Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military Aviation History: 12-18 March

Hello Folks, ready for another interesting trip into the past to see what aviation history we can dig up? I’m ready. Fasten your seat belts and off we go! Remeber try to have fun and learn something. It shouldn’t be too tough.
Be Safe,
Tom K.
17 March 1911
The Curtiss D pusher-engined biplane with a tricycle landing gear was demonstrated to the United States Army. Later it became their Army Aeroplane No. 2.

12 March 1912
The French Service de l’Aeronautique de la Marine was formed.

15 March 1912
The newly established Turkish Army Aviation Section received its first two French-built aircraft.

14 March 1915
Lincoln Beachey died when the wings broke off his monoplane while he attempted a power dive from 3,000 feet at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco.

15 March 1916
The First Aero Squad commanded by Capt. B.D. Foulois began operations into Mexico.

16 March 1916
The first military aerial reconnaissance flight was made over Mexican territory.

13 March 1917
The Army Air Intelligence Subdivision Office was approved.

17 March 1917
Zeppelin LZ86 (L39) was brought down over Compiegne in France by anti-aircraft fire.

14 March 1918
American aircraft of the 95th (Pursuit) squadron began patrol flights over the Western Front, defending the River Marne from German reconnaissance aircraft. Observation patrols began on the 19 March with aircraft of the 94th (Pursuit) squadron.

13 March 1922
Portugese pilots Captain Gago Coutinho and Captain Sacadura Cabral set off on a transatlantic flight from Lisbon to Brazil flying a Fairey IIIC. They arrived on 16 June in Fairey IIIC “Santa Cruz”, their third machine, as the earlier two had been wrecked.

13 March 1937
Italy announced a four-year expansion program for its air force.

16 March 1940
The Luftwaffe attacked the British Fleet’s anchorage at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. This raid caused the death of a British civilian, the first of the war.

13 March 1941
The Luftwaffe carried out a heavy raid against Clydebank, near Glasgow. 35,000 of the town’s population of 47,000 were made homeless.

16 March 1942
Japanese aircraft bombed targets at Port Darwin in Australia.

12 March 1944
The Swedes announced an investigation of the ‘mysterious object which crashed out of the sky’ (a ‘flying torpedo’ V1) from a German research station, 40 miles away.

15 March 1944
The heaviest RAF raid of the war to date was made against Stuttgart, with 3,000 tons dropped from 863 bombers, for the loss of only 36 planes.

12 March 1945
RAF Bomber Command set another new record for a single target, when 4,851 tons were dropped on Dortmund.

13 March 1945
Following a 600-bomber raid by the US 8th Air Force, the RAF with 800 bombers attacked Swinemunde North of Stettin, a major port of disembarkation for German refugees from eastern Germany, causing heavy damage to the docks and killing hundreds of civilians.

14 March 1945

RAF Bomber Command made its first use of the 22,000 lb. ‘Grand Slam’ bomb, wrecking the Bielefeld viaduct.
The US 15th Air Force, taking off from Italian airfields, launched a heavy raid (500 bombers) against Regenburg, while the RAF attacked Wuppertal with 400 aircraft.

16 March 1945
The U.S. 8th Air Force launched a massive attack (675 bombers) against the HQ complex of the OKH at Zossen 20 miles south of Berlin, but with minimal effect.

Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima ended, but it was a costly victory, with 6,891 Marines killed and another 18,070 injured. It proved to be a very useful emergency landing ground with 2251 Boeing B-29s finding refuge here before the war ended.

17 March 1945
307 Boeing B-29s dropped 2,300 tons of incendiaries on Kobe in Japan.
18 March 1945
The largest United States Army Air Force (USAAF) daylight raid on Berlin took place, with 1,250 bombers and an escort of 670 fighters.

15 March 1950
The U.S. Air Force took responsibility for all strategic guided missiles.

15 March 1951
A Boeing B-47 jet bomber was successfully refuelled in flight by a Boeing KC-97A piston engined tanker.

13 March 1953
Six Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighters were shot down during air fighting over North Korea.

15 March 1955
The United States Air Force announced that aircraft stationed in the Arctic and approaches to the North American Continent would shortly be armed with Falcon air-to-air guided missiles.

14 March 1956
A new version of the Northrop Scorpion twin-jet all-weather fighter was put into production.

The first successful launch of a Chrysler Redstone, or Jupiter, was made from Cape Canaveral. This tactical bombardment missile was developed by a team headed by Dr. Wernher von Braun, the designer of Germany’s V2 rocket.

15 March 1957
A United States Navy (USN) ZPG2 airship established a new unrefuelled endurance record of 264 hours 12 minutes.

17 March 1958
Vanguard I, the 2nd United States satellite to enter Earth’s orbit was launched.

18 March 1965
Voskhod II was launched by the Soviet Union with Pavel Belyayev and Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Leonov on board. Leonov made the first ’space walk’, tethered to the spacecraft while floating in space for 12 minutes 9 seconds.

15 March 1967
The Sikorsky HH-53B, the largest and fastest in the U.S. Air Force inventory made its first flight. It was slated for Aerospace Rescue and Recovery operations in Southeast Asia.

17 March 1968
General Dynamics F-111A aircraft were used operationally for the first time in Vietnam and two are lost by the end of the month.

17 March 1971
Jane Leslie Holley became the first woman commissioned the the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. She graduated from Auburn University, Ala.

16 March 1983
After being used to train pilots for 18 years, the Luftwaffe withdrew the Lockheed F-104G and TF-104G from service.

12 March 1993
General Dynamics’ Military Aircraft was acquired by Lockheed in a $1.525 billion deal, which included the highly successful F-16 fighter.

16 March 1996
The Dutch aircraft company Fokker was declared bankrupt and ceased aircraft manufacturing after 77 years.

13 March 1998
Hans von Ohain, who pioneered the design of the jet engine in Germany, died.
————————————————————————————
Well, that’s it for now Folks, see you in seven.