Civilian Archives - Page 46 of 175

On This Day in Aviation History

1910 – Birth of Herwig Knüppel, German flying ace of the Spanish War and World War II. 1923 – First flight of the Boeing NB (or Model 21), American primary training aircraft; the equal-span biplane is capable of either wheeled or float undercarriages. 1969 – Finnair introduces an inertial navigation system on its aircraft, becoming […]

How WWI Changed Aviation Forever

When the world went to war in 1914, the Wright Brothers had only made the world’s first powered flight little over a decade before. But the remarkable advances made in aviation during World War One are still at the core of air power today, says Dr. Peter Gray. To say the first aeroplanes used in […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1895 – Birth of Keith Logan “Grid” Caldwell, New Zealand World War I fighter ace and World War II Royal New Zealand Air Force high-ranking officer. 1908 – First flight of the British Army Aeroplane No. 1, or sometimes known as Cody 1, a British biplane; it is the first recognized powered and sustained flight […]

Mitsubishi RJ Set to Debut, Finally

It’s almost four years late in arrival. Now, with a helping hand from bullet-train specialists, Japanis finally ready to show its first passenger jet to the world. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. will unveil the regional jet at Nagoya on Oct. 18 after three delays as customers such as ANA Holdings Inc. and SkyWest Inc. await delivery. Mitsubishi is building 78-and 92-seater planes […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1912 – Death of Henri Cobioni, Swiss aviation pioneer; he is killed in the crash of his Blériot monoplane during a meeting at La Chaux-de-Fonds. 1915 – First flight of the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8 (reproduction shown), a British single-seat World War I biplane fighter. 1943 – American Airlines Flight 63, a Douglas DC-3, crashes […]

On Flying DC-3s, -4s

When I was a little girl growing up on the west side of Cincinnati in the ’50s, I was obsessed with airplanes, but the closest I came to any were the distinctive V-tails that flew regularly over our house. And I remember my father saying, “There go the Hogans,” referring to four brothers who operated […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1904 – Birth of Karlis Irbitis, Latvian aeroplane designer. 1918 – Australian World War I fighter ace Francis Ryan “Frank” Smith shoots down four Fokker D.VIIs with his Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a, his last victories of the war. 1947 – U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles “Chuck” Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1860 – James Wallace Black photographs Boston from the hot-air balloon “Queen of the Air” at 1,200 feet; the images are the first successful aerial photographs made in the United States. 1913 – A Seguin and Farman (of France) establishes a distance record by flying 634 miles; it is the last distance record before World […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1900 – French aeronaut Count Henri de La Vaulx sets a non-stop, long-distance balloon flight record when he lands in Kiev after a 1,200-mile, 35-hour flight from Paris. 1933 – A United Airlines Boeing 247D is destroyed by sabotage near Chesterton, Ind.; it is the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation. […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1897 – Birth of Julio Ruiz de Alda Miqueleiz, Spanish aviator and politician. 1912 – First demonstration of a monoplane to the U.S. government is made by Bernetta Adams Miller with a Moisant-Blériot at College Park, Md. 1919 – KLM, flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under […]