Military

1897 – Birth of Gilbert Jean Uteau, French World War I flying ace. 1942 – The first live test of a nylon parchute is made by Adeline Gray at Brainard Field near Hartford, Conn. 1967 – Death of Zeus Soucek, record-setting U.S. Navy aviator. 1969 – Mexicana Flight 704, a Boeing 727, crashes on approach to […]

1912 – Henry Harley “Hap” Arnold sets an altiture record of 6,540 feet. 1914 – Birth of Herbert Ihlefeld, German fighter ace of Spanish War and World War II. 1948 – First flight of the Cessna 170 (shown), an American light single-engine aircraft. 1960 – Trans-Canada Air Lines begins transatlantic service with flights between Montreal and London. 1989 – Death of […]

1890 – Birth of William Stanley Jenkins, Canadian World War I flying ace. 1929 – A Junkers W 33 (modified and sometimes referred to as a W 34) establishes a world altitude record; piloted Willy Neuenhofen takes the German-built, singled-engine transport to 41,800 feet. 1942 – First flight of the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, the first operational […]

1893 – Birth of Paul Strähle, German World War I fighter ace who ran Luftverkehr Strähle,a pioneering air mail service, and later served during World War II. 1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 Large America flying boat bombs and sinks the German submarine U-36 in the North Sea; U-36 becomes the only German submarine sunk […]

1916 – Kiffin Yates Rockwell is the first American to claim an air victory when he shoots down a German plane over the Alsace battlefield in France. 1934 – The Douglas DC-2, an American 14-seat, twin-engined airliner, enters service with Transcontinental and Western Air. 1940 – First flight of Saab 17 (shown), Swedish bomber-reconnaissance aircraft. 1971 – Birth of Desiree Tyler Horton, American helicopter pilot and television personality; she is one […]