Military Archives - Page 46 of 180

On This Day in Aviation History

1887 – Birth of Josef Mai, German World War I fighter ace and World War II instructor. 1919 – Airplane builder William E. Boeing and Eddie Hubbard of Hubbard Air Service make the first international airmail flight from Seattle, Wash., to Victoria, B.C., Canada in a Boeing C-700 (Model 2) seaplane. 1926 – Air service […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1915 – Birth of Kaj Birksted, Danish World War II flying ace with the Royal Air Force and Danish high-ranking officer post-WWII. 1953 – First flight of the SNCASO Trident (shown), a French mixed power prototype interceptor. 1955 – Trans-Canada Airlines introduced the Vickers Viscount airliner into regular service, making it the first North American airline to use turbine […]

Volunteers to Restore ‘Looking Glass’ Bird

Over the next two years, volunteers at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, Neb., plan to restore one of 12 Looking Glass airborne command centers that were an icon of the Cold War. Officially known as an Boeing EC-135C, the aircraft were to be used as a command center for U.S. nuclear forces […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1918 – Death of Giuseppe Ghislanzoni, World War I Italian pilot. 1928 – Birth of Anatoly Vasilyevich Filipchenko, Soviet fighter pilot, cosmonaut and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. 1941 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-3, crashes while landing at Atlanta, Ga., killing eight of 16 aboard; World War I hero and Eastern Air Lines president […]

U.S. Army Not Keen on Flying A-10s

The U.S. Army has no interest in taking over the Air Force’s fleet of Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes, even if it would save the venerable Cold War-era aircraft from the bone yard. The service’s top civilian, Army Secretary John McHugh, rejected the idea of accepting hand-me-down A-10 Warthogs from the Air Force. “No chance,” […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1895 – Birth of Will Hubbard, British World War I flying ace who also served in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II. 1959 – Frenchman André Turcat, flying the Nord 1500 Griffon II (a French ramjet-powered aircraft), breaks the world speed record over 62 miles at an average of 1,021 mph. 1963 […]

N.C. Museum Readies Provider for Flight

The Warriors & Warbirds flying collection in Monroe, N.C., has been going for almost ten years now. They have become well known for their flying displays, including paratrooper drops, from a Curtiss C-46 Commando nicknamed “Tinker Belle.” The beautiful green and grey beast of the type which once flew The Hump in the China-Burma-India theatre of operations […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1898 – Birth of Gerald Frank Anderson, South African World War I flying ace. 1940 – First flight of the Hawker Typhoon (shown), a British single-seat fighter-bomber. 1943 – The second of three top German night fighter aces to die during the month, Paul Gildner, is killed in a crash after an electrical failure aboard his Messerschmitt Bf […]

Jet-Launched Satellite Tests Near

Small satellites could hitch rides to space on an Boeing F-15 Eagle fighter jet by next year, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the agency responsible for developing new technologies for the U.S. military. DARPA’s so-called Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program is an ambitious project that aims to launch small satellites more […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1916 – Birth of Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr., brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force; he becomes best known for being the pilot of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay,” the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. 1945 – Last Allied ship sunk by the Luftwaffe in World War II is […]