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The Aviation Portal

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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Arkia Boeing 757-300
Arkia Boeing 757-300
Arkia Israeli Airlines (Hebrew: ארקיע, I will soar), usually referred to as Arkia, is an airline based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is Israel's second largest airline operating scheduled domestic and international services as well as charter flights to Western Europe and the Mediterranean. Its main base is Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, whilst it also operates significant numbers of flights out of Sde Dov Airport in Tel Aviv, Eilat Airport, and Ovda International Airport.

Arkia was founded in 1949 as Israel Inland Airlines when it became clear that there was demand for a local airline to connect the north of Israel (especially Tel Aviv) with the southern region of the Negev, as a subsidiary of El Al, Israel's national airline. Flights starting the following year with the airline unsing De Havilland DH.89 aircraft, followed by Douglas DC-3s, to connect Rosh Pina in the north to the port of Eilat in the south. El Al held a 50% stake in the airline at this time with Histadrut, Israel's labour federation, being the other shareholder. The airline later evolved to become Eilata Airlines, Aviron, and then to Arkia Israel Airlines. In its first year of service, Israel Inland carried 13,485 passengers on their twice weekly flight, operated by a Curtis Commando. (Full article...)

Selected image

Let L-410 Turbolet
Photo: Łukasz Golowanow
The Let L-410 Turbolet is a twin-engined short-range transport aircraft, manufactured by the Czech aircraft manufacturer LET, mostly used for passenger transport. The L-410 first flew in 1969, and with more than 1100 produced, is the most popular 19-seat plane in history.
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Did you know

...that on October 5, 1914, a French Voisin III pilot scored the first air-to-air kill of World War I? ...that during World War II, Marine Fighting Squadron 215 established four new U.S. Marine Corps records in the South Pacific including having the most ace pilots? ... that a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft crashed shortly after take-off at Bakers Creek, Queensland in 1943, killing 40 of the 41 service personnel on board and making it Australia's worst aviation disaster?

More Did you know facts

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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

Amelia Earhart, c. 1928
Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897 – missing as of July 2, 1937), daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart, was an American aviator and noted early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight in 1937.

By 1919 Earhart had enrolled at Columbia University to study pre-med but quit a year later to be with her parents in California. Later in Long Beach she and her father went to a stunt-flying exhibition and the next day she went on a ten minute flight.

Earhart had her first flying lesson at Kinner Field near Long Beach. Her teacher was Anita Snook, a pioneer female aviator. Six months later Earhart purchased a yellow Kinner Airster biplane which she named "Canary". On October 22, 1922, she flew it to an altitude of 14,000 feet, setting a women's world record.

After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest, a wealthy American living in London, England expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean, but after deciding the trip was too dangerous to make herself, she offered to sponsor the project, suggesting they find "another girl with the right image." While at work one afternoon in April 1928 Earhart got a phone call from a man who asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?"

Selected Aircraft

British Airways Boeing 747-400
British Airways Boeing 747-400

The Boeing 747 is a widebody commercial airliner, often referred to by the nickname Jumbo Jet. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first widebody ever produced. Manufactured by Boeing's Commercial Airplane unit in the United States, the original version of the 747 was two and a half times the size of the Boeing 707, one of the common large commercial aircraft of the 1960s. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the passenger capacity record for 37 years.

The four-engine 747 uses a double deck configuration for part of its length. It is available in passenger, freighter and other versions. Boeing designed the 747's hump-like upper deck to serve as a first class lounge or (as is the general rule today) extra seating, and to allow the aircraft to be easily converted to a cargo carrier by removing seats and installing a front cargo door. Boeing did so because the company expected supersonic airliners (whose development was announced in the early 1960s) to render the 747 and other subsonic airliners obsolete; while believing that the demand for subsonic cargo aircraft would be robust into the future. The 747 in particular was expected to become obsolete after 400 were sold but it exceeded its critics' expectations with production passing the 1,000 mark in 1993. As of September 2023, 1,574 aircraft have been built, with the final delivery in January 2023.

The 747-8, the latest version in service, is among the fastest airliners in service with a high-subsonic cruise speed of Mach 0.855 (564 mph or 908 km/h). It has an intercontinental range of 7,730 nautical miles (14,320 km; 8,900 mi). The 747-8I (passenger version) can accommodate 467 passengers in a typical three-class layout. The 747-8 completed production on 6 December 2022 and the final 747 was delivered to Atlas Air on 31 January 2023.

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Today in Aviation

November 26

  • 2008 – A US Army C-23 Sherpa from 2–641 Aviation Brigade made a wheels up landing at al-Kut, while operating with Task Force 34. None of the four man crew and seven passengers were injured.[3]
  • 2006 – United Airlines Flight 814 returned to Denver Airport after suffering a Coyote strike on take off. The Boeing 737 returned safely.
  • 2004 – USMC Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165838, loses a 20 x 4 inch piece of a prop-rotor blade during test flight in Nova Scotia, Canada, but is able to make safe precautionary landing at CFB Shearwater despite severe airframe vibration. The blade failed after apparently being hit by ice which broke off from another part of the aircraft.
  • 2003 – Concorde G-BOAF MSN 216, makes the very last flight before retirement from London Heathrow to Bristol Filton, the place she was born on 20th April 1979. She went supersonic off the south west coast before returning and making low level flights over Bristol City and Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge, then onto her final landing at Bristol Filton. This was the final flight of Concorde.
  • 1993 – Auckland mid-air collision was an aircraft accident in New Zealand. It occurred when an Aérospatiale TwinStar helicopter and a Piper Archer airplane collided and crashed in central Auckland, killing all four occupants—both civilian pilots and two police officers aboard the helicopter.
  • 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-61-B at 4:26 am EST. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployment, EASE/ACCESS experiment. First Mexican in space, Rodolfo Neri Vela.
  • 1982 – An Indian Air Force Mil Mi-8 crashed in Mizoram province, nine killed.
  • 1979 – PIA Flight 740, a Boeing 707, crashes after a fire in the cabin in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; all 145 passengers and 11 crew die.
  • 1970 – The beginning of Exercise “Acid Test III” where all Canadian military aircraft were tested for their ability to operate in temperatures as low as -60 degrees.
  • 1968 – United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
  • 1958 – A United States Air Force Boeing B-47 Stratojet on Alert Status at Chennault AFB, Louisiana, accidentally ignites RATO assisted take-off bottles, is pushed off runway into tow vehicle, catches fire, completely destroying single nuclear weapon on board. Contamination limited to area within aircraft wreckage.
  • 1943 – (Overnight) – Japanese aircraft again strike American ships off the Gilbert Islands, scoring no hits. They encounter the first aircraft-carrier-based night combat air patrol in history, consisting of a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber and two F6 F Hellcat fighters. The Avenger shoots down one Japanese plane, but Lieutenant Commander Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare, the U. S. Navy’s second ace in history and first of World War II, is shot down and killed flying one of the Hellcats; he has seven victories at the time of his death.
  • 1941 – Some eight months before the discovery of the nearly intact Akutan Zero, Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2, c/n 3372, coded 'V-172', of the 22nd Air Flotilla Fighter Unit, forced-lands on a beach at Leichou Pantao, China, as lost flight of two runs low on fuel. Discovered mostly intact, dismantled and shipped to United States for testing, this was the first of the type to fall into Allied hands. Later test-flown at Eglin Field, then put on tour as war bond exhibit. Disposition unknown following end of hostilities.
  • 1938 – France lays the keel of its second aircraft carrier, Joffre, intended as the first non-experimental French carrier. Joffre’s construction will be abandoned in June 1940, and she will never be launched.
  • 1932 – One of two Nakajima Navy Experimental Kusho 6-shi Special Bomber prototypes, the first carrier-based dive bomber design in Japan, crashes in a rural area, killing Nakajima test pilot Tsuneo Fujimaki. Observers reported that the pilot made several attempted recoveries but each time the nose pitched down to vertical. Impact is said have driven the airframe two metres into the ground. Further evaluation of the type is suspended. For security purposes, the term "dive-bomber" was not used, the design being described as a "special bomber".
  • 1929 – After taking off from Hal Far, Malta, a Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force Fairey Flycatcher lands aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous, achieving the first night carrier landing by a fleet fighter.

References

  1. ^ Anonymous, "X-47B Drone Meets the Fleet," Aviation History, March 2013, p. 10.
  2. ^ Brulliard, Karin, and Joshua Partlow, "NATO Airstrike Strains U.S.-Pakistan Relations", washingtonpost.com, 27 November 2011.
  3. ^ "C-23 Makes Emergency Landing in Al Kut, Iraq" (Press release). Task Force 34. 2008-11-27. Retrieved 2010-06-02. At approx. 8:46 p.m., Nov. 26, a Coalition force C-23 Sherpa, twin-engine aircraft safely made a gear up landing at al-Kut, Iraq. The aircraft departed Balad and was en route to al-Kut when the incident occurred. There were 7 passengers and 4 crew members on board and there were no injuries. [...] The aircraft is part of 2nd Battalion, 641st Aviation Regiment, an element of Task Force 34, headquartered at Balad, Iraq
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