Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History: 24

Hello Folks, well, this post is the last full week of this year already. The next time I show up we’ll be into the new year. I hope you had a wonderful and safe Christmas and you will have a Happy and safe New Year’s Eve. This has been quite a year, hasn’t it? Next year is shaping up to be a doozy too, what with the Presidential campaigning and election. The big questions (in my opinion) being: will our troops finally come home next year and if they do, what will the impact be.?. Also, the F-15 grounding is causing a severe strain on the other aircraft in the inventory. what will happen with this? Next, although Afghanistan isn’t getting the press Iraq is, what about those troops? And finally, will we ever catch Osama Bin Laden? Well, before I say something really PI (Politically Incorrect), let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?

28 December 1913
The first flight at an altitude of over 20,000 feet was made by Georges Legagneux, flying at 20,079 feet in his Nieuport Type IIN at St. Raphael in France.

29 December 1913
The first flight from France to Egypt was completed after a month by Frenchman Jules Vedrines on a Bleriot monoplane.

28 December 1916
Zeppelins LZ53 (L17) and LZ69 (L24) were destroyed in a fire in their shed in Tondem. In a separate incident Schutte-Lunz SL 12 (E5) was also wrecked.

29 December 1916
In Russia, Zeppelin LZ84 (L38) made a forced landing.

27 December 1935
The USAAC dropped bombs to divert a lava flow off Mauna Loa at Hilo in Hawaii - the first recorded use of aerial bombs for this purpose.

30 December 1936
French Woman Mademoiselle Marye Bastie flew from Dakar in Senegal to Natal in Brazil, in a time of 12 hours 5 minutes.

26 December 1937
Pan American World Airwys flying boat ‘Samoa Clipper’ inaugurated the first air mail and freight service between the USA and New Zealand.

28 December 1939
Germany’s Lufthansa and Russia’s Aeroflot agreed to resume air services in 1940 between the two capitals.

28 December 1941
Australian National Airlines began evacuation of civilians from Rabaul in the Solomon Islands.

24 December 1942
The Germans lost their last remaining landing ground in the Stalingrad pocket, when Tatsinskaya was over run by Soviet tanks.

Australian and United States forces recaptured the Buna airstrip in New Guinea.

The first launch of Germany’s V1 surface-to-surface pilotless plane took place.

26 December 1943
Intensive pre-invasion bombing of Cape Gloucester in New Britain by the 5th USAAF tok place.

29 December 1948
The US Defense Secretary announced the work had begun on an “earth satellite vehicle program.”

29 December 1952
A civil aviation agreement between Britain and Japan was signed.

29 December 1955
Air France announced its order for 24 nationally built Caravelles and ten Boeing 707s.

28 December 1956
The first CL28, a maritime reconnaissance version of the Bristol Britannia, was completed by Canadair in Montreal.

29 December 1972
It was revealed at a press conference in Montevideo that the survivors of a Uruguayan airliner crash in the Andes, which occurred on October 13, were forced to eat those who had died in the crash in order to stay alive.

26 December 1975
The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner entered service, flying from Alma Ata in Kazakhstan. The new service was intended to carry mail and freight between the two destinations which are 1,864 miles apart.

25-26 December 1979
Soviet airborne troops invaded Kabul in the beginning of the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan. Five Soviet regiments were airlifted into Afghanistan and the Sovit/Afghan border, in over 100 flights by Russian transport aircraft.

29 December 1987
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko landed in Soyuz TM3 after spending 326 consecutive days in space.

29 December 1996
Two USAF Joint Surveillance and Target Attack System (JSTARS) modified Boeing 707s were deployed to assist NATO ground forces in Bosnia.

27 December 1998
Lieutenant Colonel Robert “Bob” Johnson, the top-scoring Second World War American ace, died aged 78.

24 December 1999
After one passenger was murdered, the Indian government allowed the hijacker of an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 to go free in order to safeguard the lives of the other 150 passengers.
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That’s it for this week, Folks. See you next year.

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