Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 19

Hello Folks, seems like only yesterday I posted here, but as it turns out, it was a week ago. How time flies when you keep busy. I had to take my CPU to the shop to have it get an electronic enema and a slight upgrade. You see I had so much stuff on it it was slowing down. I’m not all that computer-savvy, so I was afraid to try to remove things. I have a tendency when I do decide to try to clean things up of removing something I shouldn’t, causing all kinds of headaches and a trip to the shop anyway. Now I just take it in and let them do the “dirty” work. The problem is I usually wind up with some new programs they normally install with a tune-up. I have to get used to strange things popping up every so often that I’ve never seen before and some things I’m used to seeing are gone. This is not a good thing for an old man who is somewhat stubborn about changes, but I somehow manage to adapt….’til the next time. Well, some big time new history is going to be made this week, so let’s get down to some serious old history, shall we?

Have an AB FAN week,

Be Safe,

Tom K.

23 January 1909
The Blériot Type XI makes its first flight.

19 January 1910
Lieutenant Paul Beck drops sandbag “bombs” over Los Angeles from an aeroplane piloted by Louis Paulhan.

21 January 1911
Lieutenant Paul W. Beck sends the first wireless-telephonic message from an aeroplane, sending a message from a Wright biplane over Selfridge Field in Michigan.

20 January 1913
Bernetta Miller is temporarily blinded by oil when she attempts to establish a new women’s altitude record in New York.

24 January 1913
Swiss pilot Oscar Bider reaches 11,483 feet when he flies over the Pyrennes in his Blériot monoplane.

Charles Nieuport, his mechanic Guyot and the pilot are killed at Etamples in France, when their wing-warping device fails.

19-20 January 1915
Two German Navy Zeppelins, LZ24 (L3) and LZ27 (L4), make the first airship raid on Great Britain and a third, LZ31 (L6), returns early due to engine problems.

Bombs from L3 fall on Great Yarmouth, while L4 drops incendiaries and bombs on Sheringham, Thornham, Brancaster, Hunstanton, Heacham, Snettisham and King’s Lynn. Several civilians are killed and wounded.

23 January 1918
The first American Expeditionary Force (AEF) balloon ascent is made at the Balloon School at Cuperly in France.

20 January 1920
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) announces it is prepared to accept new official world records.

24 January 1920
Commandant Vuillemin of the Aéronautique Militaire, makes first aircraft flight across the Sahara Desert.

23 January 1923
United States Army Air Service (USAAS) makes parachutes compulsory.

22 January – 10 February 1926
Commandante Franco makes the first east to west crossing of the South Atlantic, flying a Dornier Wal flying boat in stages.

20 January 1940
The Brazilian Air Force, originally founded in 1908 as the Brazilian Army Balloon Corp, adopts its current title, Fôrça Aeréa Brasileira.

22 January 1944
During Ango-American landings at Anzio, 50,000 troops are put ashore with massive air support and without opposition.

23 January 1950
The United States Air Force (USAF) Research & Development Command is established.

23 January 1951
United States Air Force (USAF) Republic Thunderjet fighters shoot down four Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s.

25 January 1952
North American F-86 Sabre jet fighters shoot down ten Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s over North Korea.

22 January 1953
Four Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighters are shot down during air fighting over North Korea.

20 January 1955
An agreement is reached between France, USA and South Vietnam to reorganize the military forces of South Vietnam.

25 January 1955
The state of war between the Soviet Union and Germany is terminated.

23 January 1956
It is reported that a McDonnell F-101A Voodoo flies faster than 1,050mph, six times and faster than 1,100mph at least once.

21 January 1960
NASA launches a monkey named Miss Sam in a low altitude test of the Mercury escape system. The monkey is recovered unharmed after the escape module is activated immediately after launch.

21 January 1968
A United States Air Force (USAF) Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, carrying four nuclear weapons, crashes on sea ice on its approach to Thule Air Force Base in Greenland.

21 January 1970
The first scheduled service of the wide-bodied Boeing 747 flies from New York to London, heralding a new era of mass international air travel.

24 January 1973
An agreement to end the Vietnam War is signed in Paris and a cease-fire takes effect at midnight on 27 January .

20 January 1975
A Boeing 707 is commandeered by three terrorists who take ten travellers hostage and fly to Baghdad.

21 January 1975
Following two terrorist attacks at Orly Airport in Paris, the French Minister of the Interior announces that special new security measures will be introduced to prevent further attacks.

22 January 1982
The first fully automatic landing of a McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornet is made at the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River in Maryland. The system links the aircraft’s autopilot to a ground radar, meaning the pilot need make no inputs.

21 January 1987
American Lois McCallin, in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Michelob Light Eagle human powered aircraft, sets straight-line and closed circuit world distance records and the world duration record for women at 6.83 kilometers (4.25 miles), 15.44 kilometers (9.59 miles) and 37 minutes 38 seconds respectively.

22 January 1987
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Michelob Light Eagle, piloted by Glenn Tremml, sets a world closed circuit distance record for human-powered aircraft of 58 kilometers (36 miles).

24 January 1989
The Pentagon lifts a ban on the use of pin-ups to decorate United States Air Force aircraft fuselages. Feminist groups protest against the decision.

20 January 1997
A new balloon absolute distance record of 16,722 kilometers (10,363 miles) is set by Steve Fossett, during his unsuccessful non-stop, round the world flight, which he is forced to abandon in India 6 days after his departure from the USA.

23 January 2001
The first pictures of the Chinese J-10 Chengdu fighter become public. The aircraft is revealed to be a single-seat single-engined canard delta and is seen as an attempt by the Chinese to leap-frog two generations of fighter development.

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

Share this post...

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks