Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 28 July

Hello Folks, well not only has another week flown by, but a month is about to fade into history. It amazes me how quickly they do go by. If you pick up the September issue of Air Classics, you will see the is a short article written by Aviation Artist and 1941 Historical Aircraft Group’s Air Show Coordinator Frank H. Schaufler concerning the change in the nose art on the late Dave Tallichet’s B-17 “Memphis Belle,” now known as “The Movie Memphis Belle.” It was decided to change the nose art to stop a problem with the Air Force Museum concerning “possible confusion” between the original “Memphis Belle” and Mr. Tallichet’s “Belle.” For some reason it became unacceptable to have one flying and one being restored. Frank won the contract to stylize the nose art more in keeping with the nose art used in the movie “Memphis Belle.” At first both beauties had red nighties in keeping with the movie version, (blue apparently did not register as well as red), but the starboard Beauty now sports a blue nightie. This is closer to historical as the original “Belle” had her port Beauty in blue and her starboard in red. Reversed, stylized, renamed, this aircraft is still a fitting tribute to the historical aircraft being restored and the crew that flew her. Now, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?
Take Care and Be Safe,
Tom K.;)

August 1907
The first aerodrome with hangars, opens at Issy-les-Moulineaux in France.

2 August 1909
The United States Government buys its first aeroplane, a Wright Model A, for $30,000. This includes a bonus of $5,000 because the aeroplane exceeds the official specification.

August 1910
Harry Ferguson pilots the first passenger flight to be flown in Ireland.

2 August 1911
Harriet Quimby becomes the first American female pilot.

3 August 1911
A Voisin biplane lands on the River Seine using the aircraft’s amphibious landing gear.

31 July 1912
Lieutenant T.G. Ellyson pilots the first aeroplane to be catapult-launched from a wall platform at Annapolis, USA.

2 August 1913
The Sikorsky Le Grand (Russky Vityaz) makes a flight of 1 hour 54 minutes with 8 passengers on board.

30 July 1914
Norwegian Tryggve Gran makes the first flight across the North Sea, flying a Blériot monoplane.

31 July 1914
The Swiss air arm is formed as the Fliegertruppe.

1 August 1914
Germany declares war on Russia.

30 July 1915
Leutnant Max Immelman flies a Fokker M8 in preparation for his first flight in an armed E1 fighter the next day.

1 August 1915
Leutnant Max Immelman shoots down his first enemy aircraft in his Fokker E1 monoplane, equipped with a single synchronized LMG 08 machine gun.

2-3 August 1916
The German airship Schutte-Lanz SL11 is shot down over London, losing the entire crew.

31 July 1917
The Third Battle of Ypres, better known as Passchendaele, begins. Approximately 850 Allied aircraft contend with some 600 German for control of the air over the battlefield.

1 August 1917
The Australian naval air fleet is formed.

August 1918
During this month, German Fokker DVII fighters claim 565 kills over the Western Front.

30 July 1921
Flying a Caudron, Francois Durafour lands and takes off from Mont Blanc.

3 August 1921
The first experiments in aerial crop dusting are carried out by Lieutenant John B. Macready on behalf of the Ohio Agricultural Experimental Station at Troy in Ohio. Using a Curtiss JN6 with a specially designed hopper fitted to the side of the fuselage 175 pounds of powdered arsenate of lead is distributed over 4,815 trees in an orchard.

The flight takes place at 20-35 feet and is accomplished in six nine-second discharges. Two days later C.R. Neillie, the Cleveland entomologist who had suggested the idea, reported “evidences of the wholesale destruction of insects were everywhere apparent.” Less than 1% of the insects in the dusted area had survived.

August 1924
The Bolivian Air Force (Cuerpo de Aviación) is formed.

28 July 1926
The first recovery of a seaplane by a submarine is completed by the United States Navy (USN) during experimental trials.

30 July 1927
Don Juan de la Cierva becomes the first passenger to fly in an autogyro when he flies in the Cierva C6D, which had made its first flight the day before.

August 1938
Soviet Air Group in Spain begins its withdrawal and its equipment is handed over to the Republican forces.

1 August 1941
The first use of Soviet ‘parasite’ Polikarpov I16SPB dive bombers, a variant of the standard fighter, carried under wings of the Tupolev TB3 heavy bomber, occurs during a successful attack on Constanza in Romania.

The United States bans the export of aviation fuel, except to the United Kingdom and unoccupied nations. This comes as severe blow to the Japanese and their continuing war in China.

1 August 1943
A female Russian fighter pilot, Junior Lieutenant Lydia Litvak of the 73rd Guards Fighter Air Regiment, is killed in action.

United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Consolidated B-24 Liberators based in the Mediterranean make a low level attack on the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania. This is the first low level mission against this vital Axis target and is the longest bombing raid to date. 177 aircraft are dispatched, 164 reach their targets, 49 are shot down and a further 7 are interned in Turkey.

29 July 1944
A battle damaged Boeing B-29 Superfortress of the 20th United States Army Air Force (USAAF) lands at Vladivostok and is immediately seized by the Soviets, followed by another three, seized later in the year. The aircraft are carefully dismantled, examined and serve as pattern aircraft for the construction of the Tupolev Tu4 ‘Bull’ aircraft.

2 August 1944
The 1st Allied Airborne Army is formed under the command of Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton.

28 July 1945
A North American B-25 Mitchell bomber of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF), flying in bad visibility, collides with the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in New York. 19 people are killed, including the crew of six, and twenty-six people are injured.

30 July 1945
The Mediterranean Allied Air Forces are disbanded.

1 August 1945
851 Boeing B-29s mount the largest operation against Japanese cities.

3 August 1947
The first public appearance of the Tupolev Tu4 heavy bomber takes place at the Soviet Aviation Day parade. The aircraft is a reverse engineered copy of the American B-29.

1 August 1951
An American and Canadian agreement, leading to the development and construction of an early warning system, is ratified.

Japan Air Lines is formed.

29 July 1952
The first non-stop transpacific flight by a jet aircraft is completed by a North American RB-45 flying from Alaska to Japan.

3 August 1954
The 2nd prototype of Convair XF2Y1 Sea Dart exceeds Mach 1 in a shallow dive, becoming the first water-based aircraft in the world to exceed the speed of sound.

29 July 1955
The United States announces its intention to launch a small earth-satellite during the International Geophysical Year from July 1957.

1 August 1955
The United States begins its first zero-gravity research experiments using Lockheed T-33 trainers to study the effects of weightlessness.

31 July 1957
The North American Distance Early Warning (DEW) line early warning system is reported as fully operational.

31 July 1964
A.H. Parker, flying an Arlington Sisu 1A, sets the first flight distance record over 1,000 kilometre in a glider (sailplane) of 1,040 kilometres (646 miles).

2 & 4 August 1964
United States destroyers are attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats. The attacks are largely countered by air action.

28 July 1976
Captain E.W. Joersz and Major G.T. Morgan Jr set a new world speed record for an air breathing craft, of 3,529kph (2,193mph) in a Lockheed SR71 Blackbird.

1-8 August 1980
The Experimental Aircraft Association’s 28th Convention at Oshkosh in Wisconsin sets a new visitor record with 250,000 people and 6,000 aircraft attending the first day.

3 August 1981
The Boeing company delivers its 4,000th jetliner, a 727-200, for Ansett Airlines of Australia.

29 July 1982
Mexico’s main airline Compania Mexicana de Aviacion is nationalised.

28 July 1986
Seven American aircraft companies submit designs for the Advanced Tactical Fighter program and of these, the Lockheed-Burbank YF-22A and Northrop YF-23A are later chosen for development.

1 August 1988
The Soviet Union begins the destruction of its SS20 missiles in accordance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

31 July 1997
The McDonnell Douglas company is taken-over by Boeing.

August 2000
Airbus Industrie announces its reorganization from a consortium of companies to a single corporate entity called the Airbus Integrated Company. The reorganization comes as a means to acquire sufficient funding for the A3XX program and the new company will formally exist from 1 January 2001.

2 August 2005
Air France Flight 358 bursts into flames after skidding off the end of a runway after landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. All 309 people aboard survive.
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That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.

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