Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 23 February

Hello Folks, how was your week? Mine was kind of interesting. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. What a wake-up call (lol). Actually severe is 40 apneas (breathing stoppages) per hour. Me, I was not messing around. I averaged 70.8 apneas per hour. Tuesday I get my CPAP machine. It has a mask and I’ll have to wear the thing every night when I go to sleep. What this puppy does is it takes room air, humidifies it and pumps it back through the mask under pressure to keep your airway open and you sleep more soundly. What happens now is when my airway collapses, my brain wakes me up to start breathing again. It’s the constant sleep, wake, sleep, that doesn’t allow you to get your proper rest. It happens so fast though you don’t realize it’s going on, but you wake up loagy. Who knows, maybe I’ll stop dozing off in front of this computer screen………………………..oops, there I go again. Yes, it should be interesting. Stay tuned. In the meantime, let’s get down to some serious history, shall we ? (while I’m still awake, that is)

Have an AB FAN week,

Tom K.

March 1911
The Aeronautica Militar Espanola is formed in Spain.

Captain Chambers of the United States Bureau of Navigation is ordered to assist in the formation of a United States Navy (USN) aviation branch.

March 1912
The German Aviation Experimental Establishment (DVL) is established at Berlin-Adlershof.

The first seaplane competition is held at Monaco.

Structural failures lead the French government to ground Blériot monoplanes. Louis Blériot investigates and the ban is lifted after two weeks.

The Liore & Olivier aircraft company is founded by French engineers Fernand Liore and Henri Olivier.

1 March 1912
The first parachute jump from an aeroplane, a Benoist biplane, is made over Jefferson Barracks in St Louis, USA, by Captain Albert Berry.

27 February 1913
Slavorosov, Caproni’s chief test pilot, flies from Milan to Rome on a tour arranged by the La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

March 1913
The twin-engined Bolshoi Bal’tisky (The Great Baltic) or Grand RBVZ, produced by Igor Sikorsky, takes it’s first flight.

China orders it’s first military aircraft, 12 Caudrons, from France.

March 1918
The Aviation of the 1st Polish Corps is formed from the 1st Polish aviation Unit.

Ilmailuvòimat, the Finnish Air Arm, is formed.

Dr Ing Theodor von Kárman and Wilheim Zurovec complete an electrically powered helicopter in Budapest. The PKZ1 performs four tethered lift-offs, with all but one carrying three people.

March 1919
Italian Caproni aeroplanes are used to inaugurate a regular international air service between Padova and Vienna.

1 March 1919
German airline Deutsche Luft-Reederei extends its air network to Hamburg.

25 February – 25 April 1934
American airwoman Laura Ingalls undertakes a solo flight round South America, a distance of 27,359 kilometers (17,000 miles).

March 1934
A Tupolev ANT-4, piloted by A.V. Lyapidevsky, makes the first landing on ice in the Arctic, while on a rescue mission.

March 1936
The first flight test of a liquid-fuel rocket, developed by the German Wernher von Braun, ends in failure when the test Heinkel He 112 explodes. The pilot Erich Warsitz is thrown clear.

26 February 1940
The United States War Department forms the United States Air Defense Command to integrate defenses against possible air attack.

25 February 1941
The Air Defense Force (PVO) is formed in the Soviet Union.

29 February 1944
5th United States Army Air Force (USAAF) aircraft support landings in the Admiralty Islands.

23 February 1945
The German Air Force sinks its last ship of the Second World War; the Henry Bacon belonging to convoy RA64.

28 February 1945
The first manned flight of the Bachem Ba 349 Natter kills the pilot, Oberleutnant Lothar Siebert. Three subsequent manned launches are successful and the aircraft is approved for operational use, although it will not see service.

24 February 1949
Termination of the Arab-Israeli war is confirmed by an Armistice signed on Rhodes.

26 February – 2 March 1949
The first non-stop round the world flight is made by the United States Air Force (USAF) B-50 ‘Lucky Lady II’, piloted by Captain James Gallagher. The aircraft is refuelled in flight four times during its 94 hour 1 minute flight and covers a distance of 37,742 kilometers (23,452 miles).

1 March 1954
A ban on the production of military aircraft in Japan is lifted. An agreement between the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and the Kawasaki Aircraft company gives Kawasaki the right to manufacture Lockheed F-94C Starfire jets and T-33A jets.

United States hydrogen bombs are exploded on Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

26 February 1955
George F. Smith becomes the first man in the world to live after an ejection from a North American F-100 Super Sabre traveling at supersonic speed (Mach 1.05) after his controls jammed.

1 March 1955
A second United States Air Force (USAF) Early Warning and Control Wing becomes operational, flying Lockheed RC-121s.

1 March 1956
Turkish airline DHY adopts the name THY-Turkish Airlines.

25 February 1961
Paul F. Bikle, Director of NASA’s Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California pilots a Schweizer I23E glider (sailplane) to a height of 14,102 meters (46,267 feet).

29 February 1964
President Johnson reveals the existence of the Lockheed A-11 high altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft.

26 January 1969
Brazil’s naval air arm is re-established as an independent service. It had been absorbed by the air force in 1941.

1 March 1984
Braniff begins to operate a domestic airline services in the United States after a two year gap caused by bankruptcy.

25 February 1988
India first launches the indigenously developed Prithvi tactical missile.

23 February 1997
93 construction workers are rescued by helicopter from a burning Bangkok skyscraper, which caught fire during building work.

28 February 1998
The unmanned Ryan RQ-4A Global Hawk flies for the first time. The aircraft is intended to replace the United States Air Force’s Lockheed U-2 in the high-altitude, long-range reconnaissance role.

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

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