Civilian Archives - Page 28 of 175

On This Day in Aviation History

1872 – Birth of Traian Vuia, Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer. 1940 – Death of William Meade Lindsley “Billy” Fiske III, 1928 and 1932 Olympic champion bobsled driver and one of the first American pilots killed in action in World War II. While serving in the Royal Air Force, he dies from severe burns after […]

Oklahoma Team Finishes DC-3 Resto

In the shadow of the 70th Anniversary of Victory Over Japan Day marking the end of World War II, a local airborne demonstration team worked to restore a historic aircraft Saturday. About a dozen members of the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team helped continue the restoration of a Douglas DC-3 aircraft at the municipal airport in […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1918 – Death of David Esplin Smith, Scottish World War I flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol F.2b. 1952 – Birth of Mark Charles Lee, U.S. Air Force pilot and NASA astronaut. 1953 – The sound barrier is broken over Australia for the first time by the Royal Australian Air Force in the […]

Georgia Museum to Receive B-17

Next week residents here in Warner Robins, Ga., will have a chance to witness something they probably have never seen before and will never see again. A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, one of the most revered planes in military history, will be rolling down the streets. The Museum of Aviation’s long-awaited B-17 bomber is arriving on […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1916 – Birth of Patrick Palles Lorne Elphinstone “Lorne” Welch, British engineer, pilot and prisoner of war during World War II. 1955 – First flight of the Hispano HA-200 Saeta (shown), a Spanish two-seat advanced jet trainer. 1959 – Fred Drinkwater becomes the first NASA test pilot to complete the full conversion of a tiltrotor […]

Cayuse Warrior Enters Afghan Combat

The Afghan Air Force’s MD-530F Cayuse Warrior scout-attack helicopter has been used in combat for the first time, helping security forces clear insurgents from three rural districts south of Jalalabad. Armed with .50-caliber machine guns and ballistic armor protection, the helicopters operated alongside the Afghan Air Force’s Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters based at Kabul as part of Operation Iron […]

Colorado Museum Receives Pair of MiGs

Warplanes that once targeted U.S. soldiers are now part of a collection at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and MiG-17 are the first enemy aircraft at the museum. The Russian planes were used during the Vietnam and Korean wars. Volunteers at the museum said it took three years to bring in the planes and […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1890 – Birth of Joseph Frantz, French World War I pilot and the first pilot to shoot down an airplane in a dogfight. 1951 – William “Bill” Bridgeman sets a new airspeed record in the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket (shown) of Mach 1.88 (1,245 mph). 1963 – First flight of the Lockheed YF-12, American prototype interceptor; […]

Illinois Aviation Museum Closing

After a long struggle and many years of valiant effort in preserving American aviation history, the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum in Rantoul, Ill., is sadly set to close at the end of this year due to lack of funds. Now comes the hardest part; deciding what to do with the fleet of thirty or so aircraft currently under their […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1915 – Birth of Helmut Paul Emil Wick, German World War II fighter ace. 1936 – Chicago and Southern Air Lines Flight 4, a Lockheed Model 10 Electra, crashes after takeoff from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport due to pilot error, killing all eight aboard. 1936 – Five Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers are among aircraft covering a convoy of merchant […]