Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 18-24 January

Hello Folks, seven more have whizzed by again and once again it’s time for us to stroll down History Lane. I hope you enjoy our little weekly look back, I know I do. So without further ado, here’s this week’s peek.

Tom K.

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18 January 1905
The Wright brothers open discussions with the United States government for the sale of an aeroplane.

18 January 1906
The Zeppelin LZ2 is destroyed in a gale the day after its first flight.

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.

18 January 1911
Eugène Ely, an exhibition pilot, makes the first landing on a ship. He touched down on a 120 feet long platform which had been erected on the stern of the cruiser USS Pennsylvania . The ship was moored in San Francisco Bay. The Curtiss biplane was fitted with three pairs of spring loaded hooks on the undercarriage and cables were stretched across the temporary flight deck at intervals of 3 feet. The aircraft came to a halt after 30 feet.

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.

18 January 1919
A peace conference assembles in Paris.

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.

18 January 1944
United States Navy (USN) Consolidated Catalinas, equipped with Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) equipment, begin to patrol the Straits of Gibraltar. This action is intended to prevent German submarines from entering the Mediterranean.

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 MiG15s.

22 January 1953
Four Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG15 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.

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

18 January 1957
Three Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses make the world’s first round the world, non-stop flight by turbojet-powered aircraft. The flight is completed in 45 hours 19 minutes, with an average speed of 859kph (534mph).

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 B52 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 travelers 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.

18 January 1981
A Bell Model 222, delivered to Omniflight Helicopters, is the company’s 25,000th production helicopter.

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 J10 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.

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Well Folks, our stroll is over for this week. See ya in seven.

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