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

Well Folks, since we last spoke, we had a nice little snowstorm here to remind me of the reality of my situation and needless to say my Spring Fever is back where it belongs. Just took a couple of hours of digging out to firmly position it in the right place. I don’t have to worry about it for a long time now. Just thought you’d like to know. Well as I hunker in for another month or so, why don’t we take our weekly trip down History Lane, shall we? Yes, I think we shall.

Tom K.

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5 March 1906
The Vuia I, built by Romanian born aviator Trajan Vuia, is the first aircraft with pneumatic tires and is first tested at Montesson in France. However, the aircraft was virtually flightless. Five ‘flights’ were made of which the longest was 24 meters.

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.

3 March 1911
Philip O. Parmelee, with Lieutenant B. Foulois as passenger, receives radio messages and drops written messages to army units during a flight near the Mexico/Texas border.

5 March 1911
The Belgian Army Balloon Company is formed as the Compagnie des Ouviers et Aerostiers.

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.

5 March 1912
Bob Fowler completes a west to east coast-to-coast crossing of the USA, from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, after 4 months.

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

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

5 March 1913
The 1st Aero Squadron of the United States Army is formed.

3 March 1915
The United States National Advisory Committee is established by Congress to investigate the problems of flight and solutions to them. The organization is a forerunner to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

4 March 1915
$300,000 funding is passed by the United States Congress for the development of army aviation in 1916.

5 March 1915
Zeppelin LZ33 (L8) crashes near Ostend after being hit by gunfire over Nieuport during a mission to attack Britain.

7 March 1915
Paris comes under attack from German Zeppelins.

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.

3 March 1918
The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) begin airship operations with the French Astra-Torres AT1 non-rigid dirigible (steerable airship).

5 March 1918
The 2nd Balloon company is established, becoming the first United States balloon unit to serve operationally in France with American Expeditionary Force (AEF) ground forces.

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.

3 March 1919
William Boeing and Edward Hubbard use the Boeing Model CL4S to carry out the first United States international air mail service, between Seattle in America and Victoria in Canada.

5 March 1923
Igor Sikorsky, having previously escaped from Russia, forms the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation in the USA.

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 He112 explodes. The pilot Erich Warsitz is thrown clear.

4 March 1936
The world’s largest rigid airship, the German Zeppelin Company’s LZ129 ‘Hindenburg’, makes its first flight.

7 March 1936
Hitler renounces the 1925 Locano Treaty and German troops march unopposed into the Rhineland.

3 March 1939
The first Pan American World Airways Boeing 314 flying boat is named ‘Yankee Clipper’ by Mrs Franklin D. Roosevelt at a ceremony in Washington DC.

2-4 March 1943
The Battle of the Bismarck Sea: a major attempt by the Japanese to re-enforce Lae is foiled by United States Southwest Pacific Air Forces. 40,000 tons of Japanese shipping is sunk and almost 60 aircraft are destroyed.

4 March 1944
During the first United States Army Air Force (USAAF) attack on Berlin, 69 of the 660 heavy bombers deployed are lost and 11 escort fighters are shot down.

5 March 1944
Brigadier General Orde Wingate’s special force lands at ‘Broadway’ in North Burma, in a night glider (sailplane) operation.

6 March 1951
The United States Air Force (USAF) approves license production of the English Electric Canberra by the Glenn L. Martin Company, under the designation ‘B-57′. It is the first operational aircraft of non-United States design to be accepted into service with the USAF since the 2nd World War.

5 March 1953
A Polish Air Force pilot lands a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet and seeks political asylum on the Danish island of Bornholm.

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.

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

2 March 1955
The Boeing Airplane Company receives its first major production contract for the KC-135 Stratotanker.

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

3 March 1959
United States Pioneer 4 space probe is launched in an attempt to obtain pictures of the Moon’s surface, while making a fly-past of about 32,200 kilometers (20,000 miles).

6 March 1965
A Sikorsky SH3A Sea King makes the first non-stop helicopter flight across North America. Taking off from the carrier USS Hornet at San Diego in California, it lands on the carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt at Jacksonville in Florida. The distance travelled is 3,405 kilometers (2,116 miles) and a new international straight-line distance record for helicopters is established.

2 March 1969
The Sud Aviation/British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) Concorde 001 Super Sonic Transport (SST) prototype makes its first flight at Toulouse, piloted by André Turcat, Sud’s chief test pilot.

2 March 1971
A change in policy means that female United States Air Force (USAF) officers can take 12 months leave from the service if they become pregnant.

3 March 1974
A McDonnell Douglas DC10 of THY Turkish Airlines crashes into forests North of Paris, killing all 346 people on board. in the world’s worst air disaster to date. The crash spread wreckage over a 7 mile radius.

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

3 March 2001
A Thai airways International Boeing 737-400 is destroyed while parked at Bangkok international airport. The explosion and subsequent fire occur 35 minutes before Thailand’s Prime Minister is due to board the aircraft for a flight to Chaing Mai.

6 March 2001
Northrop Grumman RQ4A Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is cleared for production and testing with the United States Air Force.

4 March 2002
Ansett (Mark II) permanently ceases operations.

5 March 2005
Steve Fossett completes the first non-stop, solo circumnavigation of the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, completing the trip in 67 hours and 2 minutes.

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

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