Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 14

May 14

• 2013 – The world's first catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from an aircraft carrier takes place when the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) launches a Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator unmanned combat air vehicle in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia. The X-47B makes two low passes as if preparing to land on the carrier, then flies to a landing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, about an hour later.

• 2012 – Agni Air Dornier 228 crash: After aborting its landing at Jomsom Airport at Jomsom, Nepal, Agni Air Flight CHT, the Dornier 228 AG-CHT, strikes a hillside with its wing while attempting a go-around and crashes, killing 15 of the 21 people on board and injuring all six survivors.

• 2010 – Death of Stelio Frati, Italian mechanical engineer and aeroplane designer. He graduated from the University of Milan as a Mechanical Engineer in 1943, and after teaching aircraft design became a freelance aircraft designer, being responsible for many well known aircraft designs. Best known designs are the Falco F8L and the Aermacchi SF.260.

• 2010 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-132 at 10:21:22 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF4: Mini-Research Module 1.

• 2009 – A Royal Air Force BAE Systems Harrier GR9 (ZG478/68) from No. 1 Squadron based at RAF Cottesmore makes a heavy landing at Kandahar International Airport, Afghanistan due to an engine failure forcing the pilot to successfully eject from the aircraft.

• 2006 – AH-6M Little Bird (OH-6 Cayuse) from 1–160th SOAR shot down during combat operations in Yusufiyah, southwest of Baghdad, killing the two crewmen.

• 2005 – A Eurocopter AS350 helicopter piloted by Eurocopter test pilot Didier Delsalle touched down on the top of Mt. Everest, at 8,850 m (29,035 feet). This record has been confirmed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

• 2005 – The former USS America (CV-66), a decommissioned super carrier of the United States Navy, is deliberately sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after four weeks of live-fire exercises. She is the largest ship ever to be disposed of as a target in a military exercise.

• 1997 – Star Alliance is founded. The world's first and largest airline alliance, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany (near Frankfurt Airport) the five founders were the world's leading airlines Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International and United Airlines.

• 1985 – Second of three Northrop F-20 Tigersharks, 82-0063, c/n GG1002, N3986B, during stopover at Goose Bay, Labrador, en route to the Paris Air Show, crashes at 1350 hrs. Atlantic Daylight Time at the end of sixth practice flight of the day, in circumstances much like the loss of the first prototype on 10 October 1984. Hesitating in the inverted position at the top of a series of 9G vertical rolls, airframe dove erratically into the ground, coming down in an upright, wings-level, nose-up attitude on snow-covered ground, killing Northrop test pilot Dave Barnes. Again, G-induced pilot unconsciousness was suspected, investigation finding no sign of airframe failure.

• 1979 – Progress 6 (Soviet unmanned cargo spacecraft) docks with Salyut 6.

• 1977 – In the 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash, a Boeing 707 crashes near Lusaka, Zambia, due to structural failure, killing all 6 on board.

• 1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

• 1972 – Two American Bell UH-1 attack helicopters using TOW missiles blunt a major North Vietnamese attack near Kontum, South Vietnam.

• 1968 – Death of Husband Edward Kimmel, four-star admiral in the United States Navy. He served as Commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of the attack, he was removed from office and was reduced to his permanent two-star rank of rear admiral.

• 1964 – Birth of James McNeal "Vegas" Kelly, NASA Astronaut.

• 1959 – Convair YB/RB-58A-10-CF Hustler, 58-1012, c/n 19, of the 43rd Bomb Wing, destroyed by fire at the Convair plant, Carswell AFB, Texas. Fuel leak on the ramp during refuelling followed by accidental ignition kills two Convair ground support personnel.

• 1957 – Birth of William George "Borneo" Gregory, former NASA astronaut.

• 1957 – A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126310 of VF-871, strikes a hilltop during ground-attack exercises near Terence Bay, Nova Scotia, killing pilot SubLt. Conrad Bissett.

• 1952 – Birth of Donald Ray McMonagle, USAF test pilot & Manager, Launch Integration at the Kennedy Space Center.

• 1945 – A kamikaze crashes on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), knocking her out of action for the rest of World War II.

• 1945 – The final Arctic convoy of World War II, Convoy JW 67, departs Scapa Flow for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union escorted by the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen. It returns to the United Kingdom later in the month as Convoy RA 67. Queen's presence as an escort is deemed necessary in case any German submarine commanders opt to ignore Germany's surrender and attack the convoy.

• 1941 – During testing, the Grumman XP-50 prototype (39-2517) is lost, falling victim to a turbo-supercharger explosion that destroyed the aircraft. The test pilot Bob Hall bailed out while the XP-50 plunged into Smithtown Bay in Long Island Sound.

• 1944 – The German Luftwaffe employs circling torpedoes in a predawn attack on Allied ships at Naples, Italy, but scores no hits.

• 1941 – German aircraft begin daily bombing of Crete to soften it up for the upcoming German airborne assault on the island.

• 1941 – The RAF receives authorization to attack German aircraft on Vichy French airfields in Syria. British fighters disable two Heinkel He 111s on the ground at Palmyra, Syria.

• 1940 – The Allies lose 110 aircraft – 70 British Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims and forty French planes – on one day in a disastrous attempt to bomb bridges over the River Meuse.

• 1940 – Fifty-three German Heinkel He.111 bombers drop nearly 100 tons of bombs on Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The attack kills nearly 1,000 people, destroys 20,000 buildings, and leaves 78,000 people homeless.

• 1940 – The Yermolayev Yer-2, a long-range Soviet medium bomber, has its first flight.

• 1939 – Following first flight of the prototype Short S.29 Stirling four-engine bomber, L7600, out of Rochester, Kent, one of the brakes locks, causing it to slew off the runway and collapse the undercarriage, airframe damaged beyond repair.

• 1938 – First prototype Focke-Wulf Fw 187 V1, D-AANA, crashes at Bremen, Germany, when test pilot Paul Bauer, having completed test series, makes high-speed run across airfield, pulls up too sharply, stalls, spins in next to the control tower.

• 1936 – First flight of the Miles Whitney Straight M.11, two-seater light aircraft with a dual-control, 'side-by-side' cockpit configuration.

• 1923 – Air Union Farman F.60 Goliath crashes near Monsures, Somme, France due to the structural failure of a wing, killing all 6 on board.

• 1917 – Flight Sub-Lt Robert Leckie and crew of Curtiss H-12 flying boat shot down Zeppelin L-22.

• 1915 – The U.S. Navy contracts with the Connecticut Aircraft Company for its first airship.

• 1912 – Birth of Giorgio Graffer, Italian Alpinist and WWII pilot.

• 1909 – Pilot S.F.Cody makes first flight of more than a mile in Britain using British Army Aeroplane No 1, flying from Laffan's Plain to Danger Hill in Hampshire at average height of 30 ft (9.1 m). Later in the afternoon, the Prince of Wales asks Cody to repeat the flight, but in so doing, Cody is forced to turn quickly to avoid some troops in his path, smashing the tail against an embankment. Aircraft rebuilt at Farnborough with design changes to improve performance.

• 1908 – Charles Furnas becomes the first North American passenger in an aeroplane, piloted by Wilbur Wright. Wilbur Wright flew Charles W. Furnas for a distance of 2.5 miles in a Wright Model B.

• 1902 – Birth of Friedrich Schmiedl, Austrian Rocket pioneer.

• 1897 – Birth of Robert Ludvigovich Bartini, Italian aircraft designer and scientist. Active mostly in Soviet Union, he was named, because of his noble descent, Barone Rosso (Red Baron).

• 1894 – Birth of Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall VC MC, British WWI pilot.

• 1884 – Birth of Claude (Claudius) Honoré Desiré Dornier, German airplane builder and founder of Dornier GmbH.