Military Archives - Page 99 of 180

On This Day in Aviation History

1906 – First air exhibition of the Aero Club of America opens for eight days in the U.S. Army’s 69th Infantry Regiment Armory in New York City. 1917 – Capt. C.F. Collet of the Royal Flying Corps becomes the first British service flyer to make parachute jump when he uses a Calthrop “Guardian Angel” parachute […]

Avro Anson Found After 1942 Disappearance

The wreckage of a military plane that disappeared after taking off from an air force base near Victoria, B.C., Canada in 1942 has been discovered near Lake Cowichan. “It’s still early in the investigation but we have identified the plane,” said Laurel Clegg, a forensic anthropologist with the Department of National Defence. She and her […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1793 – The first balloon flight in North America is made by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard, ascending from Philadelphia, Pa., and landing in Deptford, Gloucester County, N.J. 1900 – Birth of Richard Halliburton, American traveler, adventurer, and author; he would later fly around the world (Flying Carpet Expedition) in a Stearman C-3B. 1918 – Death of Max Ritter […]

On the Spitfire Mystique

When Hermann Goring, head of the Luftwaffe, the German air force, met some senior officers during the Battle of Britain, he asked if there was anything he could give them to improve the Luftwaffe’s performance. Adolf Galland, Germany’s leading fighter pilot of the Second World War, answered: “Give me a squadron of Spitfires.” Nothing sums […]

Two Crewmen Lost in Navy Crash

Two crewmen have died, the Navy says, after one of its helicopters crashed during a training mission off the coast of Virginia. The Navy said in a statement Wednesday that a Sikorsky MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter had gone into the waters off Virginia Beach near Fort Story. The two who died were among four crewmen […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1863 – Birth of Léon Levavasseur, French power plant engineer, aircraft designer and inventor; his innovations include the V8 engine, direct fuel injection and evaporative engine cooling. 1959 – First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy (shown), a British post-war military transport-cargo aircraft and the last aircraft produced by Armstrong Whitworth. 1987 – Death […]

B-25J ‘Tondelayo’ Flying Over San Francisco

North American B-25J Mitchell 44-28932 “Tondelayo” has been leased by the Collings Foundation to the Jimmy Doolittle Air and Space Museum Education Foundation (DASMF) at Vacaville’s Nut Tree Airport, near Sacramento in Northern California, reports Mike Shreeve of Aeroplane. The plane, N3476G, which has been inactive for much of the past five years at the […]

How a Wayward Part Doomed a Bomber

A sign in World War II’s Anglo-American Supply headquarters in London displayed the adage that begins with “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.” It quickly marches through several increasingly larger military problems, each triggered by the one that came before. It ends with “For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.” While the […]

USAF Pave Hawk Crew Killed in Crash

Investigations have been launched to determine what caused a U.S. Air Force Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopter to crash during a training sortie being flown from RAF Lakenheath in the UK on Tuesday. All four crew members died when the aircraft came down at Cley next the sea on the north Norfolk coast […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1891 – Birth of Fernand Eugene Guyou, French World War I flying ace, airliner pilot and World War II pilot. 1931 – Australian Guy Lambton Menzies crash-lands the Avro Sports Avian “Southern Cross Junior” upside-down in the La Fontaine Swamp near Hari Hari on New Zealand’s west coast after an almost 12-hour flight from Blenheim, […]