Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military Aviation History: 23-29 April

Hello Folks, yet another week has gone by it seems much too quickly. However that does bring us a week closer to The Historical Aircraft Group’s Biplane Rally and Chili Cook-Off followed the next week by The Greatest Show On Turf 2007. Stop by our website to get details on these events. (Advertising ploy known as a “cheap pop”, you stick ‘em in when you can.) That being said, let’s take a look at what happened historically this week, OK?
Be Safe,
Tom K.
P.S. While you’re at the website, don’t forget to stop by the Message Board. (“pop”)

25 April 1914
Lieutenant P.N.L. Bellinger made the first American operational sortie by airplane, searching for sea mines during the Santa Cruz incident. A total of five Curtiss AB flying boats were involved in the operation, flying from the battleship USS MISSISSIPPI and the cruiser USS BIRMINGHAM in an operation which lasted 43 days.

24 April 1917
Lieutenant Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell became the first United States army officer to overfly the German lines.

29 April 1918
Captain Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, who later became America’s top ace of the First World War with 26 victories, claimed his first victory, an Albatros Scout.

26 April 1937
German aircraft of the Legion Condor, operating with Spanish Nationalist Forces, bombed Guernica, seat of the Basque government. This act became a symbol of the inhumanity of aerial bombing.

26 April 1939
Flugkapitan Fritz Wendel, flying Messerschmitt Me 209V1, established a new world top speed record of 469 m.p.h. (755 k.p.h.). This record would not be broken for 30 years.

27 April 1939
The USAAC ordered the Lockheed P-38 fighter.

25 April 1940
The aircraft carrier USS WASP was commissioned.

22 April 1942
The Assam, Burma, China Ferry Command was established to air ferry supplies into China over the Himalayas. (The Hump).

23 April 1945
United States Navy Consolidated PB4Y Liberators of Patrol Bombing Squadron 109 launched two Bat missiles against Japanese shipping in Balikpapn Harbor in Borneo. This was the first use of automatic homing missiles during the Second World War.

26 April 1945
Hanna Reitch, flying a Fiesler Fi 156 Storch, flew General Ritter von Greim from Berlin, Gatow into Berlin. In Hitler’s underground bunker he was promoted to command the Luftwaffe in place of Hermann Goring.

28 April 1945
Benito Mussolini was captured at Dongo, near Lake Como and shot to death by Italian Communist partisans.

29 April 1945
The war in Italy came to an end when German envoys signed terms of unconditional surrender.

26 April 1948
The U.S. Air Force became the first service to plan for racial integration. They anticipated President Truman’s executive order which was issued in July.

29 April 1952
An Air France airliner was attacked by Russian jet fighters near Koennern in the Frankfurt-Berlin international air corridor.

28 April 1956
The United States Military Assistance Advisory Group began work in South Vietnam.

28 April 1958
After an in-flight explosion, 1st Lt. James Obenauf noticed a wounded crewmember. Instead of ejecting, Obenauf piloted the B-47 aircraft to a safe landing at Deyuss Air Force base in California. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism.

23 April 1959
The United States Hound Dog thermonuclear stand-off missile made a successful first flight after being launched from a Boeing B-52D Stratofortress bomber.

28 April 1961
The Soviet Union regained the world altitude record when Colonel G. Mossolov, flying a Mikoyan Ye 66A, reached 118,898 feet (34,714 meters).

23 April 1965
The first operational Lockheed C-141 Starlifter aircraft was delivered to Travis Air Force Base, California.

23 April 1967
The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 1, but Colonel Vladimir Komarov was killed when his spaceship crashed on its return to earth. This was the first man known to have died in the course of a space flight.

24 April 1967
American attacks on North Vietnam’s airfields began. The attacks inflicted heavy damage on runways and installations. By the end of the year, all but one of the North’s MiG bases had been hit.

24 April 1980
Operation Eagle Claw; an attempt to rescue American hostages being held in Iran, was aborted when a Lockheed C-130 Hercules and a Sikorsky RH-53 Sea Stallion collided at the first desert landing site.

25 April 1985
The North Atlantic Treaty organization (NATO) received the last of its eighteen Boeing E-3A Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.

25 April 1992
The second Boeing YF-22 prototype suffered control problems while landing at Edwards Air Force Base and was damaged in the resulting fire. The pilot escaped with only minor injuries.

26 April 1995
A Lockheed Martin SR-71A flew for the first time after renovation. Two SR-71As were returned to the United States Air Force service to carry out reconnaissance flights after being in storage since 1990.

A new world altitude record of 90,092 feet (27,460 meters) for a Class C1h aircraft was set by a Russian Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29.

28 April 1997
The first five production V-22 Osprey tiltrotors were delivered for use by the United States Marine Corps.
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Well, that’s it for this week folks! See ya in seven.

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