Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 29 December

Well this is it, Folks, my last post of 2008. The year went fairly fast. The only time it slowed down was when I was waiting for something. It got kinda sad when we had to put our dog of 15 years down in October. I still miss him, but not as badly. I’m really looking forward to the new start a fresh year brings. Hopefully I’ll get further into the year before I start feeling nothing has changed but my age. We’ll see. Now, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?

Have an AB FAN (ABsolutely FANtastic) week,

Be Safe,

Tom K.

31 December 1908
One of the Wright brothers, Wilbur Wright, wins the Michelin prize with a flight of 124 kilometers (77 miles) at Camp d’Auvours in France. The flight lasts 2 hours 20 minutes 23 seconds.

31 December 1910
John Moisant is killed when his aeroplane crashes at New Orleans.

1 January 1910
The first pilot’s licenses are issued by the Aéro Club de France. A list of 16 license holders was published in alphabetical order; unfortunately it missed out Charles Voisin (the first man to fly in France) and included some people who had never flown at all!

January 1910
Igor Sikorsky begins work on a second helicopter.

Captain G.W.P. Dawes and J.V. Neale both crash when making the first aeroplane flights in Egypt in their Blériot monoplanes.

Colin Defries makes the first aeroplane flight in Australia, flying a Wright biplane at Sydney.

29 December 1913
The first flight from France to Egypt is completed after a month by Frenchman Jules Vedrines in a Blériot monoplane.

1 January 1913
The International Federation of Aeronautics announces that by the end of 1912, 2,490 pilots had been awarded Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) licenses. 966 were awarded in France, 382 in Britain, 345 in Germany, 193 in the USA, 58 in Belgium, 27 in Switzerland and 1 in Egypt.

January 1913
Aircraft accompany United States Navy (USN) vessels for the first time during winter manoeuvres, under the command of Lieutenant Towers.

1 January 1914
The St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line of St Petersburg in Florida begins the first scheduled service by an airline. The 20 mile route from St Petersburg to Tampa across Tampa Bay is flown by Anthony Jannus in a Benoist flying boat and the mayor of St Petersburg, A.C. Pheil, buys the first airline ticket at auction for $400. The regular fare is $5.

January 1914
The first flight of the Russian four-engined Sikorsky Ilya Mourometz.

January 1915
The first Russian aircraft designed for aerial combat, the Sikorsky S-16 two-seat armed biplane, enters service.

January 1918
The German D-Type (Fighter) competition at Berlin-Adlershof is won by the Fokker VII designed by Reinhold Platz and is put into production as the Fokker DVII

The first German Gotha Bomber to be shot down at night over England is destroyed by No.44 Squadron with Sopwith Camels over Wickford in Essex.

2 January 1919
Major General C.T. Menoher is appointed the United States Director of Air Service.

31 December 1922
A Dornier Komet of Deutshe Luft Reederei makes the first landing of a German aircraft on English soil since the Armistice, when it arrives at Lympne.

January 1930
A variable geometry aircraft is flown by Hans Körner at Breslau in Germany.

31 December 1933
The Polikarpov I-16 makes its first flight. It is the first monoplane fighter with an enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage.

31 December 1934
Helen Richey becomes first woman in the United States to pilot an airmail transport on a regular schedule. She flies a Ford Tri-motor aircraft on a route from Washington DC to Detroit in Michigan.

30 December 1936
French woman Mademoiselle Marye Bastié flies from Dakar in Senegal to Natal in Brazil, in a time of 12 hour 5 minutes.

31 December 1938
The first flight of an airliner with a pressurized passenger cabin is made by the Boeing 307 Stratoliner. The aircraft is a forerunner of the military bomber aircraft that would become the B-17 Flying Fortress.

4 January 1939
The German Air Ministry circulates a top secret paper, ‘Preliminary technical guidelines for high-speed fighters with turbojet propulsion’.

January – May 1942
German troops cut off by Soviet forces at Kholm are re-supplied by air by using DFS 230 and Go 242 transport gliders (sailplanes) in the first large scale air supply of Germany’s own forces behind enemy lines.

1 January 1942
The United Nations Declaration is signed. The name United Nations is adopted by the Allied coalition against Axis forces.

1 January 1944
United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe is activated.

1 January 1945
Operation Bodenplatte: the Luftwaffe’s last major attack attempts to destroy the maximum number of Allied aircraft on the ground. 800 Luftwaffe aircraft are involved in this surprise attack and a total of 465 Allied aircraft are destroyed or damaged. More than 220 Luftwaffe aircraft are lost during the operation.

29 December 1948
The United States Defence Secretary announces that work has begun on ‘an earth satellite vehicle program’.

29 December 1952
A civil aviation agreement between Britain and Japan is signed.

1 January 1954
An Air Weapons School is established in Florida by the United States Navy (USN).

2 January 1954
A new coast to coast record in the United States is set by Colonel Willard W. Milliken of the Air National Guard, flying a North American F-86 Sabre jet and covering 2,530 miles from Los Angeles to New York in 4 hours 8 minutes.

1 January 1956
The 5th Allied Tactical Air Force is established under the Allied Air Forces and includes American, French, Greek, Italian and Turkish airmen.

4 January 1956
A license to operate a flying boat service between Southampton and Las Palmas, Canary Islands is granted to Aquila Airways of London.

2 January 1959
The Soviet Union launches a scientific probe named Luna I, intended to impact on the Moon’s surface but it misses and enters a solar orbit.

31 December 1962
The United States Navy (USN) announces that it has stopped all activity related to lighter-than-air craft and has disposed of its last airship.

The United States Department of Defense announces the cancellation of the Skybolt ballistic missile program.

2 January 1967
It is announced in the United States that Boeing has been awarded a contract for the design of a Super Sonic Transport (SST). General Electric will develop the engine.

4 January 1967
The West German Air Force returns the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter to service.

Hindustan Aeronautics announces that it has begun assembly of MiG-21s from Soviet kits. The aircraft will be delivered to the Indian Air Force.

31 December 1968
A prototype Tupolev Tu-144 Super Sonic Transport (SST) makes its first flight and the Soviets become the first nation to fly a supersonic transport aircraft.

31 December 1970
Colonel Jeanne M. Holm becomes the first female Brigadier General in the United States Air Force (USAF).

29 December 1972
It is revealed at a press conference in Montevideo that the survivors of a Uruguayan airliner crash in the Andes, which occurred on October 13, were forced to eat those who died in the crash in order to stay alive.

1 January 1978
An Air India Boeing 747 airliner explodes in mid-air, killing 213 people.

29 December 1987
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko lands in Soyuz TM3 after spending 326 consecutive days in space.

January 1988
The Soviet Air Force forms its first operational Tupolev Blackjack strategic bomber regiment after eleven aircraft are delivered.

31 December 1990
The build-up of Coalition airpower in Saudi Arabia continues in preparation for strikes against Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait.

29 December 1996
Two United States Air Force (USAF) Joint Surveillance and Target Attack System (JSTARS) modified Boeing 707s are deployed to assist NATO ground forces in Bosnia.

January 2001
Modernisation of 36 McDonnell Douglas F4E Phantoms for the Hellenic Air Force is well under way. Beginning in March 2000, the work is carried out by DASA in Munich and the Phantom, which first entered service in the 1960′s, will receive avionics and weapons upgrades.

1 January 2001
Airbus Integrated Company comes into existence, formed as part of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

2 January 2004
Several British Airways flights from London Heathrow Airport to Washington D.C. and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are cancelled due to security fears.

3 January 2004
Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.

==================================================================== That’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven.

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