On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1893 – Birth of Ludwig Hautzmayer, Austro-Hungarian World War I flying ace.

1955 – First flight of the FFA P-16 (composite prototype shown), a Swiss jet designed to replace the Swiss Air Force’s piston-engined ground attack planes; only five would be built before the project is cancelled.

1966 – Death of Corrado Gex, Italian aviator and politician and the first pilot authorized to land on a glacier; he is killed in the crash of his Pilatus Porter while attempting to land near Castelnuovo di Ceva in western Italy.

1972 – Hans-Werner Grosse sets a free-distance world record of almost 980 miles from his home city of Lübeck, Germany, to Biarritz, France, in a Schleicher ASW 12; the flight will stand until early 2003.

1980 – Dan-Air Flight 1008, a Boeing 727, crashes into a mountain near Tenerife, Spain; all 138 passengers and eight crew die.

2013 – An Israeli Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon intercepts a UAV as it approaches Israel from the coast of Lebanon and shoots it down; the UAV, which Israel suspects belonged to Hezbollah, gets within six miles of Haifa before being destroyed.

Updated: April 25, 2014 — 10:53 AM
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