This Week In Military/Aviation History 8-14 February
February 7, 2010 6:06 pmWell Folks, I’m startin’ kinda early so I can watch the Super Bowl…..commercials. Yeah, I kinda gave up on the game itself a few years ago when the Bills made their unsuccessful runs for that ever elusive trophy. After that, nothing ever seemed the same. No matter how hard I try, I can’t find a team I’m interested in, well, at least for very long anyway. I know there have been some embarrassing Super Bowls where a team choked or never seemed to click with any success. I usually picked those to watch when I was giving the game just that one more chance. We’ll see tonight if it’s true to form for me. I hope not. I promise not to root for either team so you can enjoy the game, ’cause the team I show any interest in, without fail, loses. Well let’s juke & jive down History Lane, shall we? Yes, I think we shall.
Tom K. 
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10 February 1908
The United States Army signs a contract with the Wright brothers for the construction of a Wright Model A biplane.
11 February 1913
The Chilean air service, Escuela de Aeronatica Militar, is formed.
12 February 1914
A Russian Ilya Mourometz aircraft carries sixteen passengers and a dog to a height of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) and sets a world load-to-altitude record.
11-12 February 1917
German Leutnants Peter and Frohwein, in a DFW CV aircraft, record the first night fighting victories when they shoot down two enemy bombers at Malzeville.
8 February 1919
The first airline passengers to be carried from Paris to London are flown by a Farman F60 Goliath from Toussus-le-Noble to Kenley.
14 February 1932
A diesel-powered Lockheed Vega flown by R. Nichols at Floyd Bennet Field in New York sets a world altitude record for a diesel powered aircraft of 6,074 meters (19,928 feet).
12 February 1935
United States Navy dirigible (steerable airship) USS Macon crashes into sea of California, but fortunately only two crew members are killed.
11-12 February 1942
The German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the cruiser Prinz Eugen leave Brest and escape through the English Channel. They are provided with a strong Luftwaffe air umbrella during the passage.
13 February 1943
Marine Fighter Squadron 124 makes the first operational use of the Vought F4U Corsair aircraft during an escort mission of Navy Consolidated PB4Y Liberators attacking Bougainville.
13-15 February 1945
Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Force (USAAF) night and day bombers attack Dresden in Germany. These attacks create a fire storm which virtually destroys the city. Estimates of the dead vary from 35,000 to 220,000.
8 February 1950
A Lockheed Neptune of the United States Navy establishes a distance record for carrier-launched aircraft flying 5,156 miles in 25 hours 59 minutes, non-stop from the Atlantic to San Francisco.
11 February 1959
A United States weather balloon climbs to a record height of 44,500 meters (146,000 feet)
12 February 1959
The United States Air Force (USAF) withdraws its last operational Convair B-36 bomber from service.
13 February 1960
France explodes an atomic weapon in the Sahara Desert.
9 February 1969
The first flight of the Boeing 747 prototype.
12 February 1969
The Mil Mi12, the world’s largest helicopter, establishes a number of load-to-height records.
11 February 1970
Japan launches it’s first domestic satellite, becoming the fourth nation to do so using it’s own nationally built rocket.
13 February 1972
The Soviet Union begins using Cuba as a base for reconnaissance aircraft, surveying and gathering intelligence along the American coast.
12 February 1981
The helium-filled balloon ‘Jules Verne’, piloted by Americans Max Anderson and Don Ida, lifts off from Luxor in Egypt, in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Two days later the attempt is aborted after 2,900 miles of travel.
10 February 1993
Taiwan unveils its new fighter, the IDF, designed for the Republic of China Air Force with assistance from General Dynamics. The IDF first flew in 1989 and is now ready to go into full production.
9 February 1996
The German Second World War fighter ace General Adolf Galland dies aged 83.
8 February 1998
Former Lockheed test pilot Anthony W. ‘Tony’ LeVier dies aged 84. During his 32 years with Lockheed, he took twenty prototypes into the air on their first flights, survived eight crashes and a mid-air collision.
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That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.
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This Week In Military/Aviation History 1-7 February
January 31, 2010 10:32 pmWell Folks, here we are once again. Not only has a week gone by, but also the first month of 2010 has also gone by the wayside. I sincerely hope that the month treated you right. Well, time marches on even as we sit here reading this, so let’s take a little trip down history lane, shall we? Yes, I think we shall.
Tom K.
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February 1910
Hugo Junkers patents an aeroplane with a cantilevered wing.
1 February 1911
Burgess and Curtiss becomes the first fully licensed aircraft manufacturer in the USA.
5 February 1911
Vivian C. Walsh makes the first aeroplane flight in New Zealand in his Howard-Wright (type) biplane at Auckland.
7 February 1911
The first French flying certificate is issued to Lieutenant de Rose.
February 1912
Jules Vedrine makes the first 100 mph flight in his Monocoque Deperdussin.
February 1913
The Spanish air arm is renamed as the Servico de Aeronautica Militar Espanola.
3 February 1913
The Gothaer Waggonfabrik (Gotha railway wagon factory) open an aeroplane division.
February 1914
The first aerial torpedo is released from a Farman biplane by General A. Guidoni of the Italian Army.
February 1915
The Russian Ilya Mourometz IMV series 4-engined bombers are equipped with machine-guns for use against ground targets.
3 February 1915
Turkish forces attack the Suez Canal area but are repelled by British troops.
2 February 1916
Zeppelin LZ54 (L19) is shot down by British aircraft over the North Sea.
6 February 1916
German fighter ace Max Immelman takes to the air in a Fokker EIV fitted with three synchronized machine guns.
German airline Deutsche Luft Reederei flies the first service (for freight only) between Berlin and Weimar.
1 February 1917
The German Friedrichshafen GIII bomber, capable of carrying 4,900 kilos (3,300 pounds) of bombs, becomes operational.
7 February 1917
Zeppelin LZ82 (L36) is wrecked after a forced landing at Rehben-an-der-Aller.
February 1918
The Airco DH4, the first American mass produced combat aircraft, begins production.
The first operational squadrons of the American Expeditionary Force are formed in France. American Air Force squadrons go on to destroy 781 enemy aircraft.
Lieutenant Stephen W. Thompson becomes the first American pilot to gain an aerial victory while serving with an American squadron.
5 February 1919
German airline Deutsche Luft-Reederei begins the first sustained daily passenger airline service, flying modified ex-military AEG and DFW biplanes between Berlin and Weimar in Germany.
7 February 1920
The first post-war world speed record is set by Frenchman Sadi Lecointe in a Nieuport-Delage 29 with a speed of 275 kph (171mph).
February 1923
The first Japanese fighter aircraft, the Mitsubishi IMF1, lands and takes off from a Japanese aircraft carrier IJN Hosho. The pilot is a Briton, Captain Jordan.
3-4 February 1925
A distance record of 3,166 kilometers (1,967 miles) in a straight line, is established by a Breguet 19 flown by Captain Ludovic Arrachart and Captain Henri Lemaître.
2 February 1932
The International Disarmament Conference begins in Geneva but fails to ensure world peace.
3 February 1934
The first scheduled trans-ocean airmail service is established between Europe and South America by Deutche Lufthansa. Flying from Stuttgart to Buenos Aires via Seville, Bathurst and Natal. The delivery time is four days.
3 February 1935
It is announced that Dr Hugo Junkers, one of the pioneers of all metal construction, has died.
1 February 1940
The Southern Rhodesian government forms Southern Rhodesian Air Services.
1 February 1942
The first United States carrier offensive is made by the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown. Their aircraft attack Japanese targets on several of the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
4 February 1944
The Japanese launch a new offensive in Burma, with a plan to capture the port of Chittagong and then the Allied bases of Imphal and Dimapur in Assam, and then to invade India.
4 February 1948
The United States Air Force (USAF) Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is established.
4 February 1949
The United States Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) authorises the use of Ground-Controlled Approach (GCA) radar as a primary landing aid in bad weather.
1 February 1950
Eight Grumman F9F Panthers land on the USS Valley Forge, completing the first aircraft carrier night-landing trials by jets.
5 February 1951
The USA and Canada announce their intention to set up a Distance Early Warning (DEW) system for North America.
6 February 1951
The United States Air Force (USAF) announces that it lost 223 aircraft in Korea, mostly through accidents, up to January 1951. The United States Navy (USN) and Marine aircraft losses were 182.
3 February 1955
The official termination of war between Czechoslovakia and Germany is announced.
1 February 1956
The Air Planning Group of the West German Ministry of Defense initiates a pilot training scheme, marking the first practical steps in the creation of the post war Luftwaffe.
1 February 1958
Explorer I is launched, and becomes the first United States satellite to enter Earth orbit.
4 February 1958
The keel of the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, is laid.
3 February 1959
Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens die when a single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza crashes near Mason City airport.
1 February 1975
In the previous sixteen days all eight world time-to-height records have been captured by a specially modified McDonnell Douglas F15 Eagle. The final record sets a time of 3 minutes 27 seconds from standstill on the runway to a height of 30,000 meters (98,425 feet).
1 February 1981
Donald W. Douglas, founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company, dies aged 88.
4-10 February 1982
The Sikorsky company uses an S76II to set twelve new helicopter class records.
7 February 1984
The first un-tethered space-walk is achieved by Captain Bruce McCandless. He leaves the Challenger Space Shuttle 164 miles above Hawaii, wearing a jet powered ‘manned maneuvering unit’ back-pack that he had helped to design and ‘walks’ 300 feet and back without a safety line.
1 February 1989
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) orders Boeing to inspect the plumbing and wiring on the 1,755 airliners they have built since 1980 following concerns that the 1988 crash of a British Midland airlines.
1 February 2003
The United States Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on re-entry, killing all seven astronauts. The wreckage falls over California, Arizona and Texas.
5-9 February 2003
Euro-India show is held at Bangalore
Fina Air begins services
3 February 2005
Kam Air Flight 904 crashes. There were no survivors.
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That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.
This Week In Military/Aviation History 25-31 January
January 24, 2010 10:22 pmHello Folks, doesn’t it seem like we just did this? Well, we did…seven days ago. What a heck of a quick week eh? Of course, I’m retired so to me one day runs into the next instead of dragging along until Friday comes…finally. And then the weekend zips by in the wink of an eye and that long, long workweek starts all over again. Bah! Sorry, but I don’t miss that a bit. So, what say we lose ourselves in some history for at least a little while, shall we? Yes, I think we shall.
Tom K.
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26 January 1911
Glenn Curtiss makes the first premeditated aeroplane landing on water, water taxiing and water take-off from USS Pennyslvania in San Diego Bay.
31 January 1917
Germany declares the beginning of unrestricted submarine warfare.
27 January 1928
The first rigid airship to aircraft carrier mooring is achieved when United States Navy (USN) dirigible (steerable airship) ‘Los Angeles’ moors to USS Sagatoga while the latter vessel is at sea.
30 January 1934
Soviet balloon ‘Osoaviakhim’ ascends 20 kilometers (13 miles) into the stratosphere.
26 January 1939
Barcelona, the Republican capital, is captured by Spanish Nationalist forces.
29 January 1941
The Luftwaffe aircraft drop mines into the Suez Canal.
27 January 1943
The first United States Army Air Force (USAAF) heavy bomber attack on Germany. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 1st Bombardment Wing, 8th USAAF, attack Emden and Wilhelmhaven.
26 January 1946
Colonel William H. Council, piloting a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, makes a record breaking flight from Long Beach in Los Angeles to La Guardia in New York. It is the fastest crossing of the United States to date - 2,470 miles in 4 hours 13 minutes 26 seconds at an average speed of 584mph. Also the longest non-stop flight by a jet aircraft.
30 January 1948
Orville Wright dies at Dayton in Ohio, aged 76.
28 January 1950
President Truman announces that the Atomic Energy Commission has been directed to continue its work on all forms of atomic energy weapons including the hydrogen or super-bomb. Restricted areas for flying around American atomic installations and off the coast will be established.
31 January 1951
Captain Charles Blair flies a Mustang piston engine fighter non-stop from New York to London covering 3,500 miles in 7 hours 48 minutes.
25 January 1952
North American F-86 Sabre jet fighters shoot down ten Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG15s over North Korea.
31 January 1953
Wonsan in North Korea is bombed by American carrier-borne aircraft.
25 January 1955
The state of war between the Soviet Union and Germany is terminated.
31 January 1961
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launches a Mercury capsule containing a chimpanzee named Ham. Ham is recovered successfully.
26 January 1965
Brazil’s naval air arm is re-established as an independent service. It had been absorbed by the air force in 1941.
31 January 1966
The Soviet Union launches Luna 9, an un-manned spacecraft that becomes the first man-made vehicle to soft land on the Moon’s surface, on 3 February.
27 January 1967
Roger Chaffee, Virgil Grissom and Edward White all burn to death during a ground accident in the Apollo 1 capsule.
31 January - 9 February 1971
Apollo 14 makes the third successful United States Moon landing.
28 January 1981
Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am) begins a twice weekly New York to Beijing service.
27 January 1982
The Cessna Aircraft Company delivers its 1,000th business jet, a Citation II.
27 January 1983
British Aerospace (BAe) hands over the first of their Sea Harrier FRS Mk51 aircraft to the Indian Navy .
28 January 1986
United States space shuttle Challenger explodes 75 seconds after take off. The crew of seven are killed, including Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher and first person to fly under the ‘citizen in space’ program.
27 January 1993
Boeing and Airbus Industrie launch a development program for a ‘Super Jumbo’, capable of carrying up to 800 passengers.
26 January 1995
An explosion during the launch of a communications satellite at the Xichang Space Center in China destroys both the Long March 2E Booster and Hughes Apstar 2 satellite.
28 January 1998
A Eurocopter Super Puma helicopter operated by Bristow Helicopters lifts a record payload of 2 crew and 41 passengers, more than twice the normal number of passengers, during flood relief operations in Northern Australia.
30 January 2001
Contact with the deep space probe Pioneer 10 is lost. The last signal received from the probe is about 11 billion kilometers (7 billion miles) from Earth. Launched in 1972, it is the first man made object to leave the solar system.
29 January 2005
Nonstop flights between mainland China and Taiwan take off for the first time since 1949.
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That’s it for this week Folks. See Ya in seven.
WIX Warbird Weekly Radio Show – Episode 1 1/13/2010 – Guest: Scott Rose
January 21, 2010 4:31 pmHello everyone! The Warbird Information Exchange (WIX) and Warbirds Resource Group has created a great partnership with Warbird Radio (at www.warbirdradio.com) to produce a LIVE weekly Internet radio show called “The WIX Warbird Weekly” broadcasting each Wednesday at 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific at www.warbirdradio.com!
The Live show will have interesting guests in the warbird community as well as noted WIX forum personalities so you’ll be able to hear them as well as see their day-to-day posts on the forum! The live show also is unique for the fact that YOU can call in directly and ask us questions live and on the air!
With a thanks to our producer Matt Jolley, who is the founder of Warbird Radio (broadcasting 24 hours a day with live shows each day… see www.warbirdradio.com for the schedule), we will be posting the previous week’s show in podcast form here on Warbirds-Online for you to download and enjoy. We encourage you to listen live each week so you have the chance to call in… and then you can download the podcast to hear yourself on the air!
Click the link below to hear the Podcast, or right-click and select “Save Target As” to save on your computer and listen offline.
Make sure to tune in next week on Wednesday at 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific at www.warbirdradio.com for the live show and check here next Thursday for last night’s Episode 2 for download!
1940 French Moranes on patrol
January 18, 2010 6:04 amThis Week In Military/Aviation History 18-24 January
January 17, 2010 11:02 pmHello Folks, seven more have whizzed by again and once again it’s time for us to stroll down History Lane. I hope you enjoy our little weekly look back, I know I do. So without further ado, here’s this week’s peek.
Tom K.
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18 January 1905
The Wright brothers open discussions with the United States government for the sale of an aeroplane.
18 January 1906
The Zeppelin LZ2 is destroyed in a gale the day after its first flight.
23 January 1909
The Blériot Type XI makes its first flight.
19 January 1910
Lieutenant Paul Beck drops sandbag “bombs” over Los Angeles from an aeroplane piloted by Louis Paulhan.
Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 6.40 m (21 ft 0 in)
- Wingspan: 6.48 m (21 ft 3 in)
- Height: 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in)
- Wing area: 7 m2 (75 sq ft)
- Empty weight: 958 kg (2,112 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 1,683 kg (3,710 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 × Dushkin D-1A-1100 liquid-fuel rocket motor 1100kg
Performance
- Maximum speed: 990 km/h (620 mph; 530 kn) estimated
- Endurance: 15 minutes under power
Armament
- Guns: two nose-mounted 20 mm Sh VAK cannon
Photo source: unknown, Info: WikiPedia
Footage for movie “Dive Bomber”, 1941
January 16, 2010 6:46 amOld color shots of rare US Navy aircraft aboard USS Enterprise and around the San Diego area. Filmed for the 1941 movie “Dive Bomber”. Scarce aircraft such as the Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, Curtiss SBC-4 Helldiver and the Vought SB2U Vindicator are shown. It was during the filming that the US Navy was changing the paint schemes on aircraft from the colorful pre-war to the overall gray. Several planes were kept in the old patterns while the movie was filmed. Aircraft in the movie were clearly from USS Saratoga (Air Group 3) and from USS Enterprise (Air Group 6)….a very nice view of the Grumman F3F biplane fighter 6-F-4….. The best parts of the movie were just the aircraft shots. Video clips assembled by Greg Clarke.
Source: YouTube via skyraider1404
Curtiss P-36 (Mohawk) Hawk
January 15, 2010 6:58 amCurtiss P-36 (Mohawk) Hawk
The Curtiss P-36 Hawk, also known as the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, was a U.S.-built fighter aircraft of the 1930s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, it was one of the first of a new generation of combat aircraft—a sleek monoplane design making extensive use of metal in its construction and powered by a powerful piston engine. Obsolete at the onset of World War II and best known as the predecessor of the Curtiss P-40, the P-36 saw only limited combat with the United States Army Air Forces but was extensively used by the French Air Force and also by British Commonwealth (where it was known as the Mohawk), and Chinese air units. Several dozen also fought in the Finnish Air Force against the Soviet Red Air Force. With around 1,000 aircraft built, the P-36 was a major commercial success for Curtiss.
Video source: YouTube via gunner 17470, Info Source: WikiPedia
British Phantom FG.1
January 11, 2010 7:30 am
The United Kingdom bought versions of the McDonnell-Douglas Phantom based on the USN F-4J for use with the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. The main differences were the use of the British Rolls-Royce Spey engines and of British-made avionics. The RN and RAF versions were given the designation F-4K and F-4M respectively, and entered service as the Phantom FG.1 (fighter/ground attack) and Phantom FGR.2 (fighter/ground attack/reconnaissance).
After the Falklands War, 15 upgraded ex-USN F-4Js, known as the F-4J(UK) entered RAF service to compensate for one interceptor squadron redeployed to the Falklands.
Around 15 RAF squadrons received various marks of Phantom, many of them based in Germany. The first to be equipped was 6 Squadron at RAF Leuchars in July 1969. One noteworthy deployment was to 43 Squadron where Phantom FG1s remained the squadron equipment for a remarkable twenty years, arriving in September 1969 and departing in July 1989. During this period the squadron was based throughout at Leuchars.
The interceptor Phantoms were replaced by the Panavia Tornado F3 from the late 1980s onwards, and the last British Phantoms were retired in October 1992 when 74 Squadron disbanded.
Info: WikiPedia
Photo source: Unknown
