Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » Today In Military/Aviation History 20

Well Folks, as you may have noticed, there was no History post from me last week. That was because my CPU was in the shop and when I tried to use my better half’s computer to post here, I forgot my username and couldn’t get in to post. BAH! Up until then it had been an “automatic” log in with my username and password automatically filled in so all I had to do was hit the login button. Just another example of “don’t get too comfortable with computers and pitbulls, they’ll turn on ya in a heartbeat.” All it took for mine to go all to heck was a bad printer driver I downloaded. My operating system had to be almost fully reinstalled. Luckily my e-mail and some other stuff was saved, but I’m still finding things I had but don’t anymore. Always remember: “COMPUTERS ARE OUR FRIENDS!” Bull sh..! Well let’s get down to some serious history once again, shall we?

Have an AB FAN week,

Take Care and Be Safe,

Tom K.

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25 April 1914
Lieutenant P.N.L. Bellinger makes the first American operational sortie by aeroplane, searching for sea mines during the Santa Cruz incident. A total of five Curtiss AB flying boats are involved in the operation, flying from the battleship USS Mississippi and the cruiser USS Birmingham in an operation lasting 43 days.

20 April 1916
Escadrille Americaine, a squadron in the French Air Force composed of American volunteers, is formed and the unit is later renamed Lafayette Escadrille on 6 December.

24 April 1917
Lieutenant Colonel William ‘Billy’ Mitchell becomes the first United States army officer to over fly the German lines.

21 April 1918
Baron Manfred Von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’, is shot down and killed. Manfred von Richthofen was the most successful fighter pilot of the First World War and at the time of his death, he had shot down 80 Allied aircraft in air combat.

Although Captain Roy Brown of No.209 Squadron is credited with the destruction of von Richthofen’s Fokker Triplane, it has also been suggested that the Red Baron actually fell victim to ground fire whilst being pursued by Captain Brown.

21 April 1933
The first flight of new United States Navy (USN) dirigible (steerable airship) USS Macon.

26 April 1937
German aircraft of the Legion Condor, operating with Spanish Nationalist Forces, bomb Guernica, seat of the Basque government. This act becomes a symbol of the inhumanity of aerial bombing.

26 April 1939
Flugkapitän Fritz Wendel, flying Messerschmitt Me 209V1, establishes a new world top speed record of 755kph (469mph). This record will not be broken for 30 years.

25 April 1940
The USS Wasp aircraft carrier is commissioned.

22 April 1942
Assam, Burma, China Ferry Command is established to air ferry supplies into China over the Himalayas (The Hump).

23 April 1945
United States Navy Consolidated PB4Y Liberators of Patrol Bombing Squadron 109 launch two Bat missiles against Japanese shipping in Balikpapan harbour in Borneo. This is the first use of automatic homing missiles during the Second World War.

26 April 1945
Hanna Reitch, flying a Fiesler Fi156 Storch, flies General Ritter von Greim from Berlin, Gatow into Berlin. In Hitler’s underground bunker he is promoted to command the Luftwaffe in place of Hermann Göring.

24 April 1946
Winged Cargo Inc. begins operations in the USA. This glider (sailplane) commercial freight service uses Waco gliders, towed by Douglas DC3s.

26 April 1949
A flight-refueled world endurance record is completed in the United States, when Bill Barris and Dick Reidel, flying an Aeronca Chief lightplane ‘Sunkist Lady’, stay airborne for 1,008 hours 1 minute (one minute over six weeks). Fuel and food is hauled up daily from a Jeep speeding below.

20 April 1955
McDonnell XV1 experimental convertiplane makes its first transition from vertical to horizontal flight.

23 April 1959
The United States Hound Dog thermonuclear stand-off missile makes a successful first flight after launching from a Boeing B-52D Stratofortress bomber.

24 April 1959
Cathay Pacific begins service with its first Lockheed Electra.

21 April 1961
Major Robert White of the United States Air Force (USAF), pilots a North American X-15A during a full throttle flight to a speed of 4,947kph (3,074mph).

23 April 1967
The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 1, but Colonel Vladimir Komarov is killed when the spacecraft crashes on its return to earth. This is the first known man to have died in the course of a space flight.

24 April 1970
China launches its first satellite into Earth orbit, using its own nationally built rocket.

23 April 1974
Bell helicopters announces the delivery of the company’s 20,000th helicopter, 80% of which have been delivered since 1964.

20 April 1978
A Korean Airlines Boeing 707 crash lands after being strafed by a Soviet fighter jet. A Japanese and a South Korean are killed in the attack when the airliner strays off course, ending up over Soviet territory.

20 April 1979
The 16th and last Concorde makes it’s first flight.

24 April 1980
Operation Eagle Claw: an attempt to rescue American hostages held in Iran, is abandoned when a Lockheed C-130 Hercules and a Sikorsky RH-53 Sea Stallion collide at the first desert landing site.

25 April 1983
The Dornier company return to their roots when the government-backed Dornier Do 24TT technology demonstrator amphibian makes its first flight.

25 April 1987
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) receives the last of its eighteen Boeing E-3A Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.

25 April 1992
The second Boeing YF-22 prototype suffers control problems while landing at Edwards Air Force Base and is damaged in the resulting fire. The pilot escapes with only minor injuries.

26 April 1995
A Lockheed-Martin SR-71A flies for the first time after renovation. Two SR-71As are returned to United States Air Force (USAF) service to carry out reconnaissance flights after being in storage since 1990.

A new world altitude record of 27,460 metrers (90,092 feet) for Class C1h aircraft is set by a Russian Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29.

22 April 1999
A Boeing 727 is damaged beyond repair by a heavy hail storm when landing at Johannesburg.

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Tat’s it for this week Folks. See ya in seven. (Computer willin’)

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