Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This week in Military/Aviation History 22-28 December

Hello Folks, this is the last full week of military/aviation history for this year! Next time will end one year and begin another. Can you believe it? We’re in the middle of our second big snowstorm this weekend here in Rochester, New York. I’m close enough to the Lake to get the full benefit of Lake-effect snowstorms. How lucky I am. Well, while I’m enjoying the holidays and the weather that comes with them, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?

Have an AB FAN week,

Be Safe,

Tom K.

23 December 1907
The United States Army makes a request for tenders after the first specification for a military aeroplane is issued for commercial tender.

28 December 1913
The first flight at an altitude of over 20,000 feet is made by Georges Legagneux, flying at 6,120 metres (20,079 feet) in his Nieuport Type IIN at St Raphael in France.

28 December 1916
Zeppelins LZ53 (L17) and LZ69 (L24) are destroyed in a fire at their shed at Tondem. In a separate incident Schutte-Lanz SL12 (E5) is also wrecked.

22 December 1917
Peace negotiations begin between Bolshevik Russia and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk.

27 December 1935
The United States Air Corps (USAAC) drops bombs to divert a lava flow off Mauna Loa at Hilo in Hawaii – the first recorded use of aerial bombs for this purpose.

26 December 1937
Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am) flying-boat ‘Samoa Clipper’ inaugurates the first air mail and freight service between the USA and New Zealand.

28 December 1939
Germany’s Lufthansa and Russia’s Aeroflot agree to resume air services in 1940 between the two capitals.

28 December 1941
Australian National Airlines begins evacuation of civilians from Rabaul in the Solomon Islands.

24 December 1942
The Germans lose their last remaining landing ground in the Stalingrad pocket, when Tatsinskaya is over run by Soviet tanks.

Australian and United States forces recapture Buna airstrip in New Guinea.

The first launch of Germany’s V-1 surface-to-surface pilotless plane.

26 December 1943
Intensive pre-invasion bombing of Cape Gloucester in New Britain by the 5th United States Army Air Force (USAAF).

28 December 1955
Air France announces its order for 24 nationally built Caravelles and ten Boeing 707s.

28 December 1956
The first CL-28, a maritime reconnaissance version of the Bristol Britannia, is completed by Canadair in Montreal.

22 December 1964
President Johnson approves development of the Lockheed CX-HLS military transport, which later becomes the C-5A Galaxy.

23 December 1972
The great Russian aircraft designer Andrei Nikolayavich Tupolev dies aged 86.

26 December 1972
As part of Operation Linebacker II, a concentrated offensive ordered by President Nixon on December 18th, a force of 117 United States Air Force (USAF) Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers attack Hanoi in the largest raid of the Vietnam war to date.

26 December 1975
The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner enters service, flying from Moscow to Alma Ata in Kazakhstan. The new service is intended to carry mail and freight between the two destinations, which are 1,864 miles apart.

22 December 1976
The first fully automated landing of an Airbus A300 in commercial service, is made by an A300B2 of Air Inter in bad weather at Orly airport.

25-26 December 1976
Soviet airborne troops invade Kabul in the beginning of the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan. Five Soviet regiments are airlifted into Afghanistan and the Soviet/Afghan border, in over 100 flights by Russian transport aircraft.

22 December 1997
The Eurofighter 2000 receives the go-ahead from Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, with orders for 600 production aircraft.

27 December 1998
Lieutenant Colonel Robert ‘Bob’ Johnson, the joint top-scoring Second World War American ace, dies aged 78.

22 December 1999
A Korean Air Boeing 747 freighter crashes after taking-off from Stanstead, killing all four people on board.

24 December 1999
After one passenger is murdered, the Indian Government allows the highjackers of an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 to go free in order to safeguard the lives of the other 150 passengers.

25 December 2003
United Transit 141 crashes in Benin, spreading rumours that it is the Boeing 727 that disappeared earlier during the year.

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That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

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