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Portal:Aviation

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A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

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Kai Tak Airport in 2009
Kai Tak Airport in 2009
Kai Tak Airport (Chinese: 啟德機場) was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. It was officially known as the Hong Kong International Airport (Chinese: 香港國際機場) from 1954 to July 6, 1998, when it was closed and replaced by the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok, 30 km to the west. It is often known as Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport (Chinese: 香港啟德國際機場), or simply Kai Tak, to distinguish it from its successor which is often referred to as Chek Lap Kok Airport (Chinese: 赤鱲角機場).

With numerous skyscrapers and mountains located to the north and its only runway jutting out into Victoria Harbour, landings at the airport were dramatic to experience and technically demanding for pilots. The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the 6th most dangerous airport in the world.

The airport was home to Hong Kong's international carrier Cathay Pacific, as well as regional carrier Dragonair, freight airline Air Hong Kong and Hong Kong Airways. The airport was also home to the former RAF Kai Tak. (Full article...)

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Flying a modified X-15A-2 in October, 1967, US Air Force Major William Joseph Knight reached Mach 6.72 (4,520 mph), which remains the highest speed ever attained in an airplane.

Did you know

...that during the Winter War, a Swedish fundraising drive paid for the purchase of a Fokker F.VIII airliner for the Finnish Air Force? ...that the crash of Crossair Flight LX498 was initially attributed to cell phone use, and led to bans of cell phones in airplanes in several countries? ... that former USAF officer David P. Cooley who was the chief test pilot for the F-117 Nighthawk died in March 2009 while testing the F-22 Raptor?

The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2.5 hours exploring while Michael Collins orbited. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and saw action in the Korean War. After the war, he served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he flew over 900 flights in a variety of aircraft. As a research pilot, Armstrong served as project pilot on the F-100 Super Sabre A and C aircraft, F-101 Voodoo, and the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter. He also flew the Bell X-1B, Bell X-5, North American X-15, F-105 Thunderchief, F-106 Delta Dart, B-47 Stratojet, KC-135 Stratotanker and Paresev. He graduated from Purdue University.

Selected Aircraft

[[File:|right|250px|]] The Tupolev TB-3 (Russian: Тяжёлый Бомбардировщик, Tyazholy Bombardirovschik, Heavy Bomber, civilian designation ANT-6) was a heavy bomber aircraft which was deployed by the Soviet Air Force in the 1930s and during World War II. It was the world's first cantilever wing four-engine heavy bomber. Despite obsolescence and being officially withdrawn from service in 1939, TB-3 performed bomber and transport duties through much of WWII. The TB-3 also saw combat as a Zveno project fighter mothership and as a light tank transport.

  • Span: 41.80 m (137 ft 2 in)
  • Length: 24.4 m (80 ft 1 in)
  • Height: 8.50 m (27 ft 11 in)
  • Engines: 4× Mikulin M-17F V12 engines, 525 kW (705 hp) each
  • Maximum Speed: 196 km/h (106 knots, 122 mph) at 3000 m (9,840 ft)
  • First Flight: 22 December 1930
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Today in Aviation

December 8

  • 2009 – In the United Kingdom, Coventry Airport announces that it is to close with immediate effect due to its owners being wound up in the High Court.
  • 2009 – A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Sikorsky HH-60H Seahawk Helicopter crashed and sank off the coast of Nagasaki. Two crewmembers were killed, while a third was rescued.
  • 2008 – San Diego F/A-18 crash was the crash of a United States Marine Corps (USMC) F/A-18 Hornet in a residential suburb of San Diego, California. The pilot, First Lieutenant Dan Neubauer (28) from VMFAT-101, was the only crewmember on board the two-seat aircraft; he ejected successfully, landing in a tree. The jet crashed into the University City residential area, destroying two houses and damaging a third. A total of 4 residents in one house, two women and two children, were killed.
  • 2005Southwest Airlines Flight 1248, a Boeing 737-700, slides off the runway during landing at Chicago Midway International Airport in Chicago in heavy snow. None of the people on board are injured, but the plane hits two automobiles on the ground, killing a six-year-old boy.
  • 1988 – Remscheid A-10 crash occurred when a United States Air Force attack jet, an A-10 Thunderbolt II crashed onto a residential area in the city of Remscheid, West Germany. The aircraft crashed into the upper floor of an apartment complex. In addition to the pilot, five people were killed. Fifty others were injured, including many seriously.
  • 1987 – Alianza Lima air disaster: A Peruvian Navy Fokker F27-400 M chartered by Peruvian football club Alianza Lima crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. The aircraft was having mechanical difficulties and executed a flyby of the control tower so it could be visually confirmed that his landing gear was down and locked. Once proven it he affirmative, the aircraft went to go around to land, lost altitude and hit the water. Of the 44 people on board, only one of the pilots survived.
  • 1983 – Landed: Space shuttle Columbia STS-9 at 18:47:24 EDT (23:47:24 UTC) Edwards AFB, Runway 17. Mission highlights: First Spacelab mission.
  • 1972United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 43 of 60 people on board and 2 people on the ground; among those killed was Dorothy Hunt, wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt. The crash is the first fatal crash involving the 737-200.
  • 1972 – Seven members of the Eritrean Liberation Front attempt to hijack Ethiopian Airlines Flight 708, a Boeing 720-060 B with 87 other people on board, minutes after it departs Haile Selassie I International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Security guards on board open fire, killing six of them and mortally wounding the seventh. There are no other fatalities.
  • 1969Olympic Airways Flight 954, a DC-6, crashed into Mt. Parnes while on approach to Athens-Ellinikon International Airport. All 90 passengers and crew on board are killed.
  • 1968 – Lunar Landing Training Vehicle No. 1 crashes at Ellington AFB, Texas. NASA Manned Spacecraft Center test pilot Joseph Algranti ejects safely.
  • 1967 – The first African-American NASA astronaut, Maj. Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., is killed in the crash of a Lockheed F-104D Starfighter, 57-1327, of the 6515th Organizational Maintenance Squadron, while practicing zoom landings with Maj. Harvey Royer at Edwards AFB, California. Lawrence was flying backseat on the mission as the instructor pilot for a flight test trainee learning the steep-descent glide technique intended for the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar program. The pilot of the aircraft successfully ejected and survived the accident, but with major injuries. The F-104 they were flying came in too low and hit the runway. Royer ejected, but Lawrence was killed. He left behind a wife and one son.
  • 1964 – A United Lines Caravelle makes the first landing in the USA completely controlled by computer (automatic touchdown).
  • 1964 – USAF Convair B-58A-15-CF Hustler, 60-1116, of the 305th Bomb Wing, taxiing for take-off on icy taxiway at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, is blown off the pavement by exhaust of another departing Convair B-58 Hustler, strikes a concrete manhole box adjacent to the runway, landing gear collapses, burns. Navigator killed in failed ejection, two other crew okay. Four B43 nuclear bombs and either a W39 or W53 warhead are on board the weapons pod, but no explosion takes place and contamination is limited to crash site.]
  • 1963 – Lightning strikes the Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-121 Clipper Tradewind, operating as Pan Am Flight 214, igniting fuel vapor and causing an explosion which blows part of the left wing off the aircraft. The plane crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board. As a result of the tragedy, the U. S. Federal Aviation Administration orders the installation of lightning discharge wicks or static dischargers on all commercial jets flying inside U. S. airspace.
  • 1962 – British troops are airlifted to Borneo to quell uprisings in the region
  • 1949 – Muroc Army Airfield is renamed Edwards Air Force Base in honor of test pilot Glen Edwards.
  • 1944 – In an attempt to stop Japanese air attacks on Saipan from staging through Iwo Jima, the U. S. Army Air Forces and U. S. Navy conduct a joint attack against Iwo Jima. After a morning fighter sweep by 28 P-38 Lightnings, 62 B-29 s and 102 B-24 s bomb the island, dropping 814 tons (738,456 kg) of bombs, after which U. S. Navy surface ships bombard Iwo Jima. All Iwo Jima airfields are operational by December 11, but Japanese attacks on Saipan come to a halt for 2½ weeks. Seventh Air Force B-24 s will continue to raid Iwo Jima at least once a day through February 15, 1945.
  • 1943 – Aircraft from the U. S. Navy carriers USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) and USS Monterey (CVL-26) strike Nauru in cooperation with a bombardment by surafce warships; eight or ten of the 12 Japanese planes on the island are destroyed.
  • 1941 – Randall “Duke” Cunningham, US Navy fighter pilot and Congressman, was born.
  • 1941 – The United States declares war on Japan.
  • 1941 – Japanese air attacks destroy half the aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces’ Far East Air Force in the Philippine Islands. Japanese aircraft also begin attacks on Hong Kong, Guam, and Wake Island.
  • 1940 – The New York City experiences its first blackout and anti-aircraft exercise, around the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
  • 1938 – The Arado Ar 196 V4, D-OVMB, the second Ar 196B, with a single main float and two outrigger floats, suffers failure of engine mounts during taxi testing at Travemünde for seaworthiness trials. Engine drops down towards centreline float, fire breaks out, crew of two with Helmut Schuster at the controls goes over the starboard side to avoid flames. This test sealed the fate of the center float Ar 196.
  • 1938 – Deutsche Werke launches Germany’s first aircraft carrier, Graf Zeppelin, at Kiel. She will never be completed.
  • 1936 – Spanish Republican pilots flying Soviet-made fighters shoot down a plane carrying International Red Cross envoy Georges Henny over northern Spain while Henny is carrying a report on the Paracuellos massacre of Nationalists by Republicans that he intends to present to the League of Nations. The crash badly injures Henny, preventing his report to the League, and fatally injures the French Paris Soir correspondent Louis Delaprée.
  • 1903 – Second attempt by Charles Manly to fly Langley’s repaired full-sized aerodrome. As with the October 7 attempt the machine failed to fly tripping on its launch gear and somersaulting into the Potomac River nearly killing Manly. A surviving photograph captures the machine upended on its side as it falls off the houseboat. Langley himself was absent at this attempt but the machine’s failure to fly ended his government (i. e. U. S. Army) funded attempts at building a successful full sized man-carrying flying machine.

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