Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week in Military/Aviation History 21-27 May

Hello Folks,

Now that I’m running Microsoft Flight Simulator X, or MSFSX as it is known, I’ve had to switch my screen resolution from 800 X 600 to 1024 X 768 as MSFSX will accept no less and it became a royal pain to keep switching. My point is that this site looked a lot different in 800 X 600. It is, of course, set up for 1024 X 768, so, since I got used to the font being smaller, it’s so much nicer in 1024 X 768. It was almost like starting over for me. I am an older simmer and thought I needed the smaller (?) resolution. Turns out the screens are quite a bit clearer to me this way. I just have to make sure my glasses are absolutely clean before I start my ‘puter session. Hope your week went well. Now, let’s get down to some history…

25 May 1910
The Wright Brothers flew together for the first time at Dayton in Ohio.

22 May 1912
A United States Marine Corps officer was ordered to commence flying training.

24 May 1912
Anthony Fokker crashed his Goedecker-built B1912 monoplane at Berlin, just 10 days after he demonstrated it to the German Army.

21 May 1915
The Spad A2 biplane fighter underwent its first flight tests in France.

26 May 1915
Seventeen French Voisin biplanes of Groupe de Bombardment I conducted an attack on a strategic military target at Ludwigshafen in Germany.

Oberleutnant Kastner and Leutnant Georg Langhoff (observer) attacked and shot down a French Voisin in their Halberstadt C-type at Dournai in France. This was the first intentional attack by a German airplane on another armed airplane.

27 May 1915
Four days after Italy declared war, an Austrian Lohner L1 flying-boat was captured by the Italians off the Italian coast.

24 May 1917
French Premier Alexander Ribot requested American aid in the shape of 5,000 pilots, 4,500 aircraft and 50,000 mechanics.

25 May 1917
Twenty one aircraft attacked Folkestone and Shorncliffe in Kent, in the first daylight raid by German Gotha bombers. The attack left 95 dead and 260 injured. One Gotha was destroyed and another damaged by fighters based in France.

24 May 1918
The U.S. Army Air Service was formed.

The Chief Directorate of the Workers and Peasants Military Air Fleet replaced the all-Russian Air Board.

27 May 1927
The first French aircraft carrier, “BEARN”, was finally completed after 7 years of construction.

27 May 1933
Japan withdrew from the League of Nations.

24 May 1941
The H.M.S. HOOD was sunk in the North Atlantic by the German battleship BISMARK. 1500 British sailors were killed with only 3 survivors.

22 May 1945
United States authorities disclosed that Japanese balloon attacks have been, and continued to be made on the United States. One balloon had come down in Montana and another in British Columbia.

26 May 1953
Twelve Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighters were shot down over North Korea.

25 May 1954
United States Navy ZPG2 airship, flown by Commander M.H. Eppes and crew, landed at Key West, Florida after being airborne for just over 200 hours.

21 May 1956
The First United States hydrogen bomb was released from a B-52 Stratofortress and exploded over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

24 May 1958
The Bell X14 Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft made its first transition from hovering to forward flight.

24 May 1962
Mercury capsule Aurora 7 took Lieutenant Commander M. Scott Carpenter of the United States Navy into a three orbit space flight. Problems with the re-entry meant the capsule splashed down 260 miles from the intended target area.

21 May 1968
The nuclear powered submarine USS SCORPION was last heard from on this day. Later the remains of the sub were found. The crew of 99 had perished.

25 May 1970
The United States Government announced that its nuclear missiles were to be equipped with multiple warheads, called Multiple Individual Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs).

24 May 1976
Filipino troops stormed a Philippines Arlines DC-9 that was hijacked the day before by six terrorists and flown to Zimboanga airport. Three hijackers were killed, among 10 deaths in the ensuing battle, the remaining three hijackers were captured.

22 May 1990
The final flight of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter in Luftwaffe service took place, before the aircraft was withdrawn from service.
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That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.

Posted by Tom Kwiatkowski Sr. – Moderator of the 1941 Historic Aircraft Group Message Board

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