Civilian

Lying on a black sandy beach in the south of Iceland, the wreckage of a crashed U.S. Navy aircraft looks like something from a post-apocalyptic movie. Amazingly, the crew all survived the impact, when the Douglas Super DC-3 was forced to crash land on Sólheimasandur beach on Nov. 24, 1973. But the plane was abandoned rather than recovered, […]

Italy’s national acrobatics flying team entertained Americans and Italians during a brief demonstration over Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy Friday. Frecce Tricolori is based at nearby Rivolto Air Base and performs at air shows around the world. It’s become a tradition for the team to provide a brief demonstration of its abilities over Aviano. […]

1918 – Death of Cecil Vernon Gardner, British World War I flying ace, from wounds received in actions three days before. 1932 – The only RWD-7, a Polish high-wing, single-engine sports plane, is flown by its designer Jerzy Drzewiecki and Antoni Kocjan, to a record height of 19,755 feet. 1964 – Birth of Stephen Nathaniel […]

1886 – Birth of Walter Carl Simon, American World War I flying ace and the first American “ace in a day” (5 scores in a single day). He also becomes the vice-director of the Peruvian Naval Flying School at Ancon, and a senior U.S. Army Air Forces officer in World War II. 1910 – The […]

1893 – Birth of Garfield Finlay, Australian World War I flying ace. 1931 – Lowell R. Bayles flying the Granville Gee Bee Model Z “City of Springfield,” wins the Thompson Trophy in Cleveland, Ohio, at an average speed of 236.24 mph. 1940 – First flight of the Blohm & Voss BV 222, a large, six-engined […]