a dogfight with Italian aircraft. He is the first person to survive a combat parachute jump.
1914 – An Avro 504 on patrol over Belgium is shot down by German rifle fire, the first Royal Flying Corps aircraft destroyed in action.
1914 – An early attempt to get a Lewis gun into action in air-to-air combat fails when a Royal Flying Corps Farman armed with one scrambles to intercept a German Albatros and takes 30 min to climb to 1,000 feet (305 m) because of the gun’s weight. On landing, the pilot is ordered to remove the Lewis gun and carry a rifle on future missions.
1909 – The first great aviation meeting in Bétheny, France, opens as 23 European airplanes make 87 flights during one week. The meeting will have a strong influence on the technical and military aspects of flight.
