On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1894 – Birth of Joseph Marie Xavier de Sevin, French World War I flying ace and World War II high-ranking officer.

1936 – First flight of the Fairey Battle (shown), a British single-engine light bomber.

1948 – NASA test pilot Herbert Henry Hoover becomes the first civilian to exceed the speed of sound when he flies the No. 2 Bell XS-1 to a speed of 703 mph (Mach 1.065).

1949 – A Queensland Airlines Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar suddenly pitches nose-up just after take off, stalls and crashes onto its belly beyond the end of the airstrip at Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia; all 21 aboard perish and the cause is later found to be due to incorrect weight and balance as well as incorrect control settings.

1953 – A pair of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis of the Czechoslovak Air Force intercepts two U.S. Air Force Republic F-84G Thunderjets over Czechoslovak airspace;  MiG pilot Jaroslav Šrámek shot down one of them. The hit F-84 crashes in Bavarian territory, but the pilot bails out to safety.

1980 – Death of Euan Dickson, British born New Zealander World War I bomber pilot and fighter ace and aviation pioneer; he was the first person to fly across the Cook Strait.

Updated: March 10, 2014 — 11:52 AM
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