Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 1-7 February

Well Folks, here we are once again. Not only has a week gone by, but also the first month of 2010 has also gone by the wayside. I sincerely hope that the month treated you right. Well, time marches on even as we sit here reading this, so let’s take a little trip down history lane, shall we? Yes, I think we shall.

Tom K.

====================================================================

February 1910
Hugo Junkers patents an aeroplane with a cantilevered wing.

1 February 1911
Burgess and Curtiss becomes the first fully licensed aircraft manufacturer in the USA.

5 February 1911
Vivian C. Walsh makes the first aeroplane flight in New Zealand in his Howard-Wright (type) biplane at Auckland.

7 February 1911
The first French flying certificate is issued to Lieutenant de Rose.

February 1912
Jules Vedrine makes the first 100 mph flight in his Monocoque Deperdussin.

February 1913
The Spanish air arm is renamed as the Servico de Aeronautica Militar Espanola.

3 February 1913
The Gothaer Waggonfabrik (Gotha railway wagon factory) open an aeroplane division.

February 1914
The first aerial torpedo is released from a Farman biplane by General A. Guidoni of the Italian Army.

February 1915
The Russian Ilya Mourometz IMV series 4-engined bombers are equipped with machine-guns for use against ground targets.

3 February 1915
Turkish forces attack the Suez Canal area but are repelled by British troops.

2 February 1916
Zeppelin LZ54 (L19) is shot down by British aircraft over the North Sea.

6 February 1916
German fighter ace Max Immelman takes to the air in a Fokker EIV fitted with three synchronized machine guns.

German airline Deutsche Luft Reederei flies the first service (for freight only) between Berlin and Weimar.

1 February 1917
The German Friedrichshafen GIII bomber, capable of carrying 4,900 kilos (3,300 pounds) of bombs, becomes operational.

7 February 1917
Zeppelin LZ82 (L36) is wrecked after a forced landing at Rehben-an-der-Aller.

February 1918
The Airco DH4, the first American mass produced combat aircraft, begins production.

The first operational squadrons of the American Expeditionary Force are formed in France. American Air Force squadrons go on to destroy 781 enemy aircraft.

Lieutenant Stephen W. Thompson becomes the first American pilot to gain an aerial victory while serving with an American squadron.

5 February 1919
German airline Deutsche Luft-Reederei begins the first sustained daily passenger airline service, flying modified ex-military AEG and DFW biplanes between Berlin and Weimar in Germany.

7 February 1920
The first post-war world speed record is set by Frenchman Sadi Lecointe in a Nieuport-Delage 29 with a speed of 275 kph (171mph).

February 1923
The first Japanese fighter aircraft, the Mitsubishi IMF1, lands and takes off from a Japanese aircraft carrier IJN Hosho. The pilot is a Briton, Captain Jordan.

3-4 February 1925
A distance record of 3,166 kilometers (1,967 miles) in a straight line, is established by a Breguet 19 flown by Captain Ludovic Arrachart and Captain Henri Lemaître.

2 February 1932
The International Disarmament Conference begins in Geneva but fails to ensure world peace.

3 February 1934
The first scheduled trans-ocean airmail service is established between Europe and South America by Deutche Lufthansa. Flying from Stuttgart to Buenos Aires via Seville, Bathurst and Natal. The delivery time is four days.

3 February 1935
It is announced that Dr Hugo Junkers, one of the pioneers of all metal construction, has died.

1 February 1940
The Southern Rhodesian government forms Southern Rhodesian Air Services.

1 February 1942
The first United States carrier offensive is made by the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown. Their aircraft attack Japanese targets on several of the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.

4 February 1944
The Japanese launch a new offensive in Burma, with a plan to capture the port of Chittagong and then the Allied bases of Imphal and Dimapur in Assam, and then to invade India.

4 February 1948
The United States Air Force (USAF) Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is established.

4 February 1949
The United States Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) authorises the use of Ground-Controlled Approach (GCA) radar as a primary landing aid in bad weather.

1 February 1950
Eight Grumman F9F Panthers land on the USS Valley Forge, completing the first aircraft carrier night-landing trials by jets.

5 February 1951
The USA and Canada announce their intention to set up a Distance Early Warning (DEW) system for North America.

6 February 1951
The United States Air Force (USAF) announces that it lost 223 aircraft in Korea, mostly through accidents, up to January 1951. The United States Navy (USN) and Marine aircraft losses were 182.

3 February 1955
The official termination of war between Czechoslovakia and Germany is announced.

1 February 1956
The Air Planning Group of the West German Ministry of Defense initiates a pilot training scheme, marking the first practical steps in the creation of the post war Luftwaffe.

1 February 1958
Explorer I is launched, and becomes the first United States satellite to enter Earth orbit.

4 February 1958
The keel of the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, is laid.

3 February 1959
Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens die when a single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza crashes near Mason City airport.

1 February 1975
In the previous sixteen days all eight world time-to-height records have been captured by a specially modified McDonnell Douglas F15 Eagle. The final record sets a time of 3 minutes 27 seconds from standstill on the runway to a height of 30,000 meters (98,425 feet).

1 February 1981
Donald W. Douglas, founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company, dies aged 88.

4-10 February 1982
The Sikorsky company uses an S76II to set twelve new helicopter class records.

7 February 1984
The first un-tethered space-walk is achieved by Captain Bruce McCandless. He leaves the Challenger Space Shuttle 164 miles above Hawaii, wearing a jet powered ‘manned maneuvering unit’ back-pack that he had helped to design and ‘walks’ 300 feet and back without a safety line.

1 February 1989
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) orders Boeing to inspect the plumbing and wiring on the 1,755 airliners they have built since 1980 following concerns that the 1988 crash of a British Midland airlines.

1 February 2003
The United States Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on re-entry, killing all seven astronauts. The wreckage falls over California, Arizona and Texas.

5-9 February 2003
Euro-India show is held at Bangalore
Fina Air begins services

3 February 2005
Kam Air Flight 904 crashes. There were no survivors.

====================================================================

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