Civilian

1887 – Birth of Georges Pierre Blanc, French World War I flying ace. 1916 – First American pilot to be shot down, Horace Clyde Balsley of the Lafayette Escadrille, is wounded and survives the engagement. 1928 – A Latham 47 – a French twin-engine biplane flying boat piloted by René Cyprien Guilbaud – carrying Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen and five others […]

NASA has picked eight Americans, a mix of scientists and military pilots, to begin training for future space missions that may one day launch them all the way to Mars. The new class consists of four men and four women who will join the 49 active astronauts at the agency’s astronaut corps at the Johnson […]

A North American P-51C Mustang made several low passes over the York (Pa.) Airport airfield, its engine making a sound that sent shivers down the necks of enthusiasts. “It’s just thrilling to see them and hear them,” said Sharon Baum of Jefferson, who attended York Aviation Days in Jackson Township on Sunday with her husband, […]

1914 – Birth of Piotr Konstantinovich “Daddy” Kozachenko, a Soviet fighter ace during the Sino Japanese War, Finnish-Soviet Winter War and World War II. 1923 – New Zealand forms its first military aviation services, the forerunners of what would be the Royal New Zealand Air Force. 1944 – Royal Air Force Flt. Lt. J.G. Musgrave, flying a de Havilland Mosquito of […]