The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Wash., recently opened its new three-acre Aviation Pavilion. The nine-story roofed outdoor gallery doubles the museum’s exhibit space with the biggest expansion in its 51-year history. The Pavilion exhibit focuses on the development of large aircraft and commercial airliners from the 1930s to the present, and includes planes that cannot be […]

1910 – Birth of Chow Ting-Fong, Chinese Sino-Japanese War flying ace. 1921 – First flight of the Bristol Ten-seater (Bristol Type 62), British single-engine biplane transport aircraft. 1946 – First airmail flown by jet is made by a U.S. Air Force Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. 1993 – Death of Ernest Graham Joy, Canadian World War […]

1884 – Birth of Alessandro Marchettí, Italian engineer and airplane designer. 1917 – Scottish World War I fighter ace William Charles Campbell scores a trio of victories with his Nieuport Scout in a one-hour mission, earning him England’s Military Cross. 1940 – First flight of the Shavrov Sh-7 (shown), a Soviet amphibious flying boat. 1943 – […]

1886 – Birth of Friedrich Altemeier, German World War I fighter ace. 1910 – American Walter Brookins, the first pilot trained by the Wright brothers for their exhibition team, sets a world’s record for altitude of 4,380 feet. 1944 – The first V1 rocket is shot down by Royal Air Force Flight Lt. J.G. Musgrave in a Mosquito […]

1920 – Birth of Ivan Mykytovych Kozhedub, Soviet Ukrainian military aviator and World War II fighter ace who also served during Korean War. 1926 – Death of Jurgis Dobkevicius, Lithuanian aviator and aircraft designer, who dies in the crash of a Dobi-III, a single-seat, high-wing monoplane of his own design. 1953 – The U.S. Air Force […]