Civilian Archives - Page 55 of 175

On This Day in Aviation History

1938 – A Heinkel He-116R, a German four-engined, long-range mail plane, sets a endurance record by covering 6,178 miles unrefueled; the flight took just over 48 hours to complete. 1943 – “Tuskegee Airman” Charles “Buster” Hall downs a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 with his Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, becoming the first black American to score a victory […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1884 – Birth of René Caudron, French aviation pioneer and aircraft designer. 1918 – John Ingles Gilmour, Scottish World War I fighter ace, scores five kills with his Sopwith Camel. 1931 – Wiley Post and navigator Harold Gatty land at Long Island, N.Y., in the Lockheed Vega “Winnie Mae,” completing a flight around the world […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1862 – Edward Porter Alexander, first Confederate balloonist, goes aloft in the “Silk Dress” balloon to view the Battle of Gaines Mill, ascending several times and returning with valuable intelligence regarding the position of the Union Army; it is the only successful Confederate observation of the Civil War. 1899 – Birth of Juan Terry Trippe, […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1893 – Birth of Cosimo Rizzotto, Italian World War I flying ace. 1909 – The first commercial sale of an airplane in the U.S. is made as Glenn H. Curtiss sells one of his planes to the Aeronautic Society of New York for $7,500. This action spurs the Wright brothers to begin a patent suit to […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1923 – First glider flight in the Soviet Union is made by Konstantin Konstantinovich Artseulov. 1942 – The third of the “Thousand Bomber Raids” of the Royal Air Force is mounted against Bremen; the raid, boasting more than 950 aircraft, marks the last operational sortie of the Avro Manchester, the unsuccessful forerunner of the widely […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1867 – Roberto Adolfo Chodasiewicz, a Polish-born Argentinian military engineer, demonstrate the operation of balloons with James Allen on the first aerostatic flight in South America. 1916 – Death of Victor S. Chapman, a French-American World War I pilot, dies in his Nieuport 16; he is the first U.S. airman to be killed in action. […]

91-Year-Old Fighter Vet Flies Spitfire

A 91-year-old former fighter pilot took the controls and looped the loop when he was given the chance to fly his first Spitfire. Neville Croucher, from Chartham near Canterbury, England, survived 800 combat hours in the cockpit of Hawker Hurricane fighters during World War Two. He was given the chance to fly a Supermarine Spitfire at […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1919 – Six Zeppelins (LZ 46, LZ 79, LZ 91, LZ103, LZ 110 and LZ 111) are destroyed at Nordholz, Germany, by their own crews to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. 1931 – Wiley Post and his navigator, Harold Gatty, leave Roosevelt Field on Long Island, N.Y., in the Lockheed Vega “Winnie Mae” […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1897 – Percy Sinclair Pilcher is towed about 750 feet in the “Hawk,” the fourth of his hang gliders. 1937 – Valery Chkalov, G.F.Baidukov and A.V.Belyakov land their Tupolev ANT-25 in Vancouver, Wash., coming from Moscow via the north pole. A non-stop distance of 8,811 kilometers (5,475 mi). The flight pioneered the polar air route […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1896 – Birth of William Otway Boger, Canadian World War I flying ace. 1931 – The first cross-English Channel flight in a glider is made by Canadian opera singer Lissant Beardmore. 1937 – First flight of the Airspeed AS.10 Oxford, a twin-engine aircraft used for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery […]