Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History 7-13 June

Hello again Folks. Yep, another week shot to heck already. I hope yours went well with a minimum of stress. That’s a rare thing today, isn’t it? Oh well. We’ll put this one to rest, and take a nice no-stress stroll down History Lane, shall we? Yes, I think we shall. Of course, 66 years ago today was extremely stressful for the hundreds of thousands of Folks involved in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Let’s never forget their sacrifices that day and the sacrifices of so many others made during the wars before and after WWII and including today where sacrifices continue to be made. Pray for our troops and respect our vets. This is the land of the free because of the brave.

Tom K.

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

10 June 1908
The Aeronautical Society of New York, the first flying club, opens with facilities at Morris Park Racetrack.

12 June 1909
The Blériot Type XII becomes the first aeroplane to carry two passengers (Santos-Dumont and Fournier) at Issy-les-Moulineaux in France.

9 June 1910
The first aircraft reconnaissance is made by Captain Marconnet and Lieutenant Fequant of the French Army. They used a single seat Henri Farman biplane on a 2½ hour, 145 kilometer flight from Camp de Châlons at Mourmelon to Vincennes. Fequart piloted the aircraft while Marconnet, armed with a hand held camera, squeezed into a narrow space between the seat and the engine. During the flight, photographs were taken of roads, railways, towns and the countryside.

10 June 1910
The French Army obtains a Wright biplane.

13 June 1910
Charles Hamilton wins the New York Times’ $10,000 prize for a return flight between New York and Philadelphia.

7 June 1912
Pioneer Anglo-French aviator, Hubert Latham, is killed by a buffalo while on safari in Central Africa.

10 June 1912
The first German airmail is flown by airships ‘Schwaben’ and ‘Gelber Hund’ from Darmstadt to Frankfurt/Main.

10 June 1913
The longest flight between sunrise and sunset wins Marcel Brindejonc des Moulinais the Pommeroy cup. He flies 900 miles from Paris to Warsaw.

13 June 1917
Fourteen Gotha bombers execute the first large-scale daylight bombing raid on London, leaving 162 dead and 432 injured. These casualties represent nearly 20% of all those caused in Britain by aeroplanes between 1914 and 1918.

Hauptmann Ernst von Brandenburg, the leader of the mass Gotha raids, wins the Pour le Mérite.

12 June 1918
American aircraft of the 96th Aero Squadron carry out the first bombing raid by US aircraft on the Western Front, attacking the railway yards at Dommany-Baroncourt.

12 June 1919
Baroness Raymonde de Laroche breaks the women’s altitude record by flying to a height of 16,896 feet.

8 June 1921
Experimentation with pressurized cabins begins at Wright Field in the USA, using a modified de Havilland DH4 aircraft.

9 June 1922
The first airliner night flight is made by Grands Express, from Le Bourget in France to Croydon.

11 June 1926
The first flight of the Ford 4AT Tri-motor.

11 June 1928
The Ente sailpane is fitted with two Sanders solid fuel rocket motors and becomes the first rocket powered aircraft to fly. The flight of 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) is undertaken by Friedrich Stamer at Wasserkuppe Mountain in Germany.

7 June 1939
Germany signs non-aggression pacts with Latvia and Estonia.

12 June 1942
Twelve United States Air Force (USAF) Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers make an unsuccessful attack on the Romanian oil refineries at Ploesti.

11 June 1943
The Italian garrison on the island of Pantellaria surrenders after an intensive air bombardment by allied aircraft. This is the first time that a large defended area has been conquered by air power alone.

7 June 1944
The first allied airstrip in Normandy at Asnelles north east of Bayeux, is completed and becomes operational.

10 June 1944
Allied aircraft begin to operate from airstrips in the Normandy beachhead.

11 June 1944
United States Navy (USN) Task Force 58, comprising seven heavy and eight light carriers, is assembled and begins the opening phase of the Mariana Island campaign.

13 June 1944
The first German V1 to be launched against British targets falls at Swanscombe near Gravesend and a few minutes later, another drops at Cuckfield in Essex.

11 June 1945
Boeing B29s of the 393rd Very Heavy Bomber Squadron, the only combat aircraft of the 509th Composite Group, land at Tinian in Marianas.

12 June 1951
The 16th Independent Parachute Brigade Group arrive in Cyprus using the aircraft carriers Warrior and Triumph.

8 June 1953
Communist aircraft bomb Seoul.

11-14 June 1953
A Chinese offensive in Korea.

7 June 1954
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) begins international operations using Lockheed L1049C Super Constellations.

7 June 1955
The Douglas Aircraft Company announces plans to build a new civil transport, the company’s DC8 will become the first turbojet-powered airliner.

9 June 1955
Plans for the production of the Electra, a propeller-turbine airliner, are announced by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation.

10-19 June 1955
The 21st Salon International de l’Aéronautique is held at Le Bourget airport near Paris.

9 June 1959
A submarine armed with Polaris ballistic missiles, the USS George Washington, is launched at Groton in Connecticut.

8 June 1975
The Soviet Union launches Venera 9. The interplanetary probe later becomes the first artificial satellite of Venus and its data capsule makes a successful landing of the planet’s surface making a 53 minute transmission that includes television pictures.

10 June 1977
The first operational Republic A10 Thunderbolt aircraft is delivered to the United States Air Force (USAF).

13 June 1977
United States President Jimmy Carter gives permission to British Airline entrepreneur Freddie Laker for the trial of a low cost airline ‘Skytrain’ service across the North Atlantic.

12 June 1979
The Gossamer Albatross, designed and built by Dr Paul MacCready, wins the £100,000 Kremer prize for a first crossing of the English Channel by a man powered craft.

7 June 1981
Eight Israeli General Dynamics F16s, escorted by F15s attack the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad in Iraq.

8 June 1982
Argentine aircraft attack British landing ships at Bluff Cove, killing fifty British soldiers with eleven Argentine aircraft are shot down.

13 June 1983
The first spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system: the Pioneer, a 10,570 pound United States space probe travelling at 30,000 mph and due to reach first star beyond solar system 32,621 years after launch in 1972, crosses the orbit of Neptune on its way out of Solar System.

8 June 1993
The first SAAB Gripen is handed over to the Swedish Air Force. This supersonic, multi-role combat aircraft can take-off from short runways and has a rapid rate of climb.

7 June 1994
At 12 years old, Vicki van Meter becomes the youngest female pilot to fly the Atlantic.

11 June 1999
A new company, Aerospatiale Matra, has been formed in France. It is the second largest aerospace company in Europe and the 5th largest in the world.

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

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