1893 – Birth of Paul Strähle, German World War I fighter ace who ran Luftverkehr Strähle,a pioneering air mail service, and later served during World War II. 1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 Large America flying boat bombs and sinks the German submarine U-36 in the North Sea; U-36 becomes the only German submarine sunk […]

1908 – The first U.S. military office to pilot a modern aircraft is Thomas Etholen Selfridge; he takes to the air alone in AEA’s newest craft, White Wing, traveling 100 feet on his first attempt and 200 feet on his second. 1918 – Death of Raoul Lufbery, a French-American fighter pilot and flying ace in World War I; he perishes in combat with a German Rumpler reconnaissance […]

1916 – Kiffin Yates Rockwell is the first American to claim an air victory when he shoots down a German plane over the Alsace battlefield in France. 1934 – The Douglas DC-2, an American 14-seat, twin-engined airliner, enters service with Transcontinental and Western Air. 1940 – First flight of Saab 17 (shown), Swedish bomber-reconnaissance aircraft. 1971 – Birth of Desiree Tyler Horton, American helicopter pilot and television personality; she is one […]

1884 – Birth of Claude (Claudius) Honoré Desiré Dornier, German airplane builder and founder of Dornier. 1940 – First flight of the Yermolayev Yer-2, a Soviet long-range medium bomber. 1944 – The German Luftwaffe employs circling torpedoes in a predawn attack on Allied ships at Naples, Italy, but scores no hits. 1972 – Two Bell UH-1 attack helicopters of the U.S. Army, using TOW missiles, blunt a […]