On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1896 – Birth of Edgar Charles Johnston, Australian World War I fighter ace and leading member in civil aviation in Australia.

1924 – One of the four Douglas World Cruiser aircraft, the “Seattle,” attempting an around-the-globe flight in stages, crashes into a mountain in Alaska. The crew survives and makes it way to safety. The wreckage of the Seattle is later recovered and displayed in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in Anchorage.

1963 – American Betty Miller takes off for the first transpacific solo flight by a woman. The four-stop flight begins at Oakland, Calif., and ends in Brisbane, Australia.

1982 – Royal Air Force Operation Black Buck begins when the first of seven extremely long-range ground attack missions by RAF Vulcan bombers (shown above) of 44 Squadron from  RAF Ascension Island is launched against Argentine positions in the Falklands.

1985 – First flight of the British Aerospace/McDonnell Douglas Harrier II, a second-generation vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) jet aircraft and the British variant of the American company’s AV-8B Harrier II.

2009 – An Indian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKI crashes in Rajasthan after it took off from Pune during a routine sortie, killing one of its two pilots. This was the first crash of the Indian-built Su-30MKI since its induction in the IAF.

Updated: June 18, 2013 — 1:02 PM
Air Age Media ©
WordPress Image Lightbox Plugin