Civilian Archives - Page 99 of 175

Flying on the Convair 580

April 1956 represented a different era in aviation. Local service airlines were popular, fares were regulated, and people still dressed-up to fly. It was also when the three hundred thirty-fourth Convair 440 rolled off the assembly line to start service with Canadian regional airline Time Air. The Convair 440 was built to American Airlines’ specifications to serve […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1890 – Birth of Edward “Eddie” Vernon Rickenbacker, American World War I fighter ace, race car driver and automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the longtime head of Eastern Air Lines. 1908 – The first European flight of the Wright Brothers is made by Wilbur […]

‘Spirit of Goodyear’ Flying to Retirement

Like many Ohioans, Goodyear’s Akron-based blimp, the “Spirit of Goodyear,” has become a snowbird and is leaving northeast Ohio’s snow and cold for a retirement in the sunshine and warmth of Florida. The blimp, which has been based at the company’s Wingfoot Lake Hangar since its christening 13 years ago, will join “The Spirit of Innovation” and operate from the company’s Pompano […]

Roof Collapse Damages Airship

A $35 million lighter-than-air dirigible was damaged and leaked helium Monday after part of a hangar roof collapsed at a former military base, authorities said. The partial collapse was reported just after 7:45 a.m. at one of the World War II-era blimp hangars on the grounds of the former Marine Corps Air Station, said Capt. Steve […]

Airliner Bombing Over Indiana Still Mystery

In October of 1933, a United Airlines flight with seven people aboard was blown up with a bomb over Chesterton, Ind. A young federal agent named Melvin Purvis headed up an exhaustive investigation, involving hundreds of leads. But eighty years later, the crash remains a mystery, the first case of aviation terrorism in America. The […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1890 – Birth of Hubert William Godfrey Jones (Penderel), a Welsh World War I flying ace, Royal Air Force display pilot, air racer and World War II officer; he later undertakes a number of expeditions to explore the Gilf Kebir plateau in Egypt and one of his expeditions with Count László Almásy loosely forms the […]

Popular Chinese Airliner Posing Danger

A Chinese airline manufacturer has been selling, and in some cases giving away, an airplane that was rejected by the country’s own aviation industry for safety fears. The first sign of trouble took place on June 22, 2000, when a plane called the Y-7 suffered a disastrous accident at an airport in the central Chinese […]

CAF AirSho Celebrates 50 Years

Nine vintage military aircraft took to the skies above Harlingen’s Rebel Field in 1963, marking the Commemorative Air Force’s first warbird show dedicated to air stunts and flight aerobics. The tradition continues five decades later in the Permian Basin’s backyard with the CAF’s 50th annual AirSho on Oct. 12-13 at Midland International Airport. This year’s milestone […]

Learjet Success Began with Crash

Fifty years ago today, Bill Lear stood on a runway and watched his life savings lift off from an airport in Wichita, Kans. He was 61, and had amassed a fortune in the consumer electronics age. But the jet age was upon us, and the serial entrepreneur saw a chance to build a business around […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1877 – Birth of François Victor Denhaut, early French aviator and aircraft designer; he also was known as the inventor of flying boats. 1909 – More than a million New Yorkers watch as Wilbur Wright makes a flight at New York City’s Hudson-Fulton celebrations, circling the Statue of Liberty and making a 33-minute flight up […]