Featured News Archives - Page 86 of 286

Pacific Fighters Making Progress on ‘BF 109’

Not content to sit on their laurels following the marvelous restoration of the North American P-51B Mustang “Berlin Express,” Pacific Fighters is now hard at work on the restoration of Hispano Buchon C.4K-130 for Jack Erickson’s collection in Madras, Ore. The aircraft is one of a couple of dozen examples which Group Capt. Hamish Mahaddie acquired from the Spanish […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1912 – Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance west of Tripoli behind Turkish lines. 1936 – First flight of the Breguet 470 “Fulgur,” a French twin-engined monoplane airliner. 1943 – Death of Mitsugu Sawada, Japanese Sino-Japanese War and World War II flying ace; he is killed […]

Qantas to Retire Oldest 747

In a fitting retirement for its oldest Boeing 747-400 aircraft, if all goes to plan Qantas flight QF7474 is due to land at 7:47 a.m. on Sunday at the Illawarra Regional Airport near Wollongong, New South Wales. Four highly experienced Qantas pilots have already spent more than 25 hours in a flight simulator preparing for […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1915 – Zeppelin LZ33 (L8) crashes near Ostend, Belgium, after being hit by gunfire during a mission to strike Britain. 1944 – After the success of Big Week missions against the Luftwaffe over Germany, the U.S. Army Air Forces begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin. 1965 – Birth of Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov, former Russian […]

From the AW Archives: Broken Arrow

The cancellation of the Avro Canada CF-105 interceptor in February 1959 was a traumatic event for Canada’s emerging aerospace industry. When Aviation Week reported on the fighter’s rollout, in October 1957, the magazine called it “a serious contender for the top military aircraft of the next several years”. High praise indeed, for a non-U.S. aircraft, […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1887 – Birth of Josef Mai, German World War I fighter ace and World War II instructor. 1919 – Airplane builder William E. Boeing and Eddie Hubbard of Hubbard Air Service make the first international airmail flight from Seattle, Wash., to Victoria, B.C., Canada in a Boeing C-700 (Model 2) seaplane. 1926 – Air service […]

AW609 to be Built in U.S.

AgustaWestland announced Monday at the Helicopter Association International’s annual convention in Orlando, Fla., that the AW609 civil tiltrotor will be manufactured at its plant in Philadelphia, Pa., and that most flight test activity will be moving to the U.S. AgustaWestland also revealed significant payload and range improvements for the 609 that could potentially give it an max […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1915 – Birth of Kaj Birksted, Danish World War II flying ace with the Royal Air Force and Danish high-ranking officer post-WWII. 1953 – First flight of the SNCASO Trident (shown), a French mixed power prototype interceptor. 1955 – Trans-Canada Airlines introduced the Vickers Viscount airliner into regular service, making it the first North American airline to use turbine […]

Volunteers to Restore ‘Looking Glass’ Bird

Over the next two years, volunteers at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, Neb., plan to restore one of 12 Looking Glass airborne command centers that were an icon of the Cold War. Officially known as an Boeing EC-135C, the aircraft were to be used as a command center for U.S. nuclear forces […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1918 – Death of Giuseppe Ghislanzoni, World War I Italian pilot. 1928 – Birth of Anatoly Vasilyevich Filipchenko, Soviet fighter pilot, cosmonaut and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. 1941 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-3, crashes while landing at Atlanta, Ga., killing eight of 16 aboard; World War I hero and Eastern Air Lines president […]