Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 8

Hello Folks, seven more down the tubes and here we are again. I think I told you my hobby of choice has been Aviation-Related Jigsaw Puzzles. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now. I took a break from my other hobby of choice which was building aircraft model kits. Plastic, out-of-the-box type. Well, I’ve been slowly working my way back to doing these. Since I left I noticed there have been some changes. The kits have gone way up in price. I think because styrene plastic is petroleum-based and along with a lot of other things there are very few domestic model manufacturers. The largest selection is of kits are manufactured in and imported from other countries. The largest of these from (Yep, you guessed it) China. Many of their kits range from $80-$175. I remember when the only way I could get a kit in that price range was as a gift. Now, if I can find a kit marked down to as close to $100 as possible, I think I’ve got a bargain. Of course these kits have many parts and are multi-media. The newest kit I bought is a Trumpeter 1/48th scale C-47A. It’s normally a $150 kit. I found it for $107, see, a bargain. I have not yet assembled a multi-media kit. Some of the MONOGRAM Pro Modeler kits delved into multi-media with photo-etched metal parts but gave you a plastic option if you wanted. Now there is no choice. Well, there are the aftermarket sets you can purchase to spiff up your kit in the cockpit or landing gear or even use them to modify the kit to a different type model by either backdating it or updating it. I’ve never scratchbuilt anything, but have admired other Folks who have. About the only thing I’ve done is bought different decal markings for a kit. Oh well, I can’t wait for the kit to get here. I want to see the 111 photo-etched metal parts there are supposed to be in there. Hey, go big or stay home, right? (Yeah, right.) While I’m thinking about what I may have done to myself, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?
Have An AB FAN (ABsolutely FANtastic) week,
Take Care and Be Safe,
Tom K.;)

13 September 1906
Alberto Santos-Dumont’s 14-bis biplane makes a first hop of 7 meters (23 feet).

8 September 1910
The first recorded aerial collision occurs when two brothers named Warchalovski crash in Austria.

14 September 1910
Zeppelin LZ6 is destroyed by fire at Boden-Oos.
The French Army use nine airplanes in maneuvers as Henry Farman sets up an army flying school.

8 September 1911
Emmanuel Helen wins a Michelin cup at Etamples in France, covering 777 miles in 14 hours 4 minutes 40 seconds, with 3 stops.

9 September 1912
Jules Vedrines wins the Gordon Bennett cup by flying a world record speed of 173kph (108mph) in his Monocoque Deperdussin monoplane at Chicago.

11 September 1912
Lieutenant Moizo, an Italian, is the first pilot to be captured in warfare when his Nieuport makes a forced landing at Azizia during the Libyan campaign. Moizo, at the time of his capture, was the longest serving pilot in the theater with 11 months and 82 sorties to his name.

12 September 1912
The first French naval airplane, a Maurice Farman fitted with pontoons, is purchased.

9 September 1913
The first German Navy airship, Zeppelin LZ14 (L1), crashes into the North Sea off Heligoland, killing most of the 20 crew.

14 September 1915
German pilot Ernst Udet loses part of the upper wing of his Aviatik B airplane during a bombing mission, but returns safely.

12 September 1916
A Hewitt-Sperry radio-controlled flying bomb is tested in America. Powered by a 29kW (10 horse-power) engine it carries a payload of 140 kilos (308 pounds) of explosives up to 80 kilometers (50 miles).

11 September 1917
French fighter ace Capitaine Georges Guynemer is killed.

12-15 September 1918
An assault on the Saint Mihiel Salient, during the Battle of Bapaume, sees the largest number of aircraft assembled for a single operation. 1,483 aircraft of all types, under the command of Brigadier General William ‘Billy’ Mitchell, support American and British ground forces.

14 September 1938
The first flight of Zeppelin LZ130 ‘Graf Zeppelin’.

14 September 1941
Messerschmitt Me 321 heavy assault transport gliders (sailplanes) of Staffel [GS] 1 are used for the first time in an operational air assault on Saaremaa island in the Baltic, as part of an attempt to capture the fort of Kübarsaare.

12 September 1942
The 89th Bombardment Squadron of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) makes the first use of para-fragmentation bombs, during sweeps over Buna airstrip in New Guinea.

9 September 1943
The 46,200 ton Italian battleship Roma is sunk by two Ruhrstahl/Kramer Fritz X1 radio controlled bombs launched from Luftwaffe Dornier Do 217s.

12 September 1943
Benito Mussolini is rescued by German glider (sailplane) troops from a hotel in the Gran Sasso mountains where he is being held prisoner. He is airlifted to safety in a Fieseler Fi156 Storch aircraft.

8 September 1944
Two German V-2 ballistic rockets land in Paris and, later in the day, the first V-2 launched against England lands at Chiswick in West London. Two people are killed and several injured.

10 September 1945
USS Midway, the first of the United States Navy’s 45,000 ton class carriers is commissioned at Newport News in Virginia.

11-12 September 1946
The first post war meeting of the Fédération Aéronautique International (FAI).

14 September 1948
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) crews join operations on the Berlin Airlift.

13 September 1951
The impending formation of the United States Air Force’s first guided-missile squadron is announced. The squadron will be equipped with Matador B61s, a surface-to-surface jet powered pilotless bomber.

The first helicopter troop transport operation takes place when United States Marines of 1st Division are flown into Inje Punch Bowl battle zone in Korea.

11 September 1953
The United States Air Force (USAF) announces that the Sidewinder air-to-air missile (AAM) has made its first completely successful interception, destroying a Grumman F6F Hellcat drone.

9 September 1959
NASA’s test version of the mercury astronaut capsule is recovered successfully from the Caribbean Sea.

12 September 1959
The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 space probe is launched. and becomes the first man-made object to impact on the Moon.

13 September 1965
The first hot air balloon record is homologated by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. B. Bogan of the United States reaches an altitude of 2,978 meters (9,780 feet).

12 September 1970
The three airliners hijacked on the 6 September are blown up by Palestinian Terrorists after they release most of the 255 passengers. The Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am) 747 is blown up after all aboard have been freed. These incidents highlight the vulnerability of international air travel as a terrorist target.

11 September 1971
Israel shoots down an Egyptian Sukhoi Su-7 fighter bomber.

14 September 1984
High-altitude parachute jumper, ex-United States Air Force (USAF) Colonel Joe Kittenger begins the first solo, non-stop balloon flight across the Atlantic. Kittenger’s flight takes two days.

12 September 1995
The first of 72 McDonnell Douglas F-15S Eagles, ordered for the Royal Saudi Arabian Air Force, is delivered.

8 September 1997
The Boeing 777-300 is rolled out. At 73 meters (242 feet) it is the longest airliner ever built.

11 September 2001
An American Airlines and a United Airlines Boeing 767, each flying from Boston to Los Angeles, are hijacked by terrorists. The commandeered aircraft are flown by the terrorists themselves to New York, where they are crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. The attack results in the collapse of the Twin Towers and the deaths of 2,800 passengers and office workers.

An American Airlines Boeing 757, en route from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles is also hijacked and hits the Pentagon in Washington. A second Boeing 757 is hijacked while flying from Newark to San Fransisco, but passengers overpower the hijackers and the aircraft crashes near Pittsburgh, killing all 45 people on board. The attacks force the closure of American airspace and exacerbate the downturn in the international airline industry.

12 September 2001
Australia’s second biggest airline, Ansett, declares bankruptcy. Although on the verge of bankruptcy for some time, it is thought the terrorist attacks in America pushed the company over the edge.
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That’s it for this week, Folks. See ya in seven

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