Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 14

Well Folks, as I stated last week was the “Big Week” for the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum. Biplane Rally, Air Show and USO Memories Show. All part of history now. Most things went well. I’ll find out more as time goes on. If you attended, I hope your experience was pleasant. If you were unable to attend, there are some fantastic photos posted on the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum Website Message Board. http://www.1941hag.org subheading Message Board. Stop by for a look. You’re always welcome. Next year’s Air Show will be held July 10, 11 & 12, 2009. Now, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?
Take Care and Be Safe,
Tom K.

18 July 1914
The Aviation Section of the United States Army Signal Corps is formed.

18 July 1915
Katherine Stinson becomes the first woman to loop-the-loop while performing aerobatics at Chicago.

19 July 1915
Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer scores his first victory while flying a Morane-Saulnier Parasol 2-seat monoplane, eventually he becomes the highest scoring French pilot in the First World War.

15 July 1916
Pacific Aero Products is founded by William E. Boeing.

15 July 1918
General Ludendorff launches the final major attack of the German spring Offensive at Reims. It fails by the 18th.

14 July 1919
An Italian Fiat BR light bomber makes the first non-stop flight between Rome and Paris.

18 July 1919
Self-styled Baroness Raymonde de Laroche, the first French women to get her flying license, is killed in a flying accident in northern France.

17 July 1927
United States Marine Corps (USMC) de Havilland DH4s attack hostile Nicaraguan forces surrounding the Marine Corps garrison at Ocotal in Nicaragua.

17 July 1929
American Dr Robert H. Goddard successfully launches a camera equipped rocket.

15-22 July 1933
Wiley Post, flying a Lockheed Vega, makes the first round the world solo flight. His flight begins and ends at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, with a route via Berlin, Moscow, Irkutsk and Alaska – a total distance of 5,099 kilometers (15,596 miles).

18 July 1936
Simultaneous revolts in seventeen military garrisons in Spain and Spanish Morocco mark the start of the Spanish Civil War.

20 July 1936
Twenty Ju52/3m bomber transports arrive in Seville. In the following six weeks these aircraft undertake the world’s first large scale airlift, moving 7,350 Nationalist troops and artillery from Morocco to Spain.

14 July 1938
Howard Hughes, the American aviator, and four companions arrive in New York after a round the world flight of 15,432 miles. They complete the journey in 3 days 19 hours 17 minutes.

18 July 1943
The United States Navy (USN) airship K74 is shot down off the Florida coast by a German submarine. This is the only United States airship to be destroyed by enemy action during the Second World War.

17 July 1944
United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Lockheed P-38 Lightnings use napalm for the first time, during attacks on a fuel depot at Coutances, south-west of St Lo in France.

14 July 1945
United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Douglas A-20s operating from Hollandia attack Japanese-held oil fields at Boela on Ceram Island. They use rocket bombs for the first time in the southwest Pacific.

16 July 1945
The first atom bomb is successfully detonated at Alamogordo in New Mexico in the United States.

Major General Curtis LeMay takes command of the 20th United States Army Air Force (USAAF).

20 July 1948
The first west to east crossing of the North Atlantic by turbojet powered aircraft is recorded by sixteen Lockheed F-80 Shooting Stars. They fly from Selfridge Field in Michigan to Scotland.

15-31 July 1952
The first helicopter crossing of the North Atlantic is made by by Captain Vincent H. McGovern and Lieutenant Harold Moore, flying Sikorsky S-55 helicopters from Massachusetts to Ayrshire in 42 hours 25 minutes.

19 July 1952
The United States Air Force (USAF) announces that it has successfully flown free balloons at controlled constant altitudes in the stratosphere, for periods of over 3 days.

16 July 1953
Lieutenant Colonel W.F. Barnes of the United States Air Force (USAF), flying a North American F-86D Sabre, sets the world’s first speed record over 700mph. The record of 1,151kph (715mph) is ratified by the FI.

16 July 1958
Ghana Airways inaugurates its first international operations.

14 July 1959
A new world altitude record of 28,852 meters (94,659 feet) is set by Major V. Ilyushin flying the Sukhoi T431.

19 July 1961
Trans World Airlines (TWA) becomes the first airline to introduce regular in-flight movies. Screened only in the first-class section of aircraft flying between New York and Los Angeles, the first film was ‘By Love Possessed’ with Lana Turner and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

19 July 1963
Joe Walker increases the height record for the North American X-15A to 106,010 meters (347,800 feet).

16-24 July 1969
NASA’s Apollo 11, crewed by Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E.A. ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins, is launched to the Moon and on 21 July Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the Moon.

20 July 1974
Turkey makes extensive use of air power in the invasion of Cyprus.

15-24 July 1975
A combined United States/USSR space mission is held, during which Soyuz 19 and the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) dock together in Earth orbit. General Thomas Stafford and Colonel Alexei Leonor shake hands 140 miles above Bognor Regis, marking a new era of co-operation in space.

17 July 1980
Cathay Pacific become the first airline to operate the Boeing 747 between Hong Kong and London.

15 July 1989
French air-traffic controllers go on strike, causing delays and frustration for thousands of holiday makers.

17 July 1989
The Northrop B-2, the most expensive aircraft in history, at a cost of $516 million, makes its first flight.

17 July 1991
$1 million in cash is stolen during a scheduled Air France flight from Corsica to Paris. The thief hides in the aircraft’s hold during the flight, and breaks into two sealed sacks in which the cash is being carried.
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That’s all for this week Folks. See ya in seven.

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