Portal:Aviation
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The Aviation Portal
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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 craft 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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The airport's location and lack of transport links, as well as Montreal's economic decline relative to Toronto, made it unpopular with airlines. Eventually relegated to the simple role of a cargo airport, Mirabel became an embarrassment widely regarded in Canada as being a boondoggle, or a "white elephant," and one of the best examples of a failed megaproject. (Full article...)
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Did you know
...that five USAAF airmen were awarded the Medal of Honor following Operation Tidal Wave, a low-level bombing of Romanian oil refineries on 1 August 1943? ...that Garuda Indonesia flight 152 was the deadliest air disaster of 1997, claiming the lives of over 230 people? ...that François Denhaut built the world's first flying boat, or seaplane with a hull?
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In the news
- May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
- August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
- June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
- January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
- January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
- January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
- October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
- October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
- September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
- August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard
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Selected biography
During his formative years Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and in South Africa. During the Boer War, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. While convalescing in Switzerland he took up bobsleighing and after a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Some months later, Trenchard returned to South Africa before volunteering for service in Nigeria. During his time in Nigeria, Trenchard commanded the Southern Nigeria Regiment for several years and was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule and quell inter-tribal violence.
In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and was subsequently appointed as second in command of the Central Flying School. He held several senior positions in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, serving as the commander of Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he briefly served as the first Chief of the Air Staff before taking up command of the Independent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff under Winston Churchill in 1919, Trenchard spent the following decade securing the future of the Royal Air Force. He was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years.
Selected Aircraft
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Avro_Lancaster_B_I_PA474.jpg/250px-Avro_Lancaster_B_I_PA474.jpg)
The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley-Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving within RAF Bomber Command. The "Lanc" or "Lankie," as it became affectionately known, became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties." Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles including daylight precision bombing, and gained worldwide renown as the "Dam Buster" used in the 1943 Operation Chastise raids on Germany's Ruhr Valley dams.
- Span: 102 ft (31.09 m)
- Length: 69 ft 5 in (21.18 m)
- Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
- Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines, 1,280 hp (954 kW) each
- Maximum Speed: 240 knots (280 mph, 450 km/h) at 15,000 ft (5,600 m)
- First Flight: 8 January 1941
- Number built: 7,377
Today in Aviation
- 2012 – Wearing a white costume designed to induce endangered Siberian cranes to follow him, President of Russia Vladimir Putin pilots a motorized hang glider in three brief flights over Russia's Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic, apparently the first time a Russian head of state has piloted an aircraft. Cranes follow him on two of the flights. His flights are part of the "Flight of Hope" project to increase the population of Siberian cranes by using ultralight aircraft to lead the birds on flights that teach them to migrate.[1][2]
- 2006 – First Fight: Boeing 737-900ER.
- 2005 – An Antonov An-12BP cargo aircraft (reg 4L-SAS) owned by Transaviaservice of Georgia, operated for Galaxy Kavatsi of DRC, and flying with an expired Georgian license overshoots and burns at Goma DRC while stopping en route to Bukavu. Five crew (two Ukrainians, two Georgians, one Congolese) and three minor passengers (Congolese girls) were killed.
- 2005 – Sukhoi Su-33 landing on the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov at 1627 hrs. gets the trap, but arresting wire breaks and the fighter goes off the deck into the North Atlantic, pilot Sub Colonel Yuri Korneev ejecting immediately. Jet sinks in ~1,000 metres of water, pilot deploys raft from his survival pack and is rescued by a Kamov Ka-27P rescue helicopter and brought on board in a "normal condition." According to a source in Naval Headquarters, "it is possible that the pilot also made a mistake during the incident. The jet pilot, according to instructions, should have revved the engine after the cable broke and performed an emergency takeoff. However, the fault of the pilot can be determined only after analysis from the Su-33’s black box," reported Kommersant. Capt. Of First Rank Igor Dygalo, head of the press center of the Main Staff of the Navy, said that the black box released as it was designed and surfaced after the plane sank. This was the first loss of the type during a "sea flight."
- 2005 – Mandala Airlines Flight 091, a Boeing 737-200, crashes in Medan, Indonesia, killing 103 of the 111 passengers and all 5 crew members on the plane and an additional 47 people on the ground.
- 1994 – The first production version of the advanced McDonnell Douglas Explorer twin-turbine, eight-place helicopter makes its maiden flight at Mesa, Ariz.
- 1986 – Pan Am Flight 73, a Boeing 747, is hijacked on the ground at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, by Palestinian militants. About twenty passengers and crew out of 379 on board die during a shootout inside the plane.
- 1984 – Landed: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-41-D at 13:37:54 UTC Edwards AFB. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments; first flight of Discovery, test of OAST-1 Solar Array.
- 1983 – Landed: Space shuttle Challenger STS-8 at 07:40:43 UTC. Mission highlights: Comsat deployment, first flight of an African American in space, Guion Bluford; test of robot arm on heavy payloads with Payload Flight Test Article, First night landing.
- 1982 – Douglas Bader, RAF fighter pilot in World War II, died. Bader was a successful fighter pilot, claiming 22 German planes shot down in WWII. He claimed the fifth highest total in the RAF, despite having lost both legs in a pre-war flying accident. He was shot down 1941 and spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp. He made so many escape attempts that the Germans threatened to take his prosthetic legs away from him.
- 1960 – A United States Navy McDonnell F4 H-1 Phantom II sets a world speed record over a 500-km (310.5-mi) closed-circuit course, averaging 1,216.78 mph (1,958.16 km/hr). September 10, 1960 – NORAD carries out Operation Sky Shield, testing US and Canadian radar systems took place on 10 Sep 1960.[3]
- 1959 – Black Brant (rocket) 1 rocket, a Canadian designed sounding rocket, was first launched.
- 1957 – Royal Canadian Air Force Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.4B, 18455, pulled up, flamed out, went into inverted spin and at the Canadian International Air Show, Toronto, Ontario. F/O's H. R. Norris and R. C. Dougall were killed.
- 1954 – KLM Flight 633, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, ditches after takeoff from Shannon Airport in Ireland, killing 28 of 56 on board.
- 1950 – To divert enemy attention from the upcoming Inchon landing, U. S. Air Force bombers begin strikes on bridges and roads around Kunsan, Korea. To contribute to the deception over the next few days, carrier aircraft from USS Badoeng Strait (CVE-116) and HMS Triumph (R16) strike roads and bridges to the north of Kunsan, and aircraft from USS Valley Forge (CV-45) and USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) attack targets between Seoul and Pyongyang.
- 1948 – A US Navy Martin JRM Mars sets a new cargo record of 62,262 lb (28,242 kg)
- 1944 – First flight of the Douglas C-74 Globemaster[4]
- 1943 – 1,700 men of the United States Army’s 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment parachute onto the Japanese airfield at Nadzab, New Guinea, capturing it easily. An airlift of several thousand more Allied troops to the airfield occurs over the next few days.
- 1941 – (5-12) Nine U. S. Army Air Forces B-17D Flying Fortress bombers fly from Hickam Field in Hawaii to Clark Field in the Philippine Islands via Midway Atoll, Wake Island, Port Moresby in New Guinea, and Darwin, Australia.
- 1939 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Navy to organize a Neutrality Patrol to report and track any belligerent air, surface, or underwater naval forces approaching the United States East Coast or the West Indies.
- 1923 – US Army bombers carry out anti-shipping exercises, sinking the obsolete battleships USS Virginia and USS New Jersey.
- 1918 – First flight of the Orenco C
- 1918 – Establishment of Royal Canadian Naval Air Service; authorized to operate two stations in Nova Scotia.
- 1914 – During the Siege of Tsingtao, the Imperial Japanese Navy carries out its first air combat mission. A three-seat Farman seaplane from the Wakamiya bombs German fortifications at Tsingtao, China, and conducts a reconnaissance of Kiaochow Bay.
- 1908 – Goupy No.1, is the world’s first triplane. The French Goupy, was built by Ambroise Goupy, it has three sets of wings; each stacked above the others and is powered by 50-hp Renault engine.
References
- ^ Stanglin, Douglas (September 6, 2012). "Putin Pilots Hang Glider to Point Cranes to New Winter Home". (USA Today)Content.usatoday.com. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
- ^ Kramer, Andrew E. (September 5, 2012). "Putin Pulls Off Latest Feat: Flying With the Birds". Russia: The New York Times(Nytimes.com). Retrieved December 2, 2012.
- ^ http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/this-is-only-a-test-3119878/?no-ist=&page=2
- ^ http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail-page-2.asp?aircraft_id=1094
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