Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 8-14 February

Well Folks, I’m startin’ kinda early so I can watch the Super Bowl…..commercials. Yeah, I kinda gave up on the game itself a few years ago when the Bills made their unsuccessful runs for that ever elusive trophy. After that, nothing ever seemed the same. No matter how hard I try, I can’t find a team I’m interested in, well, at least for very long anyway. I know there have been some embarrassing Super Bowls where a team choked or never seemed to click with any success. I usually picked those to watch when I was giving the game just that one more chance. We’ll see tonight if it’s true to form for me. I hope not. I promise not to root for either team so you can enjoy the game, ’cause the team I show any interest in, without fail, loses. Well let’s juke & jive down History Lane, shall we? Yes, I think we shall.

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.

11 February 1913
The Chilean air service, Escuela de Aeronatica Militar, is formed.

12 February 1914
A Russian Ilya Mourometz aircraft carries sixteen passengers and a dog to a height of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) and sets a world load-to-altitude record.

11-12 February 1917
German Leutnants Peter and Frohwein, in a DFW CV aircraft, record the first night fighting victories when they shoot down two enemy bombers at Malzeville.

8 February 1919
The first airline passengers to be carried from Paris to London are flown by a Farman F60 Goliath from Toussus-le-Noble to Kenley.

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.

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.

8 February 1950
A Lockheed Neptune of the United States Navy establishes a distance record for carrier-launched aircraft flying 5,156 miles in 25 hours 59 minutes, non-stop from the Atlantic to San Francisco.

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
The 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 the 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.

8 February 1998
Former Lockheed test pilot Anthony W. ‘Tony’ LeVier dies aged 84. During his 32 years with Lockheed, he took twenty prototypes into the air on their first flights, survived eight crashes and a mid-air collision.

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

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