Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 30 June

Hello Folks, did it seem like a week went by to you? Not to me. I think I’m on some kind of time acceleration deal. The weather here in the Northeast is finally starting to not be so erratic. July is here and it’s really about time. Well, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?
Have an AB FAB week,
Take Care and Be Safe,
Tom K.

1 July 1907
An Aeronautical Division is established within the office of the Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army and becomes the first ‘heavier-than-air’ military unit. Under the command of Captain Charles de Forest Chandler, the unit’s strength was one officer, one non-commissioned officer and one enlisted man. A contract was placed with the Wright brothers for an aircraft and flight tests began in August.

30 June 1910
American Glenn Hammond Curtiss drops dummy bombs on the shape of a battleship marked out on Lake Keuka.

1 July 1911
The first United States Navy (USN) aeroplane, a Curtiss A1 Triad hydro-aeroplane, is flown.

6 July 1911
The Aerotechnical Institute of Saint-Cyr, France, opens in a building rented from Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe.

2 July 1912
The Danish Army Flying School is established.

5 July 1912
Americans Captain Charles Chandler and Lieutenants Thomas Milling and Henry Arnold are presented with certificates qualifying them as the first United States ‘Military Aviators’.

1 July 1913
The Dutch Luchtvaartafdeling is formed.

4 July 1914
The American Georgia ‘Tiny’ Broadwick makes the first parachute jump with a manually operated parachute, at San Diego. The rip-cord might have been invented earlier but this was the first time it had been operated, as previous versions were only safety back-up systems to be used if the static line failed.

1 July 1915
German Fokker E1 monoplane fighters, the first aeroplanes to be fitted with synchronized machine-guns, enabling them to be fired through the propeller arc, are introduced on the Eastern Front.

The Office of Naval Aeronautics is formed to oversee United States naval air operations.

A French Morane-Saulnier monoplane is destroyed by Leutnant Kurt Wintgens, flying a Fokker M5K with synchronized machine-gun equipment.

5 July 1915
German Army airship Schutte-Lanz SL5 is wrecked after it is forced to land during a gale.

1 July 1916
The Russian Aviation Experimental Bureau (RIB) is established at the Moscow Higher Technical School.

30 June 1917
Lieutenant Colonel William ‘Billy’ Mitchell replaces Major T.F. Dodd as Aviation Officer of the American Expeditionary Forces.

July 1919
Compagnie des Transports Aéronautiques du Sud-Ouest is formed as a charter operator flying to points around the Bay of Biscay.

1 July 1924
The first regular transcontinental airmail flights begin in the USA.

2 July 1926
The United States Army Air Service (USAAS) changes its name to the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC).

3-5 July 1928
A Savoia-Marchetti S64 monoplane, flown by Italians Captain Arturo Ferrarin and Maggiore Carlo Del Prete, breaks distance records with a flight of over 7,000 kilometers.

3 July 1929
A successful conclusion to the ‘parasite’ trials is reached when a modified Vought VO-1, flown by Lieutenant A.W. Gordon, hooks onto United States Navy (USN) airship ‘Los Angeles’.

1 July 1933
Unable to immediately purchase Boeing Model 247s, Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) had requested that the Douglas Aircraft Company develop a competitor. The Douglas DC-1 makes its first flight on this date.

1-15 July 1933
24 Italian Savoia-Marchetti S55X flying boats, under the command of General Italo Balbo, make the first transatlantic formation flight. The flight between Italy and Chicago in Illinois is to take part in the Century of Progress Exposition.

2 July 1937
Amelia Earhart and Captain Fred Noonan are lost over the Pacific during an attempted round the world flight.

July 1939
The first operational use of Soviet 82mm RS82 air-to-ground rockets takes place near Khalkin Gol in Outer Mongolia.

1 July 1942
The first Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress for the 8th United States Army Air Force (USAAF) lands at Prestwick in Scotland.

1 July 1945
With air support from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the 5th and 13th United States Army Air Force (USAAF), the Australian 7th division lands on the South-east coast of Borneo.

2 July 1945
Japanese authorities begin a major evacuation of people from Tokyo, due to heavy and continuous air attacks by the Americans.

1 July 1946
Operation Crossroads: a Boeing B-29 of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) drops an atomic bomb over 73 naval vessels anchored at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

3 July 1947
The Philippine Air Force is re-established.

30 June 1950
It is announced that American ground forces have left Japan for operations in Korea and that No.77 Fighter Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), with American Mustang fighters, has been offered for service in Korea.

3 July 1950
The first United States naval jet fighters are involved in air combat, including Grumman F9F2 Panthers flown from the carrier USS Valley Forge.

6 July 1951
Four United States RF-80As are refuelled by a KB-29 tanker over North Korea. This is the first in-flight refuelling under combat conditions.

1 July 1952
The Portuguese Air Force is formed, with the unification of Portuguese Arma da Aeronautica and Aviacao Maritima.

1 July 1953
Civil air traffic control in West Germany is handed over to the Federal German Government.

1 July 1954
Japanese National Defense Forces are officially constituted.

1 July 1958
Royal Nepal Airlines is formed as a wholly government-owned airline, operating domestic services.

30 June 1968
The Lockheed C-5A Galaxy makes its first flight from Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.

4 July 1969
The modern hang glider is developed in United States by Australian Bill Moyes, while working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The first flight is made by fellow Australian Bill Bennett who takes off on water skis near Staten Island in New York and then flies over the Statue of Liberty.

30 June 1977
United States President Carter announces the cancellation of the B-1 bomber project, favoring instead cruise missiles in place of the piloted bomber.

4 July 1977
Patricia Undall and Nan Gaylord win the 30th and final annual women’s United States transcontinental air race, nicknamed ‘The Powder Puff Derby’.

3 July 1981
Aeroflot inaugurates its first international service with the Ilyushin Il 86 on the airline’s Moscow-East Berlin route.

1 July 1982
Denmark integrates its three armed services, although each will retain a separate identity.

2 July 1982
The first 112 Panavia Tornados for the Federal German Marineflieger are delivered.

Free Enterprise, designed to fly around the world non-stop and without refueling, crashes on a test flight, killing its pilot Tom Jewett.

2 July 1984
Escadron de Chasse (EC) ½ at Dijon is the first unit to become operational with the Dassault-Breguet Mirage 2000.

2-3 July 1987
Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson complete the first transatlantic balloon flight in ‘Virgin Atlantic’, the largest hot-air balloon the world had ever seen, with a capacity of 60,314 cubic meters (2,130,000 cubic feet). Virgin Atlantic covers 3,075 miles from Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine to Eglinton in County Londonderry in 31 hours 41 minutes.

July 1988
A proposal for a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq war is advanced.

1 July 1988
CAAC, the Chinese state airline, changes its name to become Air China.

3 July 1988
An Iranian Air Airbus 300 is shot down by the United States Navy (USN) guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, after mistaking it for an Iranian Grumman F-14 Tomcat, killing all 286 people on board.

1 July 1989
The crowd at the Paris air show is stunned when the Soviet Sukhoi Su-27 performs its ‘Cobra’ maneuver. The Cobra sees the aircraft transfer from level flight to a vertical attitude and back to level flight with negligible changes in altitude.

4 July 1989
One person is killed when a Soviet Air Force Mikoyan MiG-23 crashes near Courtrai in Belgium. The pilot had ejected over Polish airspace due to technical problems with the aircraft. The MiG-23 was then escorted by two United States Air Force (USAF) McDonnell Douglas F-15s under orders not to attack unless the aircraft was about to come down on a town.

4 July 1992
The aircraft carrier USS George Washington comes into service.

5 July 1995
The first Panavia Tornado F.3 leased from the Royal Air Force (RAF) enters service with the Italian Air Force.

4 July 1997
The Mars Pathfinder lands on the surface of Mars after its 6 month journey from Earth.

July 2000
United Airlines buys its rival, United States Airways, in a $11.6 billion deal. The deal strengthens the Star alliance, a group of airlines that includes United and Lufthansa, and puts pressure on British Airways to consolidate its rival OneWorld grouping.
Negotiations are finalized by the Indian Navy for a further six Tupolev Tu 142M maritime surveillance aircraft from Russia, costing approximately $200 million.

3 July 2001
More than three months after its emergency landing at Lingshui airbase in China, the United States Navy EP-3E Aries III is air freighted back to America on a chartered Russian An 124. The Chinese Government insist that a civilian aircraft be used to remove the aircraft.

2-3 July 2005
Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreated the first direct crossing of the Atlantic by the British team of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown on 14 June, 1919 in a Vickers Vimy bi-plane.
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That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.

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