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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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This is the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. 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...)

Selected article

A U.S. Air Force F-35A off the coast of Florida
A U.S. Air Force F-35A off the coast of Florida
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Lockheed Martin is the prime F-35 contractor, with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A, the short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35B, and the carrier-based (CV/CATOBAR) F-35C. (Full article...)

Selected image

A test firing of twin linear XRS-2200 Aerospike engines. The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its efficiency across a wide range of altitudes through the use of an aerospike nozzle. A standard rocket engine uses a bell shaped nozzle to contain and direct the exhaust gases. However the optimum shape of the bell depends on the air pressure which reduces as the rocket climbs. An aerospike uses the air flowing past the rocket to form half of a 'virtual bell' which automatically compensates for the reducing pressure.

Did you know

...that BŻ-1 GIL was the first Polish experimental helicopter? ...that Theo Osterkamp was the first German reconnaissance pilot to fly a land-based aircraft to England during World War I? ... that Teddy Air was the first airline to win a public service obligation in Norway?

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

Amy Johnson (1 July 1903 – 5 January 1941) C.B.E. was a pioneering British aviatrix.

Born in Kingston upon Hull, Johnson graduated from University of Sheffield with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. She was introduced to flying as a hobby, gaining a pilot's A Licence No. 1979 on 6 July 1929 at the London Aeroplane Club. In that same year, she became the first British woman to gain a ground engineer's C License.

Johnson achieved worldwide recognition when, in 1930, she became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. She left Croydon on 5 May of that year and landed in Darwin, Australia on 24 May after flying 11,000 miles. Her aircraft for this flight, a De Havilland Gipsy Moth (registration G-AAAH) named Jason, can still be seen in the Science Museum in London. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in homage to this achievement, and was also honoured with the No. 1 civil pilot's licence under Australia's 1921 Air Navigation Regulations.

In July 1931, Johnson and her co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first pilots to fly from London to Moscow in one day, completing the 1,760-mile journey in approximately 21 hours. From there, they continued across Siberia and on to Tokyo, setting a record time for flying from England to Japan. The flight was completed in a De Havilland Puss Moth.

Selected Aircraft

[[File:|right|250px|The two YC-130 prototypes; the blunt nose was replaced with radar on later production models.]] The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop cargo aircraft and the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over 40 models and variants of the Hercules serve with more than 50 nations. On December 2006 the C-130 was the third aircraft (after the English Electric Canberra in May 2001 and the B-52 Stratofortress in January 2005) to mark 50 years of continuous use with its original primary customer (in this case the United States Air Force).

Capable of short takeoffs and landings from unprepared runways, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in a variety of other roles, including as a gunship, and for airborne assault, search and rescue, scientific research support, weather reconnaissance, aerial refuelling and aerial firefighting. The Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. During more than 50 years of service the family has participated in military, civilian and humanitarian aid operations.

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Today in Aviation

January 24

  • 2011 – The 2011 Domodedovo Airport bombing was a suicide attack in the international arrival hall of Moscow’s busiest airport, Domodedovo Airport. The bombing killed at least 37 people and injured some 173, including 115 who had to be hospitalised.
  • 2010 – A Finnish Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-18 Hornet crashed in the south of the country. The fighter crashed in Juuapajoki, north of the southern city of Tampere at about 11:50 local time. The two pilots, who were on a routine training flight, ejected safely and were uninjured.
  • 2007 – Air West Flight 612 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Air West between Khartoum, Sudan and Al-Fashir. With 103 people on board, the flight, operated by a Boeing 737, was hijacked shortly after takeoff by a male individual. The plane landed safely at N’Djamena, Chad, where the hijacker surrendered.
  • 2007 – Ecuadorian Defence Minister Guadalupe Larriva, her 17-year-old daughter and five army officers are killed when two Aérospatiale SA.342L Gazelle military helicopters, EE-343 and EE-360, of Grupo Aéreo 43, collide near Manta Air Base at 2019 hrs. during night training.
  • 2003 – Death of Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout, American early aviator, first Woman to set the first non-refueling endurance record for women.
  • 1991 – Iraqi ground fire shoots down another RAF Tornado, over Basrah, Iraq. Flying an F-15 C Eagle, Royal Saudi Air Force Captain Ayedh al-Shamrani, using AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, shoots down two Iraqi Air Force Mirage F1 jets as they approach British Royal Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. U. S. Navy aircraft attack Iraqi Navy ships; A-6 Es sink a Zhuk-class patrol boat and Spasilac-class minelayer and cause a minesweeper taking evasive action to strike an Iraqi mine and sink, and a force of A-6 Es and F/A-18 Hornets hit four ships in an attack on Umm Qasr naval base. U. S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell announces that during the first week of air attacks on Iraq, Coalition air forces have flown more than 10,000 sorties, knocked out 61 of Iraq’s 66 airfields, and shot down 19 Iraqi aircraft in air-to-air-combat, losing 16 of their own number – All to ground fire.
  • 1991 – CF-18's flew their first mission over Iraq.
  • 1991 – LTV A-7E Corsair II, BuNo 158830, 'AC 403', of VA-72 has the dubious distinction of being the last of the type in US Navy service to need a barricade landing aboard a carrier when the nose gear was damaged on catapult launch from the CV67 USS John F. Kennedy, at start of mission 12.41 against a target in western Iraq, losing a tire of the front mount on his cat shot. Pilot, Lt. Tom Dostie succeeds in landing in the barricade also known as the net or 5th wire. Since the A-7 type was about to be retired, airframe is stripped for parts and buried at sea 25 January with full military honors, but refuses to sink due to fuel bags in the wings were not salvageable and not removed. Marines aboard CV67 JFK used it for target practice (Video of Lt. Dostie's catching the net as well as the Marines using it for target practice can be seen on linked video. At 17:00 mins into video it shows Lt. Dostie landing in the net and then later on in the video compilation it shows the Marines shooting at and sinking 403 with 50 cals after it's craned off the port side.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNOyd-_W_uU
  • 1990 – Launch of The Hiten Spacecraft, English name 'Celestial Maiden' and known before launch as MUSES-A (Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft A), Japanese first lunar probe.
  • 1986 – Voyager 2, NASA space probe, passes within 81,500 km (50,600 mi) of Uranus.
  • 1986 – The American spacecraft Voyager 2 makes its closest approach to Uranus, passing within 50,600 miles.
  • 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-C at 9:50:00 UTC. Mission highlights: First classified Department of Defense (DoD) mission; Magnum satellite deployment.
  • 1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada’s Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
  • 1977 – Death of Andrew Henry Humphrey GCB, OBE, DFC, AFC, RAF, British WWII pilot and Marshal of the Royal Air Force, who set some records with the English Electric Canberrea B2 ‘Aries IV’.
  • 1974 – Togolese Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain, 5V-MAG, crashes during approach near the village of Sarakawa, northern Togo, killing several high-ranking military personnel. The President of Togo, Gnassingbé Eyadéma (1935–2005) is the sole survivor.[360]
  • 1971 – Death of Ferdinand von Hiddessen, German WWI pilot and politician, first German to bomb Paris in WWI.
  • 1966 – Operation Masher, later renamed Operation White Wing, a helicopter and ground assault by the U. S. Army's First Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and South Vietnamese Army and South Korean Army units, begins against North Vietnamese Army forces in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam. The operation concludes on March 6.
  • 1966 – First flight of the Learjet 24, an American six to eight seat (two crew and four to six passengers) twin-engined, high speed business jet.
  • 1963 – A USAF Boeing B-52G Stratofortress on a training mission out of Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, lost its vertical stabilizer due to buffeting during low-level flight, and crashed on the west side of Elephant Mountain near Greenville, Maine. Of the nine crewmen aboard, two survived the crash.
  • 1961 – First flight of the Convair 990 Coronado, an American narrowbody jet airliner, “stretched” version of their earlier Convair 880.
  • 1961 – The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A United States Air Force Boeing B-52G Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs breaks up in mid-air over Greensboro, North Carolina, and crashes, killing three of its eight-man crew. The bombs do not arm themselves and are recovered.
  • 1957 – Death of Georg Weiner, German WWI flying ace, author of children’s books, probably best remembered for the creation of "Biggles", the fictional WWI hero. He also was a High-ranking officer in WWII.
  • 1952 – Birth of William Francis Readdy, USN Test pilot and NASA Astronaut.
  • 1952 – Grumman SA-16A Albatross, 51-001, c/n G-74, of the 580th Air Resupply Squadron (described as a Central Intelligence Agency air unit), on cross-country flight from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to San Diego, California, suffers failure of port engine over Death Valley, crew of six successfully bails out at ~1830 hrs. with no injuries, walks S some 14 miles to Furnace Creek, California where they are picked up the following day by an SA-16 from the 42nd Air Rescue Squadron, March AFB, California. The abandoned SA-16 crashes into Towne Summit mountain ridge of the Panamint Range W of Stovepipe Wells with starboard engine still running. Wreckage is still there.
  • 1950 – First flight of the Nord 1601, a French aerodynamic research aircraft designed to investigate the aerodynamics of swept wings and related high-lift devices.
  • 1944 – German raids of 15, 43, and 52 aircraft strike Allied ships off Anzio, damaging an American destroyer and minesweeper and sinking a British hospital ship.
  • 1943 – (24-25) German aircraft attack Convoy JW-52 while it is en route the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union via the Barents Sea but cause no damage.
  • 1942 – The Japanese aircraft carriers Hiryū and Sōryū begin strikes on Ambon.
  • 1936 – Prototype Junkers Ju 87 V1, Werk Nr. 4921, fitted with a pair of vertical fins, suffers tail section oscillation during medium-angle test dive, loses starboard fin during attempted recovery, goes into inverted spin, crashes at Dessau, Germany. Wilhelm ‘Willy’ Neuenhofen, German WWI fighter ace, Junker’s Chief test pilot, was killed
  • 1932 – French pilots Paul Codos and Henri Robida land in Paris after flying from Hanoi in French Indochina in a record time of 3 days 4 hours.
  • 1929 – Surplus Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a, (original serial unknown), presented to Aviación Naval (Argentine Naval arm), E-11/AC-21, written-off in crash landing at Campo Sarmiento, Base Naval Puerto Belgrano, Argentina when pilot Alferez de Fragata Alberto Sautu Riestra approaches field too flat and lands short, collapsing undercarriage. Pilot uninjured. As the airframe was an obsolescent one-only on strength design, with no supporting plans or parts, it is scrapped.
  • 1929 – First flight of the Blériot 111, a French single engine, low wing monoplane transport prototype.
  • 1925 – Total eclipse of the sun photographed near Toronto from Avro 504 flown by F/L G. E. Brookes and F/O A. L. Moore. Photos published in Toronto Daily Star.
  • 1920 – First aircraft flight across the Sahara Desert is flown by French Joseph Vuillemin of the Aéronautique Militaire.
  • 1920 – First Canadian private pilot’s license was issued to James Stanley Scott, Ottawa, Ontario.
  • 1919 – Army Air Service pilot first Lt. Temple M. Joyce makes 300 consecutive loops in a Morane fighter at Issoudun, France.
  • 1919 – Death of Cecil Frederick King, British WWI fighter ace, killed in a midair collision while serving as a combat instructor.
  • 1918 – Death of Harry Gosford Reeves, British WWI fighter ace, killed in a crash while performing an engine test on a Nieuport 27.
  • 1917 – Death of Leopold Rudolf Reimann, German WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident at Jastaschule near Valenciennes when the wings of his Albatros D.III collapsed.
  • 1913 – Death of Charles de Nié Port (Nieuport), French aircraft designer and pilot, co-founder with his brother Edouard of the eponymous Nieuport aircraft manufacturing company, Société Anonyme Des Établissements Nieuport in a flying accident at Étampes in France, when their wing-warping device failed.
  • 1913 – Swiss pilot Oskar Bider reaches 11,483 feet when he flies over the Pyrénées from Pau to Madrid in his Blériot XI monoplane.
  • 1900 – Birth of Lowell R. Bayles, American air racer.
  • 1899 – Birth of Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg, American pilot, High-ranking officer in WWII, U. S. Air Force general, second Chief of Staff and second Director of Central Intelligence.
  • 1897 – Birth of Malcolm Plaw MacLeod, Canadian WWI flying ace who also served during WWII.
  • 1897 – Birth of Eric Bourne Coulter Betts, Irish WWI flying ace.
  • 1896 – Birth of George Owen Johnson, Canadian WWI flying ace, raid pilot who remained in the RCAF until the end of WWII.
  • 1895 – Birth of Richard Michael Trevethan, American born British WWI flying ace.
  • 1895 – Birth of Gilbert Ware Murlis Green, British WWI flying ace who served on many theaters, commanded two of the original night fighter squadrons and shot down the first German airplane at night over Britain.
  • 1895 – Birth of Marcel Joseph Maurice Nogues, French WWI fighter ace and balloon buster.
  • 1893 – Birth of Marcel Marc Dhôme, French WWI flying ace, racing car driver, who also served in WWII and during the Korean war.
  • 1887 – Birth of Paul Wenzel, German WWI flying ace.

References

  1. ^ Surk, Barbara, "Syrian Jets Bomb Rebel-Held Areas Near Damascus," Associated Press, January 24, 2013.
  2. ^ Hradecky, Simon. "Incident: Etihad A346 near London on Jan 24th 2011, unruly passenger prompts fighter escort". Aviation Herald. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  3. ^ "Man arrested at Stansted after aircraft incident". BBC News. 24 January 2011. Archived from the original on 25 January 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
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