Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 4

Hello Folks, Gee, has it been a week already? You bet your sweet aspercream. Not much has happened on my end. My better-half got the annual printout of my meds. Unfortunately, things like that show me how high maintenance I really am. I don’t have the best health insurance in the world, but without it I would really be up the creek without a paddle. I can see where some Folks, unfortunately, have to choose between living (gas, rent, food, etc.) and their meds. It is sad. My sad part is that most of my meds are the generic equivalent, and they’re still expensive. Oh well, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?

10 February 1908
The United States Army signed a contract with the Wright brothers for the construction of a Wright Model A biplane.

5 February 1919
German airline Deutsche Luft-Reederei began the first sustained daily passenger airline service, flying modified ex-military AEG and DFW biplanes between Berlin and Weimar in Germany.

8 February 1919
The first airline passengers to be carried from Paris to London were flown by a Farman F 60 Goliath from Toussus-le-Noble to Kenley.

7 February 1920
The first post-war world speed record was set by Frenchman Sadi Lecointe in a Newport-Delage 29 with a speed of 171 m.p.h.

4 February 1944
The Japanese launched 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 USAF Military Air Transport Service (MATS) was established.

4 February 1949
The United States Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) authorized the use of Ground-Controlled Approach (GCA) radar as a primary landing aid in bad weather.

8 February 1950
A Lockheed Neptune of the United States Navy established a distance record for carrier-launched aircraft flying 5,156 miles in 25 hours 59 minutes, non-stop from the Atlantic to San Francisco.

5 February 1951
The USA and Canada announced their intention to set up a Distant Early Warning (DEW) system for North America.

6 February 1951
The USAF announced that it lost 223 aircraft in Korea, mostly through accidents, up to January 1951. The USN and Marine aircraft losses were 382.

4 February 1958
The keel of the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was laid.

9 February 1969
The first flight of the Boeing 747 prototype took place.

4-10 February 1982
The Sikorsky company used an S76II to set twelve new helicopter class records.

7 February 1984
The first un-tethered space walk was achieved by Captain Bruce McCandless. He left the Challenger Space Shuttle 184 miles above Hawaii, wearing a jet-powered ‘manned maneuvering unit’ back-pack that he had helped to design and ‘walked’ 300 feet out and back without a safety line.

10 February 1993
Taiwan unveiled 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 was now ready to go into full production.

9 February 1996
The German Second World War fighter ace General Adolph Galland died aged 83.

8 February 1998
Former Lockheed test pilot Anthony W. ‘Tony’ LeVier died 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.

5-9 February 2003
The Euro-India show was held at Bangalore.
Fina Air began services.
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That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.

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