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Portal:Aviation

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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

Computer-generated image of Flight 1907 and N600XL about to collide. The Legacy's left winglet sliced off nearly half of the Boeing's left wing.
Computer-generated image of Flight 1907 and N600XL about to collide. The Legacy's left winglet sliced off nearly half of the Boeing's left wing.
Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a Boeing 737-8EH, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. On 29 September 2006, just before 17:00 BRT, it collided in midair with an Embraer Legacy business jet over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. All 154 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737 died when the aircraft broke up in midair and crashed into an area of dense rainforest, while the Embraer Legacy, despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, landed safely with its seven occupants uninjured. The accident, which triggered a crisis in Brazilian civil aviation, was the deadliest in that country's aviation history at the time, surpassing VASP Flight 168, which crashed in 1982 with 137 fatalities near Fortaleza. It was also the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737 aircraft at that time. It was subsequently surpassed by Air India Express Flight 812, which crashed at Mangalore, India, on 22 May 2010 with 158 fatalities. The accident was investigated by both the Brazilian Air Force's Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with a final report issued on 10 December 2008. CENIPA concluded that the accident was caused by errors committed both by air traffic controllers and by the American pilots, while the NTSB determined that all pilots acted properly and were placed on a collision course by a variety of "individual and institutional" air traffic control errors. (Full article...)

Selected image

Refueling a fire fighting helicopter Southern River, Western Australia.
Refueling a fire fighting helicopter Southern River, Western Australia.
Refueling a fire fighting helicopter Southern River, Western Australia.

Did you know

...that in 1943 British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 was shot down by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that it was an attempt to assassinate Winston Churchill? ...that the Zagreb mid-air collision over Croatia in 1976 was one of the deadliest mid-air collisions? ...that Washington Senators outfielder Elmer Gedeon, who pulled a crew member from a burning wreck, died while piloting a B-26 bomber over France?

More Did you know facts

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2.5 hours exploring while Michael Collins orbited. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and saw action in the Korean War. After the war, he served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he flew over 900 flights in a variety of aircraft. As a research pilot, Armstrong served as project pilot on the F-100 Super Sabre A and C aircraft, F-101 Voodoo, and the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter. He also flew the Bell X-1B, Bell X-5, North American X-15, F-105 Thunderchief, F-106 Delta Dart, B-47 Stratojet, KC-135 Stratotanker and Paresev. He graduated from Purdue University.

Selected Aircraft

[[File:|right|250px|]] The Tupolev TB-3 (Russian: Тяжёлый Бомбардировщик, Tyazholy Bombardirovschik, Heavy Bomber, civilian designation ANT-6) was a heavy bomber aircraft which was deployed by the Soviet Air Force in the 1930s and during World War II. It was the world's first cantilever wing four-engine heavy bomber. Despite obsolescence and being officially withdrawn from service in 1939, TB-3 performed bomber and transport duties through much of WWII. The TB-3 also saw combat as a Zveno project fighter mothership and as a light tank transport.

  • Span: 41.80 m (137 ft 2 in)
  • Length: 24.4 m (80 ft 1 in)
  • Height: 8.50 m (27 ft 11 in)
  • Engines: 4× Mikulin M-17F V12 engines, 525 kW (705 hp) each
  • Maximum Speed: 196 km/h (106 knots, 122 mph) at 3000 m (9,840 ft)
  • First Flight: 22 December 1930
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Today in Aviation

February 6

  • 2011 – Launch of USA-225,(Rapid Pathfinder Prototype ‘RPP’ or NRO Launch 66 ‘NROL-66‘), American satellite to perform technology demonstration and development experiments, including advanced dosimeters to characterize the space environment from a 1,200 km low Earth orbit.
  • 2009 – FedEx closes its first hub for the first time in history when their Asian-Pacific center at Subic Bay International Airports ceases operations, which were then transferred to Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in southern China.
  • 1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
  • 1998 – Death of Anthony W. “Tony” LeVier, American air racer and test pilot for the Lockheed Corporation.
  • 1998 – Andy Nelson and navigator Bertrand Piccard, lands the Breitling Orbiter II settind the world record for endurance at nine days and 17 hours – or, to be exact, 233 hours, and 55 min in an attempt of a round the world flight aborted as China did not did not allow them to fly avor the country.
  • 1996 – Birgenair Flight 301, a Boeing 757, with 189 people on board, crashes into the ocean off Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic shortly after taking off. All passengers and crew are killed.
  • 1992 – A Kentucky Air National Guard Lockheed C-130B Hercules, 58-0732, c/n 3527, of the 165th Tactical Airlift Squadron, stalls and crashes into the JoJo's restaurant and Drury Inn while practicing touch and go maneuvers at the Evansville, Indiana Airport. All five crew members and nine people on the ground were killed. Several others were injured.
  • 1991 – Two U. S. Air Force F-15 C Eagles of the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing use AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles to shoot down four Iraqi Air Force aircraft – Two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 s (NATO reporting name “Fishbed”) and two Sukhoi Su-25 s (NATO reporting name “Frogfoot”) – Fleeing to Iran at an altitude of about 100 feet (30 m).
  • 1990 – A USAF General Dynamics F-111E-CF, 68-0001, known as "Balls 1", c/n A1-170 / E-11, out of RAF Upper Heyford, crashes into the North Sea off the east coast of England during a routine training mission, killing two crew. The Third Air Force identified the crew as pilot Capt. Clifford W. Massengill, 30, of Edenton, North Carolina, and WSO 1st Lt. Thomas G. Dorsett, 26, of Pensacola, Florida.
  • 1983 – Death of Cyril Nelson ‘Kit’ Lowe, British WWI flying ace, International Rugby player and supposedly the inspiration for W. E. Johns’ character “Biggles”.
  • 1978 – Senator Howard Cannon of Nevada introduces the airline Deregulation Act, which would be passed the next October.
  • 1975 – Death of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Rodney Park GCB, KBE, MC & Bar, DFC, RAF, New Zealand soldier, WWI flying ace and WWII Royal Air Force commander.
  • 1972 – Canadian airport radar and communications technicians strike, halting all but military air traffic until March 2.
  • 1971 – Alan Shepard makes a historical golf drive on the moon.
  • 1968 – First flight of the Canadair CF-5 (officially designated the CF-116 Freedom Fighter), Canadair licensed-built version of the American Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter aircraft primarily for the Canadian Forces.
  • 1966 – Death of Bertram Hutchinson Smyth, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1965 – LAN Chile Flight 107, a Douglas DC-6, crashed shortly after takeoff from Santiago-Los Cerrillos Airport in Santiago, Chile. All 87 passengers and crew on board are killed.
  • 1964 – United Airlines puts the Boeing 727 into service, 5 days after delivery.
  • 1962 – First flight of the FMA IA 50 Guaraní I, Argentine prototype utility aircraft, refined version of the Huanquero.
  • 1961 – Birth of Col. Yuri Ivanovich Onufriyenko, Ukrainian-Russian cosmonaut.
  • 1959 – First launch of a Martin Marietta SM-68 A/HGM-25 A Titan I, US first multistage ICBM.
  • 1958 – In the Munich air disaster, a British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador operating as Flight 609 crashes during takeoff from Munich-Riem Airport, killing 23 of 44, including eight Manchester United footballers.
  • 1956 – TWA Captain William Judd flew his Cessna 180 “Star of the Red Sea” non-stop from New York to Paris – A distance of more than 3600 miles across the North Atlantic.
  • 1952 – Martin P4M-1Q Mercator, BuNo 124371, based in Port Lyautey, French Morocco, staging out of Nicosia, Cyprus. Operationally attached to NCU-32G. Returning from the Black Sea made an open ocean dead-stick landing east of Cyprus. Lt. Robert Hager, killed, 14 survivors rescued by HMS Chevron.
  • 1948 – A new 100 km closed circuit speed record of 542mph is established by Squadron Leader W. A. Waterton, flying a Gloster Meteor IV.
  • 1945 – The United States Coast Guard’s efforts to develop the United States Department of the Navy’s capability to use the helicopter as an antisubmarine warfare platform come to an end.
  • 1944 – American forces complete the conquest and occupation of Kwajalein Atoll.
  • 1943 – First flight of the Supermarine Type 322, a British prototype carrier borne torpedo, dive bomber and reconnaissance aircraft single engined monoplane.
  • 1941 – Boeing B-17B Flying Fortress, 38-216, c/n 2009,[56] crashes near Lovelock, Nevada while en route to Wright Field, Ohio, killing all eight on board. Pilot Capt. Richard S. Freeman had shared the 1939 MacKay Trophy for the Boeing B-15 flight from Langley Field, Virginia via Panama and Lima, Peru at the request of the American Red Cross, for delivering urgently needed vaccines and other medical supplies in areas of Chile devastated by an earthquake. General Order Number 10, dated 3 March 1943, announces that the advanced flying school being constructed near Seymour, Indiana is to be named Freeman Field in honor of the Hoosier native.
  • 1941 – A Trans-Canada Air Lines Lockheed 14H-2, Fin 38 [CF-TCP] crashed at Armstrong, Ontario. This was the first loss of passenger life for the airline.
  • 1938 – Junkers Ju 90 V1, D-AALU, "Der Grosse Dessauer", combination of wings, engines, undercarriage and tail assembly of Junkers Ju 89 V3, Werknummer 4913, mated to a new transport fuselage, broke up in flight while undergoing flutter tests out of Dessau, Germany.
  • 1938 – First successful in-flight separation of The Short-Mayo composite (Short S.21 Maia and Short S.20 Mercury seaplane) from the Shorts works at Borstal, near Rochester, Medway.
  • 1933 – First flight of the Kawanishi E7K, a Japanese three-seat biplane reconnaissance floatplane.
  • 1931 – Imperial Airways begins scheduled services between England and Africa using Armstrong Whitworth Argosys.
  • 1923 – Deutsche Luft-Reederei, Early German Airline, and first German airline to use heavier than air aircraft, ceased operations.
  • 1919 – Death of Edgar George Davies, British WWI flying ace, Killed in his SE.5a while trying a high-speed roll over Bickendorf Airfield.
  • 1916 – Aircraft from the Imperial Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet’s seaplane carriers Imperator Nikolai I and Imperator Aleksandr I sink the Ottoman collier Irmingard (4,211 grt). Irmingard is the largest ship sunk by air attack in World War I.
  • 1916 – The airline Deutsche Luft Reederei flies its first service, which is freight only, between Berlin and Weimar.
  • 1896 – Birth of Arthur Clunie “Snowy” Randall, Scottish WWI flying ace.
  • 1896 – Birth of Harold Alan Hamersley, Australian WWI fighter ace, Avro test pilot and WWII flying officer.
  • 1895 – Birth of Kurt Wolff, Imperial Germany’s WWI fighter ace.
  • 1892 – Birth of Guido Keller, Italian WWI pilot, poet and adventurer.
  • 1892 – Birth of Ivan Alexandrovich Loiko, Russian WWI flying ace.
  • 1890 – Birth of Gottfried von Banfield, most successful Austro-Hungarian WWI naval aeroplane pilot, known as the ‘Eagle of Trieste’. He may have been the only flying ace who flew a flying boat to five or more victories.
  • 1883 – Birth of Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich, Russian/Soviet aircraft designer.

References

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