Military

1895 – Birth of Joseph Eskel Hallonquist, Canadian World War I flying ace. 1922 – Portuguese pilots Capt. Gago Coutinho and Capt. Sacadura Cabral leave Lisbon to attempt the first crossing of the South Atlantic by air. 1977 – Death of Gerhard Bassenge, German World War I flying ace and World War II high-ranking officer. 1992 – Two Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses of the […]

1914 – First flight of the Curtiss Model J (shown), an American biplane prototype that became the basis for the Curtiss Jenny series. 1918 – John Stanley Chick, Welsh World War I fighter ace, and his observer, Percy Douglas, drive down out of control a German observation plane and a quartet of Fokker Dr.I fighters on a single […]

1897 – Birth of Earl McNabb “Handie” Hand, Canadian World War I flying ace and first president of the Toronto Flying Club. 1919 – The first flight from a U.S. Navy battleship takes place when Commander Edward Orrick McDonnell flies a Sopwith Camel off an overhauled gun turret on the USS Texas. 1946 – An […]

Not content to sit on their laurels following the marvelous restoration of the North American P-51B Mustang “Berlin Express,” Pacific Fighters is now hard at work on the restoration of Hispano Buchon C.4K-130 for Jack Erickson’s collection in Madras, Ore. The aircraft is one of a couple of dozen examples which Group Capt. Hamish Mahaddie acquired from the Spanish […]

1915 – Zeppelin LZ33 (L8) crashes near Ostend, Belgium, after being hit by gunfire during a mission to strike Britain. 1944 – After the success of Big Week missions against the Luftwaffe over Germany, the U.S. Army Air Forces begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin. 1965 – Birth of Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov, former Russian […]