Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 9

Hello Folks, it’s that time again. Seven gone and here I am. I think I’ll give you a break this week. Doesn’t it toast your cookies when someone talks and talks and says nothing. I was once told I was talking but I was not communicating. Yeah, that’s me, the great noncommunicator. All I do is ramble on and on and, well, on. Babble and natter, and babble again. it irritates me when people repeat themselves and repeat themselves, repeating themselves, well, again and again and, well, again. Well, I won’t be doing any of that stuff. Nope, none of that stuff. That stuff is out. None of that stuff from me, I’ll be a stuff buster. Stuff begone! Well, that’s enough of that stuff. Let’s get down to some serious history, shall we?

Have an AB FAN week,

Tom K.

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10 February 1908
The United States Army signs a contract with the Wright brothers for the construction of a Wright Model A biplane.

14 February 1932
A diesel-powered Lockheed Vega flown by R. Nichols at Floyd Bennet Field in New York sets a world altitude record for a diesel powered aircraft of 6,074 meters (19,928 feet).

12 February 1935
United States Navy dirigible (steerable airship) USS Macon crashes into sea of California, but fortunately only two crew members are killed.

11-12 February 1942
The German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the cruiser Prinz Eugen leave Brest and escape through the English Channel. They are provided with a strong Luftwaffe air umbrella during the passage.

13 February 1943
Marine Fighter Squadron 124 makes the first operational use of the Vought F4U Corsair aircraft during an escort mission of Navy Consolidated PB4Y Liberators attacking Bougainville.

15 February 1943
Major General Iran C. Eaker is appointed as Commanding General of the 8th United States Army Air Force (USAAF) in the United Kingdom, in succession to Major General Carl Spaatz.

15 February 1944
222 allied bombers attack the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. The Germans had not occupied the monastery buildings but immediately after the raid they turn the ruins into a bastion. Successive attempts to take the monastery fail and it is not until 18 May that Polish forces succeed in occupying the heights.

13-15 February 1945
Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Force (USAAF) night and day bombers attack Dresden in Germany. These attacks create a fire storm which virtually destroys the city. Estimates of the dead vary from 35,000 to 220,000.

11 February 1959
A United States weather balloon climbs to a record height of 44,500 meters (146,000 feet)

12 February 1959
The United States Air Force (USAF) withdraws its last operational Convair B-36 bomber from service.

13 February 1960
France explodes an atomic weapon in the Sahara Desert.

9 February 1969
The first flight of the Boeing 747 prototype.

12 February 1969
Mil Mi12, the world’s largest helicopter, establishes a number of load-to-height records.

11 February 1970
Japan launches it’s first domestic satellite, becoming he fourth nation to do so using it’s own nationally built rocket.

13 February 1972
The Soviet Union begins using Cuba as a base for reconnaissance aircraft, surveying and gathering intelligence along the American coast.

12 February 1981
The helium-filled balloon ‘Jules Verne’, piloted by Americans Max Anderson and Don Ida, lifts off from Luxor in Egypt, in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Two days later the attempt is aborted after 2,900 miles of travel.

10 February 1993
Taiwan unveils its new fighter, the IDF, designed for the Republic of China Air Force with assistance from General Dynamics. The IDF first flew in 1989 and is now ready to go into full production.

9 February 1996
The German Second World War fighter ace General Adolf Galland dies aged 83.

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

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