2008 – An Iraqi military Mil Mi-17 helicopter is shot down during heavy fighting in northern Basra.[1]
2007 – The last Airbus A300 leaves the Airbus assembly line.
2004 – Nasa's X-43 pilotless plane breaks world speed record for an atmospheric engine by briefly flying at 7,700 km (4,800 mi) per hour (seven times the speed of sound)
2003 – OH-58D Kiowa 95-0024 from C Troop, 2–17th Cavalry Regiment crashes in Iraq, pilots survive.
1999 – 1999 F-117A shoot-down: A USAF Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, on a bombing mission over Serbia, was shot down by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia unit using a SA-3 Goa. The pilot ejected and the F-117A crashed in hostile territory.
1997 – The Royal Thai Navy commissions its first aircraft carrier, HTMS Chakri Naruebet.
1990 – An Angolan Government CASA C-212 Aviocar 300 is shot down near Kuito, Angola by UNITA forces, killing all 25 on board.
1990 – An Uzbek Civil Aviation Administration Ilyushin IL-76D (CCCP-78781) stalls on final and crashes before reaching Kabul, Afghanistan. All 11 aboard are killed.
1984 – British Airways inaugurates a Concorde service from London to Miami twice weekly. The service operates through Washington-Dulles, necessitating a 50-minute stopover. The overall trip lasts 6 hours 35 min, a saving approximately 2.5 hours over the direct flight by subsonic airliners. The round-trip fare is quoted a £2,509.
1978 – A USN Grumman F-14A-70-GR Tomcat, BuNo 158995, 'NK 106', of VF-1, crashes and catapults across scrub grass to come to rest against a concrete highway divider on CA-163, the Cabrillo Freeway, on approach to NAS Miramar, San Diego, California, exploding in flames. Both crew members eject seconds before impact; one fatality, no civilian deaths.
1977 – In the Tenerife airport disaster, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, both Boeing 747s, collide on the runway in Los Rodeos Airport; 583 of 644 people on board both aircraft are killed in the worst accident in the history of commercial aviation.
1970 – Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.
1969 – Mariner 7, one of two robotic probes sent to inspect Mars’ atmosphere and ice caps, launches.
1968 – While on a routine training flight out of Chkalovsky Air Base, Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin (Seregin) die in a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI, c/n 612739, callsign 625, crash near the town of Kirzhach. Gagarin and Seryogin were buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square. It is not certain what caused the crash, but a 1986 inquest suggests that the turbulence from a Su-11 'Fishpot-C' interceptor using its afterburners may have caused Gagarin's plane to go out of control. Russian documents declassified in March 2003 showed that the KGB had conducted their own investigation of the accident, in addition to one government and two military investigations. The KGB's report dismissed various conspiracy theories, instead indicating that the actions of air base personnel contributed to the crash. The report states that an air traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information, and that when Gagarin flew, conditions had deteriorated significantly. Ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. His planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded that Gagarin's aircraft entered a spin, either due to a bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the out-of-date weather report, the crew believed their altitude to be higher than it actually was, and could not properly react to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin.
1967 – A Douglas A-4 Skyhawk of VA-72 out of NAS Cecil Field, Florida, crashes into a wooded area W of Lake City, Florida after pilot Lt. Cmdr. Robert W. McKay, 34, ejects from the crippled jet. "He suffered no apparent injuries", a Navy spokesman said. "He was picked up by the Highway Patrol and will be returned to Cecil Field on a Navy helicopter."
1963 – North American T-28A-NI Trojan, 52-1242, c/n 189-57, converted to first prototype RA-28 (a proposed turboprop combat version for use in SE Asia), later redesignated North American YAT-28E. To Air Force Special Evaluation Center at Eglin AFB, Florida, for tests. Deficiency in tailfin area (tail unit separated in flight) led to its entering a flat spin and crashing whilst on its 14th test flight, killing North American Aviation pilot George Hoskins when he is unable to bail out due to a jammed canopy.
1962 – A Cubana de Aviacion Ilyushin IL-14 (CU-T819) crashes into the sea about a mile from Santiago, Cuba, killing all 22 aboard.
1958 – A United States Air Force Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 52-0981, collides in midair with a USAF Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar, 49-0195, over Bridgeport, Texas, United States, killing all 15 on the Globemaster and all three on the Flying Boxcar.
1954 – USAF Capt. Berry H. Young, 9th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, lands his Convair B-36H Peacemaker safely at Carswell AFB, Texas, with all three reciprocating engines on the starboard wing inoperative, the outboard jets completely disabled, and the landing flaps inoperative. These problems are further compounded when two engines windmill, without cockpit control, and the landing gear has to be lowered by emergency procedures. This incident becomes known as the "Miracle Landing". In acknowledgement of this feat, the entire crew is awarded the Carswell Crew of the Month Award, and later receives a personal commendation from General Curtis E. LeMay, Commander-In-Chief, Strategic Air Command.
1951 – In the 1951 Ringway Dakota accident, a Douglas C-47 A-75-DL Dakota 3 cargo aircraft operated by Air Transport Charter and en route to Nutts Corner Airport, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, shortly after take-off following the aircraft's failure to gain height, killing two of the three crew and two of the three passengers.
1946 – An air agreement is signed by France and the US giving Air France the right to serve the cities of Boston, New York, Washington, D. C., and Chicago. Air France has a fleet of 375 aircraft as of December 31, 2004. It has over 1,800 daily flights. Between 2003 and 2004, 43,7 million passengers flew on flights operated by Air France to 189 destinations in 84 countries.
1945 – In support of the upcoming U. S. invasion of Okinawa, Twentieth Air Force B-29 s strike airfields and an aircraft factory on Kyushu and lay naval mines in Shimonoseki Strait.
1945 – The final V-2 missile to hit England falls in Kent.
1944 – The Arctic convoy JW 58 departs Loch Ewe, Scotland, bound for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union. The British aircraft carriers HMS Activity and HMS Tracker escort JW 58 and the return convoy RA 58, which reaches Loch Ewe on April 14. During their cruise, their aircraft sink or contribute to sinking two German submarines, attack three more, and shoot down six German aircraft without the loss of a merchant ship.
1943 – The British escort aircraft carrier HMS Dasher suffers a massive accidental internal explosion and sinks off the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379. There are 149 survivors.
1936 – First flight of the Fokker D.XXI fighter, a low-wing monoplane with a steel tube fuselage covered in large part by fabric, designed for use by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force.
1927 – Young American airmail pilot Charles A. Lindbergh registers his entry in the Raymond Orteig challenge for the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo. The challenge and a $25,000 prize, has been issued in 1920, but no one has so far been successful in making the flight.
1918 – Attacked by German planes while flying reconnaissance, bomber pilot Lt. Alan McLeod of 2 Squadron RFC is strafed from below. Three bullets strike him and others puncture his fuel tank, setting his plane on fire. Lt McLeod climbs onto the lower left wing and steers the plane to a crash landing between the front lines. He pulls his gunner out of the wreck into a fox hole, from which they are rescued. Lt. Alan A. McLeod was awarded the Victoria Cross for action this day.
1907 – Romanian Trajan Vuia begins tests of his airplane, newly fitted with steering surfaces. He makes a short flight of 33 feet in Paris, France.
