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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

A Polish Yakovlev Yak-18; Góraszka Air Picnic 2008

Did you know

...that the Vickers machine gun was the standard weapon on all British and French military aircraft after 1916? ...that the fighter pilot Aleksandr Kazakov destroyed 32 German and Austro-Hungarian planes during WWI, while his formal tally of 17 is explained by the fact that only planes crashed in the Russian-held territory were officially counted? ... the Safety Promotion Center, established by Japan Airlines after the worst single aircraft accident in history, has passengers' farewell letters and wreckage on display to educate employees about safety?

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

Jeana Yeager (born May 18, 1952, in Fort Worth, Texas) is an aviator, most famous for flying with Dick Rutan on a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Voyager aircraft from December 14 to December 23, 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles (40,211 km), more than doubling the old distance record. She received the US annual Harmon Trophy for outstanding international achievements in the aeronautics, and is the first woman recipient of the Collier Trophy for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety" of aircraft.

Despite her surname, Jeana Yeager is not related to Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight.

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 22

  • 2013 – An American unmanned aerial vehicle attacks a ground vehicle in Yemen's Al Jawf Governorate, killing three suspected al-Qaeda members.[3]
  • 2013 – The United States announces that the United States Air Force has begun airlifting French military personnel and materiel into Mali, having made five flights thus far.[4]
  • 2011 – Launch of Kounotori 2, or HTV-2, second Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle to resupply the International Space Station (ISS).
  • 2010 – A Myanmar Air Force Chengdu F-7 fighter crashed while attempting to land at Yangon airport, killing its pilot.
  • 2008 – A Pakistan Air Force Cessna T-37 Tweet trainer faced mechanical failure while in first solo flight of Pilot Officer Raja Jahanzeb flying over Topi, Pakistan. Declining ejection orders to prevent loss of life on the ground he chose to crash land the plane on a campus road of GIK Institute merely avoiding faculty buildings and blew up into pieces on crashing. The crash killed the pilot and a gardener. Raja Jahanzeb was posthumously awarded Tamgha-e-Basalat (Medal of Good Conduct).
  • 1998 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-89 at 9:48:15 pm EST. Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.
  • 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-42 at 14:52:33 UTC. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission, Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space.
  • 1991 – In the Gulf War, Iraqi antiaircraft artillery downs a Royal Air Force Tornado ground-attack aircraft and the U. S. Army loses an attack helicopter to non-combat causes. Four U. S. Navy A-6E Intruders disable an Iraqi Navy T43 class minesweeper.
  • 1987 – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Michelob Light Eagle, piloted by Glenn Tremml, sets a world closed circuit distance record for human-powered aircraft of 58 km (36 miles).
  • 1973 – The Kano air disaster was a chartered Nigeria Airways Boeing 707-3D3 C passenger flight on 22 January 1973 which crashed and explodes into flames while attempting to land at Kano International Airport. 176 passengers and crew perished in the crash. It is the worst aviation disaster to ever take place in Nigeria.
  • 1971 – A US Navy P-3 Orion sets a distance record of 7,010 miles (11,282 km) for an aircraft in its class.
  • 1970 – The last CF Sabre flight 23102. It was ferried Canadair-Trenton by pilot Bob Ayers.
  • 1969 – The U. S. 9th Marine Regiment begins Operation Dewey Canyon – an operation dependent completely on helicopters – in South Vietnam's Da Krong Valley. It will conclude on March 19, rated as the 9th Marines' most successful operation of the Vietnam War.
  • 1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space with a Saturn IB rocket.
  • 1964 – In its first public violation of the 1959 requirement for all aircraft operating from the aircraft carrier Minas Gerais to belong to the Brazilian Air Force, the Brazilian Navy steams Minas Gerais into Guanabara Bay at Rio de Janeiro with four navy T-28 Trojan trainers on her flight deck.
  • 1964 – A USAF Lockheed F-104B-10-LO Starfighter, 57‑1306, c/n 283-5019, of the 319th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Air Defense Command, Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, crashes at ~1330 hrs. on Santa Rosa Island, ~one mile E of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, shortly after departure from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, to return to Homestead. The pilot, Capt. Lucius O. Evans, ejects safely just before the fighter impacts in sand dunes just short of the Coronado Motor Hotel, parachuting into the Choctawhatchee Bay. He is then transported to the Eglin base hospital by Assistant Police Chief Jack McSwain, where he is reported to have sustained no injuries. Over sixty occupants at the hotel are not injured although flaming wreckage sprays an area close to the business. Eyewitness Andrew Christiansen, of Chester, Connecticut, reported that the aircraft was on fire as it descended and observed Capt. Evans' ejection from the Starfighter. A secondary explosion after the impact further scatters the burning wreckage.
  • 1955 – Birth of Thomas David Jones, USAF pilot and NASA astronaut.
  • 1952 – The de Havilland Comet 1 became the first turbojet-powered civil airliner to be awarded a certificate of airworthiness. Entered Service with BOAC.
  • 1952 – American Airlines Flight 6780, a Convair CV-240 crashes on approach to Newark, New Jersey into dwellings in Elizabeth, New Jersey, killing 30 and leading to the Doolittle Commission recommendation for laws coordinating urban zoning to keep airport approach paths clear.
  • 1949 – Death of Frederick Robert Gordon McCal, Canadian WWI fighter ace, Post war stunt flyer who founded McCall Aero Corp. Ltd and Great Western Airway, and who returned in RCAF service for WWII.
  • 1948 – First flight of the Short Sealand, a British light, twin engined commercial amphibian aircraft for 5–7 passengers, designed for the general overseas market in territories with suitable water access and/or runways.
  • 1945 – U. S. Army Air Forces aircraft begin a heavy bombing campaign against Japanese forces on Corregidor. By the time U. S. ground forces land on Corregidor on February 15–16, they will drop over 3,200 tons (2,903,021 kg) of bombs on the island.
  • 1945 – Task Force 38 aircraft conduct an early morning night strike against Formosa, sinking a large tanker in exchange for the loss of three U. S. aircraft, then fly 682 sorties during daylight hours to strike and conduct photographic reconnaissance missions against Okinawa, the Sakishima Gunto, Ie Shima, and Amami O Shima, destroying 28 Japanese aircraft, all on the ground. Task Force 38 then retires to its base at Ulithi Atoll. During January 1945, its aircraft have destroyed 300,000 tons of Japanese shipping and claimed 615 Japanese planes destroyed in exchange for the loss of 201 U. S. carrier aircraft.
  • 1944 – In Operation Shingle, Allied forces land at Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. Allied air forces fly 1,200 sorties in support of the landings.
  • 1943 – Death of Edmond Eugene Henri Caillaux, French WWI flying ace.
  • 1936 – Italian aircraft play a decisive role in the first Battle of Tembien, dropping mustard gas to defeat a promising offensive by Ethiopian forces.
  • 1931 – First flight of the Bristol Type 118, a British general-purpose military aircraft, a two-seat biplane prototype for overseas markets.
  • 1926 – Spanish Dornier Do J Wal flying boat 'Plus Ultra' takes off from Palos de la Frontera, in Huelva, Spain, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the first Trans-Atlantic flight between Spain and South America.
  • 1922 – Elsa Andersson (1897–1922) was Sweden's first female aviator and stunt parachutist. She was born a farmer's daughter in the Scanian countryside, at Strovelstrop. Andersson's mother died at her birth and her elder brother moved to America for a new life. A determined and inspirational woman, Andersson had ambitions beyond becoming a farmer's wife and so, aged 21, she learned to fly, getting her diploma "no.203" in 1920. Not content with being the first Swedish woman to become a pilot, she went to Germany to learn parachute jumping. In 1922, Andersson was tragically killed on her third jump in Askersund, Sweden. Thousands of spectators were gathering below on the ice of the frozen lake Alsen. She had trouble releasing her parachute, which finally unfolded only at a small distance from the treetops and she crashed violently against the ground. In 1926, the Swedish Aero Club erected a three-metre-high obelisk memorial in the place where she was found dead.
  • 1919 – Death of Carrick Stewart Paul, New Zealand WWI flying ace, drowned at sea while on the voyage home to New Zealand.
  • 1919 – The sole Blériot Bl-73, French 3 seat, 4 engine biplane bomber prototype, broke in the air.
  • 1914 – Death of Charles Keeney Hamilton, early American aviator.
  • 1907 – Douglas Corrigan, American pilot, is born (d. 1995). Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. 1938, after a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, even though he was supposed to be returning to Long Beach. He claimed that his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass.
  • 1891 – Birth of Bruno Loerzer, German WWI flying ace and high-ranking officer in WWII.
  • 1889 – Birth of Harry George Hawker MBE, AFC, Australian aviation pioneer and co-founder of Hawker Aircraft.
  • 1887 – Birth of Elmer "Archie" Fowler Stone, US naval aviator and a Commander in the US Coast Guard. He was a pilot on the first successful transatlantic flight on a Curtiss NC-4.

References

  1. ^ Yenne 2003), pp. 281–283.
  2. ^ Milberry 1979, p. 137.
  3. ^ Al-Haj, Ahmed, "U.S. Drone Strike Kills 3 Militants in Yemen", Associated Press, January 22, 2013, 14:53:15 EST,
  4. ^ Londoño, Ernesto, and Anne Gearan, "Mali: U.S. Begins Airlifts to Aid French Mission", The Washington Post, January 23, 2013, p. A6.
  5. ^ Anonymous, "Planes Sent to Evacuate Russians From Syria", Aljazeera, 22 January 2013, 10:07
  6. ^ Anonymous, "Russia's Lavrov Says Beirut Flights Not Syria Evacuation", BBC News, January 23, 2013, 07:55 ET.
  7. ^ Anonymous, "Russians Evacuated From Syria Arrive Home", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, January 24, 2013.
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