Civilian

1897 – Birth of Erich Löwenhardt, third-highest German fighter ace with 54 victories during World War I (behind only Manfred von Richthofen and Ernst Udet). 1916 – Flying his new fighter Nieuport 11, World War I Italian ace Francesco Baracca scores his first victory, holing the fuel tank of an Austrian Hansa-Brandenburg C.I and wounding […]

1891 – Birth of William James Alexander Weir, Australian World War I flying ace. 1913 – Death of Emmanouil Argyropoulos, Greek pioneer aviator, in a captured Ottoman Blériot XI during the Balkan Wars; apart from being the first Greek aviator who performed a flight over his homeland, he also became the first casualty in Greek […]

What do you do with a military airplane that’s too old even for the reserves? In the case of a World War II General Motors FM-2 Wildcat, you turn it into a playground attraction. Then, of course, you wait for aviation historians to realize its importance, restore it and hang it in a museum. That last […]

Some of the most iconic artifacts of aviation and space history are getting an updated display for the 21st century, with the Apollo moon landing as the centerpiece. For the first time since its 1976 opening, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum plans to overhaul its central exhibition showing the milestones of flight. The […]

With the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flying again, the National Naval Aviation Museum in Florida is expecting attendance in 2014 to top 800,000, and to regain momentum lost during last year’s federal budget cutbacks. Encouraged by the roaring start to the Blues season and early-morning crowds that accompanied the flight demonstration team’s first Pensacola public […]