Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week in Military/Aviation History 15

Hello Folks, well, just like a bad advertisement, I’ve popped up again. Seven days closer to Christmas and the end of the year. Sure is speedin’ up isn’t it. I’m doing a countdown on the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Website Message Board and it seems like the numbers are on a roller instead of me changing them daily. I don’t know How many times I’ve checked them as they just had to be wrong, but…no joy…they were right. They say (I wish I knew who they are) time flies when you’re having fun, well, I can’t say I’m having fun with all that’s going on with the economy and such, but time’s flying for me anyway. Well, while I’ve still got some time left, let’s get down to some serious history shall we?

Have an AB FAN Week,

Take Care and Be Safe,

Tom K.

17 December 1903
At 1035hrs at Kill Devil Hills in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright pilots the Wright Flyer on a 36.5 meter (120 feet) flight lasting 12 seconds. This is the world’s first manned, powered, sustained and controlled flight by a heavier-than-air craft. Three further flights are made, including one lasting nearly a minute.

16 December 1914
Two United States Army lieutenants demonstrate two-way radio between ground and air using a Burgess-Wright aeroplane.

21 December 1915
Claudius Dornier attempts to flight test the giant German Zeppelin-Lindau RsI hydroplane on Lake Constance in Germany, but it fails to reach enough speed to take-off.

Winter 1915-1916
The first Russian Fighter Aviation Detachments are formed.

20 December 1916
The United States Army Balloon School is founded.

17 December 1917
German Navy Oberleutnant Christiansen, flying a Brandenburg W12 seaplane, shoots down the British non-rigid airship C27.

17 December 1918
The Aero Club of America lifts its ban on flying over cities, allowing pilots certified as ‘expert’ aviators to overfly populated areas. Post Office pilots had been permitted to do this since August.

15 December 1924
Following a failure two days earlier, a Sperry Messenger, successfully hooks up to United States Navy TC3 dirigible.

19 December 1928
Harold Pitcairn flies the first American autogyro in Philadelphia.

20 December 1928
Captain G.H. Wilkins and Lieutenant Carl B. Eielson complete the polar double by making the first flight over the Antarctic in a Lockheed Vega. They had already crossed the Arctic, flying over the North Pole, between 17-21 April.

17 December 1935
Douglas choose this famous date, the anniversary of powered flight, to make the first flight of their new Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST). Better known as the DC3, Dakota or C47 this aircraft arguably becomes the most famous transport aircraft in history.

18 December 1940
The German Henschel Hs 293A radio-controlled bomb makes its first flight.

18 December 1941
Following the destruction of his fifth Japanese aircraft over the Philippines Lieutenant ‘Buzz’ Wagner of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) becomes the first American ‘ace’ of the Second World War.

20 December 1941
The German Air Ministry instructs work to begin on the Amerika-Bomber project, with the intention of developing a bomber with transatlantic capability.

20-21 December 1942
Japanese bombers make the first night attack on Calcutta in India.

17 December 1943
Orville Wright, on the 40th Anniversary of making his first flight, presents the Collier Trophy for outstanding achievement in aviation to his former pupil General H.H. ‘Hap’ Arnold.

17 December 1944
The 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) is formed in Utah, to carry out United States atom bomb operations.

Major Richard Ira Bong, the United States Army Air Force’s most successful fighter pilot of the Second World War, scores his 40th and final victory.

18 December 1944
The first vertical launch of the German Bachem Ba 349 Natter takes place. The aircraft is intended for operational use as a manned, vertically-launched rocket-powered interceptor, but this first flight is un-manned.

21 December 1944
General Henry H. Arnold becomes General of the Army. He was the first American air officer to hold this five star rank, which had only been created by legislation signed on 15 December by the United States President Roosevelt.

17 December 1948
The 45th Anniversary of the first powered flight by the Wright brothers is celebrated by the return to the Smithsonian Institution of the original Wright Kitty Hawk Flyer which had been on display in the London Science Museum for many years.

17 December 1950
A National Emergency is declared in the United States, with plans to speed up production of military equipment.

18 December 1950
United States Air Force (USAF) F-86 Sabre jet fighters are in action against Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s over Korea. It is announced that aircraft from the carrier ‘Theseus’ have been in action during the last 10 days in North Korea.

15 December 1951
Air France and British European Airways (BEA) state their intention to introduce Tourist Class services on the London-Paris route.

17 December 1951
The United States Air Force (USAF) claims that its 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing in Korea has destroyed 130 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s over the last 12 months, with the loss of only fourteen Sabres.

16 December 1952
Six Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s are shot down by United States North American F-86 Sabres over North Korea. The United States Air Force activates its first helicopter squadron.

20 December 1952
86 of 116 men onboard are killed when a Douglas C-124 Globemaster crashes at Moses Lake airfield.

15 December 1955
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) approves a co-ordinated air defense and radar system for Western Europe.

19 December 1955
An agreement is reached between Aeroflot and British European Airways (BEA), covering the mutual operation of air services between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.

15 December 1959
A new world speed record of 2,455kph (1,525mph) is set by Major J.W. Rogers, flying a Convair F-106A Delta Dart.

16 December 1959
China Airlines is established.

15 December 1961
The United States Air Force (USAF) graduates its first five military space pilots from the Aerospace Research Pilots School.

21 December 1964
The first flight of the General Dynamics F-111A.

21-27 December 1968
Apollo 8 is launched, carrying astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders on a 6 day 3 hour 1 minute mission which includes a flight around the Moon.

17 December 1969
The first Lockheed C-5A Galaxy is handed over to the United States Air Force at Marietta in Georgia.

15 December 1970
Soviet probe Venera 7 becomes the first Spacecraft to land on Venus.

17 December 1971
A cease-fire in the Indian-Pakistan war is called and accepted by both sides.

19 December 1971
Ladislaw Bezak, a Czechoslovakian Airlines pilot defects to the west with his family. Bezak, flying a small Zlin aircraft, avoids Czech fighter patrols to land safely in Germany.

15 December 1980
After three years of negotiation, Messerscmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) and Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), reach an agreement on a proposed merger of the two companies.

17 December 1981
A Hughes OH6A helicopter, using controllable pressurised air release instead of a tail rotor, makes a successful first flight.

15 December 1982
The first British Aerospace (BAe) Jetstream 31 airliner for commercial use is delivered to Contactair of Stuttgart.

17 December 1985
The 50th anniversary of the Douglas DC-3: it is estimated that on this date around 350 are still in commercial service.

21 December 1988
Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am) Boeing 747 ‘Maid of the Seas’ is destroyed in mid-air by a terrorist bomb over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 people on the ground are killed.

17 December 1993
The first B-2 Stealth bomber is delivered to the United States Air Force (USAF).

15 December 1996
A merger between the United States aerospace giants Boeing and McDonnell Douglas is agreed and the new company will be known as Boeing.

16 December 1997
The United Arab Emirates orders thirty Dassault Breguet Mirage 2000-9 aircraft to replace the Mirage V, in a deal worth $2.9 million.

19 December 2000
Airbus Industrie gives final approval to build the Airbus A3XX, now renamed the A380. Customers placing orders for the aircraft include Virgin Atlantic and Air France. Talks with British Airways, Fedex and Cathay Pacific are reported to be underway.

18 December 2001
The Czech government announces the purchase of 72 SAAB/BAe Systems Gripen aircraft, in a deal worth CzK 50 billion ($1.35 billion). The contract is the second success for the Gripen in Eastern Europe, having recently secured an order from Hungary. ==================================================================== That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.

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